YTSEJAM Digest 7129 Today's Topics: 1) Spock's Beard in San Francisco - the evening report by Rick Audet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 00:41:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Rick Audet To: email_address_removed, email_address_removed, Subject: Spock's Beard in San Francisco - the evening report Message-ID: As some of you may recall, I had the opportunity this weekend to play in a band opening for the mighty Spock's Beard. I arrived at the venue, Pound SF, a little after 6pm, to find Spock's Beard nearing the end of their soundcheck. I watched them play part of Gibberish to dial in the vocal mix. It sounded great. Pound SF is an interesting club. It's normally a heavy metal club, and by heavy metal, I mean REALLY FREAKING HEAVY metal, booking local band metal shows and semi-big acts such as Soilwork, Opeth, In Flames, Strapping Young Lad, and many others. I've been there a couple times before: once to see Symphony X, once I didn't get tickets in time and found myself waiting in the rain for what turned out to be a sold out Opeth show (I even took the bus to get there and back), and once to play one of the local metal nights. Despite the location, in the outskirts of the city and on the edge of one of the nastier parts of town, metal fans manage to pack that place on a regular basis, and it has the advantage of being one of the few 18+ music venues in the city. Despite its appearance, it seems to be a well-run establishment, and over the years I've noticed them making lots of improvements to the place. I was surprised to see Spock's Beard had booked their show at what's normally a very heavy metal club (the time I played there before, we were by far the "lightest" of the bands playing that night), but I just figured the other clubs in the area were already booked for that night, or Pound SF was broadening its horizons. Or something. It didn't really matter to me, though. I like it better than iMusicast, which is where they played last time they were in the area, a year and a half ago. iMusicast is basically a small warehouse with no liquor license and a few tapestries to cover up the walls. But I've never played a gig there, so I can't really say which is better from the bands perspective Anyway, after the boys finished their soundcheck and wandered outside for some air and a bit of remaining sunlight, I said hello to Nick and Al. Around this time, some random guy was hanging out on the loading dock where we were hanging out, and he walked up to Nick and said, "Um, are you with the band?" Nick said yes. This guy then went on to say, "I've got all your records. I like them a lot." Nick said something like, "Great." It was at this point that I realized this guy wasn't involved in the production of the show. Nick and Al wandered away to make phone calls, and this strange fellow started talking to me. I can't remember what he said, but it was clear to me that he was severely lacking in social skills. So I slipped back into the club and spoke with the staff about the details of the evening's events. At this point, the first opening band, True Margrit, http://www.truemargrit.com, had set up their stuff in the bit of space remaining on the stage, and began their soundcheck. They're a 3-piece, fronted by a woman on keys and vocals, with a drummer and a bass player. The music is piano-driven vocal pop. I dig the tunes on the CD, as can be heard at http://cdbaby.com/cd/truemar . Spock's Beard was now hanging out in the larger of the two dressing rooms, the other one to be shared by True Margrit and Kineto. I went in there to warm up my fingers on the guitar, and was pleased to find the room equipped with cold beers and sodas, chips, salsa, fresh fruit and chocolates. Although I thought it would be super cool to hang out with the Beard Boys, I didn't want to bother them so I left them alone, had a couple bananas, cracked open a beer and practiced guitar. Nick likes his white wine before the show, I noticed. :) The drummer and singer for Kineto took off for a bit in an effort to get a new head for our drummer's kick drum. Unfortunately, the drum shop was already closed. While they were gone, someone came by to round up all the evening's performers for dinner. The kitchen had served up plates of grilled teriyaki chicken breast, asparagus and rice. We all lined up and got some grub. The kitchen folks were nice enough to wrap up two plates in foil for me to save for the guys gone to the drum shop. I enjoyed the dinner and then got back to practicing and another beer. The other guys got back sans drum head and we just hung out in the dressing room. One of the guys from True Margrit came in and chatted for a bit, and mentioned that they were starting their set 15 minutes early in order to be able to play their full, 45-minute set. Apparently, since Kineto got added to the bill, their slot got trimmed down to 30 minutes. At 8pm, the doors opened, and they started their set around 8:20pm. I came out to take a few pictures of them playing, and I ran into Lisa Marie Palma and her boyfriend Tim, both of whom I hadn't seen in a couple of years. Shortly after, a few of my other friends had arrived, one of them having seen Spock's Beard with me a couple of times a few years earlier (Great American Music Hall and Maritime Hall). Around 9pm or so, True Margrit finished their set, and after they got their stuff off the stage, we set up our gear. It was a tight fit on the stage, but it worked out. The sound guy was relieve to see my amp has a direct out, so he didn't need to fuss with one of the mics already being used for Al's amp, since they'd run out of inputs on the sound board. At 9:30pm we were done setting up, had gotten a quick line check for levels, and were ready to go. We played our quick, 30-minute set and had a great time doing so. The limited space on stage made for a fun and cozy vibe. The monitors sounded perfect right off the bat, and we were able to blast through our 7-song set in the time allotted. It was a lot of fun! Then we quickly removed our gear from the stage and made way for The Beard. I guess it was around 10:30pm or so (?) when Spock's Beard started their set, and they sounded amazing! I took a handful of pictures of them playing, but I wasn't able to get too close to the stage at this point, and I didn't want to be one of those jerks who pushes his way through those who are already in a nice spot close, so my pics didn't come out all that great, save for a few I managed to get from the side of the stage. After the show, I gave in to my fanboy urges, and got a few pictures taken with the guys. I ran into Ed Platt, the bass player for Enchant, who came backstage to say hi to the guys after the show. Our exchange went something like this. Me: You look familiar for some reason. Ed: *shrug* Me: Are you in a band? Ed: Yeah. Me: Hold on... um... ENCHANT! Ed: Yeah! Me: Is Ted here too? Ed: He couldn't make it, but the other guys were here earlier. Me: I saw you guys at iMusicast last year. Ed: On the DVD. Me: No, at the show. Ed: You were there?! Me: Yeah, I took a bunch of pics, too, but it was with my older camera, so they came out like crap. Ed: Well you should send them to us anyway. Me: Okay I'll do that. What's your name again? Ed: Ed. Me: Pardon? (I thought he said Ted.) Ed: Ed. Me: Ah okay. Well it was nice to meet you. Then I packed up my gear and went home. ------ During the show, a handful of people approached me and said some very nice things about our set, which I appreciated. But of course, I can't expect everyone to dig what it is we do musically. And a few of those people have been vocal about their dislike of the opening bands, especially Kineto, on the spocksbeard.com message board. It's interesting to me to hear what people think, good or bad, and with that said, if you were at the show, I don't want any of you to feel the need to censor yourself in case you don't want to hurt my feelings with your opinions. It's all good either way, and ged knows I've been vocal about my dislike of certain bands over the years, as those of you who know me from other mailing lists can attest. Anyway, love us or hate us, I had one of the most exciting times of my life, it was a great opportunity to play with one of my favorite bands, and here are the pics from the show. Some of the pics in the galleries were taken by my friend Pete Gascoyne, and the thumbnails are divided to indicate whose are whose. http://electricrain.com/spine/photos/2005apr09_poundsf/ Enjoy, Rick Audet http://kineto.net San Francisco P.S. - Sorry about the cross-posting. Don't hate me. ------------------------------ End of YTSEJAM Digest 7129 ************************** === Contributions to ytsejam: ytsejam@torchsong.com === === Send requests to: ytsejam-request@torchsong.com === === More information at: http://www.dreamt.org/local/ytsejam.php === === Brought by the ghost of ytsejam@arastar.coms past === === Reach the owner of this list at: ytsejam-owner@torchsong.com ===