West Indian Girl

a memoriable show… 5.27

our show at spaceland was possibly our best ever los angeles show.the vibe at spaceland was all west indian girl… it felt good and it felt right. it wasnt quite sold out but it was close…it was also memorial day weekend not to mention my birthday. what was a somewhat jerky set in SF the night before turned out to be (after a few slight adjustments) a smooth operator in LA. we improved the set by moving up monterey and inspirate to the 3rd and 4th position thus making a huge difference in flow. i remember that i liked playing on the stage at spaceland…it is one of those stages that i immediately felt comfortable on. i sort of felt like a a cheerleader. i also remember that q looked awesome in a new dress she “busted’ out for the show. im glad we have that feminine element in the band still despite carter leaving. after the show i took q on a strange drive though los angeles in search pf some greasy food that i never ended up eating.

birthday boy thanks to: everyone that bought me a drink for my birthday, sascha, todd, kampy, frank, raquel, izler, marcos, bernie, chad, yvonne, adam (in pic) and all my friends for paying to get in. john and phil from northern for opening the show, jennifer for booking us, sherry lee for taking all the live pics, carlos for doing our sound and all the veterans that died for us so i could be living the care free life of a broke musician in the united states of america.

dressing room and rider wrap up: basically there wasnt much of a green room at spaceland…just a room right behind the stage. as you know im a pretty honest blogger so its my duty to report the facts and even though there are a ton of positive things to say about spaceland there are a few negs. hey, for all good there is evil, for all light there is dark, well you get the picture. ok, so we got a total of 10 drink tickets and that was it. no water, food, beer, towels or nothing. in that regard it ranks in the bottom 3 of the 70+ shows we have played. besides jennifer and todd (who were super nice) that worked there the staff wasnt overly friendly to us. hey, maybe the bartenders were having a bad day, maybe they were mad they had to work on a holiday weekend, maybe they hated our music….regardless, this attitude was noted not just by me in my birthday haze but a few people in my band and that sucks because we are far from a bunch of assholes.

check out this video footage of the show that my friend T$$$ took. T$$$, yup that’s his name. he is pictured on the left with his friend tanika. T$$$ went way beyond the call of duty and made a cool page of random videos from the show. now that’s a bro for ya. thanx for filming the show T$$$. WATCH IT

for those of you who prefer the newspaper over tv check out a review of the show at the hollywood machine. this is a pretty funny blog. CHECK IT

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: despite it’s pretentious reputation, i think silverlake is one of the better cities in los angeles. great restaurants, the best bars and it’s completely against everything that is lame about la. look into that.

The Venue: once you step into spaceland the first thing you think to yourself is, “why is this not a bar inside tomorrowland?” then you think, “wouldnt it be cool if the door guy was dressed as jabba the hut”. it’s got these awful metallic blue and silver curtains and even it’s disco ball has a ring around it like saturn. tacky and kind of cute at the same time. the best feature was the smoking area. you could play pool, grab a drink sit down and chain smoke and never leave the building. dear space mountain, please look into this as a prospective add on for summer 2007. since they failed to give me throat coat, apples, money so i could eat, or any food at all, i dont really have anything pleasant to say about this place. no offense, but as a singer, i have needs and they were not met. i got two drink tickets for the whole evening… well… at least they were better than the union st. station.

The Show: god, what a difference a new set list makes. i’d like to take this opportunity to give F10 and myself a round of golf claps for rearranging our set. we did it as we drove from san francisco straight to soundcheck. the new set made everything flow beautifully. it seemed like we played a shorter set, though, in all actuality, it was about fifteen minutes longer than san francisco’s show. another round of golf claps goes to rob for making us cookies. mr. james makes the delicacies that get us baked and everyone in the band, except for fran, took one. even carlos, our fantastic sound man for the evening, partook in the magical deliciousness of the cookies. at midnight i announced that fran had turned forever 27 and lead the whole venue in a very enthusiastic rendition of happy birthday. it was a pleasant surprise to see so many of my friends that night. louie, lee, cara, elaine [sorry for hitting you with that maraca], marcos, amber, chris, richard, jason, ryanne, debbie, david, vivi, jeff, brooke and jess… it made my heart very happy that you were there. youre all assholes and i love you.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: is this really happening? am i having an effortlessly great show? fantastic. damn these cookies are the bomb, g!

