Darren's Gig Blog

Man, it was good to be back home in Decatur. It just relaxes me. Ashton’s is a great place to play. It’s like a big open space chocked full of cushy places to sit and tables painted with groovie scenes. All the walls are decked out with wonderful artwork. The coffee and food rock as well.

As I was setting up my rig, I had a nice chat with John, a guy who works there. We talked a little about the tunes they had playing in the place (some cool reggae and some Allman Brothers), and musicians in general. John has some good views on the music world. If you’d like to hear them, go to Ashton’s and ask John about ’em.

My set went pretty smoothly. I was nice and relaxed…and a bit tired from playing and teaching so much lately. I played only my Warwick six the entire night. That’s how versatile that bass is. I wonder if my other basses ever get jealous. Heh. I can’t wait to try out a Jerzy Drozd bass when Cindy and I make it out to Barcelona, Spain. We’ll see if my Warwick basses get dethroned. Anyway, I had fun playing. I only played a little over two hours which seems like a walk in the park after all these three hour shows of late.

Lot’s of friends were in the place. Most of them are folks I met through Cindy. Let’s see…Yoon Nam was there with Tamra…uhm…sorry I forgot your last name, Tamra. I do know that your husband is a Baroque Musician. I think that rules…and I won’t make any puns involving the word Baroque. Josh Cupp, a guy I just met but Cindy has known for a little while, was there with a bunch of folks from Agnes Scott College…I didn’t get to met those folks, though. Sorry. Josh is pretty cool, so I’m assuming he keeps good company. Roi Tamkin showed up. He’s always a trip to talk to. Plus he’s got a lot going on creatively. He’s a photographer that does cool experimental techniques with Polaroid film, and he’s into writing fiction. Pretty cool. I also met Jason Wade, an indie film maker. He won second place in last year’s Decatur Film Festival with his film, Best Laid Plans. I haven’t seen it yet, but Cindy has. She has only good things to say. I tend to trust my wife on these matters. Anyway, Jason is really cool and laid back with a great sense of humor. During my break, I had a short chat with another Jason (forgot his last name though) about music software and the possibilities of live sampling. Got me thinking…then I went over and sat at a table with Cindy, Jason, and Roi. Man, that table was packed to the max with creativity. The conversation was hilarious! It was so cool to be surrounded by creative folks…ones that actually do something with their creativity. Speaking of, Roi has an awesome photo series going. I would tell you about it, but then someone would steal it. Also, Jason is working on a new film. If you want to check out more about his stuff, I’ve linked his website on my links page. It’s Wacko Productions.

So it was a hip night. Met some cool folks and hung out with some friends…oh yeah, and I got to play my music! Heh. Thanks goes to Luma for letting me play again at Ashton’s. I hope to come back soon. Come see me and bring a friend!

Friday at Jatema was once again cool. I played for three hours again…that’s a lot of solo bass. That seems to be the new trend in my playing, though. The past three shows I’ve played were of that length. It does wear a fellow out.

There was more of a turnout this time although the vibe was completely different. The first time the patrons seemed to be there to listen to music. This time there was much more of a hang out crowd, so the place was noisy with chatter. My music became more of a background thing. Don’t get me wrong, I like playing to both crowds, the attentive and the distracted. With the attentive listeners, I have to be careful with every note…I have to try to be dead on. With the distracted, I can explore a little in the music without caring as much about falling flat on my face…isn’t that how music should be? Also when I’m just background, I can tinker more with mood. It’s funny to watch a crowd go from distracted to attentive when they hear something familiar. There’s also levels in between. I enjoy seeing how much I can make them listen or how much I can be ignored. There is an art to it.

Not too many familiar faces were at the gig. Cindy’s (and my) friends, Ryan Overfelt and Brad (Sorry, didn’t catch your last name) were there…well, before the Georgia Tech game started. Heh. Thanks for coming out guys. I was hoping to see some of my students there. They are the main reason that I want to play in that area, because it’s close to where they all live. I want them to have a chance to see and hear what I do on the instrument, and also to experience an up close performance. I want them to see that music is more than what’s on the radio and MTV...that the possibilities are not limited to what others tell you to think about music. Plus it’d be cool if they all got to know each other. Bassists don’t get to hang out together enough. It’s kinda sad, but it’s the nature of our instrument. You rarely see a band with more than one bassist.

