From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V11 #101 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Wednesday, April 19 2006 Volume 11 : Number 101 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: T-shirts [Brian Daniels ] RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! ["Keith Stansell" ] RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! ["Keith Stansell" ] Re: Alloy: T-shirts [Melissa Jordan ] RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! ["Stephen Tilson" ] RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! [Melissa Jordan ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 10:27:44 -0400 From: Brian Daniels Subject: Alloy: T-shirts Is there any way to order a t-shirt? I was fortunate enough to see the SF show at the Mighty, but the shirts didn't exist at that time... - --Brian - -- I think my life is fuller because I realize that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm delighted with the width of the world! ---Richard Feynman Brian Daniels bitmage@bellsouth.net http://www.eviloverlord.net ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 09:26:00 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! Is there a maximum email length Smoe allows? I sent out my review last night, but it hasn't come across. I'll try breaking it up. Here goes, part 1 - trip to SF and the Independent: - --------------------------------------- Hey - sorry for the delay, was too tired and busy with travel to post a proper review. Not sure that I could anyway. I don't even totally remember the set list. (no spoilers) I will say Stephen noted that there was one song missing from the set that someone else said he played in earlier shows. I take it he must be still having problems with it. First off - I had a great weekend. I flew in Friday afternoon and due to longer than expected times to get my car and get driving north, I wasn't going to be able to meet up with Mary to get a tour of her workplace. She did give me some homework to study later though - 4 bottles of it. On the way up I stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge and played the tourist. There are a couple of my shots on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/sole_i , more will go up later as I have time to get them off my camera. I met up with Stephen and Mary at their house. I gave Mary and Stephen some ribbing about the sheer amount of Thomas Dolby items they have - posters, multiple copies of the same CD and such. So I've been designated as a "poser" because I don't have everything and didn't buy The Flat Earth until the early 90's - not sure how, but I just missed it at the time. We went to a local Sushi place Friday for dinner and conversation. Saturday I drove into town a bit before Stephen and Mary arrived in town to get some sightseeing in. They were moving a bit slower than my Mountain Time zone sleep pattern. I had a hotel booked for Saturday night downtown. We finally got together (traffic can suck around Japan town during the cherry blossom festival). Stephen and Mary gave me a whirlwind tour of the city. We then went to my hotel in the Japan town area were we freshened up before the concert. We got to the Independent sometime around 8:00 I think. There were around 15 people lined up at the door, so not too bad. The line quickly got longer and there was some poor guy walking around 'I need two tickets'. I guess he found out too late that the show was sold out. Stephen's friend Michael showed up and joined us in line. The Independent was cozy. It was perhaps around the size and shape of the Anaheim HOB with a lower ceiling and lower stage that sort of jutted into the room. Due to the lower ceiling, the video screen actually reached the floor of the stage. Thomas' gear was on the left of the stage, so as to not block the screen. He was close to the front of the stage though, not off in the back. The setup appeared to be similar to what he had in the January shows. The MAC monitor was again behind him pointing to the audience. Some of the modified vintage equipment was still there - although the scope with the eerie green glow was not there. The Independent had tables and chairs on the main floor in front of the stage and standing room on the sides and back. There was an upstairs VIP area overlooking the room. We managed to get a couple of table front and center because the 15 that made it in before us all took the tables on the left near Thomas' gear. When someone from the club came though and lit the candles on the little round tables, I sort of had a flashback to the video of "I Scare Myself". Everyone was seated except for this woman wearing a vintage Flat Earth Tour T-Shirt. She stood at the edge of the stage directly in front of Thomas' equipment. She was there from the moment the doors opened to the end of the show in sort of a strange trance. Because of the way she situated herself as close as possible to Thomas and stood there without really talking to anyone, Mary and I dubbed her the "Creepy Stalker Girl". You can see her in the top right of the video screen in this picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sole_i/130224824/ I'm sure she was really nice, and Stephen even talked to her a bit (or perhaps Flirted as Mary put it). He didn't know we were calling her the "Creepy Stalker Girl". Lunesse was set up in an area to the right of the stage. A line quickly formed selling the T-Shirts and posters for the show (these were the custom vacuum tube posters just for the Independent show - the artist was there signing and numbering them). http://www.gigposters.com/posters.php?poster=62506 They have two varieties of concert T-shirts available. One with the picture from the ThomasDolby.com web site, and another with a drawing of the motorcycle goggles. On the back is the tour name and dates. You could get them plain for $20 or autographed for $30. The only CDs available to purchase were Golden Age of Wireless and Retrospectacle. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 09:26:59 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! Part 2 - The music --------- The first act was introduced as being the only player of a style known as "scratch guitar". His name was Genie and it was just him, his guitar, a handheld microphone and two white boxes of some sort at his feet (no shoes, just socks). http://www.thegeniemusic.com/ He started playing the guitar and then suddenly he stopped, yet the guitar kept going. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on at first, I thought perhaps he had pre-taped backup music. Then as he went on, I realized what was happening. He would play a guitar line, and then click some of the buttons on the white box with his feet. While the first part looped, he would add another part, such as a bass line to go with the part he just recorded. He would also add in vocal beat-box sounds for percussion. At some points he would pick up the boxes and do sort of a scratch-pattern with his sampled grooves instead of vinyl. He was pretty good and could build up quite a "band" just by himself and the boxes. Often he would start and stop the loops with his feet, or mix the different parts. It wasn't really repetitive considering the way he did it. There was a Cure cover and Blondie cover in the mix of mostly original songs. He didn't sing, just guitar and beat box sounds. The next act up was LOOP!STATION . It consisted of a man with a cello and a woman at a microphone. They also used looping boxes at their feet to do a similar thing. The cello player would play a bass part, add in plucking for percussion and then build up on that. Once the background was in place, he would then start the main melody. The vocalist would do something similar with her vocals and record some background vocals into her box to later switch in and out behind her main vocals. The layered cellos had a really rich sound and reminded me of a one-man quartet. I will have to say though - - all of their songs began to sound too much alike as the set went on. Ok - finally the moment we waited for. Thomas came out in his usual coat and goggles. I'm not sure if these were different goggles than the earlier show, or just had lighter lenses, but the didn't look quite as sinister as before. The show was great - and he seems more confident with each performance. There were some glitches - and his new policy is "free t-shirts with every glitch". There were a couple of occasions where shirts were thrown out, but not too many. The glitches were at the very start of the song and there were no grind-to-a-halt stops as seen in prior shows. The video screen was huge and very interesting to watch. During some songs it was mostly scenes from the head-cam or keyboard cams, while other songs had various video montages mixed in with the live shots. One particularly captivating video sequence involved fast motion scenes from an airport. This was during a song about travel (but not the one you'd think). A new feature in these shows is a song done while seated. A stage hand brought out a stool and Thomas showed off his adjustable keyboard stand. He relayed the story from his blog about the company in North Carolina that he got it from - and the optional bible stand. The set was great, lots of energy and sounded really good. The bass was a bit heavy at the start, but was toned down after the first song. The between song banter was similar to the January shows, but missing was the story behind Flying North. Near the end of the show, Thomas said "I'm not sure about those tables" and encouraged everyone to stand up. Some strange little woman found her way in front of me and asked if she could stand there. That was fine by me - she was shorter than me and not in the way. She said the people to my right were annoyed by her (they remained seated), and asked if I was annoying her. She wasn't at first, but then kept asking if she was annoying me, which I did find a bit annoying. It was a great show and encore. No new songs (Thomas said he was too "chicken shit" to play them), and apparently one less of the old songs than the previous shows. I didn't get a purple stamp, so no wrist band for the meet and greet. I went back and talked to the Johnny Dekam, who did the video production instead. Back in March I helped Thomas get new DVD copies of his videos, so I went and introduced myself to the Johnny and explained my part in his production. It's very possible that those my captures of my Golden Age Of Video Laserdisc on the screen during SBMWS and Europa. I think he got DVD's from another source as well, so it is