Gig Archives: 2024
(Disclaimer: this may be incomplete or inaccurate)Wednesday, January 31st, 2024 It was about time I get involved with this band, having crossed paths many times years ago.
I subbed on keyboards as they returned to the stage at the (now regular venue) Ivy Room in Albany.
I crammed in a lot of material the weeks leading up to the show (like half the band who were
equally "new" members). The 7-piece landed all this crazy jazzy/proggy stuff with aplomb in the
middle set (between Grex and Feefawfum). Despite being a super rainy school night
the attendance was pretty good, which was lovely.
Saturday, February 3rd, 2024 I think this was my first time playing a gig in Hayward! We performed a couple long sets at the
Bistro pub downtown. The local crowd really dug our note-dense classic-prog-fusion vibe.
Tonight we finally performed a couple Scofield tunes live ("Trim" and "So You Say"), having
practiced them in the past. Good fun, great response.
And it rained all night. Gonna rain on all my gigs this year, hunh?
Thursday, March 21st, 2024 After many years asea, Trey brought everything back for a couple shows at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN!
Amazing bands of every kind took over that charming town, along with a zillion attendees.
Many familiar faces, some I haven't seen in too many years.
The first of our two sets was at the Mill & Mine on the first evening of the whole event.
And we had a full band: Trey, Eyvind, me, Shanir, Shahzad, Kenny, Ches, and Matt Hollenberg.
So we were able to cover a lot of sonic ground running a lot of the old repetoire.
We ended up having time for an encore, so we whipped out Shoel with zero rehearsal. Fun!
Saturday, March 23rd, 2024 The second show for the Big Ears Festival was be on the third day of the whole thing (which meant I was
able to see all kinds of amazing acts on the second day). Downbeat was on the early side, and we played
an Ishraqiyun-centric set to a full house. Same band lineup as before except minus Kenny and Matt.
For both these sets we didn't wear the usual robes, and for this set we were all sitting down - perhaps
a nod to one of the first Ishraqiyun sets (long before my time, almost exactly 20 years earlier)
at SXSW in Austin.
Wednesday, April 10th, 2024 We were back playing at the Bistro in Hayward - instead of a rainy Saturday night it was a sunny
Wednesday night. And just as fun! People came out, it was nice and relaxed. I did biff real hard
on one tune, but was like "oh well" and made up for it during the next few solos. At some point
during the gig one person at the bar shouting "Tarkus" in between songs and I played a few bars
of that, thus earning some precious prog points.
Friday, August 16th, 2024 And once again back at the Bistro in Hayward. It's like a regular thing.
We had a new King Crimson medley to reward the crowd. We were all pretty solid tonight.
I felt particularly relaxed and went nuts on my solos. Good times.
Saturday, August 24th, 2024 This was a big one: we were one of many cool bands opening up for Dillinger Escape Plan (doing
a reunion show) at the Salt Shed in Chicago.
Other acts included: Trash Talk, No Men, and The World
is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die. Great people, fun hangs, awesome venue, inspiring
performances. Incredible feeling being part of such a production. The Dead Cross tour
formation of SC3 was together again for the first time since 2017 (me, Trey, Pej, Jason, Joe)!
Saturday, September 7th, 2024 Back at the Jupiter in Berkeley. I kinda messed up and did a whole bunch of
work in my garage that whole morning/afternoon, so I was all creaky and
broken and my forearms were cramped up before I even loaded into the gig.
And it's an outdoor gig and the temperature dropped
(I'm a pro and brought a jacket of course but still). It turned out
to be a fun set as usual, but it did take me the whole first hour to loosen up.
Thursday, October 17th, 2024 As it happens every 5-10 years on average, I returned to the drum throne for Darling Freakhead.
How could I not? Especially as this was at the always fun venue Bottom of the Hill in SF,
and opening for Free Salamander Exhibit and Už Jsme Doma (first time touring in
the US in 17 years!). Full house, and so many people I haven't seen in ages. Just like the 90's
with UJD were touring frequently, crashing at my house, and sharing bills with
Idiot Flesh. Given the high standards of the other bands, Mick pulled out his craziest
material. So I had a lot to digest. Nusted tuplets and everything. Given many tech issues and
long "scene changes" between songs we had to cut a number at the end. Oh well. Still a great
show. One for the books, and super fun hang.
Saturday, October 26th, 2024 I sat in with this crazy band once again! It was a refreshing afternoon gig at New Farm in Bayview, SF. Chickens and goats were among the audience. Finally sharing a bill with Gentleman Surfer from Sacramento and we all also enjoyed Hanazono Distance on tour from Japan! We ended up doing a similar set to the show back in January. Funny trying to cram that music back into my head and fingers with only a couple rehearsals.
Friday, November 1st, 2024 Once again we were back at the Bistro in Hayward! They really like us down there, and it's a fun pub to play. It's a bit of a party every time, and people appreciate us tackling this crazy material live in their neck of the woods. We debuted yet another tune, this time a Return to Forever ditty. So now I have some Chick Corea riffs in my fingers. It was actually raining a bit, and there's construction which meant parking should have been worse than usual, but unlike last time where I circled for ages and gave up I scored a spot across the street. Sweet.
Sunday, November 17th, 2024 Almost an entire year later we did it all over again at the Ivy Room, along with Global Spider Community and DJ Junior Town. Super fun show! We did 13 PJ tunes, four of which we never performed live before. Also a pretty easy gig as we all shared the same backline, etc. Fun hang, great turnout, and I really appreciate Ivy Room supporting this whole scene over the past N years.
Friday, November 22nd, 2024 We played at Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland! My first time in this venue since playing there with Mumble & Peg over 25 years ago, i.e. last century - which is odd as I've lived within a mile of this place the whole time. The new album (recorded years ago long before I was around) was officially released on CD and on bandcamp today, so this was sort of a celebration. We played and sounded great. And a good crowd. Really dug both of the opening bands: Pateka and Mommy Mommy. The interesting East Bay music scene is alive and well! Also: this gig marks the end of a long period of welcome musical chaos that started in August. I came home after loading out and deeply exhaled.
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