The band put on a pretty good show but the audience wasn’t really into it. The audience didn’t sing along to almost anything, they didn’t move almost at all.

Seven Mary Three had a huge hit, Cumbersome. Cumbersome made it to #1 US Mainstream Rock in 1996, #39 on The Billboard Hot 100. The album (American Standard) hit #24. They even had another single that still gets played (Water’s Edge). Seven Mary Three has released seven albums so far.

The Refreshments never peaked that high. Banditos only made it up to #11 US Mainstream Rock also in 1996. The second hit (Down Together) also performed lower than Water’s Edge. The Refreshments broke up and some came back as Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers. Between those two bands Roger has released seven proper albums, ten if you count live albums.

It’s evident that Roger gets to enjoy his job a lot more than Jason. Roger’s songs celebrate life a bit more and 80% of his audience knows 90% of the words to all of his songs. He can play as obscure of a track as he pleases and the audience will generally erupt as soon as they figure out what the song is, the audience sing gleefully along, bopping/hopping/dancing/swaying along. Between songs Roger thanks his wonderful audience. Last night Jason slammed through song after song, not pausing, just transitioning. The band lacked energy on most songs, not moving around too much, the bass player almost seemed like he was lounging in a lazy boy, smoking a cig… The band played the newest material very passionately and they picked up their energy for their oldest material, as well. Finally at one point Jason addressed us.

“I know a lot of you don’t know a lot of the songs we’re playing, I appreciate you being patient with us.”

Quite a bummer.

So the question becomes why are they in such different places? It seems like one of the best ways to develop that rabid fan following is putting on the best show every chance possible, but it’s hard to do that if the audience is standing there lifeless. A bit of a feedback loop. Perhaps small venue shows where they hang out with the audience after the performance to connect to the fans more?

misc:
There was an announcer for the event that was awful. He came out on stage:
“It’s a great night here in Memphis, TN!”
No audience response.
“Just kidding, Kansas City!”
No response.
“Come on guys!”
No response.
“The local opening act isn’t showing up, so fuck the local band!”
Flips off those in front row, slight growl from audience.
“So, it’ll be another hour before Marcy’s Playground and then the band you all came to see! The headlining act!”
Walks off stage.

Rake’s Song |  Wolf Like Me | banter | See Line Woman

pics:

details:
The night after my favorite band played was another show.  I’d not heard anything by The Minstrel Periods before, but due to the magic of facebook I did at least know that Kate Haugan was involved.  I vaguely remembered Kate as being a very cool girl from high school (a class above me).  About the only remotely clear memory I had of her involved me racing against Jennifer Sweezy down a hallway, where I was giving Paul Morrizo a piggyback ride as Jennifer gave Kate one.  I edged Jennifer out, I think.  Also, I knew her brother in undergrad.  Did that translate into musical fun?  I’d say yes.  They cover a wide variety of music that I don’t listen to and I liked what I heard.

Also a pair of neighbors were in attendance (Zeb and Cheryl, but I do know them outside of the neighbor context) and a former high school classmate (Jason).  I wound up at McCoy’s in Westport with Kate, Zeb, Cheryl, Jason, Brian and two others… names evade me.  But I had a blast.

Sonoran Hope and Madness |  Mercy | Jack vs Jose | American Girl

the setlist:

details:

Sully joined me at the cost of being wrecked (sleepwise) the next day.  Of course there were a number of familiar faces.  And the closest thing to a fight that I’ve seen at an RCPM show nearly went down.  Fairly far into the set there was a big fumbling drunk dude.  6′1″ish, and not slight.  He stood directly in front of Sully and directly to my left.  He started opening his flip phone, fiddling with buttons, opening it and closing it.  Then he started waving it at the band.  Jerking it forward, closing it.  We had no idea what he was doing.   Eventually he started waving his arms around and I really thought Sully or I were going to get hit by this drunkard.  I felt pretty confident it was going to happen regardless of what I did, so I decided to turn away (better the back of my head than my eye as far as getting hit goes).  I was grazed a time or two and he eventually wandered off.  Some time later I noticed him on the opposite side of the crowd, still up front.  He was clapping over his head.  I watched has his sloppy clapping lead to his elbow smashed across the back of a guy’s head a couple of times.  The guy quickly put him in a sort of half nelson and Roger asked them to calm down, be cool and when they did he asked for a request from each of them for playing nice.

