Thanks to everyone who came to our Portland record release party tonight with 101.9 KINK FM at Skype Live Studio and to my sweet friend Sheila Hamilton for being such a pure gem of a human.
Well it has been really amazing getting to work with The Gentry this past year. I’ve been able to realize some loud rock dreams with those guys in tow and I’m really grateful for the time they spent working to prepare for our tour together this Summer and all the time spent traveling around the U.S. with me in a van. We had some really magical moments on and off stage. I was finally able to move past some fairly long-standing stage fright and found freedom in the band format, having just been a singing DJ up to that point. I have Gino, Steve & AC to thanks for that.
We have had our share of disasters along the way as well…much of which revolved around our drummer’s body slowly breaking bone by bone. Dude broke his hand in San Francisco (and just kept playing) then he broke his foot 4 days before the big farewell show at Mississippi Studios in Portland and had surgery on his foot (metal plate anyone?) THE DAY BEFORE. He’s an animal.
At any rate, we made some last minute adjustments to the show obviously because he couldn’t play the entire hour long set. One such change was a bit of a throwback to my humble singing DJ beginnings from years back. It was fun to play some of the new stuff and have it just be pop. If my lighting guy had remembered to bring his board to go along with the lights we lugged to the venue it would have been a lot better…or maybe not. It ended up being very intimate, very bare bones, unmasked & vulnerable. It seemed like a very appropriate way to leave things. Here’s a clip from the karaoke portion of last week’s final show:
Next up is a clip from our secret show at this year’s Salem Pride Festival. It ended up being one of the best shows of the entire Summer. Sadly, the camera was right in front of Gino’s guitar amp so the sound of this video is way more fucked up than it usually is but it was such a good day I figured I’d post it anyway.
Whoa, Portland. You made me enjoy the 4th of July more than I think I have since becoming an adult. (Whatever that even means). For those of you who weren’t with us at Rontom’s this past Sunday night, here is a bit of what happened:
After a set by Snow Bud & The Flower People, The Hugs (pictured above) performed all their hits. Those boys are awesome. I’m bringing them to California on tour with me next week so you can see for yourselves.
Then, as you can see from the photo above, I played a set with The Gentry. We got the kids dancing at Rontom’s which I heard from some of their staff is not something that just happens all the time. Ummm….Yeah. It was fucking rad.
The dancing continued after our set with the 1776 working the crowd into some sort of 1960’s rock and roll frenzy by the time they were through. It was a really good night. Thanks to 1776 for inviting us to be on the bill. We had a great time.
