One Day Of Bass

Greetings Humans....Get comfy... This post is a bit long.

There were 10 Bassists and their bands present at this years One Day of Bass in Chicago. This event was brought to you by Jauqo III-X and New Life Portage Park....and the letter B. This was an all day event. We got there at 1pm and left after 10pm.


Let's get started shall we

First up was Ian Zamost and his drummer with some rockin' effects heavy slap. Nice way to start the days event.




Next we had Tim Siesser and his band. For some reason I have no footage of this set. Which is a shame...This is one tight act. The melodies present were wonderfully pleasing. I do have a pic though.



Bill Clements was insane...figuratively....He did appear to be in his right mind. Apparently he and his percussionists Were winging much of the set and damn that's brave and amazing. It was rather stunning to witness.



Apologies for my phone camera....I do however have a clear picture of Bill's Lakland and his boots:




Will Howard was smooth and mellow...compared to the high energy of bill...He told a story about one of the basses he was playing. He picked it up at a garage sale for 100 bucks. This is not the 100 bass... It's on the stand next to him glowing...



Dave and I played after Will. It was HOT on that stage. Minimal mishaps...so that's good. I played through a Genz Benz streamliner 900 paired with a 210 ubercab for the first time and I was really impressed. I had to turn some of the low end down! I basically ran it pretty flat, mostly because I can get a lot of the tone I need from my Skjold Bass. couple that with the fact that I loop... some of the cabs I've used seem to have a hard time with all the layers that I use. I detected no issues from this rig. I was very impressed. I wanted to try out he Overton amps and cabs that were there but didn't get a chance to... So I can't comment on them other than to say they sounded good when the other performers used them.





Ken "Mr. Lotus" Edmond Bass and drum groove oriented jams with the bass thick with effects....Lovely.




Michael Cybulskie "Big Mikey C" was very impressive indeed. He uses a short scale Watson bass. I believe he said it is 30.7 scale. That man can play! He's tight...very good stuff here. Did some Rocco Prestia stuff and some Jaco and a solo piece as well. Was very happy to have seen this.





Vuyani Wakaba and his band utilized some very impressive percussive elements..it was wonderful. Smooth soloing from Vuyani.




Jauqo III-X played his signature Avant-Funk with his band. Another apology for my camera phone... Had to get this one while plugged in from the back of the room:



Quintin Berry blew us all away...He has a very unique way of playing the bass. He also had everyone gather around the stage....that was great. by the end of the night everyone had spread out and he made the evening intimate...My Drummer even got to perform with Quintin through some Kings X and Jimy Hendricks. A wonderful way to end the night.



Many thanks to Jauqo II-X and New Life Portage Park for putting on the show. thanks to the sponsers, Genz Benz, DNA Amplification, Overton Amplification, Thunderfunk and Ashdown. Skjold Design Guitars, Specter basses, Lakland basses,HJC Customs for providing a custom build for the raffle, DR Strings ... good lord I know I'm forgetting some... You can dig on the flyer here...the sponsers are listed:



I'd have to say the biggest thing I learn from these events is to Breath... Relax...do your thing. Because ultimately everyone is so different in approach from player to player, even if they are similar in genre.


And now for some video:

More progress shots of the Skjold!

Pete sent me some more pics today. Each pic gets better and better!




The other bass you see is one Pete made for himself.
You can see many many more pics of the current batch HERE

Octavius and the Bass

I had to share this:



He loves instruments...but he really took to the Drums and the bass. He's already using his thumb!

Soon I'll get to show him how to play this:



The Skjold is another step closer to being finished!

In other news type shtuff:

Amongst the very important musical discussions going on in the twitterverse, there also exists discussion of sophisticated cinema like that of which I present here for your viewing pleasure.

Please to enjoy a scene from, Hard To Kill. Unfortunately this is a scene with a beardless Segal, but nonetheless, features one of the best lines ever uttered by a revenge seeking cop who just woke up from a coma.

Of loop devices and Z Grade fu flicks....

The Bozarts show went pretty well. I'm always pretty hard on myself regarding my performance so I usually record video, watch it, beat up on myself even more and then go practice. I forgot to record this one. Had the camera out and thought I hit the record button but alas, I spared myself the agony of obsessing over how to improve.

I did manage to find this photo of me doing things at Bozarts:

I tweeted so hard that night about the event...I managed to tweet two whole pics! I'm amazed at my internet prowess.

I do indeed have a set list together for The Cincinnati Bass Blast. I've added in one of my favorite songs to cover. "Grace" by Sean Malone. I haven't played it in quite some time as it's one of the first youtube vids I uploaded over a year ago. It's a beautiful piece of music originally played on the Chapman Stick. The song has been present at major moments of my life and I see no reason to not play it at The Bass Blast as it's a pretty special occasion.

Over the weekend I procured a Boss RC50. I've been using a RC20XL as my main looper coupled with a Line 6 DL4. It's worked out for me and the only complaint is that my loops are static because of the limitation of the devices. That and it's all mono...BOO HISS! The Boss RC50 is a stereo looper and I can still utilize the DL4. I know these can be buggy, but I'm working on a budget here and I couldn't pass up the price. With about fifteen minutes of messing around with the thing I managed to come up with some pretty nice stuff and can see the possibility of some more fluid compositions. Very exciting!


Besides I blew my budget on this thing:

SixString Fretless made by Pete Skjold he makes some of the finest basses out there! I wont have it until December...I'm dying to play it.

I won't be using the RC50 at the Bass Blast as it's a new device and am not willing to risk some brain fart mucking things up. I'll stick to what I know for the Blast and woodshop after.

Movies:
I am by far not a Dragonball fanatic. But I tell you if there is ever an incarnation of a Dragonball movie you should see, I say skip the new one heading our way and que up Dragonball The Magic Begins. A live action Taiwan mash up of the Monkey King and the anime series. Early 90's Z grade stuff here. I tell you it's a must see if you're one who enjoys spaceships, monks,kung fu, wire fu,talking alligators, poor english dubbing, pervert pig men, magic clouds, aliens bent on world domination and ZOMBIES!

It's just so random in editing, dialogue and effects. It's simply too much fun. I've included for your enjoyment some clips I found on youtube. But this doesn't capture the full gamut of shlockyness, much less include the extreme prejudice in which villagers are gunned down by the lead singer of Vixen.

Enjoy: