Ghost of the Robot 2.0
So this past Saturday was the Ghost of the Robot 2.0 (according to their new t-shirts) concert. When I first heard that there was going to be a concert my first reaction was What?! Really?!. Definitely never expected the group to get back together, but I was happy to hear that they would be playing again. I didn't know what to expect but being a local peep I was more than happy to buy a ticket and come to hopefully have a fun night, like I used to back in the GOTR days.
I did line up on Saturday around my usual GOTR line up time, early afternoon, even though it ended up being only a small crowd at the club. Which ended up being really nice. I had never been to the old 14 Below club before, even though it's now the Central Social Aid and Pleasure Club. I didn't come into the fandom until 2003, after they moved on to other clubs. So it wasn't until I got into the club that I saw it was a pretty small venue. And with the small crowd it meant that no one was crowding you to get closer to the front. You actually had personal space. Being crowded in and haven't people trying to push their way in front of you is something I definitely don't miss from the old gigs. :)
The usual suspects were in the line. All arriving at different times though. jameslovin1 , J, mad_brilliant_ , ghostgirl13 , S, seapealsh , N and J, plus some new peeps. It was entertaining to watch the people driving by staring at us and having the strangest "WTH" expressions on their faces. Also I learned that Santa Monica apparently has a only cute dogs allowed law. I swear every dog I saw either walking by or being driven by was the cutest dog. When the band arrived they said hi to the line. I was off on a bathroom break at the time, but saw them driving in as I was walking off. They let us into the club after 8pm. After staking a spot to the left side near the speaker (thankfully I brought earplugs, so I used one in the ear closest to the speaker so I wouldn't go deaf) I went over to the dark area in the back to hopefully find the merchandise girls that Charlie told us would be selling merchandise. jameslovin1 was already there stocking up on stuff. Once she was done I got some stuff. They were selling the Mad Brilliant cd which I grabbed for myself and ghostgirl13 . I got the new 2.0 shirt and the last red "vintage" shirt in the right size. I missed getting one last time around. Whoohoo. Then I returned to the stage to tell everyone they seem to have a good number of CDs, go buy one if you need or want an extra copy, or you lost a copy the first time around. It was then we noticed a guitar in the center back of the stage that had SS on it. ghostgirl13 thought she recognized it as Steve Seller's guitar and mad_brilliant_ confirmed that Charlie said it would be on stage as a memorial to Steve and it wasn't going to be played. In case you don't know Steve Sellers was an original band member, played the keyboard and guitar as well as writing songs. Valerie was always a favorite of mine. He passed away in 2009.
While waiting for time to pass, we noticed the set list behind the giant monitors. ghostgirl13 tried to read what the songs were but couldn't see and/or read the list upside down. I was able to get closer and saw some of the songs but couldn't make out a few. I told her I didn't see This Town which was the song she wanted performed. So she used her camera to take a photo of the list that we could then turn rightside up to read. It was then we discovered there were two set lists. They played a good number of songs and the first song was This Town. That made her happy. I was happy when we discovered the set list was written on a Disneyland resort notepad. Disneyland rocks! Around 8:30 or so James came out on stage to grab everyone's attention and introduced the band Electric Gold (I'm pretty sure that was the name). Ends up it was his son's band with two other young men. It was all instrumental guitar music and quite well done. Definitely better then some of the opening acts I've come across at concerts. I think the crowd gave them a great reception.
