West Indian Girl

uhhh, can you repeat the question again?

Fran’s Flashback
our first of 3 shows at sundance was the private party for the launch of film.com. this site is really cool…and it’s not just because of the live video they have of us on their sundance page. the party took place at the star bar which is probably the best bar in town for live music. we played with apples in stereo and they were all great people to hang out with.

dressing room and rider wrap up:
the facilities 12 points. star bar’s lay out is great. the bar never felt like it was oppressively crowded as there were plenty of different places to go to within the venue. great vip areas, big green room, nice bar. the only negs are the parking, bitch of a load-in, lack of a private bathroom, and lack of extra space for our road cases.

rider/amenities 20 points. im talkin socks, towels, tons of food (great food – not just a deli tray but full on vip food), drinks, you name it…even the batteries. this spread was fantastic. top notch. i wish every promoter would take a lesson from geoff who was responsible for this. rarely will you ever see a score of 20 in this category

stage,sound,lights 14 points. i thought the stage was great considering there was other gear on it. it wasnt big but it worked. the system was adequate. the lighting was bright but that was due to filming. i thought the stage sound was fantastic…my bass worked well up there. rob and greg the soundmen were awesome and hooked us up with a check even though they were pressed for time. these guys were good.

promoter 20 points. geoff walker (pictured below with q) is no stranger to this game. the guy knows how to take care of his talent. he was fantastic. everyone at film.com rules. they all treated us incredibly well. special thanks to ted kartzman for making it happen. the promotion for this gig and all the press surrounding it was awesome. bookmark film.com now.

staff 20 points. maxwell morrill wasnt actually running the show tonight but he was somehow involved. maxwell is clutch and the staff at the star bar was right on. the catering staff that was working the event were amazing. everyone there, even security, was a pleasure to deal with.

intangibles 12 points. a free 3 camera video shoot with fully edited fotage available online the next day isnt something to scoff at.

TOTAL OVERALL SCORE = 98. this is my first A+ and has really set the bar high. i wish geoff was in charge of taking care of us from now on (click here for a detailed explanation of my scoring system’s categories).

Mariqueen’s Mind
The City: park city at night is a shock to my tropical blood stream. when we did park city tv it was around 2 in the afternoon and the sun was shining which made the cold weather bearable. tonight was a different story. i stepped out of the van and instantly felt like my nose was going to fall off my face. i should’ve bought that face mask at sport chalet.

The Venue: the star bar lives up to it’s name. the backstage dressing area was wonderul and fully catered with everything we wanted. the staff let me change in their office and their sound man was a total sweetheart. i even met a girl who i later dubbed, my favorite bartender in park city. anyway, out of a possible ten, the star bar gets a nine only because we didnt have our own bathrooms to use. big deal though — after the endless wine, shrimp cocktail and heavenly hors d’ouvres i was put in a magical place and couldnt complain about anything.

The Show: we played a tight and relaxed set. well, that’s what josh and ian said, anyway. i spent most of the show worrying over how i picked fashion over function. before i knew it, our set was over and i didnt have a single britney shot or a janet jackson superbowl mishap. good times.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: please stay inside this dress, please stay inside this dress. repeat in time with mark’s drum beat.

Interesting Things After The Show: well, before the show fran, rob and i got double interviewed by sasha and laremy from film.com. sasha and i seemed to be on the same wavelength when it came to the comfort levels we felt through out the whole process. laremy took over the second half and i basically kept my yapper shut except for when the microphone got put in front of my face and i mustered out, “ditto”. i wish i had gotten to talk to sasha after the interview to apologize about how bad i am at talking with the cameras on. i spoke with laremy about it and he reassured me it was cool, because interviews arent natural conversations. i guess that means im no good at bs’ing. unless i have a drink. or five. after the show i was hanging out at the merch booth and did a very impromptu interview but was actually more relaxed and eloquent. maybe the dewars, grand marnier and vodka tonic helped with the relaxation part, but the eloquence is all me baby.

Nathan’s Nonsense
later that night we were whisked away from our swanky little condo on over to the star bar on main street for the film.com/real networks party. i remember having no idea as to my whereabouts as i had yet to get my bearings. this was an exclusive, private party mostly for industry schmoozers and execs. not a bad show at all on our part, though one thing i didn’t care for was the way the sound was mixed to conversation level in the back of the venue so as to accommodate all the hobnobbers. nothing wrong with a little networking, mind you. we all do it, but when there are clusters of bodies with their backs to the performers, rubbing as many elbows as possible and chatting away, it does not bode very well in my book. apples in stereo suffered from the same pervasive indifference, but you wouldn’t have known it from their performance. they just barreled along with their lilting, sugary pop gems, keeping the portion of the audience that actually gave a damn in motion. it was a special treat to hang out with these guys, especially the venerable mr. snyder. never met such a lovable guy in my life. he’s like this big fluffy-wuffy chipmunk with glasses. and he probably doesn’t appreciate being likened to a skimpering woodland critter, so i’ll stop there. lastly, i was very happy my good friends jeremy and asia from LA could make it down. it just so happened they were both in park city doing hair and makeup, respectively, for the celebs and well-to-do. you’d probably pee yourself if i told you who they had their hands on during the festival. i know i sure did.

playing “get up” for the first time

Fran’s Flashback
well i guess letterman wont be our first live tv appearance. instead, mid-day with ori on pctv was the first to pop our tv cherry. i couldnt have asked for a kinder, gentler man. we played 3 songs (trip, indian ocean and get up) followed by a sit down interview that made me feel like i was on the bob newhart show. it was awesome.dressing room and rider wrap up: this is one of those tweeners cos its not really a proper club which makes it a bit difficult to rate.the facilities 16 points. the tv station was pretty dope. there was a nice lounge with a big screen in it. the place was clean and really comfy. the only neg i can think of is the load in which included a small elevator. elevators always hurt your score.