Anyway, I had fun playing. My Bergantino rig is still kicking much buttocks. I’m loving every note that comes out of that baby, and it’s holding up nicely to my looping abuse. Thanks to the folks at Jatema for letting me play again. I’ll be back there next Saturday (April 3^rd). It may be the last time I play around home until June. So if you haven’t done so already, come check it out.

Golly gee, I’m throwing out the slack. My posts are getting later and later after the fact. I will get better…maybe. Anyway, playing at Jatema was awesome! It’s a little coffeehouse that just opened up in Lawrenceville. Man the coffee and desserts are crazy good! You’ve got to check it out. The folks there are really nice as well. When I got there, they had Jack Johnson’s latest album playing in the store. I love his music! It’s just insanely laid back grooving. The atmosphere of Jatema is really kickin’, too. They designed it to look like a café in Costa Rica, so there’s this whole tropical vibe going. It made me feel like I was back on my honeymoon in Puerto Rico…well, not exactly, but it was still cool.

I got set up pretty quickly, so I had a lot of time left before I was suppose to begin my set. Cindy and I shared a bite to eat before I got started. Mmmmmm, triple chocolate pound cake. I’m telling ya, dude, you must try it.

Anyway, my set went rather well with no real problems. I didn’t improv too many tunes this time. Sticking to my set list seemed the way to go. I played three hours, and I had a good response all round. One listener said (and this is something Cindy told me someone said) that my music made her feel like she was stoned even though she’s never smoked pot. Hehe, I’ll take that as a complement I guess. It reminds me of the last interesting comment I got about my tunes. A lady told me that I’m better than silence. I really should give out prizes for the most off the wall critique. Seriously, though, folks still seemed to be surprised after they hear me play. When I talked to folks before the show, I sensed a lot apprehension about hanging out to listen to solo bass music. I’m not sure if I can blame them. If I had never heard bass all by itself before, I may want to spend my evening doing something else. Heh. After my shows though, people seem to be in a great mood, are very approachable, and say lots of nice things about my playing. I’m very happy that my music has that kind of effect.

Thanks to all the folks that came out to listen. Among the crowd were Sean Dehart (also a bassist) and his main squeeze, Melissa. They are becoming regulars at my shows. I was so grateful that I promised to help them move into their new place next month. See there. If you come to my shows more I may help you pick up heavy stuff, too. Also in attendance was one of my private students, Daniel Hughes, and his dad. Watch out for this guy. In a few years, he’ll be a bass monster if he keeps putting in the work. It’s truly an honor to teach this fellow. I also want to mention that he is the first of my private students to come to one of my gigs…so thanks Daniel.

Jatema turned out to be much fun. I’ve been invited to play again this Friday (March 26^th). Thanks to Jason for letting me perform. This seems like the beginning of something good.

Other cool things are going on behind the scenes. I was recently contacted by another solo bassist, Trip Wamsley. He’s an incredible musician, and he’s been at the solo bass thing longer than I’ve been playing bass! I’ve just linked his site on my links page, so go check him out. Anyway, we’ve got some shows together in the works for next fall. If any other solo bassists want in on the show send me an email.

Also, I’m going to be featured on the bass faces page of The International Institute of Bassists website. Here’s the link…

http://www.bassically.net/bass_faces/

I should be the artist for April 2004...I’m the April Fool. Anyway, check that out when you can. Thank you, Cliff Engel, for adding me to a list full of such wonderful players!

That’s all for now. See you at the next gig!

Ouch! I'm mega late getting this blog post up. Can you find it in you heart to forgive me? Hope so. [really.]

Little Rock was a blast. I was kinda worried at first, because the Coffee Beanery Cafe is on the outskirts of Little Rock. When I booked the gig, I didn't realize how far it would be for everyone to make it out. You see, lots of family and friends were coming from surrounding areas, and they seemed to be expecting me to be closer to downtown. So I got lots of comments about the place being way out. However, in Atlanta terms it would be just around the corner. Thank you everyone that showed up to listen!

Everything turned out fine. I played almost three hours! That's a lot of solo bass even for me! Turn-out was pretty good considering this was my first time performing solo in Little Rock. Thanks goes out to the folks at Coffee Beanery Cafe and Turner Lloyd for letting come out and share my music with you folks.

Let's see...the gig.

