Vail, CO July 22, 2008
After our show in Denver, we kicked it a couple days in Boulder before driving up to our show on Tuesday in Vail. In case you missed my last blog, the drive down I-70 is a totally different experience in the summer. There's a stretch of road before you get to a tunnel which is pretty treacherous in the winter. We were on our way to Aspen when our trailer started fishtailing on a patch of ice... at 50 mph. After seeing our lives flash before our eyes, I don't think we cracked 20 mph the rest of the way.
Needless to say, the voyage was much smoother this time around. We met up with the promoter for the Samana Lounge, Peter Blick, who is also a great DJ. The venue itself is right in the main pedestrian area of Vail, and features a wall which looks as if one million candles have burned on it. Different colored waxes merging with stone in weird ways.
Before our show, Boombox was playing a free show at the Ampitheatre in town, so we went up after our soundcheck to scope out the tunes. They are a duo with Russ Randolph DJing and Zion Rock Godchaux on vocals and guitar. There were a bunch of people up at the show, and they were definitely into it... so much so in fact that they stormed the stage. Zion, normally quite cool in his demeanor, quite abruptly ended the show and they went off stage. The crowd quickly became hostile, demanding that they come back, but it became clear they wouldn't. The security force started running around the stage trying to corral people... this is some intense action for Vail!
We went down to Samana Lounge and played our show, and the crowd was pretty hype considering it was a Tuesday night. After things were over, Dylan spotted Zion from Boombox, who had been checking out our show. Excerpt of the conversation follows:
Dylan: "Sucks how they shut you down at the end of your set."
Zion: "It's Rock'n'Roll, bro."
By: Tripp Bains
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
BLVD Added to Las Tortugas Line-Up
Las Tortugas Dance of the Dead III, the annual Halloween soiree in Yosemite at Evergreen Lodge, is very pleased to announce some musical additions to an already stellar lineup. Tortugas veterans ALO will make a rare 2008 appearance. Joining ALO will be The Mother Hips, Trevor Garrod of Tea Leaf Green, Cornmeal, Flowmotion and Tracorum.
These bands will be joining a bill that already includes Tea Leaf Green, Hot Buttered Rum, host band Blue Turtle Seduction, Melvin Seals’ JGB, Lebo, Guitarmageddo, BLVD, and many other great bands and artists.
Taking place from October 30 - November 2, the Thursday night kick off party will include Hot Buttered Rum, The Mother Hips, Lebo and Friends, Blue Turtle Seduction, Poor Man’s Whiskey, Izabella, Wisebird and Dave Stein Bubhub.
Click here to buy tickets today!
These bands will be joining a bill that already includes Tea Leaf Green, Hot Buttered Rum, host band Blue Turtle Seduction, Melvin Seals’ JGB, Lebo, Guitarmageddo, BLVD, and many other great bands and artists.
Taking place from October 30 - November 2, the Thursday night kick off party will include Hot Buttered Rum, The Mother Hips, Lebo and Friends, Blue Turtle Seduction, Poor Man’s Whiskey, Izabella, Wisebird and Dave Stein Bubhub.
Click here to buy tickets today!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Denver
We took a few days rest after our trip to Chicago, then it was time to begin a 6 show run over 8 days, starting with a 20-hour drive to Denver! We had actually done a similar drive to Colorado last year when we relocated to a house outside Boulder to work on the music that eventually became Digital Disorder. The difference was: that drive was in the middle of winter and we were driving thru snowstorms and frigid wind in the middle of the night. This time around, it was refreshing to see the summer terrain and enjoy the mountain air, instead of keeping our traveling cabin airlocked for fear of hypothermia.
BoogiedDown Productions brought us to play Owsley's Golden Road is a venue right in downtown Denver, walking distance from the baseball stadium. These guys know how to hook it up! Really want to thank them once again for being such excellent hosts.It was also great to work again with Eric, who does a great job with lighting and projections. We also got to kick it with some of the fine people from Steamboat Springs, where Souleye currently lives with his girl, JenJen.