Interesting Things After The Show: oh you know… the usual. everyone drank but the most interesting drunk of the evening was fran. dude got wasted. hey fran’s posse of “awesome” fans & friends, good job on making him completely retarded and then leaving me to take care of him.

NATHAN’S NONSENSE

LOCAL CURMUDGEONS & SIREN MAKES GOOD AT SPACELAND….

On Saturday, May 27th, LA eastside denizens were treated to a rousing infusion of long vowel sounds and spastic pelvic gyrations. Silverlake’s own Spaceland was the scene for this unilateral swarming of hysteria brought on by local hooligans West Indian Girl. “I was all, like, expecting some kind of Navajo tribal shit or something, but this was like, all…holy fuck balls” said one audience member who declined to give out his name, then proceeded to spontaneously combust on the dance floor after taking a shot of 99 bananas. Luckily, after the show I was able to get in a few words with keyboardist Nathan Van Hullabaloo.

(Me)”So, how do you begin to explain what the hell just happened up there.”
(NV) Just looks back at me with crazy eyes, then exclaims “cookies!”
(ME) ”Ha ha… yes, very good. Wait… what?”
(NV) ”Cookies!”
(ME) “Uh… what kind of cookies, exactly?”
(NV) “Look pal, I don’t know who sent you, but I had nothing to do with the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa if that’s what you’re after. Nowhere in my job description does it say anything about probing or abductions. I’m a son of the soil, betrothed to the stars, melting away in the concave recesses of your cranial crags. I am a column of blood with a voice in it.”

He then attempted to set himself on fire without success, invoked the name of Thor with upheld fists, and quickly bolted away into the black of night. Such is the life of LA musicians i suppose, or at least the ones of this magnitude. Do yourself a favor and get into it.

thanks, sherry lee for the cool live shotssherry captured a moment that’s almost too cute“nathan and his crystal geyser”stonersbuying our vinyl makes your life bettermarcos + fran = bffcamera shy m & deliza & rob slangin merchbernie l’arsen & lewsciousteam mushroomteam heckmanlucky phil in an evil mermaid sandwichteam goldstein – upset they missed the showteam spread the birthday lovetodd doing a great job of molesting q’s faceteam mcmariqueen – is what nathan saw after too many cookies

-F10

good vibes in the yay area… 5.26

so, our day started out pretty mellow, we drove part way to sf the night before so we wouldnt have to make the whole drive that day. we were traveling light this time, no sound guy, no ian, just tony. if you have been keeping up with this blog then you know that i think cafe du nord is my 3rd LEAST favorite club in the US to load into. BUT, despite the painful load in i really do like this club. its got a cool vibe and the bar is fun to hang out in. its also got a pool table in the front that reminds me of the pool table at bovine sex club in toronto. dont ask me why but it does. before the show q and i went over to our friend andrew warren’s place. andrew is a star and his place rules. as far as the the show itself went, well i thought it was passable. i think im becoming a bad judge at how good or bad a show is these days just because im so wrapped up in playing rather than watching. i thought it was decent though but it just felt like it dragged a bit. im gonna see if the guys want to change the set up a bit for LA. we played 3 brand new songs (up the coast, inspirate, and get up) that are gonna be on the next record. its helpful to test drive these bitches before we put them to tape.

golden gay thanks to: andrew of course, my best friend scott nicol’s sister for showing up with her girls, kristi and doug for their overall positivity and muscles during load out, erin and drew for the sacto representation, john r for the post show wrap up, and ben for filming the show. i also want to thank our ever growing cool fanbase in san fran for making it a real fun city to play in. oh yeah, i also want to thank tim. tim walked up to me after the show and handed me $20 for “illegally downloading our cd”. he told me that he and his girlfriend listen to it all the time and that he wanted to pay us for it. now is that cool or what. i think that was the coolest thing. that’s only happened once before. again people…how cool is that. thanx tim, we appreciate it.

dressing room and rider wrap up: the dressing room at du nord isnt that great. you know i’ve come to realize that my opinion on a dressing room stems from whether or not i like to hang out in it for more than a couple minutes. i cant put my finger on why i didnt like hanging out at du nord’s but it was probably because is was right next to the stage and wasnt really the “collect your thoughts before a show” green room. it wasnt comfy nor was it quiet cos it’s right next to the stage. the staff at du nord however, was excellent – the bar manager and house sound man were great. they made my life easy. we got some great food before the show and some beer backstage. red stripe no less so that was another little feather in du nord’s hat.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: i really enjoyed san fran this time around. i went over to andrew’s [righteousness in all that is jambase.com form] incredible abode. andrew lives in a historic part of san fran where these intricate houses date back to the mid 1850’s. if i could afford to, i would buy a second home in san francisco to live there in the springtime.