The weather was perfect.  Random sprinkles.  It was Nick’s birthday.  Steve Larson had left the band, no longer taking the role of lead guitarist.  There are a couple of ‘live moments’ that were centered around him and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with him not there, but things pushed forward and the new guy was very good.  It seemed as though he was still learning some of the material, but during some guitar heavy outros he was able to express his own flavor.  The first time one of those hit, I nodded it felt good about the guy (Jim Dalton).

A Masters in Reverse Psychology |  Steam Rising | Spring Break of 1899 | Steal Away

pics:

details:

I went alone, but I got to visit with Mike Pratte and Sarah Garber before.  I got to take in the wonder of them getting married.  Very cool.  The concert itself was pushed back by an hour, buying more time with friends.  I wasn’t too into the opening acts (Mary the Giant and some band with ‘Pt’ at the start of their name and a typeface I couldn’t make out on the drum set), perhaps it was impatience as everything was later than it should’ve been.  I was a bit afraid for MbD as there were very few people there (it was a college town in the middle of finals week).  But by the time they took stage there were probably enough folk.  The other two times I’d seen them perform they were opening (first for Reverend Horton Heat, then for Clutch) and the audio didn’t seem well balanced.  The lead vocalist sounds quite a bit like Cash on the records, but in those other performances his vocals were overrun by the instruments.  At long last, this sound guy got it right and I could figure out what song I was hearing very very quickly and I could understand the words (as evidenced by the videos above).  The banter was good, they hit most of the songs I really wanted to hear.

I look forward to seeing them headline again, but it’ll be awhile.  They were heading home to record new material (and to make a soundtrack for a sci-fi novel?!)

An example photo:

Interesting time in my life. A couple of friends have moved away (Chaar to StL, Dawn Beck to SKorea). My solo oddjobs have run a bit thin, but I’ve not been doing much to land clients of late. I’d like to take a vacation to somewhere. I had a number of things I was going to gripe about over here, can’t think of anything. That happens with high frequency as of late.

Last Thursday went to a Q&A thing with a group called Quixotic. The interviewer was terrible (trying to get some good practice before heading to some sort of local morning show). I think the first question was something like: “(to Quixotic) Every time I talk to any of you I’m very humbled. (to us) These are the most creative people you’ll ever meet! (to them) What is the source of your creativity?”

The best guy at talking into the mic of the crew wasn’t thinking clearly, that when he turned to look at the slides that he was facing away from the mic he was holding. Considering the group has such a tech savvy undertone it also confounded me that they didn’t have a laptop facing the presenters so they could see what slide they were on. Also, considering the group has a lighting element during performances, it was odd that they didn’t think to cut the house lights before showing stuff from projectors.

Other considerations: have mic stands ready and pre-tested for audience questions. This would make it so the mics would work when needed (as the one I was handed didn’t seem to be on, other than the light indicating power). The hostess had no clue when people had questions and it was a fairly bashful audience, so she’d often chain up her fairly inane, complimentary questions. It would’ve been sad if after each answer she asked for audience questions and was met with silence. A mic stand would’ve taken away that need.

I felt bad for the costume design lady. New to the group and clearly not cozy in front of a crowd she stood as a case study for discomfort. She’d bring the mic near her lips, start talking and her wrist would grow limp causing the mic to slowly drop one way, she’d rotate her head in the direction opposite. The result was not really hearing almost anything she had to say. Eventually she ignored the audience and spoke directly to the hostess. Once her turn was over she folded in on herself. Her arms crossed. Her hands probably serpentined around her body and pressed against her back.

