LSD Fuego survives Oregon
I'll start in the middle with last weekend's Oregon trip. There were 14 of us - 8 performers, 3 musicians, a video person, a still camera person, and a safety, plus all our gear, hauled in a truck, an SUV, and a 12-person passenger van.
The trip up to Bend was eventful, and included a vehicle overreacting and going off the side of the road into a deep ditch, followed by seeing a motorcyclist somersaulting over his bike. We also stopped in Weed, CA and took a pic with Mt. Shasta in the background (waiting for it). Uhhhh...the rest is an inebriated haze.
Friday night we performed with glowies at an awesome little club called The Grove, of all things. They fed us, gave us drinks, had special teatime for us with a special chill room (SQUIRT GUN FIGHT!!!), and let us take over the place. I really, really needed such a night, and my favorite part was when two of our drummers took over the dancefloor and Rising, Cat, Amity and I danced our butts off. Dancing GOOD! Moremoremoremoremore!! They eventually closed the club, and some of the staff plopped down on the couches to watch our antics 'til the break of dawn. Joel had his drum synth, and was doing all kinds of neat stuff...and Ro made a tiger purrrrrr with it.
After a few hours of sleep, we eventually got ready and made it out to the Riverfront Park on the banks of the Willamette River, where the Salem World Beat Festival, with an attendance of 10k, was being held. As soon as we stepped onto the fairgrounds we heard our group being announced to perform that night, and continued hearing snippets of conversations about us throughout the rest of the day, standing in line for the bathroom, walking around the grounds, etc.
quickie runthrough
flamecheck
riffin' Ro
dual flamecheck
Iiiiiiiiit's showtime!
We ate, got ready, got ready some more, and were rushed off to start the procession through the fairgrounds 15 minutes early. We did some fire eating and breathing; Moni, Jaden and I shared a staff; Rising did fans.
logistics
YARRRRR!
starting the procession
Dan eats it
Pi eats it
Jaden eats it
Memory
leading the way
When we got back to the amphitheatre we found that some of our stuff hadn't been set up yet, and that the musicians were still doing sound check. Aside from those issues, everything went fantastically! We had to stop a couple of times and wait for the musicians to start playing the next piece, and - while unplanned - that turned out really well, because that gave the audience a chance to applaud. No music...audience applauds. Who knew??
Pi & Ro begin the show
Pi & Amity
Amity
da fans
fans 'n' stuff
yet more fans
Ms. Fine, Memory & Pi
spoken word, fire guitar, fans
la.Rosa & Ms. Fine
la.rosa on the hoop
la.rosa on the hoop
light me, baby!
Ro being badass
ro & la.rosa dbl-dbls
poitastic
Pi & Mem poi
Pi & Mem poi
Ro passes the flame to the girls
Pi & Ro - battle time
Dan erupts
Pi shows who's boss
quintuple doubles
Dan & la.Rosa doubles
Pi takes it to the audience
more audience love
Pi blows a spike offa Ro's bass
the men - the flame
POOF!
group POOF!
flame worship
worship swarm
We were dripping sweat throughout the 45-min show, and after our finale they wanted us back out for 15 more minutes (ah, an encore...nice touch!)! It was fun and exhausting and exhilarating.
We went back to the hotel afterward and had an afterparty in the musicians' room. Jaden & Robbie (who'd booked us for the show) said that there were a few issues that were brought up after the show, including the girls' outfits being a bit too racy and the procession not quite flowing like it should have...and then they decided that they should stop there and not discuss the rest. Of course we were all like, wtf, what rest? They looked gravely at each other, and, after a pause, came out with the fact that they were fucking with us, that the show was rated EXCELLENT, that we blew them away and were already booked for next year! YEAH!! We looked through the pictures that Cat took, watched the video that Adana shot, and celebrated! There were four pro camerapeople shooting video that was projected on screens behind us during the show, and we'll be getting copies of those vids! Great promo materials! WOOHOO!!!
