December 21, 2002 - Harry's Northampton with: The Fawns and The Shelley Winters Project
HENNING: WRSI is playing all Christmas music today, which I suppose is fitting since it's Christmas Day 2002. I'm thinking back to our show on the 21st. We were excited because it was taking place on the Winter Solstice, we kept insisting that since the days would from then on be getting longer that the winter season was not really as daunting as we had thought. That line of thinking is currently being buried beneath a foot of snow outside my window. When I first arrived at Harry's I found that Bruce had decided not to do sound for us and Chris was there instead. But, but, but, Bruce is our sound guy. Oh well. So, we started setting up. The Fawns were going on first but since we were using almost all the same equipment, we set up Ken's keyboards right away. The Fawns show went pretty well. Lesa was using her new amp and I was using my new reverb pedal. The finale was a version of the Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping. Lesa on vocals, Rob on drums, Tony and myself on guitar, Ken on keyboard, Max on bass, and brian on sax. It was really fun. The SFTD show seemed to go pretty well, too. Photobooth was debuted and it sounded great. people were singing along, which is amazing for a debut of a song. Yee. There were two ladies dancing during One Lady Dancing. The activity pages were a huge success, I can't wait until I get my scanner set up so I can show you all the great drawings that people are making. Shelley Winters played last and though the crowd thinned somewhat they put on another inspired performance. Nobody bought any cds or t-shirts. TONY: I hope our audience doesn't mind the fact that we never repeat covers. We tend to learn them quickly, play them once and forget about them. Which is fine with me, actually. Otherwise, they may lose their novelty or become expected by our audience. That's not necessarily a bad thing (The Stematrain were half-cover band in essence and they pulled it off) but I believe that all of us in SFTD would rather focus almost exclusively on Ohlenbuschlieder, with occasional covers tossed in just for fun every few shows or so. We did play the Split Enz song twice, once at UConn, once at Harry's, but only soundman Bruce Tull would've heard it twice. Anyway, we didn't rehearse "Christmas Wrapping" much, though I suppose Lesa's old-fashioned teleprompter and Brian's Post-it with chords scribbled on it pasted to a microphone stand gave that away. No matter- it was fun to play and easy to tell that our audience ate it up. What Gen X-er doesn't love that song, right? You do, don't you? I thought so. It was the first SFTD show with Henning playing electric guitar rather than his usual acoustic. I'm curious to hear the recording of the show that was made, to see if our two electric guitars (same brand guitar, no less) cancel each other out sonically at times. Back in the Humbert days, Ari and I were careful to arrange our guitar parts so that we were attacking different sonic ranges simultaneously. Like, if he were playing an open G, and I was playing a riff or doubling the chord (even if inverted), I'd try to do so higher up the neck or distort my tone or what-have-you. For this particular show, Henning and I just played what we usually play and hopefully our parts still made it to your ears balanced and fresh. Yes, they did? Good. The debut of Photobooth Curtain- an instant hit. But it was sorta written that way. That is, it's a song that makes perfect sense first time you hear it. Like "Martha" or "Omnivore," it's one of those songs that's accessible and upfront- simply put, you like it the first time, you always gonna like it; you don't like it, it ain't growin' on ya. For me, personally, I don't write many of these kinds of songs. I'm not really sure how to. I like to/tend to write time bombs. There are numerous Humbert songs that my bandmates listened to for the first time with incredulous raised eyebrows and came to appreciate when the song structures clicked over a few plays. Same for the audience. Anyway, Henning tends to write the opposite- his songs make a solid impact from the get-go. That's good for a band. You need to have at least a few of these in your repertoire if you want to have any measure of success as a "pop" group. Henning writes plenty- Photobooth is one. The instant positive reponse at this show indicated that. "I Can't Believe How Fast" is becoming one of my own personal fave Henning songs, up there with