Summer 2013 Sort Of Musical Update (Janeen Leah Band & Cold Planet)

Hi all groovy guys, groovy girls!  Here's a quick update of my musical endeavors of the past couple of months.

As I had hoped, I got to play several shows this summer, not only with the Janeen Leah Band, but also with rockers Cold Planet!  I officially joined Cold Planet as rhythm guitarist and backup vocalist after the April 20, 2013 show at the Red Devil Lounge.

--- Part 1 ---

As a bit of background, I sort of joined an earlier version of Cold Planet a few years back as, get this... keyboard player and backup vocalist just as that particular project was being put on hold.  Fast forward a couple of years later, the project was brought to life again and was asked to be a part of it.  The revamp was major since only Michael Burke (guitar) and J.D. Chilton (bass) remained from the original band (former drummer Scott Acridge was on board earlier on, but decided to bow out shortly after the "relaunch" but not before playing a blistering set with the guys at the Red Devil Lounge!).  The lineup was completed by lead vocalist Chris Zundel, Art Williams on drums and yours truly on guitar and backing vocals.  Michael also sings backup.  Yes, your keen sense of observation is correct!  3/5 of the Janeen Leah Band also make up 3/5 of Cold Planet; which works out great when we're both on the same bill!.  After very little in the way of practice time, we took it to the road and such road has taken us to several Bay Area cities such as Hayward, Oakland, San Francisco, Alameda and Danville to name a few.  I hope as many of my loyal readers (ha!) can come see the band at one of our upcoming shows.  The band's website is www.coldplanetmusic.com .  And there is also a fun Facebook page!

Cold Planet Rocking it at The Stork Club in Oakland on July 17, 2013

For your viewing and listening pleasure, here's a video of Cold Planet performing a scorching version of the blazing original "Mercy Me" at The Stork Club in Oakland on July 17, 2013.  Of note is that as awesome as this performance was, the occasion marked the very first time that this lineup took the stage!  Can you believe that?!  You can't see me too well, but I'm there!  :)

--- Part 2 ---

The Janeen Leah Band has also been tearing it down all over the place this summer!  We've played a variety of shows including acoustic solo Janeen, almost-acoustic shows with Janeen, Michael, Mike and me, partial band shows and full band shows.  We have added new songs to our repertoire including originals and covers and sound tighter than ever!

We were part of a California tour with excellent Scottish artist Scott Cowie.  The tour also took Janeen and Scott to Southern California for a series of successful shows.  Scott is an excellent guitarist/singer/songwriter and it was great to meet him and share the bill with him (btw, there was no hidden track on my CD Scott!  :)

By the way, if you want to see a whole bunch of pictures and videos of the tour, plus pictures and videos of most shows be it solo, full band or collaborations, be sure to "LIKE" Janeen Leah in Facebook!

In addition to Scott, we have also made more new friends including San Jose band Sweet HayaH with whom we've played a number of shows.  Sweet HayaH is made up of four wonderful, talented musicians and human beings: Nehal Abuelata (vocals & keyboards), Aaron Marquez (super massive bassist), Devin Moreno (lefty guitarist dude & vocals), and Josh Gardner (drums, gongs and vocals).  Sweet HayaH are well on their way to making it big and I so totally encourage you to check them out!

Last Friday night (8/2), we played another gig at the venerable Bistro in Hayward.  This was the first time we played with no other band(s) on the bill, and it made for an exciting evening.  Janeen and Art kicked things off with a short acoustic set, and then we brought the house down with the whole band.  Many friends (including Eric, Kelly, Yasmine, and many more!) came to see us and the crowd was hot!  Here's a picture from that night:

The Janeen Leah Band at The Bistro in Hayward, Friday August 2, 2013

I will leave you with a video of the Janeen Leah Band playing fan favorite "Like A Fool" at Alameda's High Street Station Cafe during the Janeen/Scott Cowie tour.  Mike could not make it to this particular show, so we went at it as a four-piece.  To me this was very interesting because almost one year ago, we played the same venue for the first time as a band.  It was an early band gig and Mike had not joined yet.  It was also my second or third time playing in public since my decade and a half break from playing music.  There is video of us playing this song back then also (I'm sure you can find it if you want to watch it! :) ).

So now I'm a bassist AND guitarist!  Go figure!  It's been a fun, great, interesting ride so far to say the least!

Back to The Bistro – GREAT Gig, But Boy! What a Trip to Get There!

I suppose it all started as far back as Thursday afternoon, March 28.  The Janeen Leah Band was all set and ready to play a show in Modesto on Friday, March 29 at Theater 417.  I was excited since I’d never been to Modesto before (and it seems everyone else has).  I was as excited about going as I was way back in the day when my friend Vic and I finally made it to Alviso one day! (inside joke).  To make a sort of long story short, there was no gig and it was postponed.  There is still hope, so fret not Modesto fans!  We'll be there before you know it!

