Cramper Crampout blog part 3
Pioneertown CA Friday Sept 8, 2006
Well, let's get to the big shows before I forget what the heck happened. Day 0 of the Crampout was the Thursday before the actual event. Lots of die-hard fans showed up early to make sure not to miss any of the festivities. My roommate at the Pitown motel was Matt "MTP" Stout, an over-the-road trucker from Southern Virginia. Matt is also known as El Hairy Watermelon, Harry Carey and when he posts from his cellphone he goes by MTP which is short for "Matt's Tiny Phone." I had never met him in person before Pitown, but after Joey "The Legend" put us in touch a few months ago, we chatted at length on the telephone. Matt is as great a guy in person as online and on the phone. A generous soul with a wicked-silly sense of humor. Sometimes he comes off as very serious, but I was hard-pressed to find a time when he was not joking about something. We had room 17 at the Pitown motel, which is situated about 100 yards from Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, the roadhouse bar which contained the concert venue(s) for the weekend's shows. The first night at the hotel, our next-door neighbor was Joey "The Legend" herself. She's from Minneapolis and I think she gets her nickname because she manages to be up front at just about every show she sees. She's also a great person and loves a good laugh.
P&H's has an indoor capacity of 275, including the pool-table room, a bar, and a small indoor stage. Out the back of the poolroom is a backyard area with another bar and a small food-service area as well as a larger stage called the "Western Stage." The total capacity including the outdoor stage is probably about 500, and I imagine it was just about completely full for the headlining acts. It was not crowded, but I think there were certainly over 450 bodies in there, probably right around the max for John Doe and for Cracker the next night.
Anyhow, Joey and I were the only audience members to attend the CVB soundcheck on Friday. I went into the Western Stage area around 4PM because I heard that the band would be soundchecking, and I wanted to make sure that I could set up my recording gear in the best possible spot. I also hoped to record the soundcheck, both to make sure that my gear was working properly and to set record levels, but also to catch every last drop of music that emanated from our heroes. I asked Casey, the band's sound engineer, if it would be OK for me to record the check, and he said it was fine with with him, as long as the band did not mind. I found David walking around outside and asked him if he would mind, and he said it was fine with him, but he did not know if there was really going to be a proper soundcheck with any songs, there might just be a line-check to make sure all the stuff was plugged in.
It turned out that the stage was set up in time for a normal check, and I did end up taping it. As the band was checking their gear, Joey was standing out on the dance floor which had been put down over the sandy ground in the dead center of the floor. Evidently Frank Funaro, the drummer for CVB and Cracker, told her at some point "NO LAUGHING AT SOUNDCHECK" so she and I made a sort of game out of not laughing. I told her it was important to do what Frank said, and so she could SAY "Ha ha" or sing it, but not to actually laugh. I don't know if Frank was really serious about the policy, but he's from Brooklyn, and I would not wanna get on his bad side, just to be safe. Casey put the band through their paces one sound at a time, just like most normal soundchecks. For David's guitar check, David played the riff from Might Makes Right, and that was the first "song" of the check. Once Casey was satisfied that all the mics and direct lines were functioning, he had the band play a couple tunes, they did ZZ Top Goes to Egypt, with a very loose ending, then Ambiguity Song "Everything seems to be up in the air at this time!" All three of the songs wound up being played during the Camper set, so I don't feel that the rough-sounding check versions would add much to the total picture, but if anyone really feels like they need to hear 'em, I suppose I could make them available. I will probably not be likely to transfer that tape until I am through with the music that took place on the indoor stage though.
I was the only audio recordist that I know of for the weekend, and I wound up using two DAT machines to capture everything, thanks to Bugs Salcido I had a microphone to use on the indoor stage. Next year I'll have to bring two complete rigs, or make sure there are more tapers than just myself there. Father Dan actually had his Archos hard drive recorder and tiny mics there (as well as a keg of Devil's Canyon Lager, which is another factor in the storied history of the weekend's frolic!), but he said his mics tend to overload when the sound gets loud. Upon reflection, I think it's his recorder- I was told by a friend in Madison who uses an Archos that they don't have very good software included, and that the free Rockbox software is much better. I offered to run Dan's recorder for him so he did not have to rely on his mics, and he was happy about that. Probably due to the weird software, his recordings all came out distorted from overloading, so I have been uploading the shows to his server and he's been placing them online. http://64.164.101.69/campout/ is the link for his site if you want to check the videos and sounds, or look at the various photo albums from the weekend.
ON WITH THE SHOW!