As I was setting up before the show, I had a nice chat with two of the guys working at the Cafe. One is a guitarist, and the other is a bassist. The bassist seemed to be suffering from the same affliction as me...no band. Heh. Actually, he said that he's not in any original projects, but he plays in his high school's jazz band. I think that's awesome. My high school didn't have a jazz band...well at least one I was allowed to join...but I won't go into that. Plus in my day we had to walk to school with no shoes in the snow up-hill both ways. Hehe. Anyway, it was really cool chatting with those guys. It's neat to see how the next wave of musicians is veiwing things. If these guys are any clue, the next wave is going to make a huge splash.

So I got set up with plenty of time to spare. My brother and his family showed up. It was nice to see them. My niece, Renee, and nephew, Austin, are getting so tall! Renee's maybe a foot shorter than me...she's only in the third grade. Maybe I should be added to Steve Bailey's list of short bassists. Heh. My brother, Bill, is huge as well. I should've had him stand up like I made my bro, Sam, do at the last Mad Hatter gig (in Clinton, MS). Those guys dwarf me! Speaking of how different in build I am from my brothers, I meant to tell this story from my childhood. I forgot to at the gig, so I'll put it here.

I guess I was seven or eight years-old and playing out in the front yard. Suddenly, two guys decked out in leather ridding on Harleys came chuggin' down my street. To my shock, they pulled up my driveway. I ran and hid because my only knowledge of guys on Harleys came from the movie "Every Which Way But Loose"...and much to my dismay I didn't have an orangutang on my side. These rough looking guys walked right up to my front door and knocked. My mother answered. One of the guys (the cooler lookin' one) grabbed my mom and gave her a big schmooch right on the mouth. I just stood there kinda of slack-jawed. Then the thought came to me, "That's where I come from!". Heh. Turns out the guy that kissed my mom was the best man in my parents wedding. And no, he's not my father. I was found under a cabbage leaf...after the stork left me there. [true story]

Anyway, on to some other folks that showed up at the gig. Mark Chairo who is the guitarist for Gascan, a kickbutt Little Rock band, was there. You must check his band out!!! You can hear some of his playing on Newd Funk Song on this site. Mark and I used to be in a couple of bands together...until I replaced his butt with a Boomerang Loop Pedal. HAHA. Just kidding. The real story is that Mark and his wife, Carrie, moved from Atlanta back to Little Rock after they got pregnant. Their son, Evan, is growing up nicely...and playing drums!!!

My old roomie from my Little Rock days, Brandon Beam, and his wife, Dee, were there looking healthy and happy as ever. They told me that they were pleasantly surprised by my show. One of these days I'm gonna take a survey before the my show of what people that have never heard my music think it's gonna sound like. Then I'll take another survey after the show. I think the results will be very interesting.

I also met several of my brother's friends. They were really cool and fun to talk to. Jody Keene was there...minus her husband who's name is Jody, also. Thanks goes to them for letting Cindy, Loki, and me crash at their house. Derek McCumber's (of East Hall fame) dad was there...he's a bass player as well and a really nice guy. Scarlet and Jon Simms (I think that's their last name) were also there. They've relocated a historic home from Russellville to Atkins in order to save it. They had to cut the joker in half! Pretty cool.

Alright, I'm running out of time and webspace. I think I hit all the major parts. Forgive me if I've forgotten to mention anyone. Oh, I got interviewed after the show by a trio of giggling girls who were on spring break (I want a copy of that tape by the way). Anyway, thanks again to the Beanery for letting me play and thanks to everyone for coming out and making my show such a pleasure. Take care, and see you at the next gig!

Wow! I love to play at Arsaga's in Fayetteville. It's always a kick-butt-seven-ways-to-Sunday experience! Thank you, Cindy Arsaga, for letting me come out and do my thing. Also, a huge thanks to all the folks that came out to listen.

The show went very well. Turn-out was very good. I started off by sticking to tunes from my normal set but soon ventured into improvising loops and melodies. Cindy (Cindy Michaels, my wife...not Cindy Arsaga) asked me why would I do such a thing. Well, ad-libbin' tunes makes me a bit nervous, and I like to tickle my fear. More importantly, though, I think I'm searching for something. I want to play to that moment of being right there in front of all those people. To me, it seems like there is music lurking in each gathering of people. Each person there has a pitch that's waiting to be played, so each audience has it's own unique melody and rhythm. I want to catch that wave and ride it to the shore taking in all those melodies and rhythms and tuning them into my own. When I pass the fear of improvising, I catch a glint of that wave somewhere in the peripherals of my thoughts. It's my white rabbit. I'm gonna catch that bugger one day...'til then, it'll keep making an Elmer Fudd out of me.

