Qore - May 17 in Long Beach
Last night, I performed with the Traitors at the Amp Organization's "Qore: A night of Queercore/Homocore Music" which took place at Que Sera in Long Beach. For this show, Elene was not able to make it since she has school on most weeknights, so it was just Brandon, Angela and myself. That meant I played the keyboard parts on most songs which made it more difficult for me, and I wasn't able to move around as much, but it's a trade off as it also shows my keyboard playing abilities.
I was so happy with the turnout of all my friends who came out to see me, I was very surprised that on a Tuesday night in Long Beach we actually had a decent showing. Back when I was with Shitting Glitter, I always dreaded Long Beach shows because I think we had a few good ones and then I remember one horrible one where tons of people came to see the opening act, a solo acoustic "girl with a guitar," and then proceeded to quickly file out as soon as we started setting up, and adding insult to injury, most of them wound up in this country bar that shared a wall with the venue we were playing in and we could SEE THEM IN THERE THROUGH A HUGE WINDOW between the venues. Ugh! Anyway, that scarred me for a long time as far as Long Beach went, but we did have some better shows there later on.
The opening band was called Bellhaunts and it was a four piece with two guys and two gals. The guitar player was really good and they sounded like they had rehearsed a lot. They were kind of dark but also had very melodic guitar work. I think they are pretty young, and the only thing I think they could work on is connecting with the crowd more; they tended to look at their instruments too much while playing. But that is something I did for years and only later on was confident enough to look directly at the crowd instead of at my keyboard. I did enjoy their rockin' set though. Angie theorized that maybe they were all a family and their parents made them rehearse their instruments all the time and then one day they rebelled and became a rock band.
We were next and we opened the set with "Winnipeg Beach," which is actually the first time we've played the full band version; I'd performed it twice acoustically before. Right as we were starting, Dylan showed up with Von and Brad so I was happy they made it in time. It's actually a difficult song for me to sing because a lot of the notes are really low and I practically had to put the microphone in my mouth to hear the low notes. I'm not sure what I can do to improve that but I need to find out because I felt like people couldn't hear the words at all.
The next song was "Bridge to Nowhere" and Angie joined us at this point on backing vocals. I messed up a lot on my keyboard part for this. It really is different when you're rehearsing at home or in a studio, than when you're actually up on stage, under lights, with people staring at you. I kept trying to remind myself to be more careful and pay more attention to the keys my fingers were hitting, but then I was also trying to sing and be entertaining as well.
"Beat of the Broken Hearted" is a Turbo Sunshine song that we premiered next. Angie sings lead on it and the way she sings it reminds me of Lita Ford. I had a feeling this song was going to go down really well and I think it did. It was nice to have a break from singing lead for me, so I could concentrate more on the keyboards, and I got to have a nice synth solo in it that Brandon said I did really well on.
We brought it down a bit with "Strange Season" which I kind of ended up regretting. I didn't feel like it went over well and it stopped the momentum that we had worked up from the previous song. I think if I do a slower song next time I play, I'm going to try "Underwater Breathing" or "So Dystopian" to see if those work any better. "Strange Season" has a lot of harmonies and different layers and maybe it's just not translating that well to the live realm.
"Digital Representation" was up next and I finally got to move around a little on this one. I pushed my keyboard off to the side and took the mic in hand so I could dance. I got a little too into this and didn't play my keyboard parts on the chorus as well as I had in rehearsal, and then I totally just didn't play the solo parts in the breakdown because I felt it would compromise my vocal performance too much. People seemed to like it so I think I made the right decision. I would love to have a keytar on this song so I could really play the solo synth lines while I'm singing.
The next song was the one I was most excited about. It was our cover of the Italodisco Remix of "Never Let Me Go," the latest single from my favorite band, The Human League. I love the original version of this song, but when I heard the Italo mix I just completely fell in love with everything about it. I think in the UK, the remix actually got played as much or more than the regular version of it. Of course no one here knows anything about it so I was happy to spread the word. Angie sang this song, since Susan sings it in the Human League, but Brandon did Joanne's parts and I did Phil's lines. It ended up working really well I thought and I'm thinking it will be one we keep in the set list for awhile. Usually with covers I like to just do them once and move on to something else, but this one needs to be played again! Angie did such a good job learning the song quickly and I really liked the addition of the guitars.
