so we played last night at the time out in concord 1/27/07 and it was quite a show. all of the bands were pretty good, unlike other shows where you jam and there's one or two bands that just aren't polished enough to be there. we went on at 12:00 am so we had a long wait time between load it which was at 8:30 and the time we went on. we made the most of it by bs'ing w/people and watching the other bands. being the last band that played we actually had a really good amount of time to play, and all of the bands got on and off pretty quickly so everyone started on time and played all their material in their time slot and didn't throw anyone off after them. for those of you new to all this here's how these shows work... you all load in and there is a schedule of when you go on. the first band hits it on the hour or half hour, so 9 or 9:30 and then you get 45 minutes to play. the last 15 minutes is to get your ass off and get the next band on...that's right 15 minutes to get your shit set up get a mic in front of it and hit a couple of chords and then roll. mixing is on the fly seeing that there is a dedicated sound guy there. now usually the consensus is that if you start at 12 am you really are going to take the stage at 12:15 or 12:30 seeing that you are gonna get your rock stars up there that either 1) take their fuckin time setting up or 2) have to keep playing over their time limit. rule is if you take to long setting up then it cuts your set short. the rock stars don't see it that way, and they are usually mediocre bands anyways so their attitudes and music suck...we didn't have an ounce of that on sat and it was awesome, some really good and cool dudes. so after hanging out for that long, after watching rock take a nap on a couch and trying so hard not to fuck w/him while he was sleeping, we were very ready to get on the stage. we were last, (kindly refered to as the "headliner") and this is sort of an undesireable spot if you actually want to play and play to anybody as the bar is close to empty at this point. the object of the game is to bring your people so they will be there to watch, support and throw rotten vegetables at you when you fuck up. so we started and had about 15 to 20 people hanging out. now this is either good or bad depending on how you look at it. w/that few people you can really get them involved in the show for instance we had people dancing on top of the speaker cabinets and being really close to the stage instead of standing in the back hiding in the dark. it's not so good in the sense that the bar is not really making a ton of dough at that point and really they'd just rather close and go home as they are tired of drunk folks. so we kicked off w/a couple of originals and the people dug it pretty well. jason had the flu but was right on top of his game. even broke a string right at the end of the second song...that's good luck. then we kicked into a cover of whatever that really got the crowd going, had them singing and becoming a part of the show. did some new originals and then had a half hour or so left. we jumped into some good rockin covers and it was on. moshing screaming, tnt,metallica, zeppelin, judas priest...i mean we really hammered em out to and these folks were really getting into it. if you haven't seen the band in a while you really should check it out as we have some players that are absolutely fuckin phenomenal. jason did a kick ass solo for tnt, rock and aaron had a wicked bass/drum jam that burned everyone and then aaron did a solo that was the best i've seen in a long time. it's nice to be surrounded by guys that are either unknowingly professional or so goddamn good they should be. the booking agent asked us how much longer we could play towards the end of the set as the bar staff was now getting pretty entertained and watching and i told him we had enough material for another 4 and a half hours...he seemed to think 3 more songs was good enough. we really gotta thank doug and the timeout for having us down and we look forward to playing there alot in the future. we got to get all you crazy muthas down there as we ARE NOT PLAYING ORIGINALS AT COVER SHOWS ANYMORE so if you want to hear the originals or want a cd you need to show up at one of these shows. the time out is a great place if you've never been there so make it a plan and come support your local maniacs while we are still alive...LOL.

BAND NOTES
jake was sick w/the flu, almost puked onstage (that would have been cool like gene simmons minus the blood), the sound out front was phenomenal but the stage mix was bad, it was our own fault for not saying anything, we need to paper more and get more press about the shows which means showing up to the bars we play and handbilling long before the event. no equipment issues to speak of. need to bring a board game so we have something to do while waiting to go on...i'm partial to the pirates of the carribean game of life. no more getting drunk the night before a gig and puking all night for me, it wreaks havoc on the throat, not to mention the stomach muscles are little more sore than usual for the singing engagement...oh well, rock on.

LIVERMORE LIVERMORE LIVERMORE!!! I told you if you showed up at the Pine Street it would be off the hook and we would have a blast!!! You people were crazy and it showed in your numbers. It was the most people we've ever had at a show there and, as Skynrd would say we drank enough whiskey to float a battleship around. There's nothing like playing for a packed house let alone a packed house of people ready to party after a long week. It was freezing outside but I had to resort to the camo shorts of summer after the first set as my full pants were to hot to wear. I got to tell you that it's something else to be onstage and have a packed house of people singing Cocaine all together. It gave us chills as it was like an F'in concert. You guys brought your best game and it inspired us to just let it all go wild come what may. I have to give props to Aaron our new drummer as he didn't know what to think but still carried off his first cover show like a pro. The dude rocks huh? Those of you who didn't show up really missed out. I've got to give shout outs to Bob Barton who brought a crew, Greg Zeppelin who did a fine rendition of Rock Candy in true Greg Zep fashion, and Mark and Celena who came all the way down from Sac to check it out. There were so many more of you there that we haven't seen in forever that I could go on and on but I'll save you all for the next time we play blog. We just want to thank everyone who came down and supported and I've got to let you know that you are what it's all about. Seeing the smiles, people dancing, the crowd interaction and participation...you guys absolutely rock!!!! We hope to see you all next time we play and bring your friends so we can be the hotspot of the night for Livermore again. Hell it was like it was the only bar that was opened in whole damn city.

