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...

Old Curtis and ramblings from stage right

I am a little late on reporting on our Old Curtis Street Pub gig, so I thought I would do something a little different.  I am going to write some observations from the stage and while many of them directly reference the Old Curtis Street Pub show, I am not going to directly review that show.  Instead you can check out the set list at the bottom.  Hopefully we play there again soon.

-  There is nothing better than having strangers compliment you on an original or having strangers dancing while you are playing your originals.
-  Playing originals is more rewarding, scary, and mentally draining than doing covers.
-  Playing covers is fun though too.
-  The worst feeling is indifference.  Cheer, boo, whatever, but indifference cuts through
-  Making it in the music business means you have a roadie.
-  Cleaning up after a gig SUCKS.
-  Monitors that work are amazing.
-  Jager is the best shot for a stage.  It goes down quick, doesn't leave a horrible feeling in the throat/stomach and works quick.
-  Jager is not good for a flawless gig.  The number of errors late in a set increases proportionally to the number of shots of Jager early in the set.
-  It's hard to jump, dance, play and sing.  You do get out of breath.  There is no question most people who dance and sing lip-sync.  I am sure of that.
-  Denver has a cool local scene, anyone who claims otherwise doesn't go out much.
-  PBR really is the best beer to drink on stage.  Dark beers/IPA's are not good to chug quick between songs.  PBR fits that perfectly.
-  We really do have as much fun as it looks.  It's the time we get to act like kids.

Set list Old Curtis Street Pub 12.10.10
Colfax, Seven Nation Army, Middle Ground, Psycho Killer, 40 Gate, London Calling, Tramp Stamp, Punks in Oklahoma, Are you for Real?, Jumpin Jack Flash, Rockin' in the Freeworld