Great Weekend

NOTE: For some reason this never posted and I just realized now.... When the Carnie Bums have a great weekend, we really have a great weekend!  The other week we threw down almost 4 hours of music over two days, drank plenty with old and new friends, and gained a bunch of new fans.  You can't have a better weekend than playing at two cool and very different venues. First, we played the Buffalo Rose in Golden.  This is probably the largest stage we play on and was probably the best performance we have ever done there.  We did a very tight 45 minute set and had our old friends the Mean Toad play before us.  We had old friends in the crowd and had a buddy film the show with a high def. camera.  We can't wait to get the final results and when we do we will post it. On Sunday, we then played Pepperoni's at the base of Mary Jane for their closing of the season.  The place was packed and we had a great ovation.  We played with no set list, took requests and played whatever style the crowd wanted.  We gave out shirts, go lots of tips and had a ton of new people come up to us and compliment us on our playing.  We have literally become the house band for Pepperoni's and plan to make more trips into the mountains to play next ski season.  Even better, we got a new member of the Carnie Bums to sit in with us.  Smitty's son (mini-Smitty) has come to a few practices and is a drummer himself.  We were able to have him sit on the kit for Jumpin Jack Flash while Daddy Smitty shook a tambourine.  He did pretty good and got a huge ovation from the crowded bar.  A new rock star in the making. Set lists-Buffalo Rose 4.840 Gate, Western Dreams, Carnie Bums, 7 Nation Army, Middle Ground, Punks in OK, PBR, Colfax, Jumpin Jack Flash Pepperoni's 4.10 (set list is an approximation as we had no list and just played songs as called from the stage)

Sorry 'bout that

This blog has been inactive for a while, but the Carnie Bums have been very active.  Sorry about that.  It isn't out of malice or spite, simply laziness.  We will update soon.  Sorry 'bout that.

Poetry and the Luck of the Irish on St. Patty's Day

Normally the typical revelry of St. Patty's Day does not include a poetry open mic and folk acoustic set in a coffee house, but that is what Spazz did to celebrate St. Patty's Day.  I booked a gig following a poetry open mic and got spend my day being Irish with a Guinness and some acoustic tunes.

I played Five Leaves Coffee house which is a cool little place in Englewood.  Their large latte's are HUGE and the place feels very inviting.  The poetry was very well done....I half expected a bunch of beatniks with sub par rhymes, but the poets they had were true craftsman of their trade.  I enjoyed it.  My set was a lot of fun.  Most people stuck around and gave me the time of day.  Good banter from the audience and I even got heckled when I played John Lennon's "Luck of the Irish" for St. Patty's day.  A true Irishman took exception to the line "Wish they were English instead."  Fair enough.....they aren't exactly allies.  With my buddy Dave in the house, the obligatory Tramp Stamp>Everlong>Tramp Stamp was thrown into the mix to his delight and my wife's chagrin.

I should be booked there again, once they do their next round of bookings I should be receiving an email.  A mighty fine St. Patty's day and no hangover for work the next day.

Five Leaves Coffeehouse 3.17- Ryan Shane Spazz
Somewhere Between, American Slang, You Don't Deserve Me, Simple Lines, Luck of the Irish, Atlantic City, Goodbye (Doesn't Mean the End), Tramp Stamp>Everlong>Tramp Stamp, I Saw Jesus>Long Black Veil, Everyday Hero, This Land is Our Land  

Non-traditional Venues

While every musician loves the big stage, nice venues with lots of lights shining down on you; sometimes the non-traditional venues offer a much more enjoyable show.  For the Carnie Bums, our first show was playing a friends party and one of our best gigs ever was in a giant tent in a parking lot for climbing convention.  This past weekend we played another great non-traditional venue, at a pizza place/bar at the base of Mary Jane ski resort.  We were the first band to play there in over a decade and we had to make our own "stage" and set up our own PA.  None of that mattered once we started playing.  We played a covers heavy set and the people stopping to get food in between runs loved us.  Lots of energy, lots of cheers, lots of beer flowing in gratitude.  We had a high energy set and played one of our favorite shows.  So much fun.

In addition, we ran most of the set without a setlist.  Set lists are good, but sometimes you just need to call shots as you see them.  Someone asked for "Talking Heads" so we played Psycho Killer, someone asked for Punk, we gave them a block of punk music.  Over 2/3 of the set was called from the stage without a set list.  It felt very liberating and is something the Bums will explore again in the future.  Until then, here is what (we think) we played and some pics to show the energy....

Set list
Pepperoni's- March 12, 2011
Jumpin' Jack Flash, Roadhouse Blues, Seven Nation Army, I've Got a Feeling, Gin and Tower, 40 Gate, Dynastar Man, Four Kicks, I Wanna Be Sedated*, Colfax, Fight for your Right, Psycho Killer, Sympathy for the Devil, London Calling, PBR, Ball and Chain, Punks in Oklahoma, Chocolate, Rockin' In the Free World, Watchtower, Old Habits, Sweet Jane, Hey Hey My My, Are You For Real?

* First time played

Gigs, gigs and more gigs

A lot of times you go a few months without getting many gigs, and then all of a sudden gigs are raining on you.  I never worry when we have a small amount of gigs planned because I know soon it'll rain.  Between Carnie Bums and solo Spazz shows, we have added 6 gigs in the last two days.  Lots of different shows for you to dig your teeth into.

