Show Recap: Thinking Plague, Hamster Theater, Red Masque, Syrrah at PhilaMOCA
This past Sunday I had the honor of performing with some amazing bands at the PhilaMOCA performance space. Several months ago I had been contacted by Mike Johnson from Thinking Plague, one of my favorite currently active avant progressive rock bands, to help set up a show for them, as well as his other group, Hamster Theater, for a small tour he was organizing on the East Coast.
I contacted Andrew Miller from Sunny Day Music, a local booking agent who is "prog-friendly", and he got the performance space at PhilaMOCA for us. I also contacted PA band Syrrah to open the show as I had seen them once before and thought they were both talented and a fun live act to watch / listen to. Two of the band members from Syrrah also perform in a web TV series / mockumentary about a fictional progressive rock band from the 70s, co-written by the awesomely talented Gina Andreoli and Christopher Martson. The show is called Gemini Rising and it's absolutely brilliant. You can see some of the first season here, and the second season is currently being written. Brandon Lord Ross, from the Red Masque, will actually have a small role in the second season as a musician in a kraut rock band (think Kraftwerk). The first season has two fantastic videos that are both hysterical and fabulous (with awesome music) at the same time. Check out the video "Electric Lady of the Lake" here.
All the bands at the show put on great performances (special props to Thinking Plague's vocalist Elaine di Falco for performing despite being very sick at the time). I was glad to see some audience members had traveled down from, in some cases, great distances just to see this rare lineup of bands. The venue had a lot of charm as well (it was a former mausoleum showroom that was turned into an art gallery / performance space), and it was much nicer to hang out there than some of the clubs the band has played in the past.
My band decided to unveil a new song at this show, called "The Wendigo", which we are going to record for a new album in 2012. It seemed to be a big hit as a lot of people were discussing it with us afterwards so that's a good sign. Sometimes you practice a song so much you can't think of it as how somebody else might hear it.
I took a few photos of the show below (unfortunately, I did not get any of Syrrah), and former Red Masque keyboardist / concert harpist Nathan-Andrew Dewin (now Leaflight) took photos of my band. You can see full band photos from the show here. We also videotaped the show and will be uploading video to youtube in the next few days.
Please click on images to enlarge.The full photos set can be viewed on The Red Masque's facebook fan page here.
I contacted Andrew Miller from Sunny Day Music, a local booking agent who is "prog-friendly", and he got the performance space at PhilaMOCA for us. I also contacted PA band Syrrah to open the show as I had seen them once before and thought they were both talented and a fun live act to watch / listen to. Two of the band members from Syrrah also perform in a web TV series / mockumentary about a fictional progressive rock band from the 70s, co-written by the awesomely talented Gina Andreoli and Christopher Martson. The show is called Gemini Rising and it's absolutely brilliant. You can see some of the first season here, and the second season is currently being written. Brandon Lord Ross, from the Red Masque, will actually have a small role in the second season as a musician in a kraut rock band (think Kraftwerk). The first season has two fantastic videos that are both hysterical and fabulous (with awesome music) at the same time. Check out the video "Electric Lady of the Lake" here.
All the bands at the show put on great performances (special props to Thinking Plague's vocalist Elaine di Falco for performing despite being very sick at the time). I was glad to see some audience members had traveled down from, in some cases, great distances just to see this rare lineup of bands. The venue had a lot of charm as well (it was a former mausoleum showroom that was turned into an art gallery / performance space), and it was much nicer to hang out there than some of the clubs the band has played in the past.
My band decided to unveil a new song at this show, called "The Wendigo", which we are going to record for a new album in 2012. It seemed to be a big hit as a lot of people were discussing it with us afterwards so that's a good sign. Sometimes you practice a song so much you can't think of it as how somebody else might hear it.
I took a few photos of the show below (unfortunately, I did not get any of Syrrah), and former Red Masque keyboardist / concert harpist Nathan-Andrew Dewin (now Leaflight) took photos of my band. You can see full band photos from the show here. We also videotaped the show and will be uploading video to youtube in the next few days.
Please click on images to enlarge.The full photos set can be viewed on The Red Masque's facebook fan page here.
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Hamster Theater |
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Thinking Plague  |
The below photos are of The Red Masque, by Nathan-Andrew Leaflight:
And, I have a video clip of our set, from the drummer's POV (Videotaped by our drummer Steve Craig), during the song "The Spider is the Web". More video footage will be uploaded, and from the front of the stage, soon. But in the meantime, enjoy this clip:
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