BAND NOTES???
There's always band notes.... figured out a new way of setting up the stage for sound both monitors and out front. We have to remember to mark the bad monitor as we keep forgetting at the end of the night. We should fix it...but then we'd have nothing to stress over during the gig LOL. We are getting a sound guy to come to the cover gigs as we want to keep the music quality primo throughout the whole gig. We have tendencies to get louder later, and tweaking shit that throws the mix off so it will help us out alot to have someone out in the room. It's hard to hear what you hear because on stage we have totally different mix than what you guys have out front. It's just a wall of noise behind the monitors so we have to dial it in. Gotta give it up for Rock always finding the workaround when we hit a wall when something goes haywire, he's like macguyver but w/more hair. He'll have the fix it kit soon enough w/extra gear to create or fix wiring...plus if he gets electrocuted doing it, it won't matter...bass is overrated.

So after much harrassment Rock has made the point that I need to add a new entry to the blog. Alot has happened so I must break this up into pieces sort of like a big ol growler that just won't go down the toilet. Let's start w/New Years Eve. We played the Florence both the night before New Years and the night after. We hadn't played for about a month so we were all looking forward to this weekend. Didn't know how Sat night would be so we got there early and got set up. We pushed everything close to the wall as we figured New Years would be asses to elbows. Rich was doing the gigs as Mike had another engagement that had come up and he couldn't attend, so Rich was glad to do it. It didn't take long on Sat night for the place to fill up as alot of people who come down on our regular Sun afternoon gig there came Sat so they wouldn't have to deal w/all the crowds and whatnot so we really had a ton of folks there. It was good seeing all the familiar faces and it was especially good that we were comin out swinging and having a really good comfortable show considering we hadn't played in over a month. People were out dancing right off the bat and by the second set it was like it was the reaction we get at the third set. Now the third set is really a turning point in the show in the sense that most of you are either pretty fucked up or on your way to being pretty fucked up so everyone is out dancing and really getting their game on. It was so packed we had to move back the monitors so there would be more room and no one would fall over our gear. In the middle of the third set, what we call the dance set (I refer to the description of either fucked up or are fucked up) a fight started in the back ( what we would call the back but really the front door area) and alot of folks were right in the middle of it. This was very interesting to us as it's the first fight we've ever seen happen at the Flo since we've started playing it. Now during fights (which we've experienced plenty of playing in bars here) our game is to keep playing and make it a long song. Everyone always gravitates to the fight but halfway through the song the floor starts to get crowded again as no one wants to get blood on them or spill a drink, the latter being more devatstating than the former. The fight was taken outside and then it diffused. Now I have to go back in time as I have lied to you all. We did have another fight at the Flo a while back...but...when it's chicks fighting...well...you kinda want to keep it going so you can see them rip clothes off of each other and shit...LOL. That was a good one as well as there were about 8 gals throwing down right on the dance floor. As we played on w/Mustang Sally the dames were falling over the monitors onto us. I just kept pushing them back into the fray and singing along...it was really fun. Anyways, back to Sat night. We ended the night w/what I would call a blistering set of hard rock covers and topped it off w/a birthday cake for a local gentleman and all of his friends. It was a great time and, really, what more can you ask for than dancing, fighting, and birthday cakes.

BAND NOTES

We found a bad speaker cable so the monitors were going out and we couldn't hear ourselves. I fixed my wireless so the damn thing would work, it kept going out on me just to find that when it fell 1 to many times that the switch on the back was flicking on and off. Thought it was busted but figured it out (what brain surgeons we are). Had a whole month off and I catch that damn head cold that was going around. Couldn't breathe if my life depended on it. Shot salt water up one nostril and let it flush out of the other one to finally clear my head. Snorted dristan and took tylenol so I didn't fever all night. I didn't drink but didn't need to as I felt high as a kite due to the head congestion. Still sang really well. Glad to give it to the rest of the band...nothing like sharing. And the best part was having a Playboy w/Pam Anderson in it to hold up for the guys in the band to keep morale up. It's pretty gruelling to play 4 hours of rock n roll so the troops need some pick me up once in a while...ladies don't hold it against us.

