Monday, May 30, 2011

C-horse' San Francisco weekend! 5/13 - 5/16

Our first time playing in San Francisco couldn't have gone better! With good company in tow (Rufo Chan Jr. of Los Angeles band the Terrapin and our good friend Riley), we left Friday evening with plans to stop in King City for the evening, perhaps a bit after midnight. In taking the road less traveled - and by that, we mean the barren, spooky 46 west - we didn't roll into the small town/glorified trucker stop until 3:30am. It felt good to have a beer (or two) and toast to a successful first leg of our journey. "Pop Memories of the 60s" infomercial was our sweet soundtrack until the birds started chirping and we knew we had to get some shut-eye.




The next morning, Courtney presented each of us with a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses that she had purchased prior to our departure, saying "I felt we had to have these." We took a quick photo in front of our rock n' roll palace before setting out to Pirate Cat Radio in SF. We spent the night in room '143'...just pointing that out to those of you that might remember '90s text code!



Pirate Cat Radio was FUN. Super casual, cool environment, broadcasting from their indie coffee shop. DJ Molicious and DJ Tim put us at ease. We had a nice on-air chat, and they played "Tongues" and "What!" during the segment. We worked out an acoustic version of our new song "Squeeze" in the van on our way to the studio that went off quite nicely. Before we left the booth, DJ Molicious and Tim launched into the naughty portion of their program, "Sexy Time." Most of us obliged our host and hostess by reading from the SF Craigslist "Casual Encounters" board. 




After the interview, we stuck around for some raspberry lambic and conversation before heading off to the Haight-Ashbury District. That evening, we stayed with our friend Ronnie from the band Waiting Room, who we would play with at The Hemlock Tavern the following night. Ronnie is not only a talented banjo player and songwriter; she is an extremely gracious hostess, makes a damn good breakfast, and lives with one of the coolest cats in the world, Vinnie. Sunday was our big day; we awoke to a ton of activity going on in the park down the street. Unbeknownst to us at the time we planned our trip, our visit would coincide with Bay to Breakers, a history San Francisco-based foot race that is celebrated city-wide. San Franciscans dress up in outrageous costumes... or, as you can see from the picture below, opt to wear nothing at all.



We made our way deep into The Haight to do a little 'busking'. Mack is a street-performance veteran, but this was a first for Courtney, Cecilia and myself. Amoeba Music SF seemed like the perfect location for winging an impromptu acoustic set; a couple people joined in (singing alternate lyrics, of course) and a trombone player accompanied us on "Whiskey Coke."  We had a couple hours left before the show, so we headed over to North Beach for a stiff drink at Vesuvio, the famous beat poet hangout. Although we would have been happy incubating for hours in this perfect drinking establishment, we had a show to play.



The Hemlock Tavern is a perfect spot to play an out-of-town show. There's a built-in patronage, the sound is decent, and we were lucky to be on a cohesive bill of bands we had never played with before. T-shirts and CDs were sold, and we made some new friends that really seemed to like the set. After a successful conclusion to the musical potion of the night, we set out on our drive home through the early morning hours. Thanks to our friend Rufo for safely piloting us back to Los Angeles. 


"Choose life, not snacks..."



C-horse was definitely bitten by the tour bug. We will assuredly be venturing out again soon!  
- Lindz

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Time to get out of town! C-horse heads to San Francisco this weekend for Hemlock Tavern show Sunday, May 15th!

C-horse is heading up to San Francisco this weekend! For our first performance in northern California, we will be playing with our friends Waiting Room and the Beehavers at the Hemlock Tavern on Sunday, May 15, 1131 Polk Street, San Francisco. Cover is $6. Friends in San Francisco and musician friends tell us the Hemlock is great, and judging from photos, the place looks pretty awesome.



The day before, we'll be guests on San Francisco indie radio station Pirate Cat Radio! Interview, playing some tunes, maybe even live! We're on Saturday, the 14th, 6pm. You can listen at www.PCRCollective.org

MEEEOW!!!

More later.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Recap: Our show at The Roxy with Boxer Rebellion, Saturday, April 30th!

We had a brilliant time at The Roxy on Sunset the other night, opening for the Boxer Rebellion! C-horse was asked shortly after our downtown residency at Casey’s Irish Bar if we’d be interested in opening for the band, and we of course said yes. Boxer Rebellion create expansive, heartfelt brit rock similar to Coldplay or Radiohead’s earlier material, and the band was recently featured in the Drew Barrymore movie Going the Distance. We knew this would be a good opportunity to play for a crowd of younger people, which excited us; we always hope to play for the kids! To our delight, the gig sold out a day prior to show-time.

We carpooled over from our home base in Pasadena the night of the show. Street traffic into Hollywood is almost always a nightmare, but we had plenty of time to focus and arrange our merch in the Roxy loading space before the staff was ready to set us up. As we dealt with gear and performed a time-sensitive line-check, we could hear the venue filling up on the other side of the curtain. The soundmen finished adjusting our mic levels seconds before the drapes were drawn. The faces of the crowd were revealed as we launched into “Tongues.” As we suspected, the floor was packed!

Photo by Yenny Johnson

Our set began at 8:30pm sharp and ran the full thirty minutes we were allotted. We felt good about the performance and had a very warm reception. For me, the biggest difference between an intimate show for friends and longtime fans and playing a higher-profile event for many strangers is the attendants’ expectation levels. Friends have more of a sense of what to expect even if they are going to see you play for the first time. Because they know you, your musical tastes, the different personalities in your band, they come to the show with certain insights. A show like this one at The Roxy is a clean slate sort of experience. Maybe certain showgoers google your band in preparation for your set, but generally, they have no idea what they are in for. As a player, this is a treat! Everyone’s excited about the evening; they paid at least $15, by choice, to get in! Being that most of them don’t know the bands personally, they are strictly there for the music. No obligation. The majority is willing to give your music a chance. And it’s great when you can see on a stranger's face that your music is having a positive impact.

In any case, we had a rockin’ good time. Set list:

Tongues
Stars
Know Me
Beds
Spoon
Oh Reconcile
What
Squeeze

A good moment for me was seeing a few high-school-aged girls scattered around the venue singing along on the choruses of “What.”

Thanks to our friends Paco Jimenez and Chris Funk for sporting plaid and being awesome merch men. And a big thank you to the lovely Yenny Johnson for these photos. -- Lindsay


 Photos by Yenny Johnson

Monday, May 2, 2011

Interview with Cecilia at Radio Free Silver Lake



Radio Free Silver Lake.com talked to Cecilia over the weekend in preparation for our show with The Boxer Rebellion. Check out the interview here.

(photo by our lady Erin Stone)