Heavy Metal

TELEVATORS played our 2nd out-of-town show in the last two weeks.

This time we hooked up with WINTOUR 2013 presented by Exposed Music Festival.
Buc-ee's was a great place to stop on our way to BFE in Houston Friday afternoon, and pretty soon we were checked-in with the promoter and killing time until the show. Me and Jaime bought books at a little shop nearby, and admired our passes:

The Host and MC was Big Brother contestant and famous metal bassist Jennifer "JennCity" Arroyo, who spent our entire set right in front of me. If you know who she is, you know she must have been digging our music and not yours truly.
She couldn't have been nicer (without losing her metal edge) and I only wish we didn't have to head home so fast 'cuz she would have been fun to hang with.
At least I got a pic:

Our set was short and sweet.
Not to slag other bands--mucho respect to anyone trying to make it with original music--but it turned into a completely different scene when Televators hit the stage.
Everything got serious and very professional.

I had more fun onstage than ever, but suddenly it was over and time to strike the stage.
By the time ZYNC started their set we were already loaded into our trucks and saying our goodbyes, which took longer than expected because it seemed like every guitard and bassist on the bill wanted details on my new preamp and Iceman bass, or just kiss all of our butts and beg to be FB friends.
Guess we're on the right track...


Today's news is that we've just been included in a very cool compilation of new progressive rock over at ProgSphere.
Haven't listened to all 31 tracks yet, but found quite a few already that are killer.
If you like RUSH, YES, Dream Theater, ELP, King Krimson, etc, you might want to check this stuff out.
Especially like how you get to name your price, should you decide to buy any of our music.



Speaking of heavy metal, on Saturday I spotted the biggest pickup truck in the world in front of Northern Tools:

Google "International MXT".
To give you an idea of the size, I had to jump pretty high just to see that there was a fancy retractable deal covering the bed.
Makes Hummers look Tonka.

Friends With Benefits

I love taking pictures of my new bass, even using my phone instead of a "real" camera:

This was taken in the "backstage" area where all the bands kept their gear right before and after playing a 30 minute set.
Televators took part in an all-day benefit show for a family whose house burned down in a suburb north of Ft. Worth TX.

We had a prime time slot, from 10:00-10:30, that gave us way more people than the earlier bands but still let us get home (and blog) before sunrise.
The drive up and back was relaxed with no major malfunctions, traffic through Austin didn't blow goats for a change, and we played a great set to a crowd that were digging what we do.

Sure was cold up there, though.
A couple degrees above freezing.


This was the first time I got to ...just play my damned bass!! for Televators without having to put any thought or labor into the sound and lights, and it made a huge difference in my mood and performance. Scambling around putting out other people's fires is fine if that's my job description, but now that I'm transitioning out of the soundman game I really hope to have more shows like this where I can concentrate on the music.

It's a major PITA to run these multi-band productions and the soundman was a total pro all night. A nice kid with a future in this business. Turns out he's also a bassist--in two minutes of conversation we were best friends.

In two weeks Televators are joining a big multi-band tour for one night in Houston and with any luck it'll be as smooth and satisfying as tonight.
Details as soon as I get them.

The Road Well Travelled...

"Old Blue" (my orange truck) is in the shop right now and Sylvia's car is in the on-deck circle, so we rented a KIA SOUL for a week. Took our souls on a day trip to Bandera Texas today for some antique store action and had a really nice time.

I was a little bummed that this morning's cirrus clouds were gone by the time we got there, but am still happy with this infrared photo of the courthouse.
It's been a long while since I was able to take any pictures in Bandera that weren't band related......and in fact a surprising 8+ years since I made this post which features the same building in the third photo ever on this blog.


I really need to re-focus my photography.
Results like this remind me of what I love.
All the band shots I've been doing are cool, but not very satisfying.
And it's already become a running joke that every product pic I make at work will be promoted to the main listing image on Amazon for that particular item within 24 hours. Yawn...competent lighting.

Shooting infrared black & whites, night long exposures, and nudes of fat Czech men is where my passions lie.