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Gig/Weekend Report w/usual overlong commentary and ridiculous pics

Brian Krashpad
November 7th, 2011, 08:25 AM
So this weekend was Boo, also variously known as the Boo Party and Boo Fest. The event actually has its origin in a bunch of late 70's/early '80's Halloween parties in Gainesville which are the stuff of local legend. They appear to have fizzled out during the mid to late '80's (or at least there is no good record of them on the official secret webpage) and then come back on an annual basis in the early '90's, after which they've been held annually, usually the weekend following Halloween.

I played '05 and '07 with my side roots rock band Hoyt & the HotHeads, then last year with my pop side band Pedagogy. This year when Crash Pad was playing the local Labor Daze fest on the Bo Diddley Stage at the community plaza downtown at the start of September, I ran into Feck, the stage manager for Boo, as well as the band manager for one of its recent staples (and old buds of mine, with whom I've sold/traded a number of axes over the years) Big Oil. He asked if Crash Pad would like to be on the "reserve" list for Boo this year, because the bill was already full. I said of course, gave him my contact info and thought nothing more of it.

About a week before Boo Feck contacted me to see if Crash Pad could play. Of course I said yes. However, our bassist Joel was going to be out of state at a memorial for his grandmother, so I arranged for our former bassist Ronnie to sit in. We managed to get in one practice with the 3 guitars, and one full practice, before this weekend.

Friday we caravan'd out to Boo from my office (our practice space) with me in the lead and the guitarist Mitch and Ronnie in their cars, with our drummer to follow later. We set up camp with each of them pitching tents, but I discovered that the bag with my tent in it did not have the tent poles, so I resolved to just put my big cab in what there was of the the "tent" overnight and sleep in the back of the SUV. Which turned out to be a much warmer arrangement anyhow (though not as cold as the preceding year).

Sleeping quarters:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/386551_10150388015138879_512618878_8418390_1983785 966_n.jpg

Gear "tent:"

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/312251_10150388014798879_512618878_8418389_6315719 73_n.jpg


Then we went to set up onstage, as we were opening the weekend's festivities. Here's a pic of me and stage manager Feck before our set:

http://hphotos-iad1.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/381934_10150386720913879_512618878_8409452_7942683 16_n.jpg

One early problem was that Mitch had borrowed my Sunn 200S head for the set, which is an 8 ohm amp, but had brought a 4 ohm cab he'd borrowed from Ronnie. Just when I thought we'd have to borrow an amp from someone (there was no way I was gonna risk blowing up a vintage head), I realized that my Sovtek head had multiple outputs, so I let Mitch play through my 8-ohm Risson cab and used the 4-ohm output on my Sovtek head to use with Ronnie's 4-ohm Fender 4x12.

The first 3/4 of he set went really well. Feck came up and said there was some sort of crisis and asked us to stretch. Fortunately our setlist was about 10 minutes longer than the allotted 35 minutes anyhow, so we said no prob. However, the sun had gone down by then (we went on a little after 6 p.m.) and the temperature drop started playing havok with my tuning. Nevertheless we toughed it out and Feck was happy we could play a bit longer.

Turned out Trish, from the act following us, had cut her finger open 10 minutes before she was supposed to go on. She ended up super-glueing it back together, putting a bandage over it, and playing her set. It didn't start bleeding again until the end of her set. She was followed by my old buds the Root Doctors, who do a swampy psychedelic rootsy blues-rock; they were on fire, especially their lead guitarist Chaz. The night ended with Ancient River, a guitar-drums duo with lots of delay and effects and droney Hendrix-inspired psychedelia.

I didn't get shots of the other bands from Friday, but here's a few of us (note that Boo is a Halloween party, albeit a belated one, so I was in costume). The first shot is by my friend Rob Dark, from Big Oil (rest are by Mitch's gf):

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/308493_2299869987713_1578071527_2166210_1849645566 _n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/296594_10150386743263879_512618878_8409616_1243710 881_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/300396_10150388001438879_512618878_8418328_8150738 17_n.jpg

http://hphotos-sea1.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/380251_10150387715373879_512618878_8416191_5948000 37_n.jpghttp://hphotos-sea1.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/380251_10150387715373879_512618878_8416191_5948000 37_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/384270_10150386853113879_512618878_8410397_1752233 368_n.jpg

Next post, some more live shots, Boo site pix, and Saturday bands! Meanwhile, as always, your comments on my poseritude are welcomed, and questions gladly answered.

musicmatty
November 7th, 2011, 11:24 AM
Fantastic..thanks for all the info and pics...I love a post with all of this info and shots :wink:

spauldingrules
November 7th, 2011, 11:31 AM
Are you a communist or do you just play one onstage?

telequacktastic
November 7th, 2011, 11:42 AM
that was totally awesome

Brian Krashpad
November 7th, 2011, 12:13 PM
Are you a communist or do you just play one onstage?


My costume was "My Mom's Long-Held Suspicions About Me." :mrgreen:


Here's some more pics from the set. The usual silliness:

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/297178_10150387714843879_512618878_8416183_1918942 357_n.jpg

Duckwalkin'!

