Skip to main content

Rush Hour Soul Wraps Up North American Dates [Show Recap]

Hey Soul Mates,
we had a fun weekend up North. Rush Hour Soul played its third
International Pop Overthrow Festival of 2006 (5th show in the series this year) in San Francisco.

The venue on Friday was Thee Parkside. That second "e" is silent. The turnout for the local bay area bands was good. There was a rockabilly/new wave group, the Craze, from Palmdale that brought out some fans. Of course, we have to give mad props to the Soul Mates who made the trek from LA to see their Rush Hour Soul. It was truly cool to play to you all. Literally. On the drive into San Fran, we watched the car's thermometer drop from 88 to 56 by the time we parked the car on 17th Street.

It was a short set (festival setting, after all), but it was sweet. We always take a new audience as a challenge to see if our music and performance can hold their attention. After another nice introduction by MC David Bash, we started the night with Everyone's Ingenue. Bryan set the tone from the get-go as he stepped off the stage and into the audience to play the song's opening riff. The room quickly got into what we were doing. Our fellow musicians were particularly appreciative of our performance and sartorial flare. Why, thank you.

I Can't Cry For You went over very well again. That pleases us to no end to see our fans singing along after only one other performance of the song. We ended the set with A Talent For Loving and all the girls sang the refrain for us. Slamming.

Set List:
Everyone's Ingenue
Fall Out
I Can't Cry For You
Everything My Heart Desires
A Talent For Loving


Oh, and props to Tawei, the short order cook at Thee Parkside. He added some curry-kick to the burgers and spicy peanut sauce on the fries. Righteous. Normally, I don't eat within 3 hours of performing, but I made an exception for that.

We spent the yesterday further North, near Sacramento. Last night we drove into the capital to check out the
State Fair. It was seriously hot when we got to the fairgrounds and after an extra half-hour sitting in the car's A/C we went in. Doug went to check out the rodeo, while Bry and I enjoyed the junk food. I hadn't been to a State Fair in years. The midway was packed with people and crazy, death-cheating rides. The expo buildings had all types of exhibits; I even saw the 1966 Batmobile and actor Sam Jones (aka Flash Gordon). My favorite part of the evening was the petting zoo. Have you ever chilled out with a pot-bellied pig?

After the Fair, it was back to Free Heart Farm and reclining beneath a seriously starry sky. You can actually see the Milky Way when you're that far out of town. I nearly fell asleep beneath the heavens.

I spent the downtime of the weekend reading
Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1. He doesn't so much tell a story as describe points in his career in overflowing detail. That's one surreal dude. But it's cool to hear him deconstruct his legend and his mindset during career highs and depths. The book skips from his arrival on the New York folk scene to his rejection of being the "voice of his generation," then shifts to the late 1980's when he basically dismantled his music and m.o. to find a new audience.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I've been listening to his Theme Time Radio Hour shows. We checked out a couple tooling around NorCal. So many lost musical gems he's unearthed; and I've been working on my Dylan imitation. It's getting there. (ed. note.: check out my live review of
Dylan in Concert)

Well, now that our shows in the U.S. are done for a while, we've turned our attention back to Britain. All of the elements for our video are nearing completion. We approved a final audio mix today. We're getting very close to debuting our music video! You must stay tuned.

The 3 of us are confident that our team and our material is going open up big doors for us to storm through. I know that we have a lot of fans halfway around the world who are waiting for our next move, for our return. It's happening. We'll be seeing you all very soon.

Pictures from our show, Friday, will be posted on our website shortly.
Love, Power, Peace

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Being There [Grammy Recap]

Hey Soul Mates, Check out your boy. Yes, I did look that damn suave at the Grammys last night. Look, the tickets very clearly said "black tie." What could be less rock and roll than black tie? Not wearing "black tie." Frankly, the hipsters and the club girls just looked silly. Maybe I'm getting sartorially conservative, but you must be clean for the Grammys. We arrived early in the afternoon. A beautifully mild afternoon in downtown L.A. and not a sign of the predicted rain. I wanted to experience the whole nine, so we got there in time for the "Pre-telecast" ceremony. This is where 97 of the 108 gramophone statuettes are awarded. It was much more entertaining and endearing than the actual broadcast. The winners were genuinely moved, were not limited in their speech time and came in all stripes. Now, very few of the acts I voted for won. But the day did start off with a bang as OK Go won best short form video for the treadmill hopping video for Here...

John Lennon 40 Years On

Remembering John Lennon today. Forty years have flashed by. I can still hear my clock radio turning on to the incongruent sound of the Beatles on Dec. 9, 1980 and wondering why? I think about John every day. I am fortunate to have been able to make pilgrimage to Mendips, Abbey Road and Strawberry Fields, NY; to play on stages like the Cavern, the Jacaranda and the Troubadour where he performed or made trouble, or both. Here’s a quick playlist for you and me. (Just Like) Starting Over I Should Have Known Better Bless You Nobody Told Me Strawberry Fields Forever Nowhere Man Enjoy the day. Fill it with peace. Fill it with music. #JohnLennon #Liverpool

Murderous Haircut of the Mayor of Bel Air - Book Review

“The Murderous Haircut of the Mayor of Bel Air” is a trippy new mystery novel from Phillip Mottaz. It captures the grit and gilt of the City of Angels with the flair of a contemporary Raymond Chandler. The brisk pace and wit are reminiscent of Douglas Adams’s entries in the detective game. Flourishes of  Fletch  and “Medium” also spring to mind. However, Mottaz has added a psychic/mutant/superhuman touch and his own comedic voice, structure and internal monologues to the proceedings that help the author announce his own style and the arrival of a literary heroine for a new generation. Hairstylist and budding private investigator, Danica Luman is the perfect character to convey the irony, angst and sarcasm needed to tell a 21st century L.A. crime story. Danica also represents anyone who thought it would be neat to get tangled up in a mystery and the darkly comic cautionary tale that follows. The genre is recognizable, but Mottaz offers a fresh take on the not-ready-for-prime-ti...