WEGO: July 2012 Show!

Set 1 (45 megs)
Set 2 (44 megs)

Here are the recordings from WEGO's late-July makeup show at the Enlighten Cafe. The orchestra for the evening was Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Dennis Jolin (uke, percussion, theremin-thingy), Ian McKagan (guitar and voice), Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), Evan Strauss (bass and voice), and Me Woods (percussion, trumpet, glockenspiel, voice).

With Evan heading off to graduate school before our next show, this was the last show with the entire recent 6-piece lineup for the foreseeable future. And so, with two strong, chaotic, and celebratory sets, it was a fitting closing to a certain mini-era of the band!

(There are two small edits in the first set: right at the beginning, to remove a bunch of sound-checking-in-progress, and again at the very end of the set to move the applause for Evan a bit closer to where we stopped playing.)

WEGO: June Enlighten Show!

Set 1 (not really recommended) 67 megs
Set 2 (fairly approachable!) 52 megs

I was listening to this one in a slightly different frame of mind the other night and I realized that this band is reeeeeallllly weird! Granted -- with two people missing for the first set, Woody singing from behind the counter, and the addition of a first-time orchestra-member for the second set -- this was perhaps an extra strange show, but still!

Nonetheless -- even without the usual full lineup -- Evan is scheduled to leave town for graduate school before the next show(what!?).  Therefore the second set here represents the culmination of a certain mini-era of the band ... So with a heavy heart, please enjoy!

The Orchestra for the evening was Woody Frank (occasional voice, and barista), Ian McKagan (guitar and voice), and Me Woods (charango, glockenspiel, trumpet, percussion, and voice), with the addition of Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), and first-timer John Beezer (electric guitar), for the second set.

 I'd like to warn again here that Set 1 was exceptionally loose and lost all momentum several times. If I wasn't so swamped with more pressing projects, I'd edit it down to the good parts (which I estimate is about 15-min worth). If you *do* manage to listen all the way through Set 1, please post a note or two about what parts you thought were worthwhile, and save somebody else the trouble of what you just went through! ;))

WEGO: May Enlighten Show (2012)

Set 1 (67 megs)
Set 2 (35 megs)

Here are the recordings from WEGO's May show at the Enlighten Cafe. The orchestra for the evening consisted of Woody Frank (barista, vocals, and occasional percussion), Dennis Jolin (guitars and percussion), Ian McKagan (guitar, vocals, and some percussion), Jesse Silvertrees (keys and vocals), Evan Strauss (bass, leg-bells and vocals), and Me Woods (guitar, percussion, glockenspiel, trumpet, and vocals).



 Woody also works at the Enlighten Cafe and happened to be scheduled to work on this particular Thursday. He did manage to join in for some of the most memorable singing, but with the lack of his driving acoustic-guitar rhythms, and with Jesse on Keys instead of djembe, the grooves were noticeably looser at many points throughout the night. Great movements did pick up from time to time, but you may have to dig around a little to find them. On my first listen, it seemed that we had a number of unusually stagnant sections. So, if you're a new or infrequent visitor to the blog, I'd recommend jumping up or down to a neighboring post. But if you're a true fan of our particular style of riding the edge, maybe just jump around a bit, leaning towards the later portions of the evening, and you'll be sure to discover some gems in there!

(Actually, since this one is somewhat hit-and-miss, I'll take this opportunity to encourage listeners to call out their favorite bits in the comments here.)

WEGO: Chai-Stock!

WEGO set (47 megs)

Here is the recording from WEGO's performance at the first (hopefully annual…?) Chai-House reunion festival: Chai-Stock! The orchestra for this mid-afternoon performance included Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Dennis Jolin (electro-uke), Ian McKagan (guitar and voice), Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), Evan Strauss (bass and voice), and Me Woods (percussion, glockenspiel, trumpet, and voice). Gerry Amandes generously offered up his spacious studio -- the perfect venue for a day of music that kicked off shortly after noon and went until well after midnight.

(Coinciding with Cinco de Mayo, this came less than a day after our first (highly-successful!) studio session for some sort of album… Most of that will be cut down into song-structures, but it's possible there will also be a few extended rock-outs that I can post here in the coming months.)

WEGO: April 20th (2012) House-Party!

Ian Gets Down (3 megs)

Warmup Set (with no Evan) (17megs)

A Seeming Eternity of Insane Feedback (300k)

Set 1 (36 megs)

Set 2 (34 megs)

Cooldown Set (with no Jesse) (22 megs)

Here are the recordings from the house party WEGO played in the Mapleleaf area on 4/20/2012.  I think the audio pretty much speaks for itself here, so I'll just say that this turned out to be a fantastic way to spend the evening of my birthday!  

WEGO: March (2012) Enlighten Cafe Show!

MP3 (122 megs)

Here are the recordings from WEGO's March 8th show at the Enlighten Cafe! The orchestra for the evening was Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Dennis Jolin (percussion, glockenspiel, and uke), Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), Evan Strauss (bass, banjo, and voice) and Me Woods (guitar, evan's bass, and voice).

This was another supremely fun evening of "orchestral" movements. A sizable in-the-know audience accumulated by the middle of the evening, and things seemed to build a little more organically and completely as a result. I *think* it's a good sign when you decide it's about time for a set-break and realize that it's only 10 minutes until closing time...? We probably debuted more new lyrical standards than we recycled, prompting us to consider trying a series of "theme" evenings, where we play mostly brand new standards selected to fit a given theme. For now, I'm just leaving the whole recording as one unbroken megalith, but I may try to pick a couple of natural pauses and break it up at some point.

(Ian had to work and sadly had to miss this one. I tried to cover a bit by bringing out my acoustic 6-string -- the first time in quite a while in this context. (This turned out to be a good idea, since Woody couldn't make it until about a 3rd of the way into the evening.) Also, I forgot to snap any photos! So if you took any pictures while you were there, send a couple along and I'll replace these stand-in shots of my guitar-setup.)

WEGO: Feb 9th (2012) Enlighten Show!!

Set 1 (61 megs)
Set 2 (48 megs)

Here are the recordings from WEGO's February (2012) show at the Enlighten Cafe. The orchestra for the evening was Woody Frank (guitar and voice), Dennis Jolin (uke, light-theremin, etc…), Ian McKagan (guitar and voice), Jesse Silvertrees (djembe and voice), Evan Strauss (bass and voice), and Me Woods (dumbek, glockenspiel, trumpet, charango, and voice).

This was a strong show, opening with a rare mostly-instrumental mood-jam that lasts fully 15 minutes, eventually giving way to a nice mix of both seasoned and first-time lyrical standards ... plentiful momentum and groove throughout the evening.  A consistently balanced mix too!  Things seem to be ever gelling and building for this group right now. Check it out.