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/386688_10150386864488879_512618878_8410477_7515911 59_n.jpg

Bruce's Cheap Trick-inspired drum head, on his Bun E. Carlos prototype signature kit (he's a bit fixated, but since he was Bun E's drum tech back in the day he has license):

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/318334_10150386864138879_512618878_8410475_1173685 908_n.jpg

The Ramones stance yields extra stability to bring the rawk:

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/300224_10150386820868879_512618878_8410181_2014622 035_n.jpg

Brian Krashpad
November 7th, 2011, 02:14 PM
Though a couple bands preceded them, the day two festivities kicked into high gear with Chicken Luv:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/316464_10150388015898879_512618878_8418396_3289775 29_n.jpg

Penultimate band of night two Long Strange Day (note name's initials)

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/386911_10150388016333879_512618878_8418400_1382547 073_n.jpg

Big Oil closes night two:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/383287_10150388016858879_512618878_8418404_1106986 344_n.jpg

One of the many pumpkins carved by "Pumpkin Bill," this one marked the entrance to the easterly portion of the Boo, housing the Main Bonfire, Music Stage, and Boo Cafe (free coffee all weekend!):

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/393740_10150388017123879_512618878_8418406_6266238 _n.jpg

Laminates and the Big Oil "Boo Crew 2011" pin that glows in the dark ("so you won't get run over by a crew golf cart"):

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/385507_10150388542328879_512618878_8422791_7217822 46_n.jpg

Mid Life Crisis
November 7th, 2011, 02:58 PM
Those are great pics Brian. If your band sounds even half as good as you look, that would be very cool indeed.

Paul in Colorado
November 7th, 2011, 03:49 PM
That looks like a fun festival. How many people come to it? Thanks for posting pictures and commentary.

Brian Krashpad
November 7th, 2011, 04:03 PM
Those are great pics Brian. If your band sounds even half as good as you look, that would be very cool indeed.

Oh my, ta mate! :oops:

Here's a viddy of our "blues" (ha!) song "Hothead," beware the Rotten/Biafra-ish vocals!

-bQmEaD0d_0

String Tree
November 7th, 2011, 04:10 PM
I have some real issues with ANYBODY that lets their 4 x 12 cab sleep outdoors overnight!

Brian Krashpad
November 7th, 2011, 04:23 PM
That looks like a fun festival. How many people come to it? Thanks for posting pictures and commentary.

It's really quite small, more a large private party than a proper festival. There's no advertising per se, everything is word of mouth "friend of a friend" type stuff. I'm terrible at estimating, but I'd think 200-300 over the course of the weekend max, and around 50 of that is the band members.

I'll post a shot of the property before it got filled with tents and RV's to give you an idea, later.

Brian Krashpad
November 7th, 2011, 04:43 PM
I have some real issues with ANYBODY that lets their 4 x 12 cab sleep outdoors overnight!

But... she was in a tent!

At any rate, no harm done. It wasn't raining, and in addition to the tent material she had a big piece of heavy cardboard, folded double, to protect her from any dew.

String Tree
November 8th, 2011, 02:33 AM
But... she was in a tent!

At any rate, no harm done. It wasn't raining, and in addition to the tent material she had a big piece of heavy cardboard, folded double, to protect her from any dew.

Well in that case, I suppose I can let it slide .... this time. :)

Brian Krashpad
November 8th, 2011, 02:35 AM
Well in that case, I suppose I can let it slide .... this time. :)

Whew, that was close! :lol:

Some additional Boo shots scrounged off the web.

This is Lucinda, who comes to all the Boos:

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/310657_2111052343509_1461630445_31743326_150455748 5_n.jpg

View of Boo from the eastern end (atop the laser light station) early on Friday, before most had set up camp. Imagine most of the space on either side of the center trail filled up with tents and RV's. In the foreground is the main bonfire pit, directly below us is the sound desk, and behind us is the stage.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/300079_2111037423136_1461630445_31743317_120805446 9_n.jpg

The band and crew grub tent. Yum!

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/384086_10150442433391019_536256018_10316407_757463 246_n.jpg

I hafta admit to a crush on the free coffee lady at the Boo Cafe:

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/300644_2115936665614_1461630445_31746810_217990209 _n.jpg

StoogeSurfer
November 8th, 2011, 08:34 AM
That crashing Brian is having way too much fun with life. DAMN HIM!

Brian Krashpad
November 8th, 2011, 10:05 AM
.
.

Brian Krashpad
November 8th, 2011, 10:07 AM
That crashing Brian is having way too much fun with life. DAMN HIM!

Haha, thanks, I think!

I was fortunate enough to have been a miserable little kid in junior high school, and to have come to the realization that no matter how bad my situation was (I had an awful teacher that was rightly universally despised), in the end it was me that was making me miserable. So, ever since, I've tried to see the glass half full and not sweat the small stuff.

Having gone through throat surgery (neck dissection w/lymphadenectomy/tonsilectomy), chemotherapy, and irradiation of my neck/throat over the past 12 months, I know I'm very fortunate and blessed to simply be around, much less still speaking and able to eat more or less like a normal person, much less singing and playing guitar in a rock and rock and roll band.

No regrets. That's the way to go if you can manage.

Mid Life Crisis
November 8th, 2011, 10:52 AM
Haha, thanks, I think!

I was fortunate enough to have been a miserable little kid in junior high school, and to have come to the realization that no matter how bad my situation was (I had an awful teacher that was rightly universally despised), in the end it was me that was making me miserable. So, ever since, I've tried to see the glass half full and not sweat the small stuff.

Having gone through throat surgery (neck dissection w/lymphadenectomy/tonsilectomy), chemotherapy, and irradiation of my neck/throat over the past 12 months, I know I'm very fortunate and blessed to simply be around, much less still speaking and able to eat more or less like a normal person, much less singing and playing guitar in a rock and rock and roll band.

No regrets. That's the way to go if you can manage.

More power to you - keep rockin!

StoogeSurfer
November 8th, 2011, 01:01 PM
Anyone who appreciates life probably has to start as a miserable kid. I am in that category.

Guitar, friends, gig, add beer. Happy need not be complicated after all. =========>:mrgreen: