New stage but familiar place and Amy Winehouse meets Jane's Addiction meets the Carnie Bums

Last night the Carnie Bums braved the cold and headed up to Westminster to play Blitz Sports Bar.  Blitz used to be the site of Captain Jack's, an old regular stomping ground for the Carnie Bums.  Since it changed hands, the new place added a nice, much larger stage and new lights and PA system.  From the stage, the sound was great and the Bums had a fun time on a Saturday night.

This show allowed us to spread out and play some tunes we haven't played in a while.  We played a few songs that haven't seen stage time with us in over a year and still allowed us to rock some standard Carnie tunes.  We closed the show with our newest cover, Amy Winehouse's "Rehab."  Not necessarily a tune that fits our style, we gave it the Jane's Addiction treatment and added a long tribal bass and drum solo in the middle.  Still a bit of a work in progress, it definitely has the potential to shine.  Blitz also has a great sound guy, John, who was amazing to us all night long.  He even let Spazz borrow his wool "breasts" scarf that sure looked interesting on Spazz during a little hippie segue that occurred in the second set.  Speaking of hippie segues, it sounded like a jamband show for a little while as we jammed our way through a segue of three songs with plenty of impromptu jamming in between.  We sandwiched a cover of Psycho Killer between Conspiracy Theory and Heinz 57 Blues with lots of open ended jamming in between.  The fun part about long gigs like this is that there is time to stretch songs out, and we certainly took advantage of that.

Up next are two great shows at the Oriental Theater and the 12 Volt Tavern.  Details are available at www.facebook.com/carniebums and you need to check us out at one of these shows.  We are going to have some promo offers for these shows and we will make sure we try to bust something unique out at both shows.  For now, we need to sleep off the late night with an afternoon nap.

2.9 Blitz Sports Bar

Set 1: Tramp Stamp, Western Dreams, Me and My Uncle, Roses are Free, I Will Survive, Let the Dice Fly High, Colorado Burning, Like a Rolling Stone, London Calling, Travelin, Hypocrite>Undertow, Teen Angst, Colfax, Sabotage
Set 2: Ace of Spades, Conspiracy Theory>Psycho Killer>Heinz 57 Blues, Roadhouse Blues, Vacuum Tubes, Seven Nation Army, Are You for Real?, Rehab*
*first time played

New songs, new instruments, new headaches?

The Bums went up to the mountains to play Mary Jane ski resort.  This gig has become a regular winter time event.  This is the 5th time the Bums have gone up to Mary Jane to play at Pepperoni's, the pizza shop at the base of the Jane.  We normally run these gigs without a set list, instead we write up a song list of available songs and call things on the night.  We can then call songs based on the crowd, based on how tired we are, or in yesterday's case, the importance of the bass in a song.

Poor Doc Treble.  He spent the morning skiing, set up the stage, was on little sleep and was rewarded with a bass that failed him.  His bass kept cutting in and out and lacking any power.  We changed a 9-volt battery, we changed cords, we put his bass through the PA; nothing really worked.  By the end of the night we had to stop the set early because his based simply stopped working.  The flaws of an electric instrument, sometimes the gremlins of electronics rear their heads and change our plans.

It didn't keep us from having some fun and trying new things.  Before the Bass took a dive, we introduced a Doc Treble original into the Carnie canon.  "Colorado Burning" made its debut to a positive crowd and a fairly flawless first time played.  In addition, Doc Treble took lead vocals on the other new song plays, Operation Ivy's "Knowledge."  Dr. Spazz introduced the mandolin to the Carnie Bums as he played his new mandolin during "Dynastar Man."  The gig also brought the Mayor of Mary Jane out to dance.  He brought the band some of his stickers and danced to several songs before requesting "Mary Jane's Last Dance."  While the band had never played that, we figured out most of the right chords and the Mayor helped us with the lyrics, so we got through a verse and a chorus and promised that next time we visited the Jane we'd have it ready.  We also promised to bring a bass that worked and to play much longer than the two hours we played.

Set list
Pepperoni's at Mary Jane Ski Resort
Sabotage, Should I Stay or Should I Go, Sympathy for the Devil, 40 Gate, Colorado Burning*, Gin and Tower, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Godzilla, Ball and Chain, Knowledge*, Dynastar Man#, Jumping Jack Flash@, London Calling, Colfax, Teen Angst, Seven Nation Army, Ten Sleep, I Wanna Be Sedated, Mary Jane's Last Dance&, Roadhouse Blues, Fight for your right, PBR

* first time played
# Spazz on mandolin
@ with Mini Smitty on Drums
& Unfinished

Transitions

Transition has been the name of the game for the last few months as the Carnie Bums have been initiating Doc Treble into the band.  Songlists are growing, some songs are fading, others are rising; it's a pretty fun time.  We've been playing a bunch of shows lately, private parties, bars, ski resorts, and real rock clubs to get some chops.  With new members in a band, you gotta test it out and see how it drives.  This version drives pretty well.  We are pretty stoked.

We are in transition about venues to play as well.  We are looking to move into some of the ski towns and take advantage of the great love and support we get from the skiers.  In addition, our old staple, Capt. Jack's is no more.  It's now Blitz.  They've got a great new owner and the place is working it's way into being a successful sports bar in Westminster.  Not sure how/if we fit into the plans of the new atmosphere, but we played for the new owner last night and had a great time.  If it was a send off, then it was a good one.

2.4 Blitz
I:  Gin and Tower, 40 Gate>Old Habits, Should I Stay or Should I Go?, I Wanna Be Sedated, PBR, Roadhouse Blues, Big E, Ten Sleep, Roses are Free>Colfax
II:  GODZILLA, Psycho Killer>Heinz 57 Blues, Travelin, Seven Nation Army, Carnie Bums, Chocolate>Are You For Real?>Born on the Bayou, Killing in the Name of
III:  Tramp Stamp>Punks in Oklahoma, Ball and Chain, Jumpin Jack Flash, Undertow*, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Middle Ground, London Calling>Rocking in the Freeworld>Teen Angst
* New song/First time played