Buffalo Nickel Family Circus
Though we did a fill-in show in early January this was the first scheduled Buffalo Nickel show of the new year. It took place in Hal & Mal's Red Room Feb. 24, 2007. Maybe a few words are needed to explain exactly what the "Family Circus" part of the show is.
We were originally doing this show with the band "10 City Run" from San Antonio, but they could not make the trip. So when thinking about who we could do a show with we thought, "why not open for ourselves". See, nearly everyone in Buffalo Nickel performs solo shows, and in those solo shows they perform many songs that the band does not usually play.
This way we could keep FIVE "opening acts" rotating every 15-20 minutes, which should do two things (1) keep things interesting for the audience, and (2) have feature spots for everyone in the group. Brad has a solo act with his wife Samantha, and since she is part of the "Buffalo Nickel Family" we called this little show, "The Buffalo Nickel Family Circus".
Steve, Clinton, and Brad & Sam have played quite a few solo shows and performed like pros. Kudos to Chris for performing his first solo show that night. We all know he's a great songwriter, singer and bass player, but he proved he can strap on an acoustic guitar and play harmonica as well. I even got into the act by doing a quick Buffalo Nickel trivia game with the audience, and then performed a drum solo based on Buffalo Nickel beats. This was the first time I have done a solo performance with no one else on stage in over 20 years.
By the way, the drum solo WAS actually structured around Buffalo Nickel beats, and kicked off based on the beat I play in "Eulogy", but with a faster tempo (which makes it sound different). Variations of that beat were played as well as fills off that beat then it morphed into the rhythms for 16th note shuffles used on songs like "Family Man", and "Alien Queen". Variations and fills off that beat continued to the freakout finale, and closed with a popular tag ending to many of our tunes. I'm happy with the new ddrum all-maple set I used at this gig. My tax refund was well spent. Those little drums sounded like CANNONS with only two mics...in fact, during our break I noticed that a friend running sound had even pulled them out of the PA mix, so I guess they carried (the sound) just fine on acoustic power alone.
After the solo sections ("The Family Circus" part of the show), Buffalo Nickel played a two hour set of all original material including songs from the upcoming CD. Covers thrown in to the Buffalo Nickel part of the show were Buck Owens' "Excuse Me", They Might Be Giants "Great Atomic Power", and Neil Young's "Powderfinger".
We thank all that braved the harsh weather that night to experience "Buffalo Nickel's Family Circus". This was a good way to start 2007!
We were originally doing this show with the band "10 City Run" from San Antonio, but they could not make the trip. So when thinking about who we could do a show with we thought, "why not open for ourselves". See, nearly everyone in Buffalo Nickel performs solo shows, and in those solo shows they perform many songs that the band does not usually play.
This way we could keep FIVE "opening acts" rotating every 15-20 minutes, which should do two things (1) keep things interesting for the audience, and (2) have feature spots for everyone in the group. Brad has a solo act with his wife Samantha, and since she is part of the "Buffalo Nickel Family" we called this little show, "The Buffalo Nickel Family Circus".
Steve, Clinton, and Brad & Sam have played quite a few solo shows and performed like pros. Kudos to Chris for performing his first solo show that night. We all know he's a great songwriter, singer and bass player, but he proved he can strap on an acoustic guitar and play harmonica as well. I even got into the act by doing a quick Buffalo Nickel trivia game with the audience, and then performed a drum solo based on Buffalo Nickel beats. This was the first time I have done a solo performance with no one else on stage in over 20 years.
By the way, the drum solo WAS actually structured around Buffalo Nickel beats, and kicked off based on the beat I play in "Eulogy", but with a faster tempo (which makes it sound different). Variations of that beat were played as well as fills off that beat then it morphed into the rhythms for 16th note shuffles used on songs like "Family Man", and "Alien Queen". Variations and fills off that beat continued to the freakout finale, and closed with a popular tag ending to many of our tunes. I'm happy with the new ddrum all-maple set I used at this gig. My tax refund was well spent. Those little drums sounded like CANNONS with only two mics...in fact, during our break I noticed that a friend running sound had even pulled them out of the PA mix, so I guess they carried (the sound) just fine on acoustic power alone.
After the solo sections ("The Family Circus" part of the show), Buffalo Nickel played a two hour set of all original material including songs from the upcoming CD. Covers thrown in to the Buffalo Nickel part of the show were Buck Owens' "Excuse Me", They Might Be Giants "Great Atomic Power", and Neil Young's "Powderfinger".
We thank all that braved the harsh weather that night to experience "Buffalo Nickel's Family Circus". This was a good way to start 2007!
posted by Elliott/tikilovegod @ 5:18 AM
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