hard to say for sure. Someone else came up and asked Johnny if he could get a copy of the video that ran behind Thomas during the show. Well, of coarse not, but he did say that they hope to produce a commercial DVD release of the show at some point. Just before leaving, I went to the bathroom and when I came out Stephen handed me a wrist band for the meet and greet. I'm really appreciative of Stephen for getting that and quite honest, surprised Mary didn't get it instead. So I went up to the little side area where the meters and greeters were gathered. There seemed to be less than 10 people there, so I guess some folks didn't use their wrist bands. The "Creepy Stalker Girl" was there and looked like she was about to meet god or something. Thomas comes out to meet us - typical meet and greet. When Thomas got to me, I re-introduced myself as Keith in Denver and reminded him that it was my server that he tried to download his videos from one Saturday in March. I got my poster signed and wished him well on the remainder of the tour. We talked a little about Denver - hey Colorado, it looks like they are trying to get a show here, nothing official yet, so don't get your hopes up too high - but don't be down either. The "Creepy Stalker Girl" managed to hold it together enough to say that her favorite song was Jungle Line, or was it Puppet Theater perhaps - one of the obscure songs not on CD. She then left fairly promptly, which was surprising. If "Creepy Stalker Girl" is an Alloy lurker - remember - we kid because we love :) Also - I'm one to talk - I flew to California twice to see three concerts. Because the meet and greet was actually held in the club area, Stephen, Mary and Michael also got to come up and say hi to Thomas. We all then made our way to get Sushi. A good time was had by all. Cell phone photos here (new phone, much better than my old phone) http://www.flickr.com/photos/sole_i/sets/72057594109574689/ - -Keith ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 08:45:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Melissa Jordan Subject: Re: Alloy: T-shirts Per Lunesse, the t-shirts & posters will be available on the website - most likely once the tour is over. Cheers, Melissa http://merujo.blogspot.com Brian Daniels wrote: Is there any way to order a t-shirt? I was fortunate enough to see the SF show at the Mighty, but the shirts didn't exist at that time... - --Brian - -- I think my life is fuller because I realize that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm delighted with the width of the world! ---Richard Feynman Brian Daniels bitmage@bellsouth.net http://www.eviloverlord.net - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 11:59:25 -0700 From: "Stephen Tilson" Subject: RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! Upon further examination, there was not a "missing song" at The Independent in San Francisco Saturday night. That was just me - tormenting myself! Thanks for the review, Keith! You got the wristband because you flew in from Colorado and because you were our guest, btw. And it all worked out. I had a moment to thank and compliment Mr. Robertson for various things and he signed the free FES t-shirt I managed to snag during the encore snafu. I look forward to the next round... And call me crazy, but also call me fairly certain there will be one! Stephen ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:43:39 -0400 From: Crackers Subject: Alloy: Speaking of 80s super acts... Well... I may be missing this round of Dolby tours (although I haven't given up completely yet) but at least I get to see another band I used to listen to a lot when I was a teenager. On Saturday, April 29th my band "Science Ninja Big Ten" will be opening for "A Flock Of Seagulls" at The Corktown Tavern here in Hamilton. Now that'll be a fun show. Oh and pictures from our Joe Strummer Night performance are up online too. http://www.ghastlycomic.com/snb10/ug2/ug2-001.html Alas... it would appear that Thomas' keyboard is more famous than I shall ever be. ;_; Crackers ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:00:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Melissa Jordan Subject: RE: Alloy: C'mon Bay Area! On her MySpace page, there's a video of KT Tunstall building a song ("Black Horse and the Cherry Tree") like this on Jools Holland's show. I find it fascinating. (And I dig KT Tunstall.) http://www.myspace.com/kttunstall Thanks mucho for the great review, Keith!! 19 days of waiting yet... Cheers, Melissa http://merujo.blogspot.com Keith Stansell wrote: Part 2 - The music --------- He started playing the guitar and then suddenly he stopped, yet the guitar kept going. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on at first, I thought perhaps he had pre-taped backup music. Then as he went on, I realized what was happening. He would play a guitar line, and then click some of the buttons on the white box with his feet. While the first part looped, he would add another part, such as a bass line to go with the part he just recorded. He would also add in vocal beat-box sounds for percussion. - --------------------------------- Blab-away for as little as 1"/min. Make PC-to-Phone Calls using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V11 #101 ****************************