Safari Sam's, Hollywood, CA
Purple Orchid, El Segundo, CA
My first show for today was at Safari Sam's, located in Hollywood, which is a somewhat better than typical club. There is a ground level, as well as a much smaller upper level where people can either sit around or stand around and watch the show. The club is a big box, with a relatively large stage, high off the ground. It has a good sound system, so it is not critical to be directly in front of the stage for the music to be enjoyable.
The sound man in the club for this afternoon's show was Jonpaul, who is also the bassist for the Boardwalkers (I am their official audIo recorder), so there was no problem getting permission to audio record today.
Radio Free Bakersfield is an internet radio show that has been promoting a series of once a month, no admission charge, Saturday afternoon shows. The bill is usually two bands, with one band usually being an instrumental band, and the other band is a more traditional rock band with vocals.
http://www.myspace.com/dynotones The band I came to record today, was the Dynotones. A four piece band (2 guitars, 1 bass, 1 drummer). This band has surf influences, but also has a strong garage rock sound. The do perform a few cover tunes, but mostly write their own material. They even performed a song that is so new they don't have a title for it yet, and haven't finished working out all the details.
Bands don't always announce song titles when they perform. When I create the CD for myself (or for the band if they are interested), I like to have song titles and track IDs. Since I know the band, and have recorded them before, I had no problem with talking with them afterwards to confirm any changes from their preprinted set list.
My second show for the day (evening, actually) took place at the Purple Orchid Tiki Bar. As the name implies, the club interior is decorated with tikis, bamboo, ... This is a very nice club to hang out in and listen to music. The owners of the club like surf music, and bring in surf bands on a regular basis. As a small local club, there is usually a reasonable sized audience for the music.
I do have a slight problem recording here. The stage is small, so I am unable to put my microphones on it. Therefore I place my microphones in front of and slightly to the side of the stage. The stage is near the front door, so there is a lot of traffic. This means that I need to be concerned with people bumping into my microphones. In addition, there is free space in front of the stage where people like to dance. Again, I need to watch for people accidentally bumping into my microphones. Even so, most of the time I am able to get good recordings.
First up, was the Silver Surfers, a local band that I knew nothing about. So I introduced myself and asked permission to record them. They didn't mind, so I set up my gear and proceeded to record. The Silver Surfers is a four piece band (2 guitars, 1 bass, 1 drummer) with a more traditional surf sound. They performed mostly cover tunes, most I was familiar with, and a few that are less frequently performed. This band had a preprinted set list that I was able to pickup to use to get the song titles correct.
http://www.myspace.com/thedeadlysurfinatics Next up, was the Deadlies from Northern California. This was a three piece band (1 guitar, 1 bass, 1 drums, no vocals). They played a couple of short sets, which together added up to a single long set. Part of the reason for the shorter sets, was their costume change between sets. For their second set they had inflatable dolphins piled on the stage. Both their sets were mostly cover tunes (including the Insect Surfers - Polaris as well as a few other unexpected covers) along with a few original tunes. I didn't see a set list, so I winged song titles as best as I could.
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Last updated by Chrome Oxide on 08/09/2008
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