Kocani

Tonight, I went to see Kocani. They quieted down, so we bought another ticket. And then we decided to buy one more. Because they are that good. One of the amazing traditions that is surprisingly missing from American rock music, is to keep tipping the musicians so that they’ll stay and keep rocking!! What a concept. And I was so happy to do it, because Kocani is one of the best brass bands in the world.

And tomorrow, I go to Vancouver to see them again, and again! Am I living in a simulation? I feel like I’m about to flip this game.

p.s. sorry for my site being down over the past few days. I freaked out, thinking I had been hacked, but turns out it was a false alarm. At any rate, things seem to be back to normal now… mostly…

Gamer jam

My pal Sean Downey has set up a monthly Gamer Jam, where a live band plays the soundtrack to video games as people play them on a huge screen. There are also homemade games, and songs inspired by games, and some gamers like Louis who show their mad skills in games like Mega Man. I got to play in the “house band” last time, and took some major risks. Apart from learning all the music for Street Fighter 2 (including Thailand in 11/8), I organized the band to play two songs off of Katamari. Susan played the levels live! It was so awesome! But scary, because I had never performed as lead vocalist before. I really took advantage of the 80/20 rule to prepare, because there was so little time! But the other musicians, Steve, Louis, and Sean, totally pulled together and made the whole thing work! And of course, none of it would have worked without Susan on game controller. So here’s my first attempt at leading a band. Please be gentle. ;)

The next Gamer Jam is coming up on April 4th at the MIX in Georgetown (Seattle). I hope you can make it out! Come over and say hi.

Darbuka

Hey, I just performed darbuka, aka doumbek, in front of a live audience for the first time last night! I was just sitting in with the quite talented Marchette DuBois and James Hoskins at Cafe Paloma here in Seattle, playing some Balkan rhythms on the side from time to time. But it’s always exciting to play a new instrument in front of people for the first time! I also learned to play the tupan this year, so really expanding my horizons lately and it feels great.