The Venue: cafe du nord is always fun times. thanks james for doing our sound that night, you did great as our last minute stand in and you were great to work with.

The Show: was kind of bad, actually… we added three new, never before played songs and it made our set extra long. one of the mistakes of the evening was the order of our set list. it made the set seem longer than it actually was. by the time we did the last two songs of the evening [which i personally refer to as “vocal killers”] i felt like i was going to faint and actually choked up while i was singing. on my own spit, i mean seriously, fatigue is an understatement. it was terrible. maybe i should work out and build up my tolerance to sweat. to add salt on my wounds my monitor mix was screwed up due to effects being put in it. but you know, it was a brand new set and im glad we did it because we’d never know how wrong we could sound.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: oh. no. oh. no. oh… nooooooooooo…

Interesting Things After The Show: we all hung out with protection [yet another great band and awesome new friends] and laughed at the chaos around us. i met some really awesome new people and even squeezed in a shot of jd with my friend mike. by the end of the night mark was wasted with cracker crumbs on his lip and his feet dangling on the side of his own personal bench on the van. i’d say it was good times.

NATHAN’S NONSENSE

first off, i have this little tale to tell. the starter on my car was kaput, so the night before the san fran show i took the metro gold line from my house to the downtown union station. from there i walked the rest of the way- about 10 blocks or so- to the studio. i had my bulging blue sport bag in tow, packed up for the two day jaunt, ipod running on random mode, and a cell phone in my pocket. after crossing 2nd street into the dismal dregs of skid row, i decided to put the ipod away just to be safe. i then pulled out my phone and gave my girl lisa a call. before i could spout my customary salutations, some crackhead came up from behind me and stuck a gun in my face. apparently he wanted me to hand over my phone. without thinking, i started yelling bloody murder, turned and ran full speed down the middle of los angeles street, arms flailing wildly, then north up 3rd. the fucker chased me for a good block or so, gun in hand and aimed in my general vicinity. i’d wager a hefty sum he never had any bullets in that thing, but it sure would’ve sucked if i’d been wrong. after catching my breath and assuring lisa i was out of danger, i walked down main street to pete’s bar and called mark who was quickly able to come to my rescue. what a way to kick off the weekend, eh?

it was great to come back to san francisco finally. cafe du nord is actually just a few short blocks away from where i once lived a very long time ago. i was a young lad then, living with my first real girlfriend… stardust. seriously. ok, ok, her real name was jenny, but she would give you the evil eye and a kick in the shin if you called her that. so anyway, back then all the girls in the beauty supply store where i worked diligently as a stock boy used to call me the saddest boy in the world. i suppose i did seem quite the little mopester, but beneath that stoic façade beat a heart that yearned for adventures far and wide. i think that same yearning serves as my compass even today, but i rarely have time to mope anymore. too busy having fun. and fun was certainly in abundance this fine night in the city by the bay. i took a stroll around the castro, singing journey songs to myself, a deft glide in my stride. it almost didn’t bother me that our set clunked along inharmoniously. fuck it. the crowd was diggin’ it anyway. i met some great people that night and enjoyed myself thoroughly. and of course, by the end of it, i was completely trashed. curtains for the keyboardist.

doompadeedo“trebor” and sunevthe ben jones experiencedont hate us cause we’re…kristi & doug – two of the best people on earthscott nicol’s sister with christine and coleen.mike & co.trouble cubedguess who isn’t the designated driver?

-F10

OUR LAST LA SHOW UNTIL THE FALL! Just in time for memorial day….2 shows in 2 of california’s best cities. get your tickets now or be s.o.l.