"Alien Nation" was next, which my friend Danny from the band Crush told me afterward was the "best song I'd ever written" so I'm glad we played it! It's the first (and so far only) single from my debut album, and Shawn Sagen, who directed the video, was there last night filming the show so I was really pumped about doing this one actually. And the best part was, since I've been working out and getting in shape, I didn't get winded like I used to when I sang this song at our last full show (which was 6 months ago - can't believe so much time has gone by since then). The only thing is, like "Winnipeg Beach," a lot of the notes on the verses are really low and I have a hard time projecting them. But all in all, I think it went really well.
We closed the set with another cover, "Dance Hall Days" by Wang Chung, which is another song that's technically more in the Turbo Sunshine repertoire but I wanted to give Brandon a chance to do some lead vocals. It was a good song to close with because enough people recognized it and it's really fun and upbeat. I like my keyboard parts on it too, especially the one I wrote for the third verse which isn't part of the original song.
I think people were expecting us to maybe do at least one more song, but we hadn't worked any others up and I wanted to keep the set tight, to leave people wanting more, and because I'm sure Blockshot was eager for their turn to take the stage, having traveled all the way from Germany! This was the second stop on their US tour and I was excited about seeing them. They were another two four piece, but with one guy and three girls. Odd how, if Elene had been able to perform with us tonight, each band would have been 4 people with a combination of males and females in each lineup!
Blockshot's music is inspired by Riot Girl bands, but with keyboards thrown in the mix. The guy was the keyboard player and Brandon and I helped him get set up since he was running through our PA. The bassist also borrowed our big pink bass amp. I really enjoyed their set. I had listened to their music on their website earlier in the day, but they ended playing almost all new material. I had to go outside to get some fresh air with Von for a bit, since I hadn't seen him in forever and wanted to chat a little, but when we came back Blockshot was already on their last song. So I tried to dance and act a fool to make up for missing some of their set. They seemed to appreciate that!
Afterward, we loaded all the equipment in the cars and did some more talking, thanking, etc. and finally I was in my car, by myself, driving back to Los Angeles. I cranked up the Human League CD to hear the remix of "Never Let Me Go," and then after that I had to pull off the freeway so I could get one of my own CD's from the trunk to listen to at full blast the rest of the drive. Talk about an Egomaniac!!!
I was so happy with the turnout of all my friends who came out to see me, I was very surprised that on a Tuesday night in Long Beach we actually had a decent showing. Back when I was with Shitting Glitter, I always dreaded Long Beach shows because I think we had a few good ones and then I remember one horrible one where tons of people came to see the opening act, a solo acoustic "girl with a guitar," and then proceeded to quickly file out as soon as we started setting up, and adding insult to injury, most of them wound up in this country bar that shared a wall with the venue we were playing in and we could SEE THEM IN THERE THROUGH A HUGE WINDOW between the venues. Ugh! Anyway, that scarred me for a long time as far as Long Beach went, but we did have some better shows there later on.
The opening band was called Bellhaunts and it was a four piece with two guys and two gals. The guitar player was really good and they sounded like they had rehearsed a lot. They were kind of dark but also had very melodic guitar work. I think they are pretty young, and the only thing I think they could work on is connecting with the crowd more; they tended to look at their instruments too much while playing. But that is something I did for years and only later on was confident enough to look directly at the crowd instead of at my keyboard. I did enjoy their rockin' set though. Angie theorized that maybe they were all a family and their parents made them rehearse their instruments all the time and then one day they rebelled and became a rock band.
We were next and we opened the set with "Winnipeg Beach," which is actually the first time we've played the full band version; I'd performed it twice acoustically before. Right as we were starting, Dylan showed up with Von and Brad so I was happy they made it in time. It's actually a difficult song for me to sing because a lot of the notes are really low and I practically had to put the microphone in my mouth to hear the low notes. I'm not sure what I can do to improve that but I need to find out because I felt like people couldn't hear the words at all.
The next song was "Bridge to Nowhere" and Angie joined us at this point on backing vocals. I messed up a lot on my keyboard part for this. It really is different when you're rehearsing at home or in a studio, than when you're actually up on stage, under lights, with people staring at you. I kept trying to remind myself to be more careful and pay more attention to the keys my fingers were hitting, but then I was also trying to sing and be entertaining as well.
