Posts tagged with "music"

second show

I was sup­posed to hang out with Jesse last week­end. We were going to jam and talk and throw around ideas, and I was real­ly look­ing for­ward to it because we always seem to be doing some­thing when we’re togeth­er instead of just chill­in.

See, it’s right here on his sched­ule, between Floors and Dinner.

Jesse's schedule

Unfortunately, I devel­oped my annu­al case of strep throat that day and had to stay away from every­one.

Then, on Friday as I was going back through our e‑mail cor­re­spon­dence, I real­ized that Jesse invit­ing me to play ukulele meant play­ing a house par­ty on Saturday. We met up about two hours before we were on and had a very quick rehearsal to work out some parts with­out Nic being able to back us up, as well as extra bits and pieces of songs I fig­ured out over the week. Being so rushed was prob­a­bly a good thing; it kept my mind off the ner­vous­ness.

Turns out it was an out­door gig play­ing to a group of hip­sters at a bar­be­cue, and we were open­ing. It did­n’t go ter­ri­bly well. At one point in the mid­dle of Write Protected I screwed up the strum­ming so bad­ly that we had to stop the song and restart, but we quick­ly picked up on a count of four and went on with­out anoth­er hitch. Jesse remarked that it was good prac­tice for next time, because prob­lems come up that you nev­er think of when you’re in a new envi­ron­ment.

This time it was a tun­ing peg that some­how got knocked in the mid­dle of the set. I only dis­cov­ered this once the song had start­ed — and I was the only one play­ing so I could­n’t stop. It must have been off by an entire semi-tone cause it total­ly messed up my sens­es and I had a hard time telling if I was even play­ing the right chords. It was also night by the time our set end­ed, and I had a hard time see­ing the frets, which only added to the con­fu­sion.

Note to self: strum once to before each song to make sure the instru­ment is in tune.

I did, how­ev­er, learn from the last show to bring a side-table to use as a step­ping stool. Usually, I sit when prac­tic­ing, but at the 160 Workshops show I had to stand; not being used to the pos­ture meant I was con­stant­ly adjust­ing the uke in the arm between vers­es and com­ing in late in the bar as a result. I brought a lit­tle Ikea side-table this time, and it worked real­ly well.

Even with all the glitch­es, as rushed and under-rehearsed as we were, it was a fan­tas­tic time and a great expe­ri­ence.

The next set was in the base­ment, with a girl and guy look­ing like they were kids dressed up and pre­tend­ing to be Ziggy Stardust, singing to gener­ic elec­tron­i­ca. And peo­ple were lov­ing it in their slow-nod­ding, hip­ster kind of way, although the weed and booze may have helped (Audra would lat­er remark to me that it was hard to tell how into it peo­ple were cause of how cool every­one was try­ing to act).

I also missed see­ing a very drunk Tina cor­ner Jesse. I could total­ly see this being her scene.

Pizza with girls

Check out Audra sport­ing her styl­ish Hurley cap.

Jesse was being inter­viewed lat­er that night and also want­ed to stay to see Matt play, so the girls and I head­ed to grab a bite to eat. Audra bought us all piz­za and drinks at a near­by pizze­ria, which had the BEST CRUST I’ve ever tast­ed.

Before the end of the night, in a good mood and feel­ing safe, I admit­ted to Em my crush on her boyfriend. She took it well.

Fell in love with a beard at 160 Workshops

I could explain how awe­some this night was, but I think this beard speaks for itself.

It’s a cus­tom-made piece by Emily Comeau — named the Smirkin’ Merkin — and a pro­to­type for Jesse’s merch. As a per­son who’s nev­er even come close to hav­ing a beard, I want­ed to keep it SO BADLY even though it was brown and did­n’t match the cur­tains (or the car­pet, for that mat­ter). I wore it for the first song I played, but it got way too warm to keep on in a house full of peo­ple.

beard

 

Continue read­ing “Fell in love with a beard at 160 Workshops”…

Collab

This is pret­ty much the most awe­some sit­u­a­tion I can think of. A jam ses­sion with Nic on beats and bass, Jesse rap­ping and on organ + glock­en­spiel, Audra on clar­inet, and me on ukulele. Figuring out what sounds best, mod­i­fy­ing arrange­ments, prac­tic­ing until it feels right.