After the bad news of not playing in Modesto, our efforts were fully focused on our next gig – a return engagement at The Bistro in Hayward on Saturday April 6.  We played there back in November 2012 and it was a very enjoyable show.  For me, it was all planned out.  I was going to have a little practice of my own on Friday night to tighten up some bass parts, and then on Saturday I was going to buy a shirt for the gig (decided not to wear the Van Halen t-shirt again!).  The gig was a double-header with Michael’s band Cold Planet, featuring Chris, their brand new singer.

We found out on Thursday afternoon (4/5) that due to a scheduling hiccup, the show was going to take place on Friday and not Saturday.  Consequently Mike was not going to be able to make it, and none of the Cold Planet guys (with the exception of Michael) were going to be there either.  Michael, Art and I decided to resurrect “The Art Williams Experience” (he still doesn’t like the name, but he won’t read this, so it’s OK) and do a set.  After our regularly scheduled practice on Thursday evening (minus Mike since he wasn’t going to be able to make it to the show), the three of us quickly ran through a quickly made-up set of 3 originals and 3 standards.

So Friday came.  I took the bus home from work and it took me a while in Friday night traffic since I work in San Jose.  I had just enough time to have a quick dinner, load up the equipment in the car, get ready a bit and head over to the gig.  The City of Hayward has recently changed the direction of some of its downtown streets, and I think it’s an improvement, but can get a bit confusing.  I drove aimlessly for a few minutes trying to find a good spot but ended up parking two blocks away, which is no big deal, just that I had to carry my amp, bass, cords, etc. uphill for two blocks.  Janeen, Michael and Art were already there.  Looks like Michael had a scary choking incident as they were getting ready to leave.  Fortunately, he was all better and ready to go, if a bit shaken up.  They almost went the wrong way on a busy downtown street, and although they found a good parking spot, there was some police/fire activity going on near the entrance.

We had also found out that Mike was going to make it after all, which was some awesome news.  Also, Chris, Cold Planet’s new singer, was there also.  "The Art Williams Experience" took the stage at the scheduled time and we went through our six-song set.  It was pretty good considering the amount of preparation we had (none).  There wasn't a lot of people, but it was funny (to me at least) when about a third of the folks there got up and left in the middle of our set.  It looked like they were all together and had to go, so I’m sure it wasn't because we sucked or anything; it just looked funny.  I decided to explore with varying degrees of success some different bass runs for future reference.

After The Art Williams Experience, Michael and Chris took the stage for an acoustic preview of the rebirth of Cold Planet, Mark III (see if you get that reference!).  They played a cool three-song set.  I’m looking forward to Cold Planet’s upcoming show on April 20.

Then it was showtime baby!  Mike got there with basically no time to spare.  Janeen and Art warmed up the crowd by playing a song as Mike set up.  Since I was standing up there already, I very quietly noodled on the bass since I hadn't played the song before.  We got things started strong as always with Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”.  In the middle of the song, this guy stands at the doorway of The Bistro and starts screaming “THAT IS NOT YOUR SONG!!!!  THAT IS NOT YOUR SONG!!!!”  Dude was pretty upset about it.  We kept on playing like the seasoned, grizzled road dogs that we are, and the bartender quickly got him the heck out anyway.  I think he thinks he wrote the song or something.  We saw him later having a great time outside!

After this it was all smooth sailing.  We hadn't played together in over a week, but it was all good.  I even broke out some backing vocals to the delight of the audience – well, at least to the delight of two people in the audience (who told me so) – since the extra mike was there from Cold Planet’s acoustic set.  The downtown Hayward Friday night wanderers came in after seeing/listening to the band from outside, and we packed the place up.  As the show progressed, people were dancing, smiling, having a good time and the band was having a blast as well.  After our closing number (a world premiere!) we got some very generous, enthusiastic applause and “ENCORE! ENCORE!!” calls.

We were all happy, and it was the perfect ending to a couple of difficult days.

Chris was nice enough to take pictures and record some video.  When Janeen went to upload it, THE COMPUTER WIPED OUT ALL THE FILES!!!  Unbelievable!

This short clip, uploaded by Janeen, is the only existing footage of that awesome evening!

https://vine.co/v/bTvUTA0MXHg

Janeen Leah's next show:  Saturday April 20, 2013 at the Red Devil Lounge, San Francisco.  Get your tickets early here: https://tickets.aftonshows.com/janeenleah

Now that the weather is getting nicer, where would you like to see us play?