rider/amenities 10 points. decent spread of food – pizzas, drinks etc etc. no alcohol but we arent really mid day drinkers anyway. bottom line is that we were fed well and it was there waiting for us.

stage,sound,lights 17 points. the stage was great. it wasnt big but looked great. it was well lit and had everything we needed. good gear. it was a bit tiny but then again we are a big band.

promoter 20 points. ori was a pretty awesome dude. he was all over the place…he did our sound, interviewed us, and even worked a camera. the guy really was a one man show. plus he read the blog and knew i would be watching him like a hawk. ori did his homework.

staff 20 points. again, cant say a bad thing about anyone at the station. no one gave us a hard time. everyone was nice. a guy named tony was there taking pictures of us. even the parking lot guy was friendly.

intangibles 10 points. they turned on the playoff game for us to watch, let tony run around unchecked and even took group photos on the roof. these are all worth extra credit.

TOTAL OVERALL SCORE = 93. congrats you get a solid A. great score park city tv, you’re a class act. i hope you invite us back (click here for a detailed explanation of my scoring system’s categories).

Mariqueen’s Mind
The City: it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas, everywhere i go. that and i can see my breath. this is going to be difficult to get used to.

The Venue: the tv station was awesome. the stage was small, but im assuming that most tv stations have smaller stages — the three huge plasma tv’s with our picture on it more than made up for it. as we waited for everything to get set up they put the football game on so all the guys could get their neanderthal on. rad. the best part of the building was their rooftop patio — it overlooked the uh, parking lot, but a parking lot covered in snow with sundance tents and a mountainous back drop is a pretty epic sight to behold.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: oh god, i hope i dont look fat.

Interesting Things After The Show: after our three song set, rob, fran, tony and i got interviewed by ori, who is a fantastic host. it was kind of weird how at home i felt sitting on the couch knowing i was being taped to be on tv. ugh. that is such a lie. i was nervous and insecure about my pre-menstrual sized features and how they would show up ten lbs heavier on camera. freaking. cool. i love singing, not talking… but being around ori made me feel comfortable. ori and the couches. and of course, tony sitting next to me licking himself.

Nathan’s Nonsense
look mom, i’m on television! though our brief, three-song set was over before you could say “tele-mundo, odelay!” it was executed with precision and professionalism. now, if i can only land myself a spot on the celebrity hollywood squares panel, i will finally be able to die a happy man. one dream at a time, folks. ok, so a little about park city. this time of year, it’s pretty damn cold. and there’s snow everywhere. that’s it. there’s really nothing else about this place that i found to be unusual or of interest. oh, well, there was this little film festival going on, hoards of celebrity entourages everywhere, swag being peddled at every opportunity, and people taking pictures of anything and anyone. but besides that, it was just your average winter wonderland haven, like aspen. or saskatchewan.

group photo #1
group photo #2
group photo #3
yet another gratouitous live shot

strippin it down in vegas 1.19

Fran’s Flashback
There was a big sign on the side of the art bar letting the good people of vegas know that it was voted the best “place to have a conversation”. i guess it would have been a bit more encouraging to see a sign that read “best place to see live music”. as far as little bars go, the art bar is great – its not a place made for bands with more than 4 people though. this show was essentially a dress rehearsal for our gigs at sundance. it was also the first time we played with amy white on moog satellite. this show couldnt have been a better one for her “first time”. in fact it was eerily reminiscent of q’s first show. it was a rushed, hurry up show with no soundcheck, poor sound, no monitors etc etc etc. one of those shows where you just have to go for it. amy did well. after the show i went out with a bunch of drunk people – i should have known better and instead taken a cab to a casino and rolled dice and played some cards but alas i didnt do so.

dressing room and rider wrap up:
the facilities 6 points. the art bar had a cool vibe to it. there was no dressing room or anything just for the bands. just regular bathrooms (men’s had puke in it when i went in there), there was an outside area which is probably cool in the summer. the bar did have wi-fi though!!! as far as ambiance goes it wouldnt have been vegas without the video slot machines lining the bar. points for a secure parking lot and relative ease of load in.

rider/amenities 1 point. the extent of the hospitality was 6 bottled waters and 6 beers.

stage,sound,lights 2 points. this stage had some problems. mirrored walls on 2 sides of it made it seem ideal for naked chicks but not for sound. the lights were fucking horrible. come to think of it there werent any real stage lights it was just the lights coming off the dance floor. they didnt have enough vocal mics or stands or inputs to fully mic us. it was so bad it was funny… after doing this long enough you pretty much know what kind of night its gonna be like the minute you see a stage set up like this. we didnt bitch (although this may seem like it — remember im just reporting the facts people) but made the best of it. no sound check at all. the sound man looked lost to me. i think he was overwhelmed by our set up as well as limited by the stage and gear he was in charge of.

promoter 10 points. brandy brandy brandy. she hooked us up with a show on short notice and made it happen. she bought me a shot and a high life after the show. no probs with brandy. i have no idea how well it was promoted though. i dont think we sent over posters so i really cant bltch about not seeing any in the club.

staff 10 points. the bartenders and door people were all cool to me when i had to deal with them.

intangibles 2 points. the fact that the bars stay open past 2 am deserves points. we ended up finishing our set at 3 which is officially the latest we have ever played. not having a curfew is the best thing about vegas clubs

TOTAL OVERALL SCORE = 31. Obviously with a score of 31 the art bar grades out with an F as it failed miserably in most areas. (click here for a detailed explanation of my scoring system’s categories). i think the art bar should move the pole back to the center of the room, bring in the strippers and get more slots.

Mariqueen’s Mind
The City: it’s not really my cup of tea. if i had to do vegas, i’d need tons of money so i could see every cirque du soleil show. twice.