We want to thank everyone who came down to Schelly's on the 22nd.  It was a great turnout and of course it's great to see all of our friends.  Shout outs go to all of the Bob's who we are seeing more and more.  Terrie who is always killer to see.   And Jessipam who is a die hard fan from pretty close to the very beginning of our existence.  Gotta say without everyone's support we'd never be able to play the places that we play so we give you much thanks.  As for the night itself it was alot of fun.  We added some new folks to the Jungle Rooster family.  Props goes out to Herman Lema for being the dancin machine all night and keepin the girls on the floor.  We had a little rain but there's a huge overhang on this place so the guys had a place to park.  The place stayed pretty live till the very end which I thought was a little unusual for the night before Thanksgiving but that's just how it went.    Everyone was super cool down there so we had alot of fun. 

As far as just band stuff (just for you inquiring minds about the behind the scenes) we had a couple of small issues but nothing mind blowing.  Rock had some issues w/his old bass cab.  The connection for his instrument cable is a little jacked so he lost any sound about 15 seconds into the first song of the night.  We had to plug him in direct so we could hear him.  That was funny.  The mix was weird as the room is so long and narrow w/the wall sort of cutting it in half.  We didn't mic anything but the kick drum and myself at first, then Rock went direct and then Jason was lost.   Next time we'll mic everything and mix it through the mains to control it more.   Technically everyone had a great night.  Mike brought a new drum kit that sounded awesome and he played it like a bad mo fo.  Jason was off the hook as well as Rock.  I'm still getting over bronchitis so I wasn't hammering out of the park but still holding my own.  So technically it was pretty much a success without to much snafu.  Next stop is New Years at the Flo.  We'll see ya then.

so the florence in niles was our destination last weekend.  hope everyone had a good time hanging out.  saturday night was packed and lots of people were in costume.  a gal w/a wifebeater on w/plastic huge nipples w/nipplerings sticking out was the winner....go fish.  the place was so packed we couldn't get back up to the stage after we took a break.  sunday was a little bit of a slimmer crowd, everyone was probably hung over or watching the raiders game trying to get a bit of the hair of the dog that bit them to get them going again.  we still had a nice sized crowd.  it's great to see everyone down there as we play there on a regular basis and don't get to see everyone until we play and then all are in their perspective spots in the bar where we see them sit everytime we play.  this was also the last weekend of the barbeque on sundays and we can't wait to see the que master greg next april.  that man cooks some mean grub.  a friend of ours, tony, got up to play some tunes w/us on drums and that was very cool as he has seen us for many years and finally got up there and jammed w/us.  we and the crowd totally dug it as he is a great guy and damn good drummer to boot.  dottie the bar queen is gearing up to do her collections for bikes for underpriviledged kids again this year.  last year she got 101 bikes and is hoping to beat that this year.  if you buy a skull cap for 15 bones the proceeds go to that fund so go purchase one and get a cool cap and the money goes to a more than worthy cause.

So band stuff.  there's alot of things that patrons at bars don't see as far as behind the scenes stuff of a band jamming.  bands don't let fans in on what's right or wrong on stage so i'll give you a little insight as to issues that pop up that affects no one but us primadonna band guys.  playing music is unfortunately a little more than plugging in your amp and cranking it up and blasting it out.  there's P.A.  issues, monitor issues, sound out front issues.  some of the issues you guys might all hear and we don't because our monitors sound different than the mains out front and we can't hear those at all.  case in point.  we have 2 wedge monitors in front of us and this last weekend we included one for our drummer Rich.  this had never been done before and the chords we had were not the correct ones or had gotten messed up and we fixed them but not to thepoint of working correctly.  so here we are playing and rich is the only one who can hear anything and we are in front of him not being able to hear each other as it's so loud.  for a singer it's like trying to sing w/an ipod on 10.  you wind up shouting out of key.  so we got that fixed around the 3rd set on sat night.  as well we were losing power, that's why no wireless mic.  just started unplugging everything that was not necessary so we wouldn't fade in and out.  it's hard to keep your composure when you know something is fucked up but you can't figure it out and you've got people to entertain.  we pulled it off though and i should say with some grace.  when all was said and done we learned some new technical things and will definitely apply them to future gigs.  we always strive not to be just musically good but technically as well because there are alot of good bands w/just bad sound.  people say they sound like shit but really it's their gear and they actually kick ass.  we don't want to be one of those bands so we are always trying to push the fold w/sound and mix.  well there's your behind the scenes of a band blog.  just trying to keep it interesting.  let me know if you have any questions and i'll answer them right here on the blog for all to see.  by the way rich has been w/us 3 years.  sorry rich, time flies.  well all, jason and i are off to see motley crue and aerosmith in vegas this weekend so need to go pack and make sure my camoflage undies are pressed.  keep on rockin, blog more next week.