It wasn't long after that GOTR 2.0 came out. They set up for a bit and went into playing. It didn't take long to see that they really had practiced as they mentioned on the Facebook. There were still a few mistakes here and there but they sounded the best I've ever heard them. James announced at one point, maybe after the band introductions that they were recording the concert to make a live album. Depending on whether they messed it up. I hope the recording worked because it was an awesome concert. They did play a lot of James' songs, and a lot of his new music which sounds great with a band. It would have been nice to hear a bit more of the old GOTR songs. But they did play David Letterman and Goodnight Sweet Girl which I've always enjoyed. And probably some other non-James song that I'm forgetting about since my memory is like that. It seemed like the entire band was having fun on stage. And that energy translated to the performance and the music and made a memorable concert. Early on James broke a guitar string on his guitar and Charlie suggested he plays Steve's guitar. James did not seem comfortable doing that and it was at this time they explained about the guitar and Steve's passing. Then they decided to use one of the young guys guitars. They called him out to the stage so James could ask permission to use his guitar. The young man gave his permission and shook James' hand. Maybe thanking him for the evening. The concert went on without much of a hitch after that.
Speaking of Goodnight Sweet Girl. That was a song James often had trouble singing just because it requires almost screaming the notes. Well either James' voice has improved or because the sound guy at the club was awesome and he didn't make the instruments way too loud, James hit all the notes of that song as far as I could tell. It was a fantastic song to end the night with a large bang. At the end, when the band was taking bows, Charlie lifted up Steve's guitar to the screaming/clapping audience which seemed to get louder in honor of Steve.
After the concert was over Aaron was talking with a few people at the front of the stage. Thanking them for coming and what not. ghostgirl13 got his auto and Kevin's on her Mad Brilliant cd. She tried to get Charlie but he was busy packing up stuff. Apparently there was a private party coming in and they needed to be out of the club by a certain time. She ran outside to catch Charlie and maybe James and I stayed back to wait for S to pack up her bag. We slowly made our way outside to the parking lot/backstage area and discovered many people were trapped in their parking spots. That club has a very tiny parking lot. There was a guy moving cars around trying to let people leave. My car was not trapped and I later learned that was because they were trying to make room there for a food truck for the private event. James was also out there talking with the fans. He disappeared at one point to help with the clean up but came back. In between trying to get people's cars free and chit chatting with people I ended up in the kind of line to say hi to James. He was talking with seapealsh and then was saying he needed to go and continue packing up the equipment and then he looked and saw me. He pulled me into a wonderful bear hug. I told him the concert was awesome. I might have said that a few times because it was a long hug. And then he went into something about loving my eyes and how he always goes back to them in a crowd. And I'm here thinking bullsh*t we didn't make eye contact once during the concert. LOL. Sometimes the stuff he says makes no sense. He then noticed my t-shirt which I didn't even remember I was wearing. It was just a silly shirt like the ones I normally wear. He asked what funny shirt was I wearing now, or something about me always wearing silly shirts. After the fact I remembered he read my "May the Mass times Acceleration be with you" shirt at the Phoenix Comic Con, so I guess he remembers me as the silly shirt girl. I guess there are worse things to be remembered for. :) Back to the shirt, so I move my hair so he can see the shirt (which is a horror movie joke) and he lets out a large laugh. He then says can I have that shirt? And I fold my arms in front of me as in no, it's my shirt, but before I can say anything he goes "no then I'd have to give up my shirt" (he was wearing a Riverside Fire Department shirt given by a fan). We both laughed and I might have thanked him for the concert or something, then I left for someone else to get their turn. The rest of the guys were busy cleaning up. So I wasn't able to say great job. I thanked them on the facebook page though. I guess better then nothing. At this point the parking guy had started clearing people's cars so we did a quick goodbye to peeps to escape. My car was not currently blocked but the parking guy warned me my car would be blocked by a food truck if I didn't leave soon. So once people started taking off I figured that was my cue to escape while I could.
So that was the night for me in a nutshell. Apparently they hope to play more clubs in Los Angeles, and I hope they do so. I missed the old concerts and am glad to have them back.
Side note. To those who have bought James a t-shirt what size does he wear? Thanks.
Edited again to add: I almost forgot the cutest non band related thing. While waiting in line a limo drives by with a bunch of little girls in it. They start waving while stopped at the light and we all wave back. Ends up it was one of their birthdays, so we all wished the girl a happy birthday. They were all super excited and dressed up like princesses. It was cute.