The Venue: as far as bars go, the art bar is a great place to hang out and booze with your friends. if i felt like spending all my cash on cirque du soleil shows i’d start the evening at “the best conversation bar” for sure. as far as playing a show there ever again, i dont see that happening. the stage wasnt ready for a band that has as much equipment as we do. they didnt even have enough cables for us. their soundman seemed stressed out at our very existence and i couldnt even hear myself the whole entire show. they had mirrors everywhere which seemed more appropriate for the pole that was hanging out in the middle of the room and they had more lights on the dance floor than they did on stage which makes me think that this venue is more suited for really cool sleazy rock and roll dance nights than a show from west indian girl.

The Show: aha. well let’s see… we didnt even go on until two in the morning, we didnt have enough mics or cables set up, i couldnt hear myself, our sound man was a tool bag, we played to about 25 people, we didn’t get a sound check… how do you think the show went?

What Were You Thinking While Playing: why god why?

Interesting Things After The Show: amy and i did that whole girly band bonding thing over shots of patron. my insane friend mary kept telling random people who would never think twice to come up and talk to me to mozy over and introduce themselves. we brought together a crew to search for some much needed fun. our band of misfits consisted of me, mark, nathan, mary, fabby and kevin with fran, slightly intrigued, asking us to come along. he was pretty sorry he did — after about a billion drinks at the art bar we spent twenty agonizing minutes sitting in fabby’s bmw trying to figure out why the locals we were with, didnt know where to go at 4:30 in the morning. mark wanted to go to the golden nugget but was too drunk and tired to say anything, fabiola mentioned some club named pure which pretty much had all of us booing and hissing, and i think mary, in a drunken slut moment, might’ve suggested spearmint rhinos but we’re not sure if she was talking to us or flirting with kevin [or if it was a figment of my incredible imagination]. we couldnt take listening to the heinous vegas radio stations so we stopped at caesars palace [i think] and walked around wondering what the hell we were doing there in the first place. i exclaimed starvation so we went to a liquor store and i argued with the attendant on duty that they had no organic food for me to buy and preached about the cons of having fried chicken with cheese dip as a midnight snack. mark bought more heinekens to shut up everyone’s bitching and we decided to go back to the humongous house my mom hooked us up with to have a cartwheel party. i made a bee line for the sketchy leftover mediterranean fries from dinner. after inhaling them i was overwhelmed by euphoria and fatigue or maybe it was food poisoning — im not sure but whatever it was, i became impassioned over the lack of ketchup in the house. i verbalized the importance of condiments at times like this as mary rallied behind me demanding that people find me ketchup. yyyyyyyeah.
the next morning i woke up in the fetal position with mary to my left mirroring me. great minds — they drink, think and sleep alike. wohorrd.

Nathan’s Nonsense
as a general rule i tend to avoid spending any significant amount of time in sin city. it’s all kinda snoozy to me. that, and it happens to be where i once got impetuously hitched years ago in what turned out to be an arduous and lengthy entanglement. that was a blast, i tells ya. but i’m afraid that’s another story. as far as the show goes, i thought it went quite well, considering the sound guy was completely disinterested, didn’t really do his job, and not that many people showed up. oh, and we didn’t end up going on until almost 2 am. it was the first official show for our newest member, amy white, who has stepped in to play moog satellite and backing vocals. welcome to the family, amy. it’s nice not having to be the new guy anymore. this show may also go down in history as the last time i was able to get away with using the sustain pedal on my rhodes piano. you see, fran and i have this thing where he doesn’t really approve of my use of sustain while playing. while, in my humble opinion, it flies in the face of all musical reason, i have reluctantly agreed to give it a go and adjust my playing style somewhat. but on this night, it was the sustain pedal’s last hoorah. the pedal has since mysteriously disappeared. there was an unconfirmed sighting of the pedal rod sticking out of a snowdrift somewhere outside salt lake city, but so far nothing else to go on. if anyone has any information as to it’s whereabouts, please contact me right away. i’ll be sure to update everyone on the situation as details become available. so that’s my vegas blurb. the rest is just a flurry of darting about the city in the back of fabiola’s fab mercedes and finishing up the night at the makeshift, unfurnished band house. after not nearly enough sleep, it was off to utah and the high country.

Tony’s Take
i am so fucking happy that fran didnt leave me in that kennel he took me to the other day. it was cool in the fact i would have been next to a bunch of other boxers but sleeping outside in this cold would not have been kosh. instead he packed me a goose down puffy jacket and i was on the A team. first time in vegas…not much to report…never even went in the bar. before the show they took me to a safe-house that Q’s mom had set up for us. it was rad – all shag carpet and an enclosed yard. i took 3 shits there and got to run around til my heart’s content. at night i slept next to fran in his sleeping bag. it was a fantastic stay for me. so far the only bad thing about the trip is my spot in the van – on the floor between the 2 front seats. lewscious is in my usual bench and he doesnt really like to share. i love the guy anyway.

hey people – sorry about not posting the last 2 show reports from san diego and la – both were fantastic shows. i have been working 3 part time jobs this month and really havent had much time to get these puppies posted. i will have them done soon and they will be great. F10

troubadour 12.15

Fran’s Flashback

random historic note – we played our last show as 5 piece as we will be adding a 6th member. we played this show with 2 other la bands – test your reflex and wartapes. this show was an adventure. we pulled out a version of train in vain by the clash as well as a piece of gimme shelter at the end of a solarized 9 minute jam. thanx to all of my friends (like director joe plonsky below) that came out to support.

dressing room and rider wrap up: the troubadour is one of my favorite places to play in los angeles. come to think of it, as far as 500 seat venues go it is one of the best in the country.