"Beat of the Broken Hearted" is a Turbo Sunshine song that we premiered next. Angie sings lead on it and the way she sings it reminds me of Lita Ford. I had a feeling this song was going to go down really well and I think it did. It was nice to have a break from singing lead for me, so I could concentrate more on the keyboards, and I got to have a nice synth solo in it that Brandon said I did really well on.
We brought it down a bit with "Strange Season" which I kind of ended up regretting. I didn't feel like it went over well and it stopped the momentum that we had worked up from the previous song. I think if I do a slower song next time I play, I'm going to try "Underwater Breathing" or "So Dystopian" to see if those work any better. "Strange Season" has a lot of harmonies and different layers and maybe it's just not translating that well to the live realm.
"Digital Representation" was up next and I finally got to move around a little on this one. I pushed my keyboard off to the side and took the mic in hand so I could dance. I got a little too into this and didn't play my keyboard parts on the chorus as well as I had in rehearsal, and then I totally just didn't play the solo parts in the breakdown because I felt it would compromise my vocal performance too much. People seemed to like it so I think I made the right decision. I would love to have a keytar on this song so I could really play the solo synth lines while I'm singing.
The next song was the one I was most excited about. It was our cover of the Italodisco Remix of "Never Let Me Go," the latest single from my favorite band, The Human League. I love the original version of this song, but when I heard the Italo mix I just completely fell in love with everything about it. I think in the UK, the remix actually got played as much or more than the regular version of it. Of course no one here knows anything about it so I was happy to spread the word. Angie sang this song, since Susan sings it in the Human League, but Brandon did Joanne's parts and I did Phil's lines. It ended up working really well I thought and I'm thinking it will be one we keep in the set list for awhile. Usually with covers I like to just do them once and move on to something else, but this one needs to be played again! Angie did such a good job learning the song quickly and I really liked the addition of the guitars.
"Alien Nation" was next, which my friend Danny from the band Crush told me afterward was the "best song I'd ever written" so I'm glad we played it! It's the first (and so far only) single from my debut album, and Shawn Sagen, who directed the video, was there last night filming the show so I was really pumped about doing this one actually. And the best part was, since I've been working out and getting in shape, I didn't get winded like I used to when I sang this song at our last full show (which was 6 months ago - can't believe so much time has gone by since then). The only thing is, like "Winnipeg Beach," a lot of the notes on the verses are really low and I have a hard time projecting them. But all in all, I think it went really well.
We closed the set with another cover, "Dance Hall Days" by Wang Chung, which is another song that's technically more in the Turbo Sunshine repertoire but I wanted to give Brandon a chance to do some lead vocals. It was a good song to close with because enough people recognized it and it's really fun and upbeat. I like my keyboard parts on it too, especially the one I wrote for the third verse which isn't part of the original song.
I think people were expecting us to maybe do at least one more song, but we hadn't worked any others up and I wanted to keep the set tight, to leave people wanting more, and because I'm sure Blockshot was eager for their turn to take the stage, having traveled all the way from Germany! This was the second stop on their US tour and I was excited about seeing them. They were another two four piece, but with one guy and three girls. Odd how, if Elene had been able to perform with us tonight, each band would have been 4 people with a combination of males and females in each lineup!
Blockshot's music is inspired by Riot Girl bands, but with keyboards thrown in the mix. The guy was the keyboard player and Brandon and I helped him get set up since he was running through our PA. The bassist also borrowed our big pink bass amp. I really enjoyed their set. I had listened to their music on their website earlier in the day, but they ended playing almost all new material. I had to go outside to get some fresh air with Von for a bit, since I hadn't seen him in forever and wanted to chat a little, but when we came back Blockshot was already on their last song. So I tried to dance and act a fool to make up for missing some of their set. They seemed to appreciate that!
Afterward, we loaded all the equipment in the cars and did some more talking, thanking, etc. and finally I was in my car, by myself, driving back to Los Angeles. I cranked up the Human League CD to hear the remix of "Never Let Me Go," and then after that I had to pull off the freeway so I could get one of my own CD's from the trunk to listen to at full blast the rest of the drive. Talk about an Egomaniac!!!
Comments