5.26 San Francisco, CA – Cafe Du Nord
5.27 Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland

dear spaceland, it’s about time we played the east side. thanx for the front page ad. that’s why we love you!
-F10

getting carried away 5.06

we played at the hear gallery which is kinda close to downtown los angeles. as shows go this was of the underground variety but it felt really good because of the psuedo house party vibe to it. the scene that’s going down at the hear is cool—good art and good music. i busted out a new look for this show that i like to call the francis tennis look. yup, headband and all. people said i looked like bjorn borg but i thought it was a bit more john mcenroe meets guiillermo vilas. as a general rule of thumb if you have the balls to wear a headband people are gonna say you look like some tennis star no matter what. oh…the show…it was a party man. we jammed as best we could with a PA that had a blown speaker and mics that didnt work and i’m down to do it again. on the bittersweet side of things this was ian’s last show with us as he was leaving town back to new york. let’s book more shows ian. you’re the new glue man dontchyaknow.

la urban thanks to: my boys sascha, todd, joe, nik, doug, walt, and adam for bringin it.

dressing room and rider wrap up: no dressing room or food – this was basically a house party so you can’t expect much. frank and all his homies were cool and treated us well. the load in did suck however – circa brillo box in pittsburgh but not as bad. they let tony run around before the show so they get 2 thumbs up!

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: we played in the outskirts of echo park, near downtown los angeles, right next to silverlake, on the corner of beverly and something, next to a sidewalk, attached to a parking lot, attached to a gate, attached to a staircase, attached to your mom.

The Venue: the hear gallery is like two really spacious apartments smooshed together. they had a stage, tons of closed off rooms, two bathrooms with showers and a mini kitchen. really cute. a bit grimey, but that just gave it character. isn’t it ironic that we played at a place named after a sense that none of us were doing very well on stage that night? steh. raaange.

The Show: was a huge party, man. we had no monitors, crappy speakers and rob’s microphone stopped working for a little bit… but i still had a lot of fun. one of my best friends and former merch girl extraordinairre, brooke got dubbed captain ouija board that night. brooke, shawn, jess and debbie: you guys are the best. im glad you came out, i couldn’t have asked for a more perfect band of sluts to get shitty with. viva!

What Were You Thinking While Playing: dude, brooke is fucking drunk. weeeeeeee!

Interesting Things After The Show: so many! scandal, riots, dirty dancing, drag queens, booze everywhere, debauchery in the smoking patio, and calories galore… i can’t even type them because they’re that excellent. sorry. you should’ve been there. ian mcevily, we had to say see you later to our beloved tour manager. he left us in the morning to go back to new york. i still breathe in a paper bag when i realize he’s not next to me. you are missed. dear noah goldman, thanks for coming to your second west indian girl show and being a fucking awesome ass and finding the hear gallery and giving me a wonderful hug and then bailing right after and not hanging out with me. i love you.

NATHAN’S NONSENSE

ya heard? ok, so i set this show up myself at the good ol’ hear gallery, a place run by some good friends of mine. frank is the man that makes it all happen, along with a revolving door of other collaborators. sure, it’s a bit small and cramped, and when it’s filled to the brim it can be a real clusterfuck in there, but whatever. at least it’s one of the few places in L.A. where you can still smoke inside. if you’re anywhere near the area, i suggest linking up to the hear gallery on myspace (http://www.myspace.com/theheargallery) in order to get the latest updates of all the various events that go on there. ain’t nothing like a cool, underground club scene that prominently features musicians and artists alike.

ok, so on to the show. ’twas a shame more people didn’t show up, but it was swarming with sweat glands as it was, so we can’t really complain. we knew there was gonna be sound trouble ahead of time due to the PA having a blown speaker. we tried not to worry about it and just rolled with it the best we could. not to boast or anything, but my keyboards were probably the best sounding thing that night due to the amazing stage sound i had going on. uh-huh, that’s right. add to that one of my finest, most together performances to date, and voila! i was on top o’ the world. big burly bear hugs go out to all my friends that showed up and stuck it out, and a special thanks is in order for my good friend dj jason timothy who was spinning all night in the back. unfortunately there are no photos of me from this night that i know of, but i swear to jehovah on high i was really there. or… perhaps this has all been some fantastical, fervid dream? either way, it’s enough to make me soil my skivvies with delight sometimes.

mic blow out 2006tony had just peed on mark’s handsbrooke doesnt remember taking this picturerichard & jason our new favoritesfranko 6000 squadthe most beautiful couple of the evening award goes to…

-F10