the facilities 20 points. the troub has so many good things going for it. the venue has a nice balcony to watch the show from, a separate bar that merch is set up in, a private dressing room with a view of the stage, a shower, easy load in blah blah blah. not sure about wi fi cos i live so close to the venue i never have a need for it when im there.

rider/amenities 18 points. they always hook it up – plenty of food and alcohol. always solid spread. the dressing room at the troub always seems to have tons of people in it when we play. its a great place to have people over after the show.

stage, sound, lights 19 points. stage is great. perfect size – the sound crew there is always cool to work with. the lights at the troub also rock except its really up to you to make the most out of them. for this show i think there was something a bit off between our lights and stefan’s visuals. it didnt seem to gel. not sure why that happened but lighting is tricky. at least the troub has some great lights.

promoter 20 points. brian who books the troub did a good job. the show was promoted well and promoted often. kcrw presented the show, posters were in the club and ads were in all the papers. solid.

staff 20 points. the area where the troub always wins out. the staff is always cool to us. michael is great to work with and his loading crew always makes the night that much less of a head ache. never ever a hassle.

TOTAL OVERALL SCORE = 97. a straight up 97 aint no chopped liver. (click here for a detailed explanation of my scoring system’s categories). grades out with an A+ i would be speechles too.

nathan and jeremy after the show

joe puleio – my sicilian brother

lewscious, q and josh

q’s entourage

we took a trip down to long beach last night to see our friends from kansas city. our friends happen to be in a rad band called roman numerals. shawn, steve and my lost love billy. billy and i have spent many a lonely hour on the phone talking about booking shows and booking in general. that’s how we became friends. they played at the prospector and even though it wasnt the best place to see a band it was still the only place to be on that particular evening. i’m gonna set up a show with them soon because they rule.

shawn (q’ friend), me, q, and shawn and billy from roman numerals

true romance #1

true romance #2

college show + dry erase board = professor ten

Fran’s Flashback we played first on a 2 band bill at san diego state university as direct support for hello goodbye. hello goodbye can best be described as oc pop. i didnt really get to talk to them because i think they think they are really famous. its difficult being famous – i have to remind myself of that all the time. “fran, talk to the lowly peons that serve as your opening bands”. speaking of peons…we had an awesome show – played the hits and kept it simple. thanx to a slew of sd friends that showed up – leo, andrew and halloran from 94.9, walt and doug etc etc etc.

dressing room and rider wrap up: college shows are like shows played in a bubble. there was a movie about a boy in a bubble wasnt there? well that’s what a college show is like. netflix that bitch.

the facilities 17 points. sdsu has very little to worry about as far as their facilities go. this school is dialed in and the campus looks great. i sort of wish i went to school there. obviously there was no bar but as far as the basics went it was great. there were clean bathrooms, security guards, safe parking etc etc.

rider/amenities 17 points. not only did we have our own private room (pic) but it was stocked and stacked with tons of food and drink. obviously it was a dry rider but even so, it was all there except the booze. great job.

stage, sound, lights 15 points. jesus, this was a college that totally had its act together. (look at the pic above….looks more like a club!) the stage and system they had was big and pro and pro and big. not what i was expecting. it was actually way better than most of the smaller venues around the country. they hired a good sound team for this event.

promoter 20 points. sold out – job well done. laura robertson we salute you.

staff 20 points. the event staff at the school was cool. no hassles and very helpful especially during load in. college kids are always helpful. its probably because they havent become jaded by the real world. – genuinely nice people to play in front of because they havent been tainted by the cruelties that is life outside of the collegiate bubble. i miss school – but then again the michigan student body wasnt 70% female like this school is. if only i had known.

intangibles 3 points. im playing the religion card here. its not often that im surrounded by a bunch of catholics or at least in a catholic institution so im throwing in some extra points just cos im part of this often maligned club. so here’s three pts for the father son and the holy g. plus look at mary praying we sell merch.

TOTAL OVERALL SCORE = 92. setting the mark high for all college shows to follow sdsu grades out with an A. (click here for a detailed explanation of my scoring system’s categories).

Nathan’s Nonsense
here is my show report in haiku format.

we done brought the boom
to the multi-purpose room.
did we bring too much?

college shows, no booze.
we made up for it later
down at the dive bar.

shared stories and drinks
with laura and her sister,
jacqueline. très hott.

Tony’s Take
I was absolutely glowing to be down in southern so cal again. love the air down there. i feel free when i get close to mexican border. nature everywhere. i went on a nice walk before the show and got to run around after. it was business as usual. speaking of business, i was able to conduct a lot of that while i was down there. plenty of office space.

taking care of business

taking care of more important business

lewscious

not bad for a campus view

thanx for the poster mark

FRIDAY DECEMBER 15th at the TROUBADOUR! Opening the show will be the war tapes (formerly the pop kids) and test your reflex. during our set visual artist stefan viterstedt will be performing – his mix of images and visuals is insane and not to be missed. Expect 13 songs including a very rare version of “Dream” as well as extended versions of “monterey, still lost, solar eyes, trip, and what are you afraid of” as well as some guest musicians. Tickets are only $10 in advance….GET THEM NOW!!!!! This will be our last show before the new record comes out!

this was the spread i rocked for thanxgiving

since my birthday show at spaceland in may i started a numeric rating system (1-10) under the category “dressing room and rider wrap up” in our show report blogs to sum up my overall experience with the clubs we play. going forward, in order to be less arbitrary and more objective/credible im changing this rating system to the classic school grading system:

A = Excellent or Superior; (90 to 100)
B = Above Average or Above Average Expectation; (80-89)
C = Average or Average Expectation; (70-79)
D = Below average but passing; (60-69)
F (or E): Failure or Exceptionally Poor; (0-59)

the 100 pt scoring system consists of 5 categories (20 points each) clearly defined below. a letter grade will be assigned based on the club’s grand total:

1. the facilities – is there a dressing room, is there a shower, is there laundry, is there wifi, is there a backstage area, does it smell of vomit, is there a separate bathroom for us to take a dump in, how is the parking, is load-in brutal–all of these things matter. bigger clubs like the house of blues usually coast through this area – smaller clubs sometimes have problems but a place like dantes in portland or hotel congress in tucson make up for this in their layout and ambiance.