Anway, enough of the hippy-dippy metaphysical ranting...back to the show. I went back to my set list after much exploring and found that I'd played only about half the tunes that I'd planned on performing. I'd skipped my break between sets, because I was having so much fun playing. So I played a few more tunes from my second set and ended on "Gooberschmacked", a tune that's going on the next album. It incorporates techniques that I learned from Michael Manring, Victor Wooten, and Adam Nitti. I wish I could say that I made up those ways of playing bass, but I won't front. At least the composition is mine.

So I ended out the set with a bang and intended to take five before doing a super-mondo-short set seeing how I only had fifteen minutes left of the two hour show. However, I ended up chatting away that fifteen minutes with all the folks that came out to hear me. Everyone was super friendly and very positive about my music. Plus, I got talk about my gear...mainly my Boomerang and Warwick basses. Man, I really love to talk shop! Thanks to everyone who chatted with me. I really had a good time. By the way, I met Lora and Donna from Lady Blues, an all female blues band. I put a link to their site under the "other musicians" section on my links page. They are really cool. Go check 'em out!

Also, I'd like to thank Sarah Rozeboom and the Northwest Arkansas Times for the cool article on me in the March 5th addition. Solo bass in the news is a good thing. There's a link to it in my previous blog post. Check it out if ya can. The layout in the actual printed paper is really cool. They gave it a whole page and used a photo that Cindy (Michaels, again) took. Unfortunately, they didn't give her credit for the photo. It's a nice one of me and my Warwick Thumb six...I may have to send that one into Dana B. Goods. hehe.

What a fun gig. I was very ready to hit the hay afterward. It's funny what a time zone difference of one hour can do to a body. Cindy and I stayed the night at Acid Jack's place...Loki, my little chihuahua, loves to chase his big collie, Scooter. We woke up rested and proceeded to poke about town. We went with Chris up to Missouri to check out a Hammond organ for sale. The seller is an 87-year-old man. He was really incredible to talk to. He told a wonderful World War II story. It wasn't a blood-and-guts-hero story, but one about a German courier dog that he found on a beach after a shell bombardment. The dog was knocked out by a shell blast. Anyway, he adopted it and cared for it through his tour. Unfortunately the dog was stolen before he could sneek him back to the States. To hear an 87-year-old man talk about a dog from 60 years ago was amazing. When I make it to that age, that's the kinda stories I want to tell. Go out and ask an elder to tell you a story from their life. You won't regret it.

So, good times in Fayetteville! I'm rested and ready for Little Rock now. To the next gig!!!

Once again, I am two days late making a blog post. Forgive me? Ashton's was fun and very relaxing. I think that was the earliest I've ever played a show, but I found it very nice. Everyone there had a laid-back Sunday-morning-after-church vibe that I totally fed off of. Speaking of feed, I had some of the best french toast this side of the Atlantic. It made my toes curl and taste buds swoon. I even stole some of Cindy's. YOU'VE GOT TO TRY IT! Luma can really throw down when it comes to making brunch...and coffee...and running a cool coffee house...and booking great musical acts (cough, heh, cough)!

Anyway, back to the playing. My set was nice and easy and really fit the mood. The jazz songs that I usually freak out with lots of effects were instead just slow tempo straight-ahead. I also played lots of covers and improvised a bunch of new tunes. Some I liked so well that I may consider them for the upcoming album. I was just so laid back that I almost fell down. Well, not really.

Although I was only scheduled to play two hours, I went two and a half without any breaks. That's how much I enjoyed playing. The only thing that made me stop was a horrible tragedy with my six string bass. Minorly horrible I should say. Minorly...is that a word...well it is now (I'm just like Shakespeare). Anyway, when I was in the middle of playing one of my louder tunes, Mr. Skin, my pickup popped out of its routing and pushed up my strings. Maybe my bass was objecting to the change in vibe, but needless to say this effectively ended my set.

Heh, I almost cried...well, not really. It's funny how a piece of wood with strings can be so important to you. But you see, this is a great piece of wood. Plus, this was the first major problem that I've had with it in the six years that I've been playing it. Now that's a good bass...good enough to be cried over (but I DIDN'T!!!). Luckily, a quick trip yesterday to Atlanta Discount Music Luthier, William, got my six back in tip-top condition. Kudos to William; he did some great work. No worries. So other than that small catastrophe, the gig was a blast. I may be doing the brunch gig as a regular thing...especially if Luma keeps making that divine french toast. AAAHHHHGRRHHHH...(insert drooling)...french toast....