WEGO: November Enlighten Show!

Set 1 (49 megs)
Set 2 (52 megs)

Here are the recordings from our November 10th show at the Enlighten Cafe. The orchestra for the evening consisted of Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Jenny Freeling (djembe), Sarah Gardener (sp? … first time out on banjo!), Dennis Jolin (uke and percussion), Ian McKagan (guitar and voice), Jesse Silvertrees (keys and voice), and Me Woods (bassbox and voice). Wow, that's a good-sized orchestra! Did I forget anybody? Oh yeah, Emma joined us again briefly during the second set too.

We transitioned pretty seamlessly from a chaotic last-minute setup straight into one of our best first sets ever. Woody was directly next to the board for this one, and seemed to be adjusting the mix throughout the evening, with indescribably beneficial results! Even with the extra-jumbo lineup, the mix felt balanced and well-supported throughout, and the playing responded in kind. Jesse and Woody had called out for some new lyrics, and so the three of us had each brought in a couple of new sheets to spring on the group. While I still value the possibilities that collective familiarity with a particular 'lyrical standard' can bring, the influx of fresh structures really seemed to launch us into a happy and synergistic place. With all of the recent shows, it seems we were ready for them, in a number of ways!

I also noticed two subtle changes that seemed to open things up: One was the increase in complicated and jazzy changes (lots of major 7ths and 9's), which just felt so rich with the easy momentum of the big group. And the other difference was signaling more of the changes to cycle at about half the rate that we usually cycle them (each chord held for two or more measures, instead of a quick 4-count).

This was a fairly inspired evening for me personally, on both bass and vocals (see "Whip It" or the first-set-closing "We Will Rock You", for example). I felt like we were all a bit spent after Set 1's climax -- certainly I was! -- and so the second set may have tapered off a little in cohesion, if not energy.  …though I haven't had a chance to listen through yet.  But all in all, this was right up there with our very best shows and another good omen of things to come!

WEGO: Nov 5th at Molly Maguire's

WEGO set (50 megs)

Here are the recordings from our Nov 5th opening slot for David Montgomery and Lark vs Owl at Molly Maguire's. The stripped-down orchestra for the evening included Jenny Freeling (djembe), Dennis Jolin (ukelele and assorted percussion), Jesse Silvertrees (keys and vocals), and Me Woods (bassbox and vocals).

This was my first time playing at Molly Maguire's -- though I think I may have seen a semi-acoustic show in the back room there towards the end of the '90s, back when it probably had a different name. I'd loooooove to play this place again! There was a huge, diverse, energetic, seemingly-walk-in crowd -- the sort of energy I haven't seen since the old Dubliner Pub at the bottom of Fremont hill. The stage is a bit tiny for our usual lineup (and even for the the 4-piece we had in effect on this particular evening), but we could get creative, right? Even the pesky intermittency of the PA turned out to be the result of my own defective 1/4 inch cord.

So yeah, this was a fun evening! We were certainly missing Woody and Ian from the core line-up (looking forward to this Thursday at the Enlighten!), but even the early parts, which felt almost painfully tentative at the time, have a solid mix and a nice rubbery bounce to them.

WEGO: October 27th Enlighten Show!

Andrew's Opening Set (35 megs)
WEGO Set (88 megs)

Here are the recordings from our October 27th makeup show at the Enlighten Cafe! The six-piece orchestra for the evening included TQ Berg (guitar), Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Dennis Jolin (strings and percussion), Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), Evan Strauss (acoustic 5-string bass), and Me Woods (guitar, percussion, and voice). Our barista for the evening, Emma, also joined us briefly with another absolutely stellar scat-vocal performance. Trust me, you'll know it when you hear it!

We were very excited to have both Evan joining us for the first time ever and TQ back after over a year's absence. Of course with two nearly-brand-new players, it took a few minutes to warm up, but I felt right at home after less than 10 minutes or so, and things just kept getting hotter all night. It was one of those shows where it felt like each movement was more free, energetic, and inspired than the last, driving straight through to our 10PM curfew. (Sorry for the large file! During our whole hour-and-20-ish-minute set, I think we only stopped playing once (I've edited a couple of those minutes out of the recording here to retain interest) and never actually left the stage.)

My half-hour opening set of guitar and voice included two firsts: a brand new tune called "I Don't Mind" (for now) and a cover of Alice in Chains' "Would".

WEGO: Last Drops of September at the Blue Moon Tavern

WEGO's set (39 megs)

Here are the recordings from our late September show at the Blue Moon Tavern. The orchestra for the evening was a quintet of Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Dennis Jolin (electro-uke), Ian McKagan (guitar and voice), Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), and Me Woods (bassbox and voice).

