Two Days with Bob Fay:When Does The Show Start? part two~Sunday

Have you ever gone to a show on time and sat there for too long waiting for it to start? I have. I used to think, "What a good girl I am, getting here on time! I want to see the whole thing, don't want to miss the opening act!" And after finishing a beer, felt mad that people are still shuffling around with amps, mics, guitars. "Wait, you said the show started at 9 and it is 10:30! Why am I here?" You might ask someone in charge. They shrug, look around at the crowd which maybe just consists of yourself. They are too cool to play to an "empty" room. So next time maybe I'll come late too. The trouble is that the longer they wait, the later the show will go and perhaps the sets will be shorter as well. I hate all that. If I am playing a show, I am happy to go first and I usually tell my fans (ha ha) to get there on time to see me and whether or not those certain people do get there in a timely fashion, I just go. It works out. Playing music is fun.

Saturday night, I texted Matt R, one of the hosts at JdJ shows, and asked when they were going to start. He said right at 8:30. I got there at 8:30 and they started. It was great. Stupidly, I thought Sunday was going to start at 8:30 also. I didn't even bother looking at the event information on this webpage or on faceblah. It didn't start at 8:30. It started at 8 with Bob Fay and Mary Staubitz and when I walked in at 8:30 Dollar Bin were breaking down their equipment. He had played prepared guitar and she had some electronics and synths. I was devastated. So much for my "Two Days with Bob Fay", right? I missed Bob Fay's set! In desperation I turned to Ted Lee of Feeding Tube records who was holding his camera. "Would you please post the set for me so I can continue with my blog double feature?" I begged him. He said he would if I came to his store and bought $125 worth of records and tapes. I agreed. Dollar Bin at JdJ They sound great. Some of their music could be successfully used as part of a horror movie soundtrack and some of it at the end sounded like monsters playing on a shoreline. I'd go back for Dollar Bin.

Unfortunately, I was too distracted at that point to give the next group their due in terms of my attention. Lysha Smith played laptop/controllers rig, Wayne Smith- cello and Nathan Jepsen- guitar/keyboards. They played downstairs and from the first floor I could hear some really nice sounds and I was intrigued. Here is a photo of them by Matt Robidoux. I would like to hear them play again and preferably be sitting on a couch with a cocktail and my listening ears on. Keep me posted.

David Gross is kind of a big deal. He's been playing forever and he's really good, everyone hates him. He just finished a quick tour with these folks and they were finishing that tour at John Doe Jr. Sarah Hennies played drums and I know her from when she played with my brother in law in the band Weird Weeds. She now lives in Ithaca, NY, having relocated from Texas. I find this funny because it is near where I sometimes relocate. She was funny to talk to and on stage and good with the drum sounds. They were quiet and loud and mesmerizing. I do not know Morgan Evans-Weiler who played viola but the three of them together kept me enthralled. At one point the viola sounded like the bowed snare and they kept up a heavenly drone for a while which Dave Gross added to with some percussive horn whispers and horn bellows. I went to look at my notes to help me write this and there was nothing. I was too busy listening to write comments. I did record about 45 seconds of their music twice to send to David Russell and I am able to listen to that to help me here. Both pieces sounded wholly different but both had slight alarm sounds happening. One alarm sound was the viola playing the same riff over and over and sort of sounded like an old police car from a British film circa 1966 and the other time was when they played in unison and the brains all vibrated. I loved them.

Matt Weston played a brief set next with drums and synthesizers. He controlled the synthesizers using a foot pedal while drumming, which I find impressive. I know people play pedals with their feet all the time and sure, no big deal, but I am recently learning to use my feet to do stuff like that while playing guitar and I find it difficult. I liked what he played. I wondered about it and was surprised by it.

We all went downstairs to hear Vic Rawlings play his electronics. I didn't know what to expect unlike most the people there. I sat down on a milkcrate with my notebook and listened. I wrote this: "Vic, also a birthday boy, interesting array of speakers spread before him while playing (prepared) pedals and wired components to make feedbacky fuzz and light drone noises the type one might find annoying while looking for a radio station in 1944, but lined up and played not so randomly became an intriguing tableau for the brain to consider. All the fuzz noises were like notes on a piano but mysterious and logical to my mind. I like how this music make me think a little bit differently than before I heard it." He was really good.