SXSW – Day Two

Well, I don’t know if I can say that anything would top last night. But I now I don’t anything would top the CRAZINESS of Thursday, Thursday, Thursday!

Thursday was pretty crazy. I woke up a bit later than I should have and was of course…without transportation of my own. Luckily, for me, Josh Glenn was able to make that a non-issue.

As many of the people who know me and were around yesterday, I was a bit frustrated, but I kept it together. Beans swung by with his buddy John and we went to Thundercloud for a California Club and then they dropped me at Apple to pick up Josh’s Explorer. Then it was back to the house. After packing up the PA equipment and the keyboard, I was off to Beans’ to load up the mixing board and then on to the venue.

But…On the way there, I made a quick stop to KGSR. Of course, after finally meeting Jody at the AMA’s last night, I figured I better keep his mind fresh on my name and more imporatantly, my music. So, I dropped off a CD for him to use for the Daily Demo, in hopes he would have time to play it for one of my shows this week.

Once I finally got to the venue, almost an hour late now due to traffic downtown, Bleu and the boys were hanging out with PowerBooks and ProTools. It was good to see him, John, and Maclaine. We spent a few catching up and then we got busy.

We moved pews out of the “church”, cleared off the stage and started setting up the PA, the drums, and other equipment. Got the stage about completely set up for John’s (The Greek Embassy) set and then got ready for Bleu’s sound check and Get Up Choir rehearsal.

OK, I should say at this point that the PA issues were probably the start of bad thing, but there were definitely several other things that were helping to contribute to the loss of hair I have been experiencing lately.

In hindsight, we REALLY should have taken into account the choir rehearsal factor. It took a lot longer to get that set up and rehearsed than what I anticipated. Granted, I knew that it would in advance, but I should have set that part up much earlier in the day. Also, I was busy trying to recruit the choir for Bleu before, and all day today, so, I was a bit flustered with some of my friends backing out at the last minute. *They REALLY missed out on the fun! The choir was one of the best parts of the night.

So, by the time all the soundcheck mess was over and I do mean mess (I lost an amp to the power supply or something crazy, John’s Rhodes amp went out at the same time, oh and the FEEDBACK), it was time to kick it off with John’s set. Bleu joined John for his set and I tried to get the rest of the final details rounded up.

Lisa, the artist whose paintings hung at the event, was a BIG BIG help by NOT serving beer (TABC says without a license, we could only place beer on tables or something crazy like that, and we couldn’t sell it!) but making sure that the beer was flowing. Also, my new friend Beth Jean also pitched in to help.

After The Greek Embassy was done Beans and I got up to try and pull off our set, and I was very happy to say that it actually went really well considering the circumstances. Everything but one real minor detail of having to cut our set short to accomodate the other acts (not that there was a crowd of people busting down the door to see any of us really – the venue’s location was my biggest problem I think) but the folks that were there needed to get going on to other bands, and I wanted to keep everyone happy. So, I cut my second solo song out, and called Beans back up to the stage. We rocked it out alright and I am proud of us. Our first show as a band. Albeit a duo, but still. We rocked!

Here’s the setlist:

Move On -> ez (we did a nice seque into ez from Move On and it was pretty cool.)
The Kind That Stays
My Yearly Passage
Weatherman (sans Beans)
Nuthin’ But
L.U.C.Y.

After our set, I headed out to talk to the public. Scott Andrew brought his friend Laurie with him and I was thrilled that he came, he brought a friend, and that they stayed SO long! He was really a great friend to make during SXSW and certainly one of the highlights. (Thanks Scott – you rawk!) Shawn and Jenn made an appearance. Marney was there of course. Erik, Bo, Amy…gosh there were several others that I am forgetting. Forgive me??

Then, after schmoozin’ a bit, it was time to “Get Up!” with Bleu and the Get Up Choir. I think we did a great job and honestly, I’ve never had so much fun at a Bleu show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a true Bleu show for me without Max and the boys, but it was a riot. I certainly made sure I was doing my part to Get Up! HA! I have some pictures I am going to try and post soon.

Then…it was time to be BLOWN AWAY. The Damn Personals, also from Boston, were just AMAZING. I can’t tell you enough that you HAVE TO GET THIS RECORD!!

Seriously – these guys are just an outstanding band. I am lucky I got to see them in the setting I did. I have some video clips I am going to put up for you to see at the site from their set as well. Coming soon!

The tone of the night was just great the whole through, complete with Josh locking his keys in his truck, and an extra keg being tapped that in hindsight…really should never have poured a drop. Oh well. I did end up with an extra keg that we could use later.

By the time I got my stuff home and everyone unpacked, there was no way I was going back out to SXSW. I wanted to, really bad, but I just needed to crash. But I was glad to.

I learned a lot, gained some new fans, played a great show, and got a lot of publicity and did some advertising for the deal. OH! Here’s the ad that was in the Chronicle on Wednesday night.

So, there you have it kids…day two. Sorry for the delay in posting. Just got around to editing it all.
~Kia

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