Before heading over to Luke's house with all the recording gear and instruments still in my car, I gave my sister and Audrey a ride to Cardoza Park. Then I headed over to Luke's, where Lachlan was already at, to track bass for You Are Free and Fade Out.
I am really enthused about the bass tone we got. It sounds really deep and well-defined. For those who are interested, the signal path went Fender US Jazz Bass > Sansamp amp emulation pedal > Radial DI > Dbx386 TubePreAmp > digital out to ProTools. The Dbx preamp's A/D conversion is interesting. It doesn't let signals clip. Instead, it emulates tape compression by compressing whatever would normally clip into the last 4 db of headroom. It sounds really good.
After tracking at Luke's, I went home and Kelly and Lynn came over. Shortly there after we headed to Caffe Trieste in my car. Violent Violet kicked off the show and Seabright followed before I was up. By the beginning of my set (with Mike on guitar/backup vocals and Joey on drums), the room was packed and there were a lot of familiar faces.
Overall I felt extremely happy with my group's set. This performance was definitely a step above all of my past shows and my old fans/friends who attended remarked on my improvement too, so I'm happy that my recent efforts have not gone unnoticed. I recall that my earliest shows (which spanned from 1.5 years to 0.5 years ago) were fueled by the energy of just being in front of a neutral audience. The energy was there, but upon on watching the videos of them, the technical proficiency was definitely lacking. I felt embarrassed to have been that sloppy.
I then embarked on an ongoing effort to clean up my playing and singing. I began becoming more consistent at keeping the beat and attaining accuracy with my singing pitch, but all the while I felt that my live performances were lacking the energy I had played with before. That is why I'm proud to say that my performance at Caffe Trieste featured my most solid playing and singing to date, as well as a newly found energy that I had felt to be lacking in recent months. Despite only running through a single two-hour practice the day before, Mike and Joey also did a fantastic job of providing the extra dynamic that only a band can provide.
My set is as follows: the Hardest Part (Coldplay cover played by myself), You Are Free, Ball of Yarn, Sharpshooter (played by myself on piano), Oh Lisa, and Fade Out.
David Knight played after me and was the last act of the night. It was definitely the best set I'd ever seen him put on. His use of effects and looping was very creative. To enlighten you with some history, David Knight was formerly the frontman of local band Day One Symphony. They were undoubtedly one of the most recognized bands in the Bay Area, but broke up just before they were about to go even bigger. As amazing as David Knight is playing solo, I can't help but wonder how much more captivating his act would be as a group effort.
Anyway after the show Lynn, Kelly, and I ate at La Vic's. I bought them an original burrito and I got a flour chicken quesadilla for myself. We then headed over to Lachlan's house and watched American History X. Great movie. I started getting sleepy soon after we put on the Devil and Daniel Johnston, so we decided to call it a night. I got home at 4am.
I can't help but reminisce on how grateful I feel for having met all of the people and musicians I've met recently, as well as the friends and confidantes that continue to remain in my life. I hear from separate sources that I'm actually getting my name out there, despite an utter lack of promotion and official releases. I don't know how that works, but it makes me quite excited for the future. The album is coming along very nicely. I can't wait to have a huge CD release party to kick it off.
7/23
I started and finished my 4-page term paper in the morning. I had to write about anything music related. I chose to write on the progression of my musicianship. I exceeded 4 pages haha. At noon I attended my last day of History of Rock. Totally aced the final.
I hit up the gym afterward and then went home to pick up my guitar before heading to Metabear's practice space in downtown SJ to practice for the Caffe Trieste show with Mike Shirley-Donnelly on guitar/vocals and Joey Guthrie on drums. I had originally only asked Mike to play with me, but Joey volunteered his talent on drums and it went over well at practice, so he's playing tomorrow too.
After practice I headed to Jake's house, where he, Greg, Lachlan, Luke, and Brian were at already. Brian is an amazing technical guitarist whose style is comparable to virtuosos such as Steve Vai. He can play the Super Mario song and the "coin" sound to a T. Anyway we tracked Luke's bass parts, which he pretty much made up on the spot, for Retreat. He is such an amazing bassist. I was grooving so hard to his playing as we tracked it. Jake and Lachlan still had it stuck in their heads on the car ride to In-N-Out afterward too. After In-N-Out, we chilled at Jake's house for a while before going home.
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