Grand Rapids, Michigan and a break from the norm...

As a retreat from the usual topics, I figured I would post a few pictures of my fair city. Taking various pictures is also a hobby of mine, so why not, right? A few are panoramas consisting of anywhere from 2-6 pictures put together in photo editing software... Okay, one music related thing. Watched Nathan Kalish and The Wildfire last night at Founders and they blasted my face right off! Wow, what a show! Life is good. Anyway, hope you enjoy the above pictures.

Friday's Show, the Weekend, and This Week...

Last Friday night Chance Jones played at The Sazarac Lounge for a diabetes benefit show. It was for a great cause, so it felt great to be able to help in any way. Sazarac hosted, but had no microphones, cables, stands, or sound guy. Wow. Impressive. Exactly why I do not care for that place at all. We were definitely told to turn down 3 or so times. Couldn't figure out how to turn my drums down, so I just kept rocking out nice and loud. Other than the unorganized/unprepared venue, the night was very fun and I got to see The Concussions again. Those guys are absolutely amazing. So tight, extremely talented and their tone is boss.

Next up was practice Sunday(last night). The Jones crew hammered away at five tracks for the 60s tribute show on May 13th. These tunes are going to slay. They were coming together swimmingly even with it being the first time we had played most of them. Here's a list of the tunes we will be doing:

Baby It's You
Waiting For My Man
Cathy's Clown
Tracks In My Tears
My Generation

Working 9:30-7 today and heading to HTAFM practice after work to hopefully produce yet another new tune. The goal is to get 9 new tunes that aren't on the previous disc we put out ready to go. After that, we will be going into the studio and recording all 18 songs live with only vocals being overdubbed for a release sometime this summer I imagine. New songs are sounding righteous.

Tomorrow there's work from 10-7 then meeting up with Kyle Colter to learn some trumpet parts to play in the newly formed group Wonder Caverns. Jeremy's wife Suzi plays keys in that group and it is headed by John Pataky of former Mighty Narwhale fame. Can't wait to hear what the group sounds like as well as be able to play some trumpet again! After that will be the usual Tuesday night Meanwhile excursion with Jessie and whatever random collection of local musicians I seem to see there all of the time. Cool.

Wednesday brings a day off from my day job. Eraly afternoon I'll be loading up the drums and bringing them down to the B.O.B. to set them up for the show. Then, go meet up with Jef and have expunk practice from 5-7:30. After that, head directly to the B.O.B. and help set things up to hopefully finally record a Jones live set. I'm excited about that and the onset of mixing it down. Should be cool to see what we come up with.

Thursday is back to work from 10-7 and I don't know if anything is going on that night. Maybe I won't do anything. Who knows. Hmm... random thought that just came to mind. Could have a bonfire out back that night. This might work if nothing comes up. Love bonfires.

Friday brings work from 10-7, but the night is definitely free. I need to decompress and get some sleep for Saturdays events.

Saturday is work from 7am-6pm then at night Chance Jones will be playing at Jukes bar. We haven't played there in a really long time and it will be good to rock it out again. Small crowded stage/bar makes for an intimate and fun show. Then I'll be needing to do some sleeping in on Sunday for sure.


Life is good.

The weekend and beginning of a new project...

What a kick ass weekend! Saturday nights show with Heavier Than Air Flying Machines, Ghost Heart, Moss Folk, and Owl Eater was fantastic. HTAFM debuted our new song and our set seemed to be well recieved by several people. Ghost Heart killed it as usual. Moss Folk was mid-bendingly sweet warming up the crowd with trancy psychadelic noise infused tribal goodness. Had a great night overall and the turnout was very good. Now HTAFM will be on hiatus until we have a completely new setlist to play. Let the writing begin!

Sunday was extremely fun as well when Tim (over at the Venango County blog) and his wife Heather invited the Chance Jones crew over for a potluck dinner. Plenty of great eats and good times to be had. Also, I feel the need to mention the nerdout session between Tim and myself over his righteous comic collection amongst other things. Tim and Heather's 15 mo. old daughter Lily made an appearance toward the end and managed to have a captivated audience as she is simply adoreable. Right after that was Chance Jones practice to get Ryan(Jarrod's fill-in on keys) more acclimated for the shows on Apr. 9 & 10. Practice was a little difficult due to the amount of food I felt the need to eat in one sitting.

Moving on to upcoming things for my gear oriented mind. I started working on a guitar speaker cabinet I had bought from Chance Jones guitarist Justin. It was covered in carpet and, amongst other things, I was looking to change that. I removed the speakers and ripped off the carpet to reveal the wood. I'll temporarily be sanding it down and staining it until I have the time to retolex it. I will also be installing side handles as it has none at this point. A few pics of the beginning of another somewhat long road of modification are the ones hanging out above. One of which features my lovely lady Jessie modeling the cab with a very Mardi Gras-esque mask on. Life is good.

Basement shows and more shows to come...

Been a little since I blabbered on about things, so here it goes. Chance Jones played a limited member set at our friend Chads birthday party. It was stripped down to 4 of us comprising of Chance on Vocals/Guitar, Dexous on Guitar/Vocals, Sssnake on Bass, and myself on Drums. Several ladies in the audience belted out Sapphire's vocal parts most of the time and we all had an absolute riot! What a great time with great people and a wonderful food spread to boot! Can't ask for anything more. Next up for this week is Chance Jones for the weekly B.O.B. show on Wednesday. We will be attempting to record a decent sounding live set on this one. Putting up a couple of small diaphragm condenser room mics as well as running direct lines from the PA to a digital 8 track recording console. I'm looking forward to mixing this one up. After that, Saturday brings a new Heavier Than Air Flying Machines show with Ghost Heart, Moss Folk and Owl Eater(from Chicago). HTAFM will have a new song to bring to the table that rocks hard. Looking forward to breaking that one out. Expunk show on April 17th at Jukes as a sidenote. That will be a sweet one as well!

At Chance Jones practice last night, several shows were talked about in the coming months. Here's a list of everything so far:

March 19: G.R.--Sazarac (Diabetes Benefit Show)
March 27: G.R.--Jukes Bar
April 9: Kalamazoo--The Strutt
April 10: Chicago--The Red Line Tap
April 23: Mt. Pleasant--Riverwood Resort
April 29: G.R.--Billy's Lounge with AB! & Coconut Brown
May 13: G.R.--Billy's Lounge(60'S Tribute Cover Show)
May 20: G.R.--Midwest Fest opening night at Founders
June 12: G.R.--Local First Street Party Downtown
June 18: G.R.--Mulligans Otherside
August 1-13: Seattle, WA, Portland, OR and possibly San Fransisco, CA.--Shows TBA

Looks to be a productive year for Chance Jones. Panning out to be a fantastic summer before it's even started! Life is good.