Sunday, June 20, 2010

summer is on

Our schedule is starting to heat up with the summer weather... After three gigs this week, we are ringing in the solstice a bit early. First it was Palos Verdes Street Festival, to check in on our south bay fans. Then up to Thousand Oaks for a homecoming of sorts (we play a LOT in the west valley). And I think we made some new friends out in Simi Valley yesterday (check out GR's panorama of it). We're looking forward to rocking with our friends in Big Bear next weekend.

We're still riding high from playing an acoustic set with the legendary Jack Tempchin in Alta Dena. It was the coolest thing ever to be able to introduce him. I've seen 3 shows of his now, and every time he plays songs that I say to myself, "Damn, he wrote that one too?" He's a great storyteller, with words and music alike. Man, if I wrote Peaceful Easy Feeling, I'd probably be a cocky jackass. Not Mr. Tempchin. He's as cool and humble as my neighbor, yet probably billions of people have heard his songs. That's real rock and roll... If only for a moment, we were more than a tribute band, when Jack sat in with us to sing Already Gone and Peaceful Easy Feeling. The sold out Coffee Gallery got a treat hearing the songs performed straight from the original author. Right before the show, he told us how he never switches keys near the end of Already Gone like the Eagles do. So we rolled it that way not quite knowing what to expect. But we've all done enough non-tribute work that we enjoy the spontaneous experiment.