The Effects of Cable Television ...

I have play two shows so far - one at the Cat Club in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. and another at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival up in San Francisco. I can't believe how much it feels like I've known these guys for much longer than I do, and how comfortable it feels to play in a band. Now that I did the rush to learn enough songs to play a set and a Grateful Dead cover for the San Francisco show, I feel like I can calm down a bit and start adding my own character or sound to the songs and to learn more and more songs. We even plan on doing a cover of a song by a new country/americana singer Neko Case where I'll actually be playing bass and singing the lead vocals. Fun!!!

And to quickly describe the roll the bass player has in a band: The bass player holds down the group harmonically and rhythmically (as a rhythm team with the drummer) so I'm not the leader of the group or the main focus or anything, but I play a well-respected roll in the cohesiveness of the song, the instrument who fills out the sound by adding a warm round tone or thumping beat, and who occasionally will play a little lick that sticks out or adds interest to the song. But I am a pillar to the band, as opposed to one who sticks out and plays all the stuff that catches the listener's ear up front.

And I can't wait to come up to Chico to play a show one of these days, and down to San Diego too, Dad!

So here are a couple of pictures taken from the last two shows, and I'm sure there will be more coming soon!

Here I am setting up and getting plugged in before my first show at the Cat Club. I stole Brian's cool black hat to 1) keep the hair out of my face while I play and 2) because it's fun to wear a cool hat on stage. That Jason, the lead singer/guitar player/harmonica player/banjo player there to the left setting up as well.

Jason singing lead and me singing backup vocals, probably on the song "Bellwether."

In between songs... but a full view of the stage.

A big hug by Jason after the show. It really was a great show and we felt like we played really well. The rest of the guys were happy I was their new bass player and I got a lot of compliments for my singing and stage presence, and bass playing too of course, haha. So - looks like it's gonna work out REALLY well!


And now for the San Francisco trip...

Settin' up before the show. We're in a classroom, basically.

I do have a lot of fun playing with the band...

Left to right: Brent (electric guitar and lap steel guitar player, playing lap steel in this picture); Jeff on drums; Jason singing lead and playing guitar; and me on bass, singing backup vocals.

Afterwards we found a great Mexican restaurant and had the waitress take a picture. It's a little blurry, but once again, from front to back and left to right: Jason again, his fiancee Jen, Brent, his girlfriend Shawn, hop across the table in the back to Brian holding up a margarita pitcher (the band loves Brian too), me, my friend Lizi who came from Berkeley to see us play, and Jeff, the drummer.

And I couldn't resist posting this darling picture of Brian to the left, and Jeff to the right staring out at the seals at Pier 39.

We spent all of Sunday walking around Pier 39 and Chinatown. I really couldn't feel more at home with this band. Everyone fits in, including their significant others. It was such a fun trip, even if the actually show was a little awkward. We're fold/rock and most of the other groups were small and VERY folk, ONLY folk so people looked curiously at our stack of equipment and said things like, "Whoa! Real professionals here!!" So perhaps, in all our smallness and quietness, we were actually larger and louder than most of the other people there. Also- the stage setup didn't allow us to hear each other very well. Regardless, we played a decent show, there just wasn't much vibe to it, whereas the first show I played, at the Cat Club, had a GREAT vibe, a lot of cheering, smiling people enjoying music. Nonetheless we saw this trip as an opportunity to be out of our element and to get the experience of travelling together. I LOVED IT!!! And so did everyone else.

There will be more pictures coming I'm sure. Our next show is at The Mint, also in Hollywood.

And here is our myspace website: http://www.myspace.com/theeffectsofcabletelevision

Love to you all!