West Indian Girl

live shots sent in by mike sherry – thanx mike!

i love solana beach and the belly up – it’s one of the better sounding stages that we’ve played at. the sound crew there is totally pro and what a difference that makes when you’re playing. in many ways it’s like the troubadour in that they are all right there with you when you are playing helping to make a better show. i know this must be getting old saying this but the crowd was typical for s.d in that they totally rocked and gave us that unconditional love you crave for when you’re up onstage giving it your all. the new songs – indian ocean and hopi sounded pretty good. both of those new tunes are pretty long but they went over well. we also experimented with a long version of monterey which i was totally feeling. i’m not sure what else to say except s.d is the best. it was great to see russ, leo and derek there. thanx for the support guys. oh yeah, thanx to jim brown for driving us down there in his cool van (seen in the pics) – it has a loft in it so you can sleep in style. we loved it.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: i have nothing but love for solana beach. outstanding.

The Venue: it was nice to be back at the belly up tavern. i had fond memories of opening up for gomez there and was jazzed to be back because i think the venue has a really great sound system and they have the best lighting. plussssss, they serve amazing food. can it get any better? well, this particular night it could’ve. you see, i don’t know how or why, but the pathway to our dressing room smelled like dried up puke. was i ecstatic about it? hmmm… not so much.

The Show: the show was cool. i still think we played hellaciously early but it was better than the day before. one huge problem was the stage set up. sts9 has like, a bazillion equipment and it’s not like west indian girl is a small band. we have our own trailer filled to the brim with gear. through out the set i think i hit carter’s rhodes and boom stand a total of ten times.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: um, all i really thought about was not hitting anyone else.

Interesting Things After The Show: i got to hang out with my fabulous photographer of a friend, troy, who had actually brought some of his friends with him. they were our paparazzi. it was great. the most interesting thing by far was the smell of the venue. hmmm…

Carter’s Conscience

San Diego/ Solana Beach– The Belly Up is an awesome venue. The stage is great, the sound on stage is fantastic, and the crew that works there are all-stars. STS9 has a pretty massive stage setup, and my keyboard rig is somewhat massive on its own, so it was a real juggling act to get us set up after their sound-check. It could’ve gotten ugly if the guys that worked
there hadn’t been so cool. We finnally decided to balance our monitors on road cases in front of the stage to give us more room, which worked okay. As far as the show went, I think we played a few new songs, Indian Ocean and hopi. Those are both working titles, so don’t expect to see those track names on the next record. In fact, by the time we record them they probably won’t sound remotely the same anyway! I remember we did an extended version of Monterrey, which I thought was really cool. Hung out with all the guys from sound tribe as well. They have a great scene that they’ve built, a great mix of people in the audience. Everyone from LRG wearing hip-hop types to the semi-hippy crowd. I had as much fun hanging/watching the crowd as I did the show. thanx again to the belly up.

tight stage – tighter show
leo and ash
these two are simply the best people ever

making the set list in the van

F.TEN