2. rider/amenities – this is a real tough category to excel in for the smaller venues. it really depends on the effort….did the promoter read the rider (it’s ok if they read it and laugh at it because i get a kick out of telling them why socks are on it) . as of now the holy grail on our rider is the bottle of heidsieck and co monopole rose champagne although the socks arent too far behind. if they read it and make some sort of effort to accommodate points are rewarded. a pack of gum or a fluffy towel dont go unappreciated. sometimes clubs will just give us cash for dinner…hey that’s cool cos we are always starving when we get to a club. it’s the thought that counts. having to pay for our drinks is never a good sign. a note on the champagne…heidsieck is roughly the same price as veuve clicquot but its way better. if you are gonna get champagne…make it french, make it rose and make it over 30 dollars and you’ll do just fine.

3. stage, sound, lights – these are the nuts and bolts of a show. is the stage big, do they have lights that work and change, is the sound decent, do they have monitors, do they have enough gear.

4. promoter – basically describes what the promoter did to promote the show. were there posters in the clubs, was it advertised at all, did they provide loaders, did the promoter show up? did they read this blog? sometimes promoters are right there for ya like ted wigler in ocean beach making sure everything runs smoothly.

5. staff – this includes bartenders, door man, sound guy, door people, loaders etc etc. sometimes its as simple as these people just being nice and not treating you like you are the inconvenience. its amazing how one dickhead can sour things. michael and the staff at the troub in la always score high for having their staff treat you with respect – they are very helpful.

intangibles – does the club let me bring tony in during sound check and load out at the end of the night? after the club closes do they let you hang for a bit or try to immediately kick you out? usually if the club/owner are cool everything goes smoothly and we love ya. scott from the saint in asbury park let our crew chill out and drink after hours. stuff like this never gets forgetton – it was the perfect way to wrap up a long day and have us leave with smiles on our faces.

i feel that writing a blog is about being honest. with that simple fact stated, i dont believe in always having to, or trying to put a positive spin on what happens with the band. in the past some band members have frowned upon me voicing this honest opinion in fear that it would hurt us because the club wouldnt want us back. my response…fuck that….if the club sucked that much in the first place then why would we want to go back and play there right? hopefully other bands will find this part of the blog interesting because its a side of the business that i never see discussed in other journals/blogs.i hope club owners and promoters will take note because often times you have bands by the balls never really expecting them to call you out if you do a shitty job. this isnt just about calling you out though because if you do a good job you get praised. this is actually a big deal to a band that spends most of its time working their ass off for little or no money when it’s all said and done so these details can help make or break an evening for the band. this should be fun, read it and weep. F10

our official rider: (motto – it never hurts to ask aka ask and ye shall receive)
Dinner – 7 hot dinners to be available 30 minutes after sound check, or $100 cash buyout, payable at the beginning of sound check. NO FAST FOOD PLEASE!!

Dressing Room setup (must be available immediately before sound check)

1- Case of bottled water (Fiji is preferred, not chilled)
Assortment of bottles of juice (preferably Cranberry & Pineapple)
1- case of Heineken
1- Six pack of Miller High Life
1- Six pack of local Micro Brew
1- Bottle of reasonable quality red wine
1- Box of Throat Coat Tea with honey and lemon
2- Bottles Kombucha Tea (found at Whole Foods)
1- Deli tray consisting of Turkey, Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato and Vegetables with condiments (mayo and must)
1- Loaf of wheat bread
1- Bowl of Fresh (organic) Fruit consisting of mainly apples (at least 4 green), bananas, grapes, oranges
2- packs of sugarless gum
5- Bath size fluffy towels
Ample and continuous supply ice, cups and napkins

Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday
1- Bag of Tortilla Chips
1- Jar of Salsa (medium)
Assortment of sugarless gum (various flavors)
1- Pack of White tube socks (men’s sizes 9-11)
1- Bottle of Champagne (Heidsieck and Co rose)
1- pack AA Batteries
1- pack white tube socks (men size 9-11)

Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday
1- package of Pita Bread
1- tub of hummus
Assorted Clif bars
1- Bottle of Ketel One Vodka
1- Bottle of Tonic Water
1- Bottle of Soda water.
1- travel size toothpaste

i know you’re asking “what’s with all the alcohol?” but theres at least 8 of us and we like to entertain and have guests after the show.

washed ashore on ocean beach 11.3

Fran’s Flashback
well, it seems q and nathan have finally decided to contribute to a show report again (its about time). that’s music to my ears because it gets old only having my perspective on things doesnt it? because of this im giving tony this show report off. so…after the 94.9 interview we went back to the bar for sound check. after sound check we went to sean simpson’s house for a 6 course home cooked meal. it was tight to say the least. oddly enough we had never met sean before but everything seemed to work out well. he is now a permanent part of west indian girl lore. after hanging at sean’s house q, tony and i walked over to doug’s place where we regrouped with some tea, beer and whisky. the crowd and show at winston’s was awesome and the evening so much fun to be a part of. the set list changed a little from the night before and i felt like the changes we made really kept the energy up. it was an exciting show that we needed.

