My band Dull Boy Jack played at our good friends SwellPath’s last big 1st Thursday gathering for Summer 2010. We had the pleasure of playing it last summer and had a great time doing so.
Last year we took a more calculated approach playing specific set lengths and trying to keep it like one of our normal shows but this year was way different and I think that had a lot to do with the crowd. There were SO many people out on the streets it was incredible. We had crowds gather here and there during the first 2 sets but by the time we started the 3rd set…either the booze had set in for the people or they were interested in hearing some music because we had an awesome 3rd set.
Drums and setlist
JT's weapons
We started off with some good blues tunes and by the time we got to “Hoochie Koochie Man” we had quite a crowd lined up. Playing 1st Thursday reminds me of Mardis Gras since there is a constant stream of people walking by and it’s rather festive. This gathering is not too much different except that there’s less drunk people and open displays of skin (which when you’re on stage can be quite interesting, but that’s another post….). We had a big crowd hanging out after that song and also sold some CD’s and even had some gig offers from doing what we do. It was pretty cool. Especially because gigging with the trio is something we haven’t done a lot of in 2010.
JT is ready!
JT's rig
I will say that this gig fired us up and has us re-calibrating what to do in 2011. We have 2 records out for sale and a 3rd that we need to finish. I think now the focus is how many shows do we want to do a year and where do we want to play? These 1st Thursday gigs are awesome though because of the format. We’ll see what this does for our planning.
The competition draws blues bands from all over the western United States and is usually the best time to catch hot West Coast blues bands doing their thing with the winner travelling to Memphis, Tennessee to play one night with other top blues acts from around the country. It’s kind of a grind, 9 bands in a night. Everyone uses the same back line (drums, amps, etc) and each act gets only 10 minutes to set up.
We went on in the early part of the first night and did a yeoman’s job in my humble opinion (I had to deal with a monster 8 piece drum kit, a big deal considering I play a 4 piece kit). We did a 5 song set showcasing some of our more rocking stuff. This clip is our last song from the set, a medley of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Pride and Joy” (done DBJ style) and “Love Rocket” from our second record “Sweet Sassy”.
Thanks to Chrissy Van Osdol for capturing it on vid for us.
Back in November of 2009, my band Bull Boy Jack came up with a cool idea to help market ourselves. We set up at Quiet Life Productions in Vancouver, Washington (owned by our good friend Keith Laurent) and filmed a live rehearsal. Of course we gussied up the studio a bit and vibed it out but the end results are starting to come together.
I’m pleased to share our first video from this session for “My Dog Spike” from our first record “Buttered on the Right Side”.
This video can also be seen on our Reverb Nation page. Credit is also due to JT for putting this clip together with the footage from the shoot, and also to our 4th member Dave Boyle from Studio 212 here in Portland for the live sound and mixing.
A week or two ago, I posted about some recent musical activity with Dull Boy Jack, my Portland based blues/funk/twang trio.
We filmed about 6-7 hours of live footage and recorded as well at Quiet Life Productions sound stage in Vancouver, Washington. We’re going to be assembling the footage into a series of promo clips and a DVD.
This is a clip captured from the “drum cam” of us playing “Dimples” by John Lee Hooker.
It’s fun and gives a sample of what it looks like hanging back with the drummer.
There will be more to come for sure.
I’ve been giving a great deal of thought lately to what I am doing these days musically.
My past is filled with incredible memories, records, sessions, videos, pictures and other assorted memorabilia. I’ve definitely accomplished a lot musically in my past. But today, with the projects I am involved in, I feel a sense of greater accomplishment and pride. I think this stems primarily from the fact that every project I am a part of has balance and equity in how they operate.
None of my current projects are dictated by record companies, the desire to be a part of a record company, or fulfilling someone’s expectations of what we are doing. We do what we do, when we want to do it, and how we want to do it. This past weekend, Dull Boy Jack, my funk/blues/country-fried trio set up at our buddy Keith’s Quiet Life Productions facility with the intent to record ourselves in live performance, and, film it as well.
There was minimal concept other than this and the end result was incredibly satisfying. We had played the previous evening up on Mt Hood with our classic rock cover band and had rolled in sometime around 3 AM. We were all tired but really enthused to play our music and see what we could do. We ended the day after 6 hours of playing and filming with a shit ton of great HD video, lots of cool pictures (thanks again Paul Matera) and good energy towards putting this all together. Our good friend Dave Boyle came with his rig and recorded us and gave up his day for our project.
In the end, this was one of the most satisfying projects I have ever been a part of.
I think the look on my face says it all.
Anyway, thanks to my boys Rich and JT.
We’re enjoying ourselves that much is true.