All in all it was a fucking insane weekend...and it didn't stop. Five of us left on Sunday to go back home to work on Monday, and the rest headed out for a night in Portland, where they ended up doing two more crazy shows. Can't...stop...BURNING!!
The trip up to Bend was eventful, and included a vehicle overreacting and going off the side of the road into a deep ditch, followed by seeing a motorcyclist somersaulting over his bike. We also stopped in Weed, CA and took a pic with Mt. Shasta in the background (waiting for it). Uhhhh...the rest is an inebriated haze.
Friday night we performed with glowies at an awesome little club called The Grove, of all things. They fed us, gave us drinks, had special teatime for us with a special chill room (SQUIRT GUN FIGHT!!!), and let us take over the place. I really, really needed such a night, and my favorite part was when two of our drummers took over the dancefloor and Rising, Cat, Amity and I danced our butts off. Dancing GOOD! Moremoremoremoremore!! They eventually closed the club, and some of the staff plopped down on the couches to watch our antics 'til the break of dawn. Joel had his drum synth, and was doing all kinds of neat stuff...and Ro made a tiger purrrrrr with it.
After a few hours of sleep, we eventually got ready and made it out to the Riverfront Park on the banks of the Willamette River, where the Salem World Beat Festival, with an attendance of 10k, was being held. As soon as we stepped onto the fairgrounds we heard our group being announced to perform that night, and continued hearing snippets of conversations about us throughout the rest of the day, standing in line for the bathroom, walking around the grounds, etc.
quickie runthrough
flamecheck
riffin' Ro
dual flamecheck
Iiiiiiiiit's showtime!
We ate, got ready, got ready some more, and were rushed off to start the procession through the fairgrounds 15 minutes early. We did some fire eating and breathing; Moni, Jaden and I shared a staff; Rising did fans.
logistics
YARRRRR!
starting the procession
Dan eats it
Pi eats it
Jaden eats it
Memory
leading the way
When we got back to the amphitheatre we found that some of our stuff hadn't been set up yet, and that the musicians were still doing sound check. Aside from those issues, everything went fantastically! We had to stop a couple of times and wait for the musicians to start playing the next piece, and - while unplanned - that turned out really well, because that gave the audience a chance to applaud. No music...audience applauds. Who knew??
Pi & Ro begin the show
Pi & Amity
Amity
da fans
fans 'n' stuff
yet more fans
Ms. Fine, Memory & Pi
spoken word, fire guitar, fans
la.Rosa & Ms. Fine
la.rosa on the hoop
la.rosa on the hoop
light me, baby!
Ro being badass
ro & la.rosa dbl-dbls
poitastic
Pi & Mem poi
Pi & Mem poi
Ro passes the flame to the girls
Pi & Ro - battle time
Dan erupts
Pi shows who's boss
quintuple doubles
Dan & la.Rosa doubles
Pi takes it to the audience
more audience love
Pi blows a spike offa Ro's bass
the men - the flame
POOF!
group POOF!
flame worship
worship swarm
We were dripping sweat throughout the 45-min show, and after our finale they wanted us back out for 15 more minutes (ah, an encore...nice touch!)! It was fun and exhausting and exhilarating.
We went back to the hotel afterward and had an afterparty in the musicians' room. Jaden & Robbie (who'd booked us for the show) said that there were a few issues that were brought up after the show, including the girls' outfits being a bit too racy and the procession not quite flowing like it should have...and then they decided that they should stop there and not discuss the rest. Of course we were all like, wtf, what rest? They looked gravely at each other, and, after a pause, came out with the fact that they were fucking with us, that the show was rated EXCELLENT, that we blew them away and were already booked for next year! YEAH!! We looked through the pictures that Cat took, watched the video that Adana shot, and celebrated! There were four pro camerapeople shooting video that was projected on screens behind us during the show, and we'll be getting copies of those vids! Great promo materials! WOOHOO!!!
All in all it was a fucking insane weekend...and it didn't stop. Five of us left on Sunday to go back home to work on Monday, and the rest headed out for a night in Portland, where they ended up doing two more crazy shows. Can't...stop...BURNING!!