If you've ever seen a show at the Blue Moon, I can say this went about like your average Blue Moon show, complete with technical difficulties, a distorted trebley mix and a crowd of lovable drunken freaks that makes it all worth it.  (... clearly this isn't us in the photo, but I love that this is the photo that the Blue Moon has at the top of its own web-page!)

WEGO: September Shipwreck!

Ian's Set (minus the first song) (42 megs)
Set 1a (27 megs)
Set 1b (20 megs)
Set 2 (23 megs)

Here's as much as we managed to record of our September 23rd show at the Shipwreck Tavern in West Seattle. The orchestra for the evening was our usual core quartet of Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Ian McKagan (guitar and voice), Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), and Me Woods (bassbox and voice). Ian played a relaxed and moody set of guitar-and-voice to open the evening.

Longevity of my recharge-ables had dropped to an all new low, and so a couple of significant portions of the show were not recorded: a chunk in the middle of the first set -- before I got up to change the batteries -- and the second half of the second set -- when the backup batteries died too.  (Missing the first song of Ian's set was my bad.)  The new batteries I've ordered should be here in time for this Thursday's show at the Blue Moon -- where we'll play for so little time that it shouldn't be an issue ;)).

It was a warm wonderful evening, and this show was very poorly attended … connected facts … who knows…?  But thanks to the fantastic hospitality of Chips and Chris, and the generosity of the gullible few who did turn up, we had a good time anyway.

There was also some slightly unbalanced enthusiasm from a guy who first arrived during the set-break and tried to get a few of us to donate to the peewee baseball team he claimed to be coaching (a 20-something "bro" who didn't seem to fit the part), and ended the evening shouting "you guys hate art!!" at the bar-tender after he jumped up on stage to freestyle and had his mic cut off. He came back a few minutes later and tried to smooth everything over … an interesting guy for sure!

WEGO: September Enlighten Show

Set 1 (53 megs)
Set 2 (29 megs)

Here are the recordings from our September show at the Enlighten Cafe. The quartet for the evening was Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Ian McKagen (guitar and voice), Jesse Silvertrees (keys and voice), and Me Woods (bassbox and voice).

Audience turnout was exceptionally sparse (the temperature had been in the mid-80's all week, and perhaps people were outside enjoying the last of Summer), but for those who came it was a strong and slightly-unusual show. With Jenny and Dennis missing and with Jesse rocking the keys (instead of djembe), it was a harmonically-rich sound that suffered surprisingly little from lack of groove. …not that we won't be psyched to have our missing regulars back, mind you!

#$%&^*, the batteries died on the recorder again!! (Note to self: need a new set of NI-MH 2700ma AA rechargables.) However, I swear the recorder held on until roughly 1 second after the last note of Ian's country/jazz-hall "Crazy Train", which was arguably the top standard of the evening. So all is forgiven, little recorder. After that, we congratulated ourselves for at least a couple of minutes and then played a little less than 15 minutes more -- the bit that's missing from the recording here.

Emma (the new barista) joined us on vocals for the first bit of the second set. We always enjoy this sort of thing, but I was quickly surprised by her voice-control and sophisticated harmonic palette. Check out the extended scat-solo at the end of "Disco Inferno". Sounds like she's going to be the regular Thursday barista for a while, so we're planning to run a super-long mic to the bar, so she can join in at will.

Finally, this was my first show with the electric pickup on the bassbox. As a single-coil jazz-bass pickup, it's naturally a little noisy, but nothing that doesn't get quickly buried when the other players join in. And you can really hear the improved low-end warmth, especially during the second set.  Hell, I made it through both sets with no blisters!  I'll be glad to have the increased headroom going into our two bar-shows at the end of the month.

Coastal Guitar-and-Voice Improv

Moclips Moth Attack 1 (8 megs)
Moclips Moth Attack 2 (4 megs)

Here are a couple of improvised guitar-and-voice clips from the first night of our recent family-trip to the Washington coast. We arrived at the house-on-the-beach that Tina's family had rented by mid-evening. And by about 9pm or so, we were settled in enough that I was able to escape to the sea-side porch for a few minutes of screwing around on the guitar. You can hear the steady surf in the background, but even with a ridiculously overpowered porch-floodlight aimed straight at the beach, a thick mist completely hid all but the first several yards of grassy dunes from view. However, above my head and stretching a hundred feet out behind the house, this crazy light created a giant conical glow in the fog, within which hundreds of moths flitted about in the night air. Eventually the swarm attracted at least 1 acrobatic species of small bird (swifts…?) who proceeded to unleash a circus of dramatic lurching sweeps through the cone, attempting to pick the insects out of mid-air.

You may notice that this isn't my most inspired lyrical improv, but there are some fun musics here … and the waves and ambient air are just a hair more interesting than uniform white-noise.