Magical Mystery Tour
Last week was heck-a-busier than usually busy for me (!). We had gigs almost everyday of the week since we have a "mini-tour" with touring Norwegians, No Torso. What made it more interesting for me was how it started as some sort of a mystery.
Day 1, Wednesday - at the Knitting Factory. Bluebeat Lounge, a show hosted and headlined by Chris Murray (the "We Do The Ska" dude). That went really well, even without No Torso - who were (sadly) stuck somewhere in Texas because their van broke down.
Day 2, Di Piazza's in Long Beach. Also played with Chase Long Beach, and non-ska acts Random Ninjas and Stella's Notch. Yay! it was the first show that had all of our 3 bands in it (mine, Dennis and Carlo's). Since there was no No Torso (which now makes it Yes Torso..heh), we did an hour-long set (rehearsal?) - after that we packed all of our gear in a borrowed trailer for the start of our mini-road tour the following day.
Friday, Soma in San Diego.
Max's girlfriend got him this organ from the Salvation Army store next door.
no No Torso means Yes Torso so all hail, the "Touorgan".
At this point, no one knew whether No Torso would make it to the gig or not....
The fun crowd crouching down on Tara's orders (on We Want More)...
They were soo much fun that one of them found a pail of teeny tiny rubber balls (like jackstone balls) and decided to throw them towards the stage. Good thing none of them hit me - they just bounced all over the place. The ones I found lying around me I managed to throw back to the audience. Heh!
My cousin Carl and his wife, Young, made it to my show too - so cool!
Saturday, Nickel City in San Jose.
- getting stuff out of the trailer....
Tara and I posing with Touorgan -
Nickel City is an arcade, the gig was at the so-called "Birthday Room" - where, as the name suggests, birthday parties are held. So they took all the long tables and chairs out, brought in a PA system and, voila!, it instantly turned into a venue (wooha!).
- crowd being asked to kneel before us...
Yay, a mystery tour no more because
No Torso finally showed up.
They had to leave their heavy equipment in Louisiana (like the drumkit and rented stack amps) and take a Greyhound bus all the way to NoCal. They traveled for 2 days.
So some of them had to borrow some of our stuff.
Enjoyed their set. I like their rendition of Hard Day's Night.
And the last band to play that night, Monkey.
Both bands (No Torso and Monkey) are under Asian Man Records.
Sunday, 924 Gilman, Berkeley in San Francisco.
Our gig was early. We were starting the show at 4:30pm.
No Torso was playing last at 7:30. Yup, super early show.
setting up, no people -
- showtime, with people
My friend, Keetchie, and 2 of her friends were there too.
Hoorah, I had some hakot!
- No Torso... and no stagediving!
They hate American beer but we still took them to Pyramid Brewery restaurant across the street for some alky...
Day 1, Wednesday - at the Knitting Factory. Bluebeat Lounge, a show hosted and headlined by Chris Murray (the "We Do The Ska" dude). That went really well, even without No Torso - who were (sadly) stuck somewhere in Texas because their van broke down.
Day 2, Di Piazza's in Long Beach. Also played with Chase Long Beach, and non-ska acts Random Ninjas and Stella's Notch. Yay! it was the first show that had all of our 3 bands in it (mine, Dennis and Carlo's). Since there was no No Torso (which now makes it Yes Torso..heh), we did an hour-long set (rehearsal?) - after that we packed all of our gear in a borrowed trailer for the start of our mini-road tour the following day.
Friday, Soma in San Diego.
Max's girlfriend got him this organ from the Salvation Army store next door.
no No Torso means Yes Torso so all hail, the "Touorgan".
At this point, no one knew whether No Torso would make it to the gig or not....
The fun crowd crouching down on Tara's orders (on We Want More)...
They were soo much fun that one of them found a pail of teeny tiny rubber balls (like jackstone balls) and decided to throw them towards the stage. Good thing none of them hit me - they just bounced all over the place. The ones I found lying around me I managed to throw back to the audience. Heh!
My cousin Carl and his wife, Young, made it to my show too - so cool!
Saturday, Nickel City in San Jose.
- getting stuff out of the trailer....
Tara and I posing with Touorgan -
Nickel City is an arcade, the gig was at the so-called "Birthday Room" - where, as the name suggests, birthday parties are held. So they took all the long tables and chairs out, brought in a PA system and, voila!, it instantly turned into a venue (wooha!).
- crowd being asked to kneel before us...
Yay, a mystery tour no more because
No Torso finally showed up.
They had to leave their heavy equipment in Louisiana (like the drumkit and rented stack amps) and take a Greyhound bus all the way to NoCal. They traveled for 2 days.
So some of them had to borrow some of our stuff.
Enjoyed their set. I like their rendition of Hard Day's Night.
And the last band to play that night, Monkey.
Both bands (No Torso and Monkey) are under Asian Man Records.
Sunday, 924 Gilman, Berkeley in San Francisco.
Our gig was early. We were starting the show at 4:30pm.
No Torso was playing last at 7:30. Yup, super early show.
setting up, no people -
- showtime, with people
My friend, Keetchie, and 2 of her friends were there too.
Hoorah, I had some hakot!
- No Torso... and no stagediving!
They hate American beer but we still took them to Pyramid Brewery restaurant across the street for some alky...