December Retrospective

The year is winding down and I only saw one show in December, the Veracity show. My best attended Veracity show yet with all the credit going to the bands: the Now & Thens, Trimtab and the Bridge and the Beat.





After Christmas I took my guitar to the cabin in Dungeness and when I played it out by the bluff by my Mom's remains a bald eagle flew up and screamed as it landed in a tree a little further to the West on the bluff. I played a bit more and it screamed again and flew off, and the red tailed hawk starting making a racket. I enjoyed the experience and I felt like I was sharing it with mom on some level.


So I only was 3 public performances at the Veracity show in December and the year wound down petty quietly on the music front. For the year that pencils out to 388 performances, 373 if I don't count the 15 that I saw "live streamed" over the internet. Petty awesome year in music, I ended up with 647 videos on my YouTube channel, which got 27,400 views. I posted 102 entries on my blog, almost 2 a week, and got 8,200 views. Almost too much good music to single anything out - but some things stood out, lilke seeing one my new favorite bands the Globes:

Shows in bars like Ryan LaPlante

and piles of shows at the Vera Project










The festivals let me really pile up the performances and I saw an insane variety of great shows at Sasquatch



I could go on, but this is turning into more than a December retrospective. I've still got most of the festivals and a few other shows to cover, and I should pick a few top ten lists, I'll link to those posts as I get around to blogging them.

December Veracity

We rescheduled the December Veracity to 12-21-11 due to a conflict and I was worried about confusion about the date affecting attendance; turns out there was no need to worry.

We got the best crowd since I've been booking Veracity shows, total around 70. The photo only catches some of the crowd, it went back further and more people were on the stairs and the walk way. Definitely a tribute to the bands, which did a good job bringing in the crowd. The show is much more fun with a good crowd!

First up was the Now & Thens

Two guitars, bass and drums, sound ranges from a bit punk to more rock and roll, appealing young band.

Good guitar oriented rock, and they definitely brought in a crowd.

Next up was Trimtab

Power trio lineup with guitar, bass and drums, and no vocals. Instrumental music is a bit more challenging to get across and with a trio it's even more so, no rhythm guitar or keyboard to fill in, no vocals and less melodic emphasis, but Trimtab pulled it off.

It's not a sound I hear a lot today, but I've always been fond of it. The song above has a slightly ska sounding rhythm guitar bit and a busy drum line filling the sound, it had me bouncing around. The bass player has a 5 string bass and occasionally played bar chords, allowing him to step in and provide rhythm guitar type touches while the lead guitarist played leads in the foreground. Nice stuff!

The headliners were The Bridge and the Beat

They had a lead vocalist, 2 guitars, bass, keyboards, and drums. They also brought some young kids (maybe 4 or 5 year olds) which I find appealing. The lead vocalist was appealing and her interactions with her toddler were pretty amusing.

I kept about a minute of intro on this song, it's worth the delay for the toddler and the explanation of the song. Interesting progression into the song, mid tempo as the instruments join in, builds nicely as it goes. The deeper band pays off in the way they are able to vary the sound within the song.

This one is called "Sail" if I heard them right, another nice original composition. Interesting transition almost 2 minutes in, ratchets up the intensity.

This was probably my most successful Veracity show yet and it was good to see lots of kids (and toddlers) attending the show. School being out for Christmas break may have contributed, but I think it was mostly a credit to the bands that the attendance was so good.