Edited to add: I have a few photos up on my site. The lighting was very dim and I had to use my 50mm since that was the only lens that could handle the low light so there are no full band shots. I hope you enjoy. Photos.
I did line up on Saturday around my usual GOTR line up time, early afternoon, even though it ended up being only a small crowd at the club. Which ended up being really nice. I had never been to the old 14 Below club before, even though it's now the Central Social Aid and Pleasure Club. I didn't come into the fandom until 2003, after they moved on to other clubs. So it wasn't until I got into the club that I saw it was a pretty small venue. And with the small crowd it meant that no one was crowding you to get closer to the front. You actually had personal space. Being crowded in and haven't people trying to push their way in front of you is something I definitely don't miss from the old gigs. :)
The usual suspects were in the line. All arriving at different times though. jameslovin1 , J, mad_brilliant_ , ghostgirl13 , S, seapealsh , N and J, plus some new peeps. It was entertaining to watch the people driving by staring at us and having the strangest "WTH" expressions on their faces. Also I learned that Santa Monica apparently has a only cute dogs allowed law. I swear every dog I saw either walking by or being driven by was the cutest dog. When the band arrived they said hi to the line. I was off on a bathroom break at the time, but saw them driving in as I was walking off. They let us into the club after 8pm. After staking a spot to the left side near the speaker (thankfully I brought earplugs, so I used one in the ear closest to the speaker so I wouldn't go deaf) I went over to the dark area in the back to hopefully find the merchandise girls that Charlie told us would be selling merchandise. jameslovin1 was already there stocking up on stuff. Once she was done I got some stuff. They were selling the Mad Brilliant cd which I grabbed for myself and ghostgirl13 . I got the new 2.0 shirt and the last red "vintage" shirt in the right size. I missed getting one last time around. Whoohoo. Then I returned to the stage to tell everyone they seem to have a good number of CDs, go buy one if you need or want an extra copy, or you lost a copy the first time around. It was then we noticed a guitar in the center back of the stage that had SS on it. ghostgirl13 thought she recognized it as Steve Seller's guitar and mad_brilliant_ confirmed that Charlie said it would be on stage as a memorial to Steve and it wasn't going to be played. In case you don't know Steve Sellers was an original band member, played the keyboard and guitar as well as writing songs. Valerie was always a favorite of mine. He passed away in 2009.
While waiting for time to pass, we noticed the set list behind the giant monitors. ghostgirl13 tried to read what the songs were but couldn't see and/or read the list upside down. I was able to get closer and saw some of the songs but couldn't make out a few. I told her I didn't see This Town which was the song she wanted performed. So she used her camera to take a photo of the list that we could then turn rightside up to read. It was then we discovered there were two set lists. They played a good number of songs and the first song was This Town. That made her happy. I was happy when we discovered the set list was written on a Disneyland resort notepad. Disneyland rocks! Around 8:30 or so James came out on stage to grab everyone's attention and introduced the band Electric Gold (I'm pretty sure that was the name). Ends up it was his son's band with two other young men. It was all instrumental guitar music and quite well done. Definitely better then some of the opening acts I've come across at concerts. I think the crowd gave them a great reception.
It wasn't long after that GOTR 2.0 came out. They set up for a bit and went into playing. It didn't take long to see that they really had practiced as they mentioned on the Facebook. There were still a few mistakes here and there but they sounded the best I've ever heard them. James announced at one point, maybe after the band introductions that they were recording the concert to make a live album. Depending on whether they messed it up. I hope the recording worked because it was an awesome concert. They did play a lot of James' songs, and a lot of his new music which sounds great with a band. It would have been nice to hear a bit more of the old GOTR songs. But they did play David Letterman and Goodnight Sweet Girl which I've always enjoyed. And probably some other non-James song that I'm forgetting about since my memory is like that. It seemed like the entire band was having fun on stage. And that energy translated to the performance and the music and made a memorable concert. Early on James broke a guitar string on his guitar and Charlie suggested he plays Steve's guitar. James did not seem comfortable doing that and it was at this time they explained about the guitar and Steve's passing. Then they decided to use one of the young guys guitars. They called him out to the stage so James could ask permission to use his guitar. The young man gave his permission and shook James' hand. Maybe thanking him for the evening. The concert went on without much of a hitch after that.
