This week in Infantree....
Monday, March 5th:
With the mini van packed full of all our instruments, we headed to San Francisco to play a show at Cafe Du Nord. The show was put on by Communion and our friends from (((Folk Yeah!))) and we couldn't be happier to be playing on such a great lineup.
It was a very cold day in SF, but as most shows go in San Fran, this one ended up being a great night of music, fun, and friends! We kicked off the show with a set list of mostly new material from our upcoming album Hero's Dose. Our set list was as follows:
1.What You Wanna Do
2. Original Sin
3. Hypo
4. Bag of Tricks
5. Should
6. Lull
7. Living Proof
Unfortunately, I have no photos or videos from our set, but i made sure to get some from the acts that followed us...After we played to what I thought was a very warm and well receiving audience, Lauren Shera and her band took the stage.
On one of our previous trips to SF, we played with Lauren and her band Honeymoon, which was lots of fun, so it was definitely a treat to watch her perform again and to see how she'd approach a set of her own material. From the first to the last song, it was apparent that her voice was undeniably powerful and that her and her band members where top notch players. It was a joy watching them and we'd definitely love to play with them again.
After Lauren's set there was talk amongst the bands in the green room of some surprise performers that were supposed to play. The first one turned out to be singer/songwriter Jenny O. I had heard her name before, but I had never actually listened to her music until I got home from this trip, which is unfortunate because her music turned out to be really awesome, and I totally missed her set :( . However, I did get to see the second surprise artist which turned out to be Father John Misty (AKA J. Tillman, of the Fleet Foxes).
Not knowing what to expect from the former drummer of the Fleet Foxes, I was completely captivated by his voice and unique style of song writing. I admit that I was a bit thrown off by how sarcastic and dark his commentary was between songs, but not enough to move from where my feet had been planted. It was all in fun and I really enjoyed his music.
After Misty's surprise performance, a band called Birdhouse took to the stage. Birdhouse is a band from Santa Cruz and this was the first time we had met/ shared a stage with them. We actually arrived to the venue when they were sound checking, and we all thought that they sounded great. Of course, when it came time for them to play, it sounded even better. They all play way beyond their years and their set was full of energy. After they played we all discussed our influences and favorite Paul Simon albums :)
The headlining act for the night was a duo called The Driftwood Singers. We had played with them once before at a club called Bordello in LA. They're one of those groups that you can't help but fall in love with once they start playing. Although they're both young, their music has a maturity that comes from old souls. They're harmonies were impeccable and their sound/ stage presence has a way of putting a smile on your face. It was great getting to actually meet them this time and they even helped sell some of our t-shirts :) They're playing at the Satellite in Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 20th and I def want to go.
After the show was over, we packed up our gear and found the Tumbleweed Wanderers busking it up outside the venue.
They're music was great and they apparently had seen us perform a while back in Oakland for a show we played at the New Parish. Anyways, they gave us they're demo which we listened to on the way back home. It's really good.
Luckily our friend Dottie let us crash at her place that night and she even bought us all breakfast the next morning! Thanks Dottie!!!
I took one one last picture of Jordan and Matt before we left and got on the road back home :)
Wednesday, March 7th:
Luckily we showed up to night 3 of our Hotel Cafe residency earlier than usual becuase I was able to catch a set performed by Leah Siegel. I had no clue who she was, but as soon as she started playing, I had to find out. It turns out she's from New York and she normally fronts a band called Firehorse. Her voice was incredible and her style of writing was dark and beautiful all at the same time. Her guitar playing was simple and washed out with reverb, but with her voice accompanying, it created a sound that sent shivers down my spine. I don't think she normally performs solo, but I gotta say that it was definitely one of the most intriguing performances I had seen all month. Needless to say, I bought her CD, which were the same songs she performed but with some awesome beats to match.
After she played, we went through the whole setting up our equipment routine, which seems to get faster with each night we play there. It was a fun night. A lot of friends and family members showed up to this one, including the parentals, whom for some reason just love to sit as close and center to the stage as possible. It sounds like it would be the opposite, but for some reason it's always a little bit more nerve-racking to play in front of family and friends than it is to play in front of complete strangers. I think it has something to do with the fact that they already know everything about you. Anyways, we played a set of the following songs:
1. Original Sin
2. What You Wanna Do
3. The Humans Rule the World
4. Hypo
5. Bag of Tricks
6. Fibber
7. Forgive Me First
8. Skinny Bones Jones
9. Lull
10. Living Proof
11. The Peace Prize
Although I thought we played well, we did get some flack from family members and bartenders that we weren't looking up enough to the audience while we were playing. I blame it on the parents being so close to the stage, but, whatever, were working on it ;) Anyhow, here's a couple of photos from that night that our friend Steech snapped of us
Also, some of our web designer friends who came to show filmed some songs on their iphones and put em up on their new website called Tapshare. It's a really awesome communtiy site where anybody can join and upload videos/pictures/comments to an Infantree based platform. The site is still in what they call "beta", which i think means that there are still some bugs they need to fix, but other than that it's completely operational. I guess the best way to explain it is to see it for yourself. So join/subscribe to the Tapshare community which you can check out right HERE!!!!!
This is a video from that night of us performing one of our new songs "Skinny Bones Jones".
Thursday, March 8th:
I had read a post a few days earlier from My Morning Jacket's Facebook profile that Jim James and his new collaborative project New Multitudes was going to be performing a free show at Amoeba in Hollywood on this day! So, not to pass up a good free show, we hopped in the car and headed to Amoeba. We also thought it to be a good opportunity to promote our next/last show at Hotel Cafe by passing out free demos to the other audience members. We even gave demo's to all four members of the band. It turned out to be a great day. We ended up passing out all of our demos and talked to a lot of really cool people. When New Multitudes got on stage, they rocked Amoeba.
They performed about four or five songs from their new album in which they all wrote songs using unrecorded lyrics written by Woody Guthrie. They played a really great set filled with harmonies and each member trading lead vocals. My favorite song they performed is called "Changing World". When they were finished, they waited around and signed everyone's CD's. I totally got my copy signed :)
After we left Amoeba, we got lunch at Chick-fil-a and headed home.
