I'm back, from a near-weeklong excursion to the West Coast that saw me play 3 shows in 2 days, go swimming at a haunted castle, and finally; after years of hoping it would finally happen, spotting Kato Kaelin.
I got in Wednesday morning, shuttled to the car rental place, and started my trek into Hollywood, on a route that my GPS apparently thought might imbue me with a little culture, as it took me through some very diverse ethnic regions of Los Angeles that I had never before acquainted myself with.
With that little adventure behind me, I headed over to Barney's Beanery in Burbank to collect the keys to my temporary accommodations, staying long enough to have a couple of beers with my buddy Mike J. Nichols, who you may remember as the director/editor of the "Sherrybaby" video we shot with Darrell Frasier.
I always feel most at home in Burbank, since I spent the better part of 2 or 3 years wandering its streets, killing time between rehearsals, gigs, songwriting sessions, and photo shoots, while I was in Best Of Seven. I couldn't even tell you how many movies I must've seen at the AMC theaters there, or how many cheap quesadillas I ate at that Del Taco on Verdugo. It might've been just a step up from Ramen Noodles, but I loved/love that crap. My wallet's (a little) fatter these days, so I spring for In N' Out when the mood strikes, although I sampled neither delicacy on this trip, sadly.
I did manage to get 3 of the 5 members of Best Of Seven MKII together for an acoustic rehearsal that night:myself, Joshua Ketchmark, and Shane Tassart, and we got to run through what would become our set for Friday night's IPO performance at Molly Malone's. Here's a clip of us hacking our way through an initial run-through of Cheap Trick's "I Can't Take It">>>
Thursday night, I played a short set at The Sunset Strip Market, in the big lot next to what was once the Tower Records on Sunset. I got to catch up with a bunch of folks I hadn't seen in a while, and most of us continued the festivities up the road a piece at Pink Taco, where entirely too many Margaritas were ingested, resulting in the hatching of a mad, yet intriguing plan that was (probably) fortunately scuttled in favor of a pool day. Maybe next time, BGDs.
Friday night, Best Of Seven opened night #1 of the Los Angeles IPO Fest, and I followed shortly thereafter with a solo set, slightly adjusted from the previous evening's to better suit the occasion. After taking in a couple of other acts on the bill, some of us hit The Rainbow for some pizza, where my hosts decided they'd have enough of the festivities and opted to take a nap before we'd even cleaned our plates. Yeah, true story…see>>>>(not staged…took three tries to catch them both out.)
BEST OF SEVEN AT MOLLY MALONE'S
Saturday, well, we took the subway down Hollywood Blvd., and started a long bar crawl back up to the apartment that involved moonshine. As a result, I don't remember much else about the afternoon.
Sunday went something like this: Mimosas. Breakfast Tacos. Castle. Corona. Pool. Pizza. Sunburn. Sleep.
Monday I drove out to Santa Monica Pier, grabbed a burger at Tin Horn Flats, experienced my Kato sighting, and took in the Lucy's 51 jam night hosted by James Lomenzo, Kenny Aronoff, and Brent Woods, where I met Paulie Z.>>
from the show Z Rock. Nice guy. There were a mess of 80s cats on hand: Frankie Banali, Oni Logan, Jimmy D'Anda, Chuck Wright, Phil Soussan, and more, and several of them got up for a song or two, but we had to spilt midway through, since I had an early flight out in the morning, and the rest of my crew were pretty much dead on their feet.
Back in Nashville, we got asked to do a last-minute support slot for Alien Ant Farm on Monday night. 24 hours notice, no rehearsal, with their backline rammed up our asses, but we pulled it off I think, if a little rough around the edges.
We were under-rehearsed simply because we've been putting all of our effort into working up a gang of new material for the upcoming shows…a few cool covers we've been wanting to try,as well as some stuff from our back catalog that we've either never played live, or been overlooking the last couple of years…stuff from the second TGA LP "Ricky Took The Wheels", as well as a couple of BO7 and Bombshell Crush tunes that we thought might translate with this lineup. Those will start showing up in the very near future if they shape up accordingly.
Speaking of upcoming shows, here's what is on tap over the next month or so:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 17TH SOUTHGATE HOUSE -NEWPORT, KY(CINCINNATI) FREE LOUNGE SHOW 10PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23RD THE END - NASHVILLE, TN W/ANDERSON LAYNE & THE KILLER SAINTS, AND ABERNATHY 8PM (WE OPEN THIS ONE, SO GET THERE EARLY.)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24TH CLARKSVILLE, TN FREE OUTDOOR SHOW, SPECIAL EVENT. DETAILS TBA. WATCH OUR (FACEBOOK PAGE) FOR THE SCOOP. 1PM
Vegas….not a gig, just going there for a few days….I'll probably come back, because we have these ones coming up too >>>>
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH CROWDED HOUSE - MADISONVILLE, KY FREE SHOW. FULL BAND ACOUSTIC SET FROM 7:30-9:30PM THIS PLACE IS KILLER!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH JOHN BROWN'S ON THE SQUARE - MARION, IL 9PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH TBA(TENTATIVE ST. LOUIS AREA DATE)
I think that's about it for now, sorry for rambling, but if you enjoy such loquaciousness, please click (">HERE) to check out my blog for The Times Newspapers. I rant about all kinds of trivial crap, twice a week on the average.
See you out there, I hope….more dates coming soon, so check the (CALENDAR)…Louisville, Bristol, Columbus, Knoxville, and more.
Best,
D.