Saturday, September 09, 2006

art of the jam 64

it was elvis the bartender's b-day the previous monday, so last wednesday night at the wreck room, jam-meister lee allen opted to hold the weekly invitational jam on the "wreck west" side where el was working in the hopes that we could help him pick up some coin.

but first, we had to go find a drummer. with me in tow, the jam-meister drove over to fonky fred's, where josh clark and "funky town's finest" were in full effect. (they just pubbed the sked for fredtoberfest, btw. keep sat'days in october open. you've been warned.) walking up to "the fort," aka fred's patio, we heard ultra-fluid jazz-tinged lines on gtr and wondered "who the funk could _that_ be?" turns out it was jasper stone gtrist ron geida, who'd promised to make it to el wreck for el's party. also up: cat named ruben i've met at the blackdog on fuzz bass, shook on his fretless, cat from villain vanguard on trumpet and keys, steve huber on violin, james norris on keys, and marcus lawyer on mandolin. they was cookin' alright. "we just make this stuff up," said josh before calling lee-boy up for one. i spoke with jeffrey williams from jasper stone and he agreed to come down to el wreck after to man the traps for a spell.

back at el wreck, took lee awhile to sort out mics 'n' stuff, then we started with peach truck republic's evan jones behind the house kit showcasing unheralded rawk power. i broke an A string on the first song (guh), so more delays ensued. daniel katsuk's g-f jordan, who's becoming a regular jamchick her own self, got up and played a couple with us. she's always creative and happenin' but we (read: i) were too fuckin' loud, so the jam-meister suggested she play a couple solo. i was back to using my roland "amplet" after playing my last coupla shows (jam and stoogeaphilia) with various peavey classic 50s (one i borrowed from matt hembree and another i wound up buying from brandon wallace). i think my ear must have gotten used to a higher volume that was totally inappropriate for the li'l room. plus i discovered my brand-new russian big muff is too grungy for el jam. was thinking of something smoover 'n' creamier like a ts-9 and pinged sessions music honcho john zaskoda about scoring one, but he convinced me that my old reliable yellow dod overdrive is just as good. (z-man is always a friend first, salesman second, which i 'preciate mightily.)

after timely pause, william bryan massey III (wandering in from the fort worth arts consortium mtg in the big room) replaced evan behind the drums. i've always thought of massey as strictly a full-on, balls-out punk drummer, but on this particular night, he was getting into areas of funk 'n' groove i'd never heard him explore before. sounded good. even played a credible reggae one-drop, but unfortunately we were unable to coax pablo frontman joe vano onto the stage until somewhat later.

while we were on a break, marcus lawyer stopped by and told me that he's put together a band (himself, josh clark, lucas white, john shook) to play the top secret...shhh rekkid live for some in-stores and possible club shows in austin, dallas, and here in da fort. he's hoping to get some of the other performers that played on the rec to recreate their parts, too. sounds intriguing. i told him that his rec is the only one i have on my 'puter at work that doesn't annoy the living fuck out of my coworkers. it's _accessible_.

ron geida set up his gear and then sat out most of the night. his musical twin shook picked up his les paul for "teen town" and played most of the rest of the night. me-thinks / stoogeaphilia frontguy ray liberio, taking a break from gallery night preparations (he and his pussyhouse propaganda co-conspirator calvin abucejo are showing at studio 4 behind the wreck), got up to sing "war pigs" (but again, unfortunately not before my sweetie, who'd requested it, split to get some sleep before a bizzy, bizzy dat at school). we finished out with jeffrey on traps and had vano up to sing sally majestic's "bobo" 'cos lee-boy refuses to play "stir it up." hopefully el had a good night; by the time we got to' down and loaded out, he was gone, gone for the night.

next week we'll be back on the small side 'cos there'll be singer-songwriters in the big room. i promise to turn down. promise. and up-and-coming space-rockers okay james might be back, too, to rock the space.

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