It's been fun!

Hi all and welcome to 2015!  It's really a shame that I haven't posted in a while.  No worries though as I am still around!  I should say that the period between August of 2012 and October/November 2014 was super fun.  I got to play a lot of shows with both the Janeen Leah Band and Cold Planet.  I grew as a musician and player, played many cool places with and for a lot of people, and forged many friendships.

As you may know, Janeen (of Janeen Leah Band - duh!), and Michael of *both* JLB and Cold Planet are a married couple.  In December 2014, they moved to a great home in Grass Valley, CA.  Great move, but making practice and playing Bay Area gigs a little bit harder than before!  Both bands are still going with mostly no lineup changes, but gigs going forward will be less frequent.

Janeen Leah Band soundchecking at Blackbird Tavern in San Jose, CA on August 20, 2014

I miss playing with all my bandmates, but despair not my legions of fans! There will be a Janeen Leah Band show this coming Friday, February 6 at our "home base" The Bistro in Hayward.  We haven't played together since October 2014, so it's really exciting.  We have a brand new set list and I'm pretty excited to play.  I still haven't' made up my mind as to which one of my main beauties I will play:

Ibanez Roadstar II, or Fender Precision Lyte?

I'm leaning towards the Precision.  I like the way the active pickups sound.  I hope to see you Friday!

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On the Cold Planet front, we are figuring out how to bring our high energy shows back very soon.  Stay tuned!

Cold Planet at The Bistro in Hayward, October 10, 2014

Pretty cool guitar I'm playing there, huh?

In the meantime, if anyone's up for a jam, let me know!  :)

More Videos and Pictures from Janeen Leah Band's show at Red Devil Lounge, San Francisco, April 20, 2013!

Not much to add to the title, here is another picture of the band in action:

Left to right: Me, Mike Garza, Janeen, Art, Michael Burke

Man! My rare short-sleeve appearances are becoming less rare!

Here are a couple more videos.  This next one is the great quasi-Waltz-like tune "Like A Fool":

And here is the tour de force "Rainy Day".  I really love it how Art Williams kills it on drums, particularly around the 3:43 mark!

Next stop:  May 24th, 2013 at the High Street Station in Alameda, CA.  Sharing the bill will be Cold Planet with an acoustic set (watch out since I may sit with the band!), and none other than acoustic bluesman Ben Brown!  My old jamming buddy from the Plough And Stars Irish Pub!  Come for a nice evening full of great folks, food and music!

The Janeen Leah Band Live at San Francisco's Red Devil Lounge, April 20, 2013

The Janeen Leah band made its triumphant return to San Francisco's legendary and esteemed club Red Devil Lounge on Saturday, April 20, 2013!  Last time we played there was back in November 2012 shortly after Thanksgiving.

Bay Bridge traffic was horrible, so we were a little late for set up, but early enough where we got the equipment set up just fine.  This show also marked the debut of Cold Planet's new singer Chris (after an acoustic teaser at The Bistro in Hayward a few weeks ago).  Cold Planet is Michael Burke's high energy Rock band.  Michael plays in Janeen's band as well.  Since Cold Planet went first and Janeen second, we were able to share some of the equipment, including my trusty old Peavy TKO bass amp:

My old, trusty Peavey TKO, who sleeps no longer!

One thing that was different this time than in November is that Jacob, the Red Devil Lounge's sound guy miked the amps instead of cabling them directly to the PA system.  I think, at least in my case, the bass sounded better in November than this time around.

Cold Planet played a blistering opening set.  Here's a picture I took of the band in action (Videos from this performance can be found HERE):

L-R: JD (bs), Chris (voice), Scott (dr) & Michael (gtr)

After the opening set, Janeen and band took the stage.  My fingers were cold!  I should have warmed up a little while waiting for the set to begin.  We played a great, fun set, if a little too short.  My fingers were beginning to warm up when the set was over!  The crowd was great and some got up to dance!  This show marked the San Francisco debut of an unreleased Janeen song called "If You Love Someone".  I really enjoy playing this song since I came up with a really cool bass line for it.  Here's a video of the performance.  Too bad the bass is pretty much inaudible, but it's a great song.  I hope I get to properly record it someday:

The show also marked the San Francisco debut of the full band performance of Muse's "Super Massive Black Hole".  Again, I think I have a pretty cool bass run at one point during the song, but you can't really hear it:

I think I speak for all - Janeen, Michael, Art, Mike and yours truly - when I say that we had a blast performing at The Red Devil Lounge.  The weather is getting warmer and summertime is looming.  We hope that along with the great weather, summer brings many opportunities to play for as many people as possible!

Have you been at a Janeen Leah band performance?  Where else would you like us to play?

L-R: Alfredo (bs), Mike (gtr), Janeen (voice), Art (dr) & Michael (gtr)