Upcoming Shows:

CARNIE BUMS
3.12 Pepperoni's Winter Park
4.8 Buffalo Rose Golden
5.13 Captain Jack's Westminster
10.29 Captain Jack's Westminster * will be our Halloween costume party

Ryan Shane Spazz Solo
3.17 Five Leaves Coffee House Englewood
4.16 Michelangelo's Denver
8.16 La Dulce Vida Arvada

Unexpected Awesomeness

My favorite part about playing live is the unexpected awesomeness that can occur.  It's why I liked touring with jambands for a while...you never know what might happen.  Last night, turned out a lot different than what we had ever anticipated.

With the unexpected, sometimes it's good, sometimes not so much.  Upon arriving at Captain Jack's, we had a giant scare.  Our bass' electronics went bad and our bass was DOA..  Instead of driving back and getting our acoustic bass, we flew to a local guitar center and convinced them to stay open to let us buy a bass.  Instead of buying El Cheapo, we got a kick ass new bass that will be our permanent bass.  It SMOKED!

Maybe it was the new bass, maybe the thrill of dodging a bullet, but we rocked out three fun sets.  Lots of good energy in the bar, lots of friends, and lots of Captain Jack's patrons who stuck around to hear out set.  A good night all around.  Old friends came out of the woodwork to surprise Spazz with a visit, new fans checked us out and added their names to the mailing list and lots of people came up to say hi and compliment our playing.  It was one of our best shows in a while.

Going with the theme of the night of doing everything on the fly and by the seat of our pants, we got an awkward request.  One of the bartenders asked to sing with us.  As a bar band, requests like this happen often.  We had someone shake a shaker on stage with us, someone sing happy birthday to their friend, other band's members join us on the fly, but never had someone ask to do a song of their choosing.  Furthermore, to choose a song we'd never practiced before.  Spazz got to teach the chords to Radiohead's Creep to C-dawg just before the song started and Smitty fit right in with the tempo.  Overall our guest singer was pretty good and we followed her like we had actually practiced the song.  Can't fool the CARNIE BUMS!

Three hours of hot music and partying.  We have some video and some pics a friend took, we'll get them up soon.  Until then, here is what you missed or were too drunk to remember:

Captain Jack's
2.19
Set I: Gin and Tower, I've Got a Feeling, Western Dreams, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Colfax, 7 Nation Army, Punks in Oklahoma, Jumpin Jack Flash, Are You for Real?

Set 2: 40 Gate, PBR, Captain Jack's, Sympathy for the Devil, Carnie Bums, Big E, Roadhouse Blues, Four Kicks, Tramp Stamp, Sweet Jane

Set 3: Watchtower, Middle Ground, Dynastar Man, Fight for your Right, Money, Old Habits, Creep*, Psycho Killer, Chocolate, Rockin' in the Free World

* by request with Sarina from the bar.  Never been played or practiced before.

Solo Spazz and Acoustic Carnies

What a fun time last night at Michelangelo's Wine Bar.  Great place, great service, and great times.  I (Spazz) got to do a rare solo gig and got some help from my Carnie brothers.  It was a really fun time.  I got to play songs that sit around my house and only get heard by my four walls in my music room.  Everyone was really receptive and I added my Carnie charm to the night.  The band played out first ever acoustic gig and it sounded pretty good.  Four rehearsed songs, then we did 3 unrehearsed at the end of the night.  It just felt like we have some more business to attend to.  In fact, Smitty started everything in motion by spontaneously jumping on stage while I was doing "Come Together" by the Beatles.  Soon the C-dawg joined us and we were taking requests.  Good times.  Most of the songs on the set list are unfamiliar to the Carnie Bums world, but some of the original tunes might start showing up in the Carnie Bums Cannon, so be forewarned.

Ryan Shane Spazz
Michelangelo's Jan. 28
Set 1: Out on the Weekend, Somewhere Between, Goodbye (Doesn't Mean the End), Just Like Old Times, Simple Lines, Blackbird, American Slang, Conspiracy Theory, I Saw Jesus, Long Black Veil, Tramp Stamp>Everlong>Tramp Stamp

Set 2:  Sweet Jane*, Dynastar Man*, Middle Ground*, Big E*, The Wrestler, You Don't Deserve Me, Keystone, Karma Police, Demented Country Song, Everyday Hero, Vanilla Skies, Come Together#, Gin and Tower*, I've Got A Feeling*, Colfax*

* with C-dawg and Smitty
# with Smitty jumping up and joining in

Eck's and Requests

Friends coming to see you play is always nice.  It makes you feel good, you tend to be more relaxed and have more fun when there are people you know personally who came to see you.  Often friends come to shows a few times to fulfill the "friend" duty.  Sometimes though, friends actually dig your stuff.  I have two great friends who have a particular song they love to hear.  Whenever they come, I feel like the band needs to play their song, I mean they come out often, they should be rewarded.  So, even though the band hadn't worked on "Tramp Stamp" in over a month, weren't planning on  playing it, and we had to review intros/transitions/endings before we played it, when I saw my two buddies come in to say hi, I knew we were re-writing the set list.  And we did.  "TRAMP STAMP."

Eck's Salon 1.12

40 Gate, Western Dreams*, PBR, Fight for your Right, Chocolate, Punks in Oklahoma, Are you for Real?, Tramp Stamp, Colfax

* first time played

Here is the first full band shot of the new band with Smitty at the reign of the drums

Spazz Solo

Come out and bring the love...