Stardust Gig/IHOP Video Blogging

I played an acoustic show this past Saturday night at Stardust Video and Coffee near Baldwin Park. My friend Chase Patterson (of the one-man band named Solaseria) invited me to come open up for him. I've seen him perform there before and I remember liked the venue, I've been jonesin' to play a show lately and try out some of my new songs, so of course the decision to say "yes" was basically a no-brainer.

Since I am the anti-stereotypical band member, I of course showed up to the venue early and had an hour to kill, so I ordered some food. They have a mad awesome chicken pesto sandwich which I devoured.

The main thing I was excited about was my new friend Kirk joined me for my set. He sings, plays acoustic guitar and violin. I always prefer to surround myself with other musicians when performing. Even when Syd and I used to play out, we always preferred playing with Dav (on drums) and Lauren (on violin) and occasionally the great Kris Karlsson when he could grace us with his amazing guitar skills. Also playing with The OaKs a lot has made me appreciate even more the chemistry and creativity of collaborating with other musicians.

I was super sad because I lost my favorite guitar pick that night. During sound check, it slipped from its place wedged between the guitar strings and fell into the abyss also known as the cracks between the stage. What are the odds? I was bummed because it was a guitar pick I got at SXSW this past year. And it said SXSW '08 on it. Ah well.

The stage was a little crazy. Jeanne said it looked like I was singing inside a bleeding heart. You decide.



Overall, I was happy with how the show went, and even more happy with how many people came out to see the show. I really want to try and release an album before I leave for Australia, even if it's a short 5 or 6 song ep. On top of the other ten thousand things I need to get done over the next couple of months.

I did make another infamous video blog, which I will post below. I've decided I'm going to start posting the video blogs here as well. Anyway, this latest one involves me and seven of my friends (Walter, Jeanne, Brian, Sonny, Alecia, Les and my sis) and late night escapades at an IHOP somewhere in Orlando.

The Way I Am. By Ingrid. (who else?)

Found this video of Ingrid singing "The Way I Am" (famous for being in those Old Navy commercials) at the Social Wednesday night. Ingrid was soooo marvelous. And funny:)

Don't know if you can tell exactly from the audio what she's saying, but basically she was explaining that the Black Dice did a remix of the song, so she started rapping to demonstrate.

Oh yes. Just watch:)

Solaseria at Stardust

Last night I finally got to go see Chase Patterson perform his Solaseria material at the Stardust Cafe in Winter Park. Very cool, earthy venue. Looks like a Vegan hangout (yeah, you know what I'm talking about). They rent out cool indie, foreign films. And I got a wonderful iced espresso for a mere $1.86.

For having just graduated high school, Chase is a impressively gifted songwriter. He thinks outside of the box as a writer and actually develops his ideas. He doesn't submit to typical verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus formula, which is refreshing. It'll be cool to see what he does with his music. Check him out at www.myspace.com/solaseria. Hurrah for local music!;)

However, I underestimated the caffeinated power of Stardust Cafe's espresso--which I had only at 5pm to keep me fueled through the show and band rehearsal later in the evening--for the darned thing kept me up all hours of the night. Blah.

Incidentally, we--the OaKs--are playing a FREE, all ages show at Virgin Megastore in Downtown Disney this Sunday, June 8th from 7pm to 8pm. Please come out, as I think this will be the last OaKs show in Orlando for several months at least.

I'm out. Peace.