Speaking of Goodnight Sweet Girl. That was a song James often had trouble singing just because it requires almost screaming the notes. Well either James' voice has improved or because the sound guy at the club was awesome and he didn't make the instruments way too loud, James hit all the notes of that song as far as I could tell. It was a fantastic song to end the night with a large bang. At the end, when the band was taking bows, Charlie lifted up Steve's guitar to the screaming/clapping audience which seemed to get louder in honor of Steve.
After the concert was over Aaron was talking with a few people at the front of the stage. Thanking them for coming and what not. ghostgirl13 got his auto and Kevin's on her Mad Brilliant cd. She tried to get Charlie but he was busy packing up stuff. Apparently there was a private party coming in and they needed to be out of the club by a certain time. She ran outside to catch Charlie and maybe James and I stayed back to wait for S to pack up her bag. We slowly made our way outside to the parking lot/backstage area and discovered many people were trapped in their parking spots. That club has a very tiny parking lot. There was a guy moving cars around trying to let people leave. My car was not trapped and I later learned that was because they were trying to make room there for a food truck for the private event. James was also out there talking with the fans. He disappeared at one point to help with the clean up but came back. In between trying to get people's cars free and chit chatting with people I ended up in the kind of line to say hi to James. He was talking with seapealsh and then was saying he needed to go and continue packing up the equipment and then he looked and saw me. He pulled me into a wonderful bear hug. I told him the concert was awesome. I might have said that a few times because it was a long hug. And then he went into something about loving my eyes and how he always goes back to them in a crowd. And I'm here thinking bullsh*t we didn't make eye contact once during the concert. LOL. Sometimes the stuff he says makes no sense. He then noticed my t-shirt which I didn't even remember I was wearing. It was just a silly shirt like the ones I normally wear. He asked what funny shirt was I wearing now, or something about me always wearing silly shirts. After the fact I remembered he read my "May the Mass times Acceleration be with you" shirt at the Phoenix Comic Con, so I guess he remembers me as the silly shirt girl. I guess there are worse things to be remembered for. :) Back to the shirt, so I move my hair so he can see the shirt (which is a horror movie joke) and he lets out a large laugh. He then says can I have that shirt? And I fold my arms in front of me as in no, it's my shirt, but before I can say anything he goes "no then I'd have to give up my shirt" (he was wearing a Riverside Fire Department shirt given by a fan). We both laughed and I might have thanked him for the concert or something, then I left for someone else to get their turn. The rest of the guys were busy cleaning up. So I wasn't able to say great job. I thanked them on the facebook page though. I guess better then nothing. At this point the parking guy had started clearing people's cars so we did a quick goodbye to peeps to escape. My car was not currently blocked but the parking guy warned me my car would be blocked by a food truck if I didn't leave soon. So once people started taking off I figured that was my cue to escape while I could.
So that was the night for me in a nutshell. Apparently they hope to play more clubs in Los Angeles, and I hope they do so. I missed the old concerts and am glad to have them back.
Side note. To those who have bought James a t-shirt what size does he wear? Thanks.
Edited again to add: I almost forgot the cutest non band related thing. While waiting in line a limo drives by with a bunch of little girls in it. They start waving while stopped at the light and we all wave back. Ends up it was one of their birthdays, so we all wished the girl a happy birthday. They were all super excited and dressed up like princesses. It was cute.
Edited to add: I have a few photos up on my site. The lighting was very dim and I had to use my 50mm since that was the only lens that could handle the low light so there are no full band shots. I hope you enjoy. Photos.