I took a video of a mini-performance they did. It was a bit grainy so I don’t know that they’d appreciate me posting it anywhere. They might though. Art people are hard to read…

I’m pretty comfortable in my contract gig, but I don’t know if I want to be.  By this point this is what I’ve done as a lawyer (that I can think of):

• amended speeding ticket
• amended driving without insurance
• shoplifting (civil aspect)
• shoplifting (criminal aspect)
• bankruptcy
• trademark filing
• contract review
• document review
• LLC filing review
• tussled with department of education
• tussled with Medicare
• various conflict resolution (just fixing things with words)
• will drafting
• power of attorney

I can do more, and likely will.  I enjoyed doing pretty much all of the above.  I find the prospect of going solo both exciting and terrifying.  Money is already a bit wonky, I can surely imagine things getting very tight.  But they could go the other way, too.
Things I’ve enjoyed lately:

• tv - Leverage
• movie - Slumdog Millionaire
• song - Baumer’s Take What’s Mine

Really, overall things have been alright.  Not too crazy, or exciting or interesting, but alright.  I’ve been watching tv, working out, working, playing video games, eating out, debating, reading, seeing movies.  But I want to do more, whatever that would be.  I need a vacation, but don’t know if I can afford one.  Maybe I should do something to make it so I can afford to…

I’ve found myself running out of things to say lately, which is odd. Chaar moved away (to StLou), Dawn Beck is moving away (to S.Korea).  It seems as things change, so should I.

a. At least triple my income from my legal odd jobs.  In 2008 I did quite a few legal odd jobs and was offered some that I didn’t pursue.  Additionally, I way undercharged for my services from time to time.  I wasn’t sure what to bill or where to find out, I set a price on my time and estimated how much of my time would be lost to various jobs.  This could go pretty bad when I based how much time would be taken on past experience and was way off…

b. Set a ‘fun budget.’  I’ve been fairly reckless in my spending since becoming a lawyer.  My bank account doesn’t get horrifically low and my credit card doesn’t become to encumbered but now I’m staring down the barrell of a mean tax bill in April.  If I showed a little more restraint I’d not have much anxiety marching into the tax season.  I plan to set a budget for my frivilous spending and with success I should have no fear going into April 2010…

c.  Find myself sitting in a chair, working at someplace that might be a step toward ‘career’ instead of ‘job.’  Whether it be firm, solo or government I want to make some progress in the professional world.  The odd jobs help me feel like I’m not stagnating and provide plenty of satisfaction and at times deserved respect.  The economy is not in a great place and I’m grateful to be working an average of 40+ hours a week every week for all of 2008, but I want to step up.  I’d like to have the security of being an associate at a firm or an employee of the government, getting paid holidays, sick days, vacation, insurance and at least a bit of hope of advancement at the place I work.  Or on the flip side, I’d be fine with the flexibility of being a full-blown solo practitioner.  Again, I find it immensely satisfying to help someone through their problems and there is such a wide variety of work to be done.  Right now I have the skills and exeperience to do this one, I just don’t have the client base or a proper flow of business…

While sifting through the comments for iTunes Originals: Staind I felt pretty sure that none of the 18 reviewers had purchased the product. One reviewer gave it 1 out of 5 because they didn’t like the recent album Staind released, they even wrote the review about that album, not the iTunes Originals one.  Another reviewer gave it 1 of 5 because they didn’t like the genre.  On the flip side you have people giving the album 5 of 5 because they are fans of the band.  You’ll see a review or two saying that if you like this band, you’ll probably like Braintree.

Stray over to Full Devil Jacket’s self title album. There you’ll find people giving the album 1 of 5 because it is anti-Christian.  First off, if you pull up the lyrics to all of the FDJ songs you’ll not see any song that is clearly anti-Christian.  It’d be a stretch to construe any song as being anti-Christian.  Additionally, is ‘Christian’-ness a proper measure for reviewing an album?  Apparently the lead singer of FDJ left FDJ and became fully Christian in his music pursuits and joined or created a band named Day of Fire.  That isn’t a terrible piece of information if you were a fan of FDJ.  You head over to Day of Fire and you see many many 5 of 5s for the band being Christian.