dressing room and rider wrap up:the guy i dealt with at winston’s was ted wigler. (appropriate last name for dealing with us wouldnt you say) ted was a great guy and oddly enough due to my crazy schedule that day, really the only one at the club i dealt with. ted gave us an early load in and even helped move gear. the stage at winston’s was nice, it had a lefty slant for the drums but that was cool because it made us flip flop our normal stage positions. the sound and lights were also no problem. everything was easy – we had plenty of time for our sound check and the merch area was big and friendly. load in and load out was also simple. i have no idea if we had a rider or backstage area for the band, or even beer tickets…wow, this is the first time i can say that i dont have a clue about these details because i was so busy with all the other stuff going on. (where is my tour manager ian?). i was only at the bar once and that was after the bar closed. i guess sometimes you throw your ratings system out the window when you have so many friends in the area that serve as your dressing room and rider i guess. im giving winstons a solid 7 and that’s laregly because of a man named wigler.

stuffed zucchini flower thanx to:bill young for his behind the scenes work in getting us over to ocean beach and bringing sean into the fold. sean for the great food, wine and party favors. doug (above), kristi and walt for always being so clutch – it was great chilling even though it was only for a half hour. doug stayed and even helped us load out (kampyesque), call down fire for opening the show, thomas for taking pictures…please send when get them, and all of the great people of san diego’s ocean beach community.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: ocean beach reminds me of huntington beach minus all the plastic chicks. it’s what haight street would be if it was a beach community.

The Venue: winston’s was already a legend in my mind. an old sound guy, kevin, used to talk endlessly about winston’s. winston’s this and winston’s that. winston’s winston’s winston’s. i now see why he loves it so much. cool bartenders, fantastic owner and a great stage with quality sound and fun lights.

The Show: went by way too fast… waaaay too fast. to say that performing that night was fun would be an understatement.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i kept wondering if the guy who had the camera under my nose got any decent shots of my heart shaped nostrils.

Interesting Things After The Show: i reunited with leo — he owns the first article of clothing i had ever signed that wasn’t west indian girl merch. if you look back on our first casbah san diego show report, you’ll see a picture of me signing leo’s backside. to make a long story short, he busted out those jeans that night. word up, leo! there’s nothing like seeing your autograph on a dude’s ass — it makes your evening juuuuust a little bit better. another highlight was catching up and dishing out with my friend, troy rassey, an outstanding photographer. we talked about future projects and he listened to me blabber about life. after loading up our equipment, we said bye to the staff at winston’s and headed back to our gracious host for the evening, sean’s house and pigged out on leftovers. earlier that evening sean was kind enough to cook a six course meal. he had a pre-party with all the fixins ones heart desired. i gravitated towards the cheese and the red wine while others were magnets for beer and greens. back in leftover land, nathan all hopped up from the various delicacies ingested that evening, started writhing on sean’s neighbor’s lawn. please refer to the picture i took below. at around 3am we decided that, despite all the fun we were having, it was time to lock it up and head home. mark and i spent about an hour, out of our minds and taking pictures of everyone, but mostly each other. m&m forever. look into that.

Nathan’s Nonsense

so the dog totally ate all my previous blogs. for reals. that’s ok though. i got no beef with the dog. so our show in san diego went surprisingly well. probably one of our finest moments as a band yet, though there was still room for improvement of course. ocean beach is a pretty laid back community comprised mostly of surfers and left-leaning eccentrics. i’ve always felt very much at home there when visiting, but this was my first time setting foot in winston’s bar. my friend jason hartley
(once the drummer of another inauspicious band of mine), who managed to come down with a group of friends in tow, had informed me that the place was rather small, and that it seemed a significant step down from our last performance at street scene. thankfully, this wasn’t really the case. the place turned out to be a perfectly laid out mid-sized club which we ended up packing to the hilt. before the show, we were all treated to one of the best home-cooked meals i’ve had in a very long time, courtesy of the local OB guru, sean simpson (below). i may as well note now that this was another one of those nights where i met a slew of people whose names i am unable to recall. my memory sucks these days. not just when i’m drinking, but all the damn time. very frustrating business. so sean hosted a lovely little pre (and post) party for the show, fed us like kings, and practically poured wine… and…. stuff… down our throats.
sean also opened up his house to us to use as our own personal dressing room, which was excellent considering the club had no such accommodations. i had fun hanging out with the opening band (can’t remember their name) and talking shop with their keyboardist, uh… paula? i think that’s it. have to say though that just before showtime i was starting to get really worried that some of us- myself especially- may have gone a bit overboard with the festivities. fortunately, this seemed not the case at all. somehow we pulled it together and locked in tightly with the groove. the sound was magical, thanks to our no-nonsense frenchy sound guy, christophe. the crowd was in to it every step of the way, egging us on with their fervent energy. stay classy, san diego. let’s be friends. friends with benefits, even. any city named after a whale’s vagina is alright in my book.

walt walt walt walt
teddy wigler front and center
kampy kampy kampy we love kampy
rob and chris b
cristophe asleep on the job
with call down fire post show
later ob – see ya in the spring

dont hurt us because we love 94.9

before the ocean beach show q and i got to go hang out with mike halloran at 94.9. we ended up staying there for about an hour and a half and got to play a bunch of songs off my laptop. it was great. maybe im just a geek but meeting mike halloran was a thrill for me. i was really looking forward to being on his show. why you ask? well, for those of you who dont know, halloran has a storied career in radio. he’s a legend as far as im concerned. when i was little kid i listened to his show in detroit and it seriously changed my life. he was playing the coolest shit and it made a serious impact on my musical tastes. we talked about all these great bands from the midwest like the laughing hyenas, the necros, and negative approach. maybe it was a detroit thing i guess but i dont know what else to say about halloran except san diego is really lucky to have a guy like this on radio. it’s a shame that fm radio across the US doesnt have a halloran on every station…oh how much more cooler mass america would be. alas, this isnt the case and 99% of fm radio across america sucks my balls.

ps – special thanx to doug and kristi for picking us up at the club and driving us over the station. you guys rule

we love this station

Fran’s Flashback
i kinda like costa mesa, call me crazy but i rarely get to venture into the OC so it always seems like a mini vacation when i do. life seems easier in the oc….maybe its because they have wider well lit roads, im not sure. the show itself was an adventure in looseness to say the least. the set was vision, monterey, northern sky, indian ocean, solar eyes, still lost, trip, hollywood, get up, up the coast, all my friends, and what are you afraid of. high points for me were vision and solar eyes. vision has a simple hypnotic bass line that i love playing and solar eyes is always changing so it keeps me on my toes every second. i didnt fully enjoy my time on the detroit bar stage simply because i hate the light set up there. they use red lights and red lights really do some weird things to my eyes. it’s a vision problem i have – when im in red light i become semi-blind when it comes to seeing my fretboard. its sort of like playing in the dark which ultimately limits my performance. as a band we were way too loose..i fucked up way too much and am somewhat disgusted with myself. if i was a football team i would feel like the minnesota vikings if that makes any sense. i also had to piss halfway through the set and because of that the show became painful. i should have taken a break during the set to go…would’ve, could’ve, should’ve right?

dressing room and rider wrap up: chris and ken treated us well and ken was very helpful working with cristophe. there wasnt really a dressing room or regular “rider” stuff but we got drink tickets and the bartenders were excellent. overall chris run’s a smooth operation and it was a no hassle deal all the way around. they did GREAT promotion (excellent posters) and have a solid merch set up – it’s band friendly. the staff in general was real accommodating. load in and load out was smooth. im giving costa mesa a 6 – but a strong six. ironically one good thing about not getting food at the club was that q took me to a cool sushi place near where she used to live. it was tasty and great way to get away before the show.

mosta mesa thanx to: the hard core west indian girl friends like chad, yvonne, kampy, frank and raquel. it warms my heart seeing these guys at the shows. kampy even stuck around and helped us load out. i also want to thank eric from orthodox clothing for coming out to the show. go check out his clothes now. thanx again to cristophe for doing sound again and also to Northern for playing the show with us.

Tony’s Take
yeahhhhhh! stuck in the van once again. the ride down was ok – i spooned fran for most of the trip. when we got to the club and i was only able to stretch my legs for a few minutes. then i stayed in the van prison until fran and q took me for a ride in q’s benz. i dont think she digs me getting hair all over her nice seats but she seemed to deal with that drawback well. after spending an hour in the benz prison it was back to my old cell in the van until after the show when kampy took me for a walk. fran let me off leash after that and i really got to run around that parking lot. that was the by far the best part of my night – running free and not answering to my name.

a kevin and fran momenta jess and nathan moment
a vivi and q moment
omar gets the 2 for 1 deal
lewscious in the lot
night vision on my digi camera – classic shot

F10

the irish arent so bad 10.6

Fran’s Flashback
our show for tarfest at molly malone’s was a nice surprise. the last time i was in that club was at least 6 years ago so i was expecting a really shitty small stage to play on. thank god some things do change, it seems molly remodeled and opened up a whole other room with a great stage in it. the place turned out to be a great room for a gig. when we play in la i usually go home after sound check to chill out. tonight i got back to the club about 30 minutes before we went on. i was able to catch one of the other bands on the bill called the oohlas. they were cool. i had some drinks and hung out outside of the club with my boy adam and his brother. adam’s borhter saw one of our best shows ever in seattle at the crocodile so he had some pretty high expectations for tonigh. unfortunatel for him the show started off rather fucked up – i guess the pa amplifier was turned off for the first song so there werent any vocals – major glitch people. by the second song the club had it fixed as we let loose a great version of “indian ocean” which is fast becoming one of our best live songs. its one of my personal favorites to play. another new song called “get up” is also starting to come of age. it was a fun show. i wish some of my other band mates would share their thoughts with you but they seem to have lost that blogging spirit.

dressing room and rider wrap up: as far as our rider went…well lets put it this way….i was having a good laugh about it will the promoters. i think they thought asking for socks and a bottle of vueve clicquot was a bit too much. umm, i respectfully disagree. that being said i think someone handed me one beer ticket that night. the staff at the club was great however – they let us load in extra early and sound check went smooth. load in was especially nice cos the back of the stage faces the street. there were no problems whatsoever. there wasnt a dressing room but what can you expect from an irish pub – it’s more a bar than a club. no biggy, we live in town so home was our dressing room. im giving molly malone’s a 9 for the easy access and sound check but a 4 in the amenities department so their score averages to a healthy 6.5. brilliant.

saber tooth tiger thanx to:all the tarfest people especially jill ettinger (right) who got us involved. joei from cherry lane for buying me drinks. joe, my bud who always leaves before we finish, and all our friends who we havent seen in a while. have i ever said thanx to chad and yvonne for coming to our shows…thanx you two. chad is in the pic above.