The night was actu­al­ly a rehearsal for Jesse’s upcom­ing Canadian liv­ing room tour, the last stop of which is in Ottawa, at the same place I first met Jesse and Audra and Jacob.

Rehearsal

 

Because Jesse’s sis­ter is only avail­able on the east­ern tour dates, that left a spot for one instru­ment on the final tour date, which I’ll excit­ed­ly be fill­ing with my ukulele. It’s only for three songs (and singing one part of a three part har­mo­ny) but it’s going to be so much fun.

Here’s Jesse singing and rhyming and con­duct­ing us and play­ing the glock­en­spiel at the same time. It’s a new track off his upcom­ing album with an obvi­ous theme about video, except in this ver­sion he made an arrange­ment of Video Tape by Radiohead and VCR by The XX to book­end the vers­es. I’d nev­er heard VCR, so Jesse had to teach me the chords on the fly.

I record­ed this on my iPhone so I could prac­tice on my own; I won’t have a chance to see them for anoth­er rehearsal before they go on tour. I’d nev­er heard the song before, and it was our first time play­ing it through togeth­er but every­one knew when to stop. It felt com­plete­ly nat­ur­al. We were com­mu­ni­cat­ing with­out words, our instincts cul­mi­nat­ing in that won­der­ful­ly sol­id uni­son.

Even though I’m still rusty, it felt amaz­ing to be play­ing an instru­ment with oth­er peo­ple again. And this time with mate­r­i­al that’s fuck­ing genius, not the same old con­ser­va­to­ry pieces some teacher choos­es for you. At one point I was play­ing around on the ukulele when Jesse had to get the phone, and Nic start­ed putting beats to what I was doing and it made me want to steal Nic for all my prac­tic­ing.

See Jesse Dangerously in your town:

Friday, July 23rd — The Bird House in Halifax, NS — 6156 Duncan Street, 10:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 24th — The Galley in Fredericton, NB — 1–178 Westmorland Street, 7:00 p.m (with fem­i­nist/an­ti-cap­i­tal­ist gum­boot troupe Rebelles).
Sunday, July 25th — Gallerie Rye in Montreal, PQ — 1331a Rue Ste Catherine Est, 8:00 p.m (with the veg­an ukulele of Nicola IV).
Monday, July 26th — 160 Workshops in Ottawa, ON — 160 Primrose Avenue, 8:00 p.m. (with electronic/acoustic singer-song­writer Jacob Earl).

Jesse Dangerously — Halifax Rap Legend (Live @ Zaphod Beeblebrox)

The last stop of the 1000 Crooked Miles was right here at Zaphod’s in Ottawa. The last song of the night was Jesse’s (who was head­lin­ing) with a per­for­mance of Halifax Rap Legend, the beat tak­en from his upcom­ing album.

I know of no oth­er rap­per who can use the expres­sion “rest­ing on your lau­rels” in their rhymes. I sus­pect this is why MC Chris once named him as the only rap­per he liked.

hugs

Hugs after the show.

I didn't come here for the tea

I came here to get out of the house. Room, actu­al­ly. I haven’t had a face-to-face con­ver­sa­tion with any­one in three days.

I kept going through my phone book. No one. Not a sin­gle per­son I want to talk to. No one with whom to be myself com­plete­ly, with whom to spend in com­pa­ny with­out con­ver­sa­tion. Hank told me a morn­ing of awk­ward­ness is far bet­ter than a night of lone­li­ness, but I beg to dif­fer. The morn­ings always seem to last much longer.

At the same time, this is when I want to dis­tract myself the most, and being with oth­er peo­ple is the most effec­tive way. I’m too busy being focused on spend­ing time with some­one else that I can for­get about myself.

In the car it’s all Kid Cudi, and even though I’ve always told myself I would­n’t dri­ve when I’m like this, I’d always want­ed to hear this album when I’m in this kind of mood. I was nev­er one to resist a night in cool sum­mer air, cruis­ing under the city lights to old haunts.

Waiting for my order affords me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sur­rep­ti­tious­ly observe peo­ple and try to fig­ure out their roles each clique as they inter­act. Even though I’m alone, it’s com­fort enough to be among strangers.