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.

Probably not. The only reason I went last year, was to support and help EBJ win the whole thing. Plus, I wanted to see what a “Battle of the Bands” event was like. I still stand by my feelings about the event, that most of it was a joke and pretty pretentious. I listened through all of the bands that are a part of the finalists this year, and most of the bands this year aren’t any good except for one, who I think will probably win the whole thing. She is Margo Macero. Her songwriting is real good, and she has a great voice. I know what good talent is, and she is it. She has it all. I wish her luck and rooting for her. Check her out, here. Her songwriting is pretty spot on. If she’s not the one to win the whole thing tomorrow, then there’s something wrong with the event and I will dislike Battle of the Bands even more. I can’t see anyone else winning the thing but her. I’m betting my money she’ll win. She’s got my support.

Kev

I appreciate all fans and supporters of music of all genres, but the kind of music fans that bother me are the ones who support punk rock & so called glam bands. It is my opinion that they have the most pretentious and evil fans ever. Just my opinion, and I have the right to rant about it. What makes them pretentious is that they pretend something that they are not or being expressive of their self importance, things like that. The fans of the punk rock and glam genre, can be just as ego driven and childish as the bands themselves can be. Which to me is no surprise that they act this way ’cause a lot of them are hard partiers. Either alcoholics or drug addicts. Pretty sad since most of them are adults who forgot how to grow up. They think they’re special people. Dressing up to fit the genre of music, and all that stuff. Weird hairdo, and tattoos. They also try to be funny in social networking sites with all their friends ’cause they’re bored losers with nothing to do.

Again, I appreciate all fans supporting music, but not all of them are cool people. And that’s the point of my post. Some music fans can be cool people, you just gotta find the right ones. Fans of punk and glam rock, love the attention they get ’cause they just want to amuse their favorite band that they support. This post is not aimed at anyone or any band in particular. I just had to be real about this. This post might ruffle some feathers a little bit, but it had to be said.

Kev

Whether I am gigging one of my own gigs, or supporting other bands/artists, one thing I love to do is talk with the musicians after the gig. When their performance is over with. I like to go up and shake hands with them, tell them “great job” and try to strike a conversation from there. There is a reason I like to do this. Not only that it’s a great way of networking with other musicians, I just like learning about their personalities. The way they are when they are not performing. Over the years in local music, I have learned that all local musicians have different personalities. Some can be very friendly and down to earth, they will care to talk to you. Some can be pretty shy, quiet, they keep for themselves. Some can be rude and can be downright douchebags. I’ve seen it all. I like to talk to musicians, as a way of observing how they can act professionally in local music. Some musicians can be great with people, some are not great to people. It’s pretty interesting that musicians have mixed feelings and emotions.

When I’m talking to musicians, I usually don’t let them know that I’m a musician too ’cause I’ll let them figure that out on their own. A lot of them usually do. I try not to promote myself with other musicians ’cause again, I want to leave my ego at the door and I try to make it about them, and not about me. I’m interested in learning more about them. Musicians can get into pretty interesting discussions. If you treat musicians with respect after a gig, they’ll treat you with respect in return. You can even land a friendship with them as well. I find musicians to be interesting people. I enjoy interacting with them.

Plus, another reason why I like to talk to musicians after their performance is so that they can feel good when they walk out of a gig. I want them to make themselves feel proud and happy, so I try my best to give them the best feedback possible. Instead of saying the typical and boring, “Good job”, I try to say things like, “That was an amazing set. Phenomenal job.” Ya know, things like that. Feedback that will put a smile on their face. Bands don’t get a lot of feedback from people from the crowd after a gig, and that’s another reason I do it. I just want to make them feel good. Try to make them have a positive night. I try to talk with each band member as much as I can.

I also enjoy buying their merchandise at shows as a way to help them out. Whether buying a CD or t-shirt, whatever, it’s all good. If you ever see me at a local gig sometime, this is what you will see. Me supporting other musicians as much as possible. If musicians don’t care to get support from ya (believe me, I’ve seen it a few times), move along, nothing to see here. Just talk to the ones that will support ya in return. They’ll give you support in return as a way to return the favor for you supporting them.

This is how you create your own scene, by talking and networking with other musicians. Whenever I’m ready to form my own band, I should have no problem finding members that will be willing to play with me ’cause I’m good at talking with musicians. I can find musicians easily and there are some out there actually enjoy my music. So I shouldn’t have a problem forming a band at all.

Kev

I miss the earlier days of local music when everyone saw themselves as local musicians and unsigned. That was back in the days when the internet wasn’t as big. The internet certainly changed the way local musicians look at music for sure. Pretty much most local musicians want to see themselves as rock stars these days. They either think they are “indie” artists or they think they are famous or something. They want to think of themselves as something important and great. Most unsigned acts want to make the big time ’cause they get so obsessed with the mainstream.

I still see myself as a true local musician. What makes someone a true local musician? The way I look at it, is someone who doesn’t obsess with fame and doesn’t see themselves as a “local” superstar. A true local musician is someone who isn’t a self centered ego-maniac like most musicians seem to be these days. Someone who isn’t worried about how many people show up at your gigs or what kind of venue you play at. Someone who doesn’t mind going to open mics all the time just to play out. Someone who actually sees music as a hobby, and not a job. Most musicians around here see music as a “job”, but not with me. I never lived the rock star lifestyle as a local musician like most seemed to do these days. Someone who doesn’t care to get paid or not. A true local musician is someone who doesn’t think they’re bigger or better than other people. They would also admit that their talent is crap, that they play for the love of it.

It’s sad that the way this scene is, but it is what it is, everyone wants to see themselves as stars lately. I’ve never had that problem over the years. I try my best to not be a self centered person and try to leave my ego at the door. I try to support other musicians and music fans as much as possible. I try my best to have a positive musical life. I see music as a way of life. If you’re doing it for fame or for your own ego, then you’re doing it for all the wrong reasons. Music makes me human. I’ll never get away from it. I’ll be a musician and music lover ’til the day I die.

I’m not disrespecting the scene in anyway, just being real about stuff. I hope all musicians and bands get success and move forward, but when they do, that doesn’t make them any better than others. There are only very few local musicians around here that see themselves as local musicians, but we don’t see that much around here anymore. I blame that on social networking sites like myspace/facebook over the years. That’s when musicians started to show that they all suffer delusions of grandeur. Musicians are nuts, I tell ya.

Kev