Tony’s Take
i love it when these idiots play in town because it means less time stuck in the van for me. before the show i got to hang out with cristophe during sound check. i wasnt allowed in the bar but i was there for almost all of sound check till the bastards had fran take me out. during the show fran left me in is truck which he parked in the back of the club. i spent the next couple hours staring and random molly malone employees smoking ad hanging out. during the bands load out i was able to hang out on the street with a bunch of drunk randoms while the band packed up. i was also able to do a shot with lewscious. he’s always full of love after shows when he’s full of booze. i love that guy.

cristophe dialing it all in
morgun and cathy – happy customers… happy endings
the band waiting for sound check
brooke and q

i just found this link online – it was one year ago to the month that we were the featured band for amc’s frightfest or monsterfest or whatever they called it. i never read the page they put up so that’s why im posting it now. READ IT.
F10

I just found out we will be headlining this year’s TarFest. what is this you ask? well, TarFest is a festival of emerging film, music and art held at the La Brea Tar Pits and the surrounding Museum Row in the historic Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles. For more info check out their official site. We will be playing at a very small irish pub called molly malone’s and the show is gonna be insane cos that pub will be jammed to the gills. im not sure how we’re going to fit on their stage but in the name of Tar we will rock the irish out of that pub no matter what. It sort of feels like its gonna have one of those secret show vibes. Hope to see you there. If you cant make that we will be headlining at the troubadour in december i believe. F10

Tonight we started final mixing on the first 5 songs off the next record. After this batch is done we will finish recording and mixing the remainder before the new year. As of this moment we dont know what label we will be releasing our second effort on. One thing for sure is that it will fall under our own label imprint called Northern Sky. It will be interesting to see how the next few months pan out in regards to the business side of things. We’re also just starting to get in touch with directors for video making plans. If everything goes according to plan a bunch of videos are going to be made for the record. We’re also getting a bunch more remixes made too. It should be a very creative fall and winter. Oh yeah, we are also going to be redesigning our website which i personally cant wait to do. Im so sick of our site i cant even tell you.

The pictures posted are of two guest musicians we recently had in. The first (above) is of my man Bomani who played some trumpet on 2 tracks and the second (below) is of Chris Arpad who played steel drums on a track. Both of these guys are super awesome people that i hope we get to work with again. We used little bits of each session as a nice spice for the tracks. If you have never watched a great steel drum player you are missing out. Chris was so much fun to watch jamming on our stuff.
you can see more of chris on his official site by clicking here.

i’ve been getting a ton of calls from people saying that they keep hearing our remix ep getting played on kcrw. almost every single dj there has played a track from this record in the past month. kcrw also made L’arsen’s remix track of monterey their daily download on kcrwmusic.com last monday. for these reasons i wanted to give an official shout out to kcrw for their support. THANK YOU KCRW – we appreciate it! i would have probably heard it played too if the stereo in my truck worked. i keep meaning to get that fixed but like so many things in my life it still remains on my “to do” list right next to “get another tattoo”. F10

flippin out with jay and kabir 9.7

Fran’s Flashback
we played the pristine and lovely city of santa barbara last night. from what i understand the city’s main job is to be beautiful all year round. the weather was great, it was breezy, cool and even rained for a minute. anyway, the whole reason this gig existed was because of a guy named jay archibald. jay is a very talented visual artist who saw both our sets at high sierra. soon there after we became friends and he asked us to play at his “im moving to spain” party. we played a bar called soho and this show turned out to be historic because we played 2 sets for the first time ever. we normally dont roll like that but i think we all kind of liked it. our second set was way better than the first because we were warmed up and energetic. it was our first show with lewscious back in the line up since st scene – it was nice jamming with the ice cream man again.

dressing room and rider wrap up: im giving soho a 6. even though the load in was up an elevator it wasnt that bad. the staff at soho was pretty good but the only drag was that we didnt get enough time to actually sound check with a song. other than that it was cool. the food there was awesome and there was a little dressing room off to the side of the stage. in general soho is pretty cool club and i definitely want to play there again. i think the one area that they could improve upon is having a better section in the bar for merch.

french tech thanx: jay and jessica for making the show happen and christophe deluy for doing our sound. this was christophe’s first time doing sound for us as we kind of just threw him to the sharks. we didnt have a proper sound check so it was one of those learn as you go situations. he came through superbly. in general christophe is wonderful guy with serious sense of humor. he kicked it with everyone and was real easy to be around. expect to see more of mr deluy at upcoming shows.you can check out his music and blog here. i also want to thank santa barbara for having some of the best music fans around (ie kabir).

Tony’s Take
it seems that there was another boxer there cramping my style. his name was miles and i saw him right away when i got to the club. he was jay’s dog so he had priority at hanging out in the club during soundcheck. basically this gig sucked for me cos i spent the majority of the time in the van. fran came back and took a nap, rob did too, and mark stopped in as well so i wasnt completely abandoned. fran took me for a little walk before and after the show but otherwise it was fucking boring in the van. as far as the drive went, well i was stuck sharing the van seat with fran – we’ve learned how to both sleep on the same seat together now and it’s a tetris piece of beauty.

alone on a hill in the summer time
here ya go santa barbara
forgot this guy’s name – he was funny though
q, tone and christophe downtown
i think this store sold jewelry
the not so glamorous side of the night

Question: what do the great bear rainforest and west indian girl have in common?
Answer: the animal planet.

check out our music in this episode on Sept 3rd Sun. 5:00PM

i’m not sure what song or song they used but im so glad i can record this kind of stuff with directv.
F10

you know who rules….Mick McCarthy rules. yup, that’s him on the right. Mick is the reason we ended up playing at the SURF benefit last night. mick was my next door neighbor at my last place. we ended up becoming friends and then ended up helping each other out on this benefit. jennifer dawson who is the head of the event was also really great. the party was cool mix of art, film and music. it was fun playing outside to a crowd that we might normally not play in front of. as for the show itself…well it was interesting to say the least. i was playing drums and i use the term “playing” very loosely. let’s put it this way, i really wish i could play drums. i was a pretty tentative percussionist…actually i sucked. next time we should plug in and do a full electric set.

dressing room and rider wrap up:i gotta hand it to these guys. they even gave us a little room in the back corner of the building as a dressing room. it was great but i was only back there for like 2 minutes cos all the action was outside. there was no kind of rider for this gig but they did gave us free food and drink. it was all good and since this really wasnt a proper type venue i refuse to subject it to my usual number rating system.

drug free thanx to: mick and jennifer of course, aaron chang for donating a picture and randy from dakine for hooking them up with raffle gear. hang “F”ten