Stray over to Taproot’s latest album.  The top review is: “Yes, this is another great album by Taproot.  One of my favorite bands.  Also check out Braintree.  Thoose guys are great too.”  4 of 5.  The next review: “This is a really great band.  Not your typical band.  Another great band that is not typical is Braintree. check them out.” 4 of 5.  The fourth review: “Thank goodness for bands like this that take chances with music and don’t sound like all other bands.  Get this album, and also check out Braintree.  They are another great band that is quite unique.”

I pull up one of the Braintree proponents (Dutchahmu) and he has 14 reviews, 11 are Braintree related.  Then over to another proponent (Bob Geldoph) and he has 29 reviews, 24 mention Braintree.  There is considerable overlap in the two reviewers comments and the only times they don’t mention Braintree is when they give an album a 1 of 5.  Then over to Brentbinding, another Braintree fan from the Taproot reviews.  20 reviews, 16 Braintree mentions.  All three accounts gave a 1 of 5 to The Sunset Tree by The Mountain Goats.  Brentbinding’s comment on Nickelback is “I love seeing people support good rock and roll.  This is a great album.  Also help us support another great rock band Braintree.  Last week, we helped them sell over 800 copies of “I bet…” Let’s see if we can make it 1000 this week.  Thanks.”  4 of 5.  Who the crap is ‘we?’  How did 59 of 103 listeners find that comment ‘helpful?’  Brentbinding has reserved 5 of 5s for Braintree albums and gives other ‘great’ bands 4 of 5 for their ‘great’ albums.

There is no place to flag any of these users.  You’d think the safety mechanism would be people voting comments to be helpful or not, but people keep finding these comments helpful (either because this is one person with many accounts or because they like the band and they say ‘yes this is helpful’ to any comment that gives the band a positive rating).  Even this theory falls a bit apart when 14 of 15 listeners agree with Brentbinding’s 1 of 5 with Akon where he puts a cursor return after each word.  So the listeners don’t properly tag comments, you can’t flag users for being spammers.  But probably worse than all this is what I’ve seen go down in the App Store.

It’s been awhile but terrible things go down in the App Store.  There was a $150 App that was to be used by DJ’s for mixing boards.  There were a couple of well thought out reviews by DJ’s saying they were blown away by the app.  They paid way more money for a piece of hardware that didn’t do the job as well.  5 of 5s.  Then there was a surge of 1 of 5 from people who’s comments were along the lines of “$150 for an app is retarded, anyone who buys a $150 app is stupid.”

Another app transformed the iPhone into a touchpad & gyro mouse for Windows machines.  In the description it said “currently only works for Windows, Mac and Linux are being worked on.”  The app cost about $5.  There were many 4 of 5 reviews saying it worked well.  Then there was a surge of 1 of 5s from people that bought the app and the stupid thing didn’t work on their Macs.  Of course if you’re reading the reviews you can filter out the idiots, but if you’re searching for an app based on ‘highest rated’ those morons just ruined it for you (unless you use a Mac, then they sheltered you from that need to read bs).

With all of Apple’s wonderful innovations on iTunes and their products, perhaps they could commit some time/thought into making their comments not be the worst comments to be found online.

It was fun while it was happening, worth talking about after (far moreso than typical popcorn flicks).  I don’t have a problem with Ritchie goofing around with the same Brit crime building blocks that he used for his other movies (sans Swept Away).  He plays around with the same elements (synopsized early in RocknRolla:  “there are many coincidences in the world of criminals”).  He has a few eccentricities that get to play out (an interesting pair of dance scenes, an innovative chase scene, a very Ritchie take on sex scenes).
I was a bit sad to see a muted Piven in the film (he did speak, but he was toned down).  I suppose if he is toned up then he’d just be playing Ari.  I really dug most of the main characters.  The title character, the wild bunch and all.things that’ll either sell you on the movie or the opposite:
Fighting.Crime.Drugs.Profanity.Accents.Numerous Characters

I’d rank his films as follows:
1. Lock/Stock
2. Snatch
3. RocknRolla
4. Revolver

na. Swept Away (I’ve not seen it)