The more I support local music in downtown Albany, the more it makes me want to get a band of my own. I could see myself rockin’ out on bigger stages like that. Maybe someday it’ll happen but if not, that’s still cool. If I were to ever get a band, my idea of the band is to be a loud, tight, and in your face, no bullshit rock n’ roll band. It’s gonna be hard rock mayhem, for sure. Those few garageband songs I did, full band, will kind of give you that hint. I want to be a hard rockin’ band. Someday I will get my own band going, I’m just trying to improve my playing here. Need to get my sense of timing down better, and trying to improve my improvising skills. So I’m not really rushing to get a band going. I do have professional enough sounding gear for a band, so that’s a step closer. I know some of you guys want to see me have a good career in music, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here. Gotta be careful with that. Don’t want to rush things.

Kev

Yes, so I decided to go to “Pearl Palooza” fest in Albany. Someone that I knew was going, so I decided to go with this person. We tried to make EBJ’s set but we got there too late, they were just finishing up their set when we arrived, but that’s okay, I’ll always see them again another time.

I also wanted to check out some of the local bands on the local stage. I supported most of the bands on the local stage, ’cause the main stage had a bunch of indie bands I never heard before, although, I did catch the indie band, Oberhofer, on the main stage, and they were pretty good, I might look into them more.

For the local stage at Pearl Palooza, I did catch Wild Adriatic (Travis Gray’s band), and wow, they were absolutely phenomenal and pretty sick. Wild Adriatic played a really tight set. They are kind of like a dance and soul band, but they add a lot of rock n’ roll into the mix. The musicianship was very good. I got to meet Travis himself briefly sometime before their set, and met the rest of the guys in the band, and they were very friendly. I think Travis knew who I was too from the local music forums over the years. He seemed pretty happy that I came out. They played a killer set and I plan to see them again soon.

I also caught this local band called, Mirk, and they killed it too. They are a soul, R&B and hip hop band. There was a lot of rapping in this band, and they were just fun.

I saw Phantogram for the first time ever, finally. Sarah Barthel’s and Josh Carter’s band, who are now heading into fame, and they played a hometown show. Sarah and Josh are Greenwich natives actually. That’s one thing that I liked about Pearl Palooza, GREENWICH musicians, EBJ and Phantogram. My hometown, Greenwich, are taking over local music, and yes, it’s kind of killing me inside a little bit admittedly but in a good way. I want Greenwich to get recognized in music. Phantogram played an interesting set. They were good, of course, but they were different live. Something about them.

The festival got rained on, toward the end of Phantogram’s set. They didn’t play a very long set, it seemed kind of short, but they did good. I didn’t get to meet Sarah and Josh ’cause of the large crowd, but hopefully sometime though.

It was an awesome time. I’m glad I finally got to see Wild Adriatic ’cause I’ve been praising that band in this blog for quite a while. Travis Gray is a pretty talented guy. If there was another band that I can think of that deserves to hit the big time, and go national, Wild Adriatic could get there.

It was a good evening. I enjoy supporting local bands. It’s a good feeling to do. Local musicians are interesting people.

The festival was interesting ’cause there was people watching the festival from the rooftop of buildings and there were people watching the show from their apartments that were above the bars on Pearl St.

I think I took several photos of the Fest with my cell phone camera, I’ll have to figure out how to get ’em on here, ’cause I’m still not good with cell phones even if I had a cell phone for a while now.

Kev

Last night, nobody made any big announcements on who the big winner is for this year’s SPAC Battle of the Bands, finally, Andrew Gregory made this tweet  on who won. Some crap cover band named, Crush, from Glens Falls. From what I understand the band are full of 10 -15 year old kids. Not bashing the kids, but the fact that an unknown cover band won the whole thing. Margo Macero should have won it, oh well, I’ll still support her though ’cause her music is good. See how awful Battle of the Bands competitions can be? They usually turn out to be disappointing results. They’re a popularity contest nothing more, just to show you how big of a fanbase a band have, and their talent is usually ignored and overlooked. Well, that’s how local music is these days. Everyone seems to concentrate on the popular and well known bands and ignoring the talented artists around here. This area is bullshit with local music and I’ve been saying that from day 1.

Kev

I know I haven’t posted a Loren Weisman blog in a long while, but he finally came up with something that interested me. He wrote a little something about that when bands & musicians play to small crowds, you should always play your best as possible. Even to an empty room or to just 5 people.

Read his blog on it, here.

I absolutely agree!

Over the years, when I gig out, I played to empty rooms to large crowds myself. Even when you’re just playing to the bar tender alone, YOU MUST GIVE IT YOUR BEST, performance. You should play every single gig as if it was your last. Kill it every time.

I can’t tell you how many friggin’ times, I’ve seen bands & musicians play to small crowds or empty rooms, they half ass their performance on purposely ’cause they’re disappointed that they are playing to a small crowd. They would shorten their sets or not play as good performances but when they do play larger crowds, that’s when they play amazingly tight. It doesn’t matter how many people show up. KILL IT EVERY TIME, I repeat.

I played to plenty of empty bar room gigs, and I had gigs where I only played to like 5-10 people, but I play my best at every one of them. Play it like you’re at a real concert. Watch my live performances in youtube, and you’ll see what I mean. I did play in front of large crowds too though. Playing your best every time, really does help build a bigger audience and fan base.

With my performances, I try to give them the best show possible. I want people to walk out happy and I’ve had done it before. I’ve surprised many people that they didn’t think I could perform that good and I get people saying to me how confident I was on stage. That’s how you want to do it. Never let people down, at all.

Kev

Edit to add: On top of all this, playing your best to a small crowd anyway, is a perfect excuse to practice or rehearse for your future gigs. Think about it.