May 2009 - Posts
Yesterday landed us in Hunter, NY for Government Mule's "Mountain Jam" festival. A plethora of pics and video for your perusal...
The view from high atop the mountain after a heartbeat raising hike
Zoom
Jake & Joel perched midmountain taking in the view
Brendan's axe takes a nap in his bunk when no one is looking
Warren Haynes sits in on a raucous version of "Can't Ya Hear Me Knockin'"
Post set sky
Warren lets it shine
Clearly our set wore this front row fan out as she peacefully sleeps through Mule's first set
Guess the shadow (tough, I know)
Sorry for the long delay but the wait is over for the recordings of our 2 New Orleans Jazz Fest late night shows. We had a whole host of technical problems with the recordings that weekend but the esteemed Micah Gordon pieced the affair together with operation like precision. Here is a stream of "Smell The Mitten" to temporarily satiate you as you race over to umlive.net and frantically download with uncontrollable excitement. Enjoy a 15% discount when you buy both shows as a small tip of the hat for so patiently waiting.
Yet another glorious year at the little festival that could.
A few snippets from Saturday starting with a rehearsal of the questionably titled super group "Sexy Bitches" (Keller Williams, Joel Cummins, Vinnie Amico, Al Schnier, & Rob Derhak) and finishing with some classic Bayliss laughter as he hijacks the keys to a golf cart from a PB&J eating Farag.
What time do we play?
If you haven't heard Gomez's Ben Ottewell's voice you are missing a vocal heavyweight
Lou Gosain takes a moment to "keep up foreign relations" while mixing AND singing harmony with Keller Williams
Letting the air out
Our first experimentation into the world of Pyro....NOT THE LAST
Stasik attempts a poorly timed joke and tries to light his fart during Wizard Burial Ground
We've seen a lot of clever ways to sneak party favors into a show but this may take the cake. 2 thumbs up.
Buckethead: If there is a more bizarre look out there, I'm waiting to see it
The view from the sound board (looking forward)
The view from the sound board (looking backward). Hula Hoop Mania!
We weren't certain if that was haze or dust in those beams
Too much rock for one hand
A special shot out to our crew for an absurd night's work yesterday. After 2 sets on the Moonshine stage, we packed up our whole show, moved to the other stage, and set it back up for tonight's show. At 4:45 am the team decided that it might be time for bed. If you see Don, Bob, Robbie, Wade, or Jefferson wandering around today, buy them a beer (or a red bull) - they earned it. (I had the easy job last night as I finished at 2am)
We're back at Summercamp in lovely Chillicothe, IL for another year of arts & crafts, canoeing, and archery, perhaps a little music in there as well.
Thursday night sound check & light programming
And we're off
moe. gets it going with a daytime set on a gorgeous Friday afternoon
I think these guys are OK, despite what Brendan says
Jim & Vinnie from moe. layin' it down thick
"The Summer Home"
Festival lighting schematic
Don breaks out our new favorite piece of merch!
A good friend of ours owns a small business specializing in sustainable & stylish eco fashions called Mountains of the Moon. She has recently entered her video into a small business grant competition and has been selected as one of 50 finalists out a field of 1900. Our beloved stage manager Robbie Williams taught himself video editing overnight and put together the clip you are about to see while Jake Cinninger composed some original music to accompany the video which you are about to hear. The winner of this contest receives a $25,000 grant which could make the difference between staying in business or closing her doors in these tough times. Help us keep a passionate, responsible business alive by viewing the video and voting.
Click the link below, watch & vote. Voting is easy but does require creating a username and password (which we know you hate) but it's quite simple.
Mountains of the Moon Story: http://community.intuit.com/contests/dBMIJmwrqqllvkab8P4pmk
All of the finalist's stories: http://community.intuit.com/contests?category_filter=350&lob_filter=&query=&order=VINSPIRING&show_all
As a thank you for checking this contest out here is a song that Jake wrote for the Mountains of the Moon video. Click on the title of this post (if you haven't already) and click on the attachment "Sustainable.mp3" to grab the track.
DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO VOTE:
(NOTE: Please use Firefox as your browser if you can. The voting doesn't seem to work in Internet Explorer).
1. Go to the link and watch the video.
2. To the right of the video there will be three links (in blue) that say Inspiring, Useful, and Funny (hopefully you will choose all three!). Click on one of the links.
3. Then it will prompt you to create an account. Creating an account takes less than 10 seconds, and you never have to use it again (and Intuit will not send you spam - it's totally harmless)
4. After that, click on the other two as well (if you clicked on "Inspiring" before signing in or creating an account, now click on "Useful" and "Funny.") There is also a place to post a comment which is optional.
5. Now pass it on! :)
A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of visiting the People's Music School on the Northside of Chicago to see where YOUR USTORM dollars are going. Many of you have supported USTORM in the past and we're hoping many of you will give again in the future. Please take a few minutes to watch this video and see how you are helping kids learn the wonder and beauty that is music. Your support makes a lasting impact in these kids lives. Well done, people. Well done.
USTORM was founded in March of 2006 by Bredan Bayliss and three of his friends from Chicago (the esteemed Barry Brown, Kevin Kostelecky & Mike LeMaistre). The goal was to raise money that could be donated to various music and art educational programs in Chicago and beyond. Since that time, USTORM has donated close to $50,000 towards a number of great programs including The Chicago Off the Street Club, The Merit School of Music, Snow City Arts at Children's Hospital, and more! Funds are raised at various musical events, music festivals, and by people that believe in the USTORM cause and just want to donate (ALWAYS appreciated by the USTORM folks....)
"VISIT THE USTORM BOOTH AT SUMMERCAMP! DAILY RAFFLES...WIN GREAT PRIZES, AND HELP SUPPORT THE KIDS!"
We've been wanting to bring a little of the ol' south up to Chicago for a few years now. With the team off the road, we finally took the necessary steps to have a traditional crawfish boil in my backyard this past weekend. Preparation started last weekend when I attended two back to back boils to learn the tricks of the process. I learned that there is a bit of an underground crawfish boil scene here in the windy city. On any given weekend during crawfish season (which can start as early as February and run as late as August) there are crawfish boils around the city at bars and restaurants that one can eat the Cajun critters to the hearts' content. I was lucky enough to learn from some well seasoned pros who own the bar Toons on Southport. We started around 2 PM in the afternoon, and went through 120 lbs of crawfish! It was quite a day, and I highly recommend trying out your own boil.
It's a great way to spend the day!
-Vince
Vince checks on his kettle
Ston, Budney, Williams, Browning, & Iwinski discuss the finer things in life
Robbie sucks head
Jake tempts fate
The process from start to finish:
- Get your hands on a large 50-60 gallon pot, propane burner, paddle for stirring, a few coolers, and some good beverages, as well as potatoes, corn, garlic, mushroom, onion, oranges, lemons, sausage, spices, and of course, live crawfish. We ordered 120 lbs through lacrawfish.com, and the spices came free with the order
- The crawfish were living in a pond in Louisiana at 4 PM Friday afternoon, and were waiting for pick-up at O'hare Airport on Saturday morning, alive and ready to be the guests of honor at our party
- Start by 'purging' the crawfish, running cold water over them for a good 15-20 minutes to get all the mud off them. After all, they are called 'mud bugs'. Make sure they are well drained as you don't want to
drown them.
- Next fill the pot 1/2 way with water, add your spices, and bring to a boil.
- Next add potatoes, and boil for 10 minutes
- Next add the rest of the ingredients including the crawfish. Bring to a boil for just a couple minutes, then turn off the gas and let soak for 20- 25 minutes. The longer the soak, the more the spices soak into the goods.
- Finally, throw all the ingredients into a cooler or similar container, cover with squeeze butter and spices, shake, scoop out, peel, and EAT!
Joel completes his adventure...
Joel explores our old stomping grounds of South Bend & Notre Dame for our show at the Morris Performing Arts Center. There were so many memories to relive that we bring you this episode in two parts.
We made it out alive. 2 stellar days in the Big Easy. A few snippets for your entertainment...
The Great Allen Toussaint
Door on Dauphine
Knobs
Friday Morning in Jackson Park
Cumdog
Rawk!