Chordata opened the night with a DJ set, and what do you know... the fire alarm goes off! It was pretty amazing to see 3 large fire engines and 2 police cars roll up to the venue in seconds flat... at least 10 firemen -- complete with oxygen tanks, axes, and full fireproof suits and helmets -- storm into the venue and head straight for the green room! They all seemed pretty pissed when it was just a false alarm, but it was pretty damn amusing to see everyone in the club mingling with the firemen.
After the smoke cleared (hehe) and Jantsen played a DJ set, we took the stage. We were excited to do a few tracks with Dominic from The Motet, who played sax with us on Music Is A Medicine, and well as doing some improv while Souleye did some beatboxing on the mic. Thanks to everyone who came out for the show, and thanks again to BoogieDown for inviting us! Hope to be back in Denver soon!
By:Tripp
BoogiedDown Productions brought us to play Owsley's Golden Road is a venue right in downtown Denver, walking distance from the baseball stadium. These guys know how to hook it up! Really want to thank them once again for being such excellent hosts.It was also great to work again with Eric, who does a great job with lighting and projections. We also got to kick it with some of the fine people from Steamboat Springs, where Souleye currently lives with his girl, JenJen.
Chordata opened the night with a DJ set, and what do you know... the fire alarm goes off! It was pretty amazing to see 3 large fire engines and 2 police cars roll up to the venue in seconds flat... at least 10 firemen -- complete with oxygen tanks, axes, and full fireproof suits and helmets -- storm into the venue and head straight for the green room! They all seemed pretty pissed when it was just a false alarm, but it was pretty damn amusing to see everyone in the club mingling with the firemen.
After the smoke cleared (hehe) and Jantsen played a DJ set, we took the stage. We were excited to do a few tracks with Dominic from The Motet, who played sax with us on Music Is A Medicine, and well as doing some improv while Souleye did some beatboxing on the mic. Thanks to everyone who came out for the show, and thanks again to BoogieDown for inviting us! Hope to be back in Denver soon!
By:Tripp
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
BLVD: Austin City Limits Battle of the Bands
The Sound and The Jury
Help us win a spot at The Austin City Limits Music Festival!!
Round One Voting Deadline is August 22
It is all about the votes!! We don't move to round two without your help now! Use all your e-mail addresses and ask your friends to vote...we need your help!
Click here to vote now!!!!
Thanks for your support and friends, please pass this on!
Help us win a spot at The Austin City Limits Music Festival!!
Round One Voting Deadline is August 22
It is all about the votes!! We don't move to round two without your help now! Use all your e-mail addresses and ask your friends to vote...we need your help!
Click here to vote now!!!!
Thanks for your support and friends, please pass this on!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Entheon and Kinetic Playground
Chicago, IL July 12, 2008
It was my birthday weekend, and what better way to celebrate than take a trip to Chicago to perform for the first time there with BLVD!
A little backstory: This past year at Burning Man, we were fortunate enough to be invited to play a show at Entheon Village... they had built an incredible dome, the largest one on the playa, visible from miles around in Black Rock City. The enormous white metal structure was composed of these enormous interlocking polygons, some covered with screens displaying ever-changing beautiful graphic projections. The space was energized with people when we took the stage on Friday night, and our MC Souleye was also camping with them. About halfway into our set, after performing many of our instrumental tracks, Souleye pulled up on Abraxas - Entheon's gigantic fire-breathing bronze double-decker mutant vehicle! He jumped on the stage with incredible fiery energy and rocked the rest of the set with us. Magikkal...
Flash-forward!!!! So it was wonderful to be invited to Entheon's hometown after having such a great experience with their crew this past summer. Kinetic Playground is a sleek venue across the street from the famous Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, with shiny corrugated metal walls and subdued lighting. The Entheon crew did a fantastic job decorating every square inch of wall space with beautiful psychedelic tapestries - some of which I had remembered seeing in their dome from the summer. We were also honored to share the stage with MO2 and Ana Sia, rounding out an all-BayArea night (2000 miles from San Francisco) LOL!
MO2 opened the show, and it was great to see them perform again, after having just seen them before our set the previous weekend at High Sierra. We took the stage after they were done and had a lot of fun playing for the Entheon crew... they definitely know how to get down! Souleye was kind enough to point out that it was my birthday more than once on the mic! THEN... what better way to celebrate the completion of another lap around the sun than to groove to Ana Sia doing her thing surrounded by the beautiful people of Entheon Village.
The Kinetic Playground is actually one of the only venues in Chicago to serve alcohol until 5am, something I'm not used to out in California.... so combined with the fact that it was my birthday, it was a winning combination, and the Patron was flowing until the sun came up. Local DJ Cringer finished out the night with a nice dubstep set, always appropriate for the wee hours....
Thanks again to the Entheon crew for inviting BLVD to play Chicago, and I look forward to seeing them again this summer!
By: Tripp Bains
It was my birthday weekend, and what better way to celebrate than take a trip to Chicago to perform for the first time there with BLVD!
A little backstory: This past year at Burning Man, we were fortunate enough to be invited to play a show at Entheon Village... they had built an incredible dome, the largest one on the playa, visible from miles around in Black Rock City. The enormous white metal structure was composed of these enormous interlocking polygons, some covered with screens displaying ever-changing beautiful graphic projections. The space was energized with people when we took the stage on Friday night, and our MC Souleye was also camping with them. About halfway into our set, after performing many of our instrumental tracks, Souleye pulled up on Abraxas - Entheon's gigantic fire-breathing bronze double-decker mutant vehicle! He jumped on the stage with incredible fiery energy and rocked the rest of the set with us. Magikkal...
Flash-forward!!!! So it was wonderful to be invited to Entheon's hometown after having such a great experience with their crew this past summer. Kinetic Playground is a sleek venue across the street from the famous Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, with shiny corrugated metal walls and subdued lighting. The Entheon crew did a fantastic job decorating every square inch of wall space with beautiful psychedelic tapestries - some of which I had remembered seeing in their dome from the summer. We were also honored to share the stage with MO2 and Ana Sia, rounding out an all-BayArea night (2000 miles from San Francisco) LOL!
MO2 opened the show, and it was great to see them perform again, after having just seen them before our set the previous weekend at High Sierra. We took the stage after they were done and had a lot of fun playing for the Entheon crew... they definitely know how to get down! Souleye was kind enough to point out that it was my birthday more than once on the mic! THEN... what better way to celebrate the completion of another lap around the sun than to groove to Ana Sia doing her thing surrounded by the beautiful people of Entheon Village.
The Kinetic Playground is actually one of the only venues in Chicago to serve alcohol until 5am, something I'm not used to out in California.... so combined with the fact that it was my birthday, it was a winning combination, and the Patron was flowing until the sun came up. Local DJ Cringer finished out the night with a nice dubstep set, always appropriate for the wee hours....
Thanks again to the Entheon crew for inviting BLVD to play Chicago, and I look forward to seeing them again this summer!
By: Tripp Bains
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
High Sierra Music Festival
Quincy, CA July 4-5, 2008
The best thing about going to High Sierra was that there were rumors it wouldn't even happen! Tons of fires were burning throughout California, roads were intermittently closed, and the fire department was actually using the fairgrounds as a headquarters until right before the festival began! It's a testament to the warriors who fight those fires that we even had a High Sierra...
That being said, it was great to never hear "it's cancelled" and we rolled in on Friday afternoon, July 4th and set up camp. After catching the end of MO2's set, we set up on the Shady Grove stage as the sun was setting. It was great to see so many people make their way over to the stage to see us play... the weather was perfect! Dylan's little nephew Jack even busted out some dance moves. As it got dark, it was harder to see all the people, but the word afterwards was that there had never been that many people at that stage before! And... the dust cloud from all the dancing was pretty intense... I had a great time rawking out.
Managed to see the end of EOTO's set with Lynx sitting in, along with the Spam Allstars late night in the Tulsa --- the same room our late would be in the following evening. After kickin' it with the good people at Javagogo for a bit, got a little rest...
The next morning had a chance to catch Lynx play solo with Jamie Janover before napping a bit. Did our loadin and soundcheck, then caught the end of Buckethead's set. The dude can do weird stuff with a guitar, that's all i can say... he's a monster.
Our set time was listed as "1:45 - ?". Ahh the dubious question mark. After talking with people about previous years' late night shows, it became clear that many people might expect us to play until dawn. While a typical set for us is about 90 minutes, we put a set together that definitely pushed the envelope. We like to hit people hard and not draw things out too much... The crowd was full of energy from the get-go, and it was awesome to see a lot of familiar faces from Javagogo right in front. Also had the pleasure of having Lynx sit in with us for a song and jam with Souleye a bit on the mic.
My favorite moment was at the end of the set... the place was HOT. I went thru more towels than i can remember, and that was with multiple fans blasting on stage. I'm sure the crowd was exhausted too, but the adrenaline was carrying us through. We played "Stamina" and I picked out this girl in the crowd, jumping up and down, fist in the air, eyes closed... I'm thinking to myself "I'm about to fall over, how can she still be jumping in the air?!" but as the lyric goes... "Move like you
never have before, here's some stamina!" It was seriously powerful.
Got lots of compliments seeing people the next day. Thanks to everyone who I had a chance to talk with... we had a great time!
By: Tripp Bains
The best thing about going to High Sierra was that there were rumors it wouldn't even happen! Tons of fires were burning throughout California, roads were intermittently closed, and the fire department was actually using the fairgrounds as a headquarters until right before the festival began! It's a testament to the warriors who fight those fires that we even had a High Sierra...
That being said, it was great to never hear "it's cancelled" and we rolled in on Friday afternoon, July 4th and set up camp. After catching the end of MO2's set, we set up on the Shady Grove stage as the sun was setting. It was great to see so many people make their way over to the stage to see us play... the weather was perfect! Dylan's little nephew Jack even busted out some dance moves. As it got dark, it was harder to see all the people, but the word afterwards was that there had never been that many people at that stage before! And... the dust cloud from all the dancing was pretty intense... I had a great time rawking out.
Managed to see the end of EOTO's set with Lynx sitting in, along with the Spam Allstars late night in the Tulsa --- the same room our late would be in the following evening. After kickin' it with the good people at Javagogo for a bit, got a little rest...
The next morning had a chance to catch Lynx play solo with Jamie Janover before napping a bit. Did our loadin and soundcheck, then caught the end of Buckethead's set. The dude can do weird stuff with a guitar, that's all i can say... he's a monster.
Our set time was listed as "1:45 - ?". Ahh the dubious question mark. After talking with people about previous years' late night shows, it became clear that many people might expect us to play until dawn. While a typical set for us is about 90 minutes, we put a set together that definitely pushed the envelope. We like to hit people hard and not draw things out too much... The crowd was full of energy from the get-go, and it was awesome to see a lot of familiar faces from Javagogo right in front. Also had the pleasure of having Lynx sit in with us for a song and jam with Souleye a bit on the mic.
My favorite moment was at the end of the set... the place was HOT. I went thru more towels than i can remember, and that was with multiple fans blasting on stage. I'm sure the crowd was exhausted too, but the adrenaline was carrying us through. We played "Stamina" and I picked out this girl in the crowd, jumping up and down, fist in the air, eyes closed... I'm thinking to myself "I'm about to fall over, how can she still be jumping in the air?!" but as the lyric goes... "Move like you
never have before, here's some stamina!" It was seriously powerful.
Got lots of compliments seeing people the next day. Thanks to everyone who I had a chance to talk with... we had a great time!
By: Tripp Bains
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