Candy Cane, Overs and Remind Yourself. It's not always going to sound perfect live- a rowdy room will mess with its museum-like stateliness, bad stage sound will mar its effect, as would a subpar lead vocal. Henning didn't sing it poorly this night but there was a scratchiness to his voice (resulting from singing Omnivore first) that flobbed up some of his notes and phrasing here and there. But what the hell, we're not The Dave Matthews Band right? We're not PERFECT to a T like Dave is. I got all excited because we were playing Candy Cane on a night when Ed brought out his equipment to record us. Finally, after years of adoring this song, I'd have a full band version to listen to. I got so excited realizing this while were playing that I forgot to play the riff I wrote on guitar that ends the first chorus. D-oh! Nice to see so many familiar faces in the audience (Miriam, Diana, Mary Jo & Seth K., Seth T., Philip & Debbie, Laurie, Adam...) Thank you for filling out your activity sheets. After processing, we'll know just what the average I.Q. is for a SFTD audience and can better prepare what kind of music to play to you, what kind of vocabulary we can use in our lyrics, whether we can make obscure John Cage jokes on our Rockumentary and get away with it, whether you'll still love us even if our lead guitarist insults you with ludicrous sarcasm such as this. Yes, you do? Good. I love you too. What's that you say? Yes, I agree- fuck Dave Matthews. KEN: gig diary! i haven't written about a gig in a long time, i don't know why. the pre-holiday harry's show all seems a blur. mary and i were watching the fawns put on a fun and typically tight set (even though the sound was muddy, it kind of fit the songs, or at least didn't detract from them...it actually added more of a '70s vibe, which for me is a good thing). and with one song to go, i suddenly realized i'd forgotten my bag o' percussion back in my car trunk. so we booked down the street to get it, and coming back to the club, kelly at the door was saying, "they're calling for you!!" so i ran in to see a stage full of friends waiting patiently for me to get my act together and throw off my coat and scarf and jump up there so they could start the waitresses song (which for some reason i'd gotten in my head that it would be played between SFTD/shelly winters, not between the fawns/SFTD). and yes, it was lots of fun! "christmas wrapping" still seemed too slow -- the waitresses were all about super-tight high-energy quirk-fizz new-wave (especially if you've heard one of their live recordings) -- but since we hardly practiced it, i can't complain. i smiled a lot while playing it! max had that ultra-cool bassline down perfectly, and anytime brian is playing the sax, i am loving it. maybe because i know he's good -- better than he's comfortable to admit? -- maybe because i wish i could play sax too. maybe because it makes me wish we could play "baker street" again. full band this time?? in SFTD? our next one-time-only cover? i thought our set was very good. a few times it felt like there was too much dead-air downtime between songs, but maybe it just felt that way to me. musically it felt strong, even though there were MANY times when i somehow forgot how to play the songs. like the awesome first G maj 9 chord of "photobooth" -- i totally forgot that's how the song started. and "thug" could be renamed "flub" as far as my performance that night...but i'm glad we played it/are playing it regularly! the song is so much fun, jumpy and skippy and careening all over the road. "like to be there" still hasn't jelled for me yet, i guess because i still don't know what my part should be, or even what keyboard sound to use. it was great to see people i hadn't seen in some time, like mary jo (who knows more about this band than we do -- hello, alexis bowie! i know you're reading this) and seth. earlier this week i got to see the collected activity pages, and my favorites were the handiwork of debbie and "lauri mac and the notations" -- although there were a LOT of funny/detailed/artistic/thoughtful ones. i think the next full-band show should start with "photo booth curtain." i know that's tony's department MAX: BRIAN:	Christmas Wrapping (The Waitresses) feat. Lesa Bezo and Rob Myers on lead vocal and drums, respectively. Omnivore Here Comes Subordinate Clause (Tony solo) Ayla Thug The New You 1,000 Times Day Job Photobooth Curtain I Can't Believe How Fast Like To Be There One Lady Dancing Candy Cane Everybody Loves Martha Activity Pages