Enlighten Cafe Closing Party Jams

5-Piece Jams (41 megs)

Here is a short bit of informal jamming by the WEGO lineup! Sadly, we learned this week that the Enlighten Cafe will be closing over the next few days. Woody had set up a last minute party and by the time I arrived at 8:10-ish, a low key gathering had convened, with Dennis, Jesse, and Ian improvising some mellow grooves to flavor the space. I unpacked some percussion and my trumpet and Woody raced out from behind the counter with his guitar, and for about 40 minutes it was practically a WEGO show … minus the chord-changes and the pop-lyrics. It was really nice to play with these guys in a more open modal-format! It makes me think we should try to spend a slightly larger percentage of our time in pure modal exploration in the future... We did signal a few nice modal shifts and Ian and I provided some lyrical focus here and there. And then it was over.

Later, Woody played a short solo set, and Ian played a few tunes with Jesse accompanying him on the djembe. I assume other players joined in later in the evening, but by then I had returned home with Tina and Lucy to settle in for the evening. As usual, I don't think much of the weight of the venue's passing hit me at the time. Too many interesting interactions to focus on! But it was great to see some of the cherished regulars and bask in the warm and slightly melancholy mood.

WEGO: August 3rd at the Enlighten Cafe!

2-Piece Intro (17 megs)
Set 1 (45 megs)
Set 2 (50 megs)

Here are the recordings from WEGO's first Friday show at the Enlighten Cafe on August 3rd, 2012. The "orchestra" for the evening consisted of Woody Frank (telecaster and voice), Ian McKagan (stratocaster and voice), and Me Woods (bass and voice).

Despite the extree-small orchestra and the lack of percussion, this show had plenty of great moments and sported an unusual warm, crunchy ambience throughout. Revel in the stripped down majesty!

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!