Last night marked my first performance in Manhattan, KS, a wonderful little informal 5 song set at the open mic at O'Malley's. A laid back place with plenty of good musicians swarming around, a fun time was hand by all. The crowd dug my songs a lot; a ton of new people to introduce my music too. Plus, I had my first good pint of Guinness since I've been back to the United States. Thank fucking God.
Though, of course, I am always pleased when I get to play, the real treat of the night were two performers I thought were particularly excellent. The first was a bass player whose named I unfortunately didn't catch. He appeared to be a regular of the open mic, as he apparently knew quite a few people on the local scene. Bass players as a rule usually stand in the back and do their thing, but this guy got incredibly funky and did his playing (which was good) with energy and excitement. A rare find. Though not many caught his antics, I was certainly impressed. And, to top it all off, I ran into him on the way to work today. Super nice guy and I hope I get the opportunity to play with him sometime over the course of the summer.
The second performer was Kirsten (or Kristen, I never heard correctly), a singer/songwriter of some excellence. She has a remarkable striking voice, reminding me very much of Rachel Gaither of South Central Nebraska fame. She didn't seem too confident on the guitar yet, but when she put it aside to do a duet with the open mic masta Buck, her flair as a stage performer came through.
All in all, I think I'm going to like these folks a lot. It seemed to me a lot of them weren't just musicians, but entertainers. And those are the folks for me.

The summer move has been completed successfully, but not without a hard weekend's rocking with Shaft friends Bought and Sold. After trekking all over hell and back with Aaron and all my personal affects placed somewhat securely in his trailer, we finally arrived at WaKeeney, Kansas to play a... well... play something.
No one had a god damned clue what to expect, but I'll be damned if it didn't rock. Meeting up with new Shaft friends Greg and JD with their ensemble 3x7, I got to throw down with a whole myriad of rocking folk. Playing with Aaron is always an old school treat... Makes me think of all the trips down to Kiowa to play in our ill-fated garage band, Emotional Feedback. We were loud and terrible; everything a high school band should be. But when I think back to high school and all the shit I had to go through, I always think of those practices as the best of the worst times of my life.
Many thanks to those WaKeenians who were kind enough to buy a disc, and many thanks to Greg and JD for letting me play with them. I eagerly anticipate their first release.

Sometimes I wish we'd talk about what we want to talk about instead of leaving each other notes.

So. Fucking. Hard.
Episode II is that good.
I can't write more as it would be a spoiler, but if you haven't gotten a ticket yet, you really should make it a point to.
The jam in the line was a complete success. New found geek friends Adam and Jay weighed in with harmony and bass respectively, and any time I get to play with howie&scott is a time I truly cherish. Playing with other people again made me really happy tonight, and I felt myself cutting loose a lot more musically with other people around. For anyone who saw, it was a hell of a show. And the movie was pretty good, too.

Sometimes holding someone is the best medicine in the world.

Went to see Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers last night. After the tragic passing of Mike O'Meara to cystic fibrosis, frontman Roger Clyne and drummer PH Naffah went on to form The Peacemakers, who graced Knickerbockers yesterday evening.
They were a loud plain and simple rock and roll band. It was quite a refreshing evening to hear songs about drinking and lost friends and lost loves at a severely rocking decibel level. Steve Larson was in wicked lead guitar form, performing several standard rock solo poses missing from many rock shows. And, of course, Roger Clyne was a rocking showman.
All in all, it was a show that brought Knickerbockers back to the key fundamentals of rock. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Big thanks to everyone who came out to the Aurora show. Huge thanks to Whitehead and Unashamedly Awful for opening. It was successful in the sense that everyone who came had a good time and the sound was solid. However, sadly, I don't think the Shaft will return to Espressions any time soon.
Evidently, after I had completed my set, Wenda (the venue owner's wife) walked up to a few guys who had been watching the show and told them they "could unplug their ears now." Evidently, she didn't particularly care for jokes about Nintendo and suicide. Now, it should be noted, I am fairly thick-skinned when it comes to the Shaft's music. It just ain't for everybody. My mom hates it. Some of my closest friends hate it. It's okay that they do and it's even more okay that they voice it. I hate lots of bands and, as people are likely to attest, I am very vocal about it.
I am not, however, someone who owns a venue. Or more specifically, I am not someone who owns a venue and made a quantifiable profit off of an artist who received negative compensation. To elucidate, the Shaft brought in about 20-30 people to the small town coffeeshop. Folks from Hastings that came specifically to see the Shaft and Whitehead play. Folks who bought coffee who wouldn't have had we not been there. It was apparently prom night in Aurora. The movie theatre next door was closed. In short, not many kids were going to be buying coffee that night.
The night was a net loss for Arturo Got The Shaft. No new people in our target demographic heard our music and Wenda went out of her way to ensure that not a single CD was sold. Not selling CDs is part of the business. Not making money is part of the business. Playing tough or unresponsive crowds is part of the business. This I have no complaints about. But, Espressions took advantage of our fans. They took their money and treated them as though they were an annoyance. They pulled a profit out of a night that would have resulted in a loss without the direct presence of Arturo Got The Shaft, and did not so much as offer a sandwich in return.
It is important to note that these sort of things happen. I'm not whining unjustifiably. This is just a warning to all the artists on the local Nebraska scene that Espressions is not at all receptive to artists they don't enjoy. Perhaps if I didn't sing songs about geek love and tongue-in-cheek songs about suicide, then I would have been received better. But, I have been in many places where the venue owners haven't liked the music at all. It comes with playing quasi-controversial music and is something I accept as part of my music. What makes venues professional is their ability to distinguish personal taste from business sense.
Now is as good a time as any to adopt a policy of not allowing Shaft fans to be exploited. The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. Ultimately, I wasn't the big loser of the evening. I was just the one responsible for bringing them there.