Day one started with the Thrift-Store Allstars, I already mentioned their performance on my last blog entry. Next up was John Doe from the legendary LA punk band X. John performed a solo acoustic set which was wonderful and heartfelt, then towards the end of his time on stage, he called members of Camper Van Beethoven to the stage. Greg Lisher, Victor Krummenacher, Jon Segel and drummer John Hanes came up and joined John for several rocking songs, all in the key of E. Later, John called David Lowery up to sing one, and they shared vocals for one number. I met John briefly after his set, and told him that I recorded it, and would be glad to send a copy to him, and he seemed pleased. I also told him that his set was "shredding" which I think confused him a bit. He said something to the effect of "that's an interesting adjective- what was shredding about it?" I told him I really liked the whole set, but it was probably Greg Lisher's face-melting guitar solos that got me.
I was up near the front of the crowd for the John Doe set, and I connected visually with John Hanes, the drummer who played the next day on Jon Segel, Greg Lisher, and Victor Krummenacher's solo sets. I was boogieing down to the sound, and when John played a particularly rhythmic beat on his floor-tom, his eyes and mine met, and we shot each other a smile. After the set I ran into him at the bar inside the club, and asked him his name, and he explained that he was there to play on the solo sets the next day. I told him how excited I was for those sets, that the chance to see Victor and Jon and Greg do their things was really the factor that tipped the scales for me to attend the California weekend. I've seen Camper a bunch in the midwest, and Cracker comes around plenty, but I knew that to see Jon Greg and Victor I'd have to go to where they were playing. I also told him how much I enjoy Victor's solo album Nocturne that he played on. Some of the tunes on that album kick my ass. In the best possible way.
After John Doe's set was Gram Rabbit, which was something to see! I found their music to be kinda like desert-techno. Maybe ambient-trance-tweeky-trippy would describe it?! Their stage show involved girls in skin-tight cartoony rabbit suits, with bunny ears. I don't think I got any photos of them, but I know there are some linked from Father Dan's compilation page. For some of the crumbs, Gram Rabbit was the unexpected highlight, but they didn't really grab me. I think I took a break during their set and went back to my room for a sandwich.
Backtracking just a bit, I'll mention that on our way to the desert, Steve© and I stopped at the Von's in Redlands to stock up on food and beer, so I figured I should eat what I brought. I did a great job of finishing my food, I did not leave much uneaten, and came home with a few light snacks remaining, after eating a bag of chips and a container of hummus on the plane-ride back to wisconsin. I had planned to stop at Clark's Nutrition and Natural Food Market which had been recommended by David's sister Stephanie, but I found what I needed at Von's. Right next to the Redlands Von's was a Trader Joe's but I had found most everything I needed at the Von's so I elected not to stop anywhere else.
While I am tangentially on the subject of my travel-mate Steve© (aka Steve ROCKS©) I should mention that he is a very fine painter. He brought along a painting he made of Johnny Hickman in order to give it Johnny for his 50th Birthday on Sunday, but wound up donating it for a silent auction to raise funds for some Pitown residents who were displaced by the giant desert fire a few months back. Here is a photo of Steve© on the airplane with the Johnny painting:
We stopped along the way to pick up a cooler for me at a large discount store which I won't link to cause they are too big already. At the discounter, Steve© bought some paints, brushes, and art boards so he could do some painting in the desert. He wound up taking our rental car over to Joshua Tree National Park and painting some pictures which he gave to three different friends. I think two of the pieces are of the park, and the one of the burnt Joshua Trees was painted in Pioneertown.
Ok back to the concert- Camper Van Beethoven was the Friday headliner, and midway through their set, they brought out John Doe to do the X song "White Girl." Evidently, Jon Segel was walking on air the rest of the weekend, ecstatic that he had jammed with John Doe. He and Greg Lisher also sat in with Cracker the following night, but that is not unprecedented, so I don't blame him if his weekend highlight was getting to play during John's set, and have John join CVB for a song.
CVB totally rocked, but I was a little bummed out at how many people were chatting during their set. Lucky for me, the encore put me in a much better mood- they pulled out I'm Not Like Everybody Else, a song by one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever- the legendary Kinks.
Disc 1 (69:55.05)
1. intro
2. Mao Recollects His Days In Southern China
3. White Riot
4. (I Was So) Wasted
5. Shut Us Down
6. R 'n' R Uzbekistan
7. The History Of Utah
8. White Girl*
9. Circles
10. Waka
11. Turquoise Jewelry
12. Tania
13. Eye Of Fatima Pts 1 & 2
14. Prelude >
15. Sons Of The New Golden West
16. 51-7
17. L'Aguardiente
18. The Long Plastic Hallway
19. One Of These Days
10. Hippie Chix
21. Skinhead Stomp
22. Take The Skinheads Bowling
Disc 2 (48:50.69)
1. Pictures Of Matchstick Men
2. ZZ Top Goes To Egypt >
3. Flowers >
4. Cattle (Reversed) >
5. The Day Lassie Went To The Moon >
6. Club Med Sucks >
7. Interstellar Overdrive
8. encore break and announcements
9. All Her Favorite Fruit
10. tuning and banter
11. I'm Not Like Everybody Else
12. outtro
After the CVB set, Johnny Hickman played a fantastic solo set on the indoor stage. He was joined by Bugs Salcido on guitar and shaker, Kenny Margolis on keys, Chris LeRoy on acoustic guitar, and John Doe even came out and performed Twin Brother which was great.
1. intro
2. Prerequiem +
3. Southern Cal
4. Hold Of Myself
5. (Doe Break)
6. Twin Brother *
7. Catholic Girl + (lyrics)
8. Little Tom
9. The Great Decline
10. (drink order)
11. Papa Johnny's Arms + (lyrics)
12. (band intros)
13. Whole Lotta Trouble
14. San Bernardino Boy
15. Wedding Day
16. (no rules banter)
17. Trials and Tribulations
18. Friends
19. Another Song About The Rain
20. (encore break)
21. Beauregarde's Retreat
22. Lucky
23. (outtro and taper signout)
(+ = first time played)
Still with me? OK. Johnny's set ended after 1:30 AM, and the bar was closing, so then it was over to Bugs' porch for PORCHSTOCK IIa aka Bugsstock! I did not use my camera for that, but I took a bunch of shots using Matt's Tiny Camera. I will post them some time down the road when I get a chance. I will also post a link to the music when it's online, it will probably wind up on the Father Dan page, so check back there if you're anxious.
The setlist for Porchstock IIa was as follows:
1. intro
2. intro 2
3. If You See Her Say Hello (Johnny)
4. Porch Jam in A (Johnny)
5. Streets Of Bakersfield (Johnny)
6. Tangled Up In Blue (Johnny)
7. Everyone Needs Some Love Now (Bugs)
8. Love In Vain (Bugs)
9. Here's To Us All (Casey)
10. Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny)
11. Goodtime Charlie's Got The Blues (Bugs)
12. tuning
13. Wake Up Lil' Children (Bugs)
14. outtro
Porchstock ended around 4-something in the morning, and I only counted 32 people there at the peak crowd. Not everyone had the stamina to make it that long, but becuase Bugs had a small PA system set up, the campers said they could understand every word sung at the late-night jam! Well it's getting late here, so I'm gonna call this a blog, and wish y'all a happy new year! Yep, as of dusk tonight (Friday September 22, 2006) it's Rosh Hashanah, aka Jewish new years 5766-5767! L'Shana Tova everyone and goodnight!
Pioneertown CA Friday Sept 8, 2006
Well, let's get to the big shows before I forget what the heck happened. Day 0 of the Crampout was the Thursday before the actual event. Lots of die-hard fans showed up early to make sure not to miss any of the festivities. My roommate at the Pitown motel was Matt "MTP" Stout, an over-the-road trucker from Southern Virginia. Matt is also known as El Hairy Watermelon, Harry Carey and when he posts from his cellphone he goes by MTP which is short for "Matt's Tiny Phone." I had never met him in person before Pitown, but after Joey "The Legend" put us in touch a few months ago, we chatted at length on the telephone. Matt is as great a guy in person as online and on the phone. A generous soul with a wicked-silly sense of humor. Sometimes he comes off as very serious, but I was hard-pressed to find a time when he was not joking about something. We had room 17 at the Pitown motel, which is situated about 100 yards from Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, the roadhouse bar which contained the concert venue(s) for the weekend's shows. The first night at the hotel, our next-door neighbor was Joey "The Legend" herself. She's from Minneapolis and I think she gets her nickname because she manages to be up front at just about every show she sees. She's also a great person and loves a good laugh.
P&H's has an indoor capacity of 275, including the pool-table room, a bar, and a small indoor stage. Out the back of the poolroom is a backyard area with another bar and a small food-service area as well as a larger stage called the "Western Stage." The total capacity including the outdoor stage is probably about 500, and I imagine it was just about completely full for the headlining acts. It was not crowded, but I think there were certainly over 450 bodies in there, probably right around the max for John Doe and for Cracker the next night.
Anyhow, Joey and I were the only audience members to attend the CVB soundcheck on Friday. I went into the Western Stage area around 4PM because I heard that the band would be soundchecking, and I wanted to make sure that I could set up my recording gear in the best possible spot. I also hoped to record the soundcheck, both to make sure that my gear was working properly and to set record levels, but also to catch every last drop of music that emanated from our heroes. I asked Casey, the band's sound engineer, if it would be OK for me to record the check, and he said it was fine with with him, as long as the band did not mind. I found David walking around outside and asked him if he would mind, and he said it was fine with him, but he did not know if there was really going to be a proper soundcheck with any songs, there might just be a line-check to make sure all the stuff was plugged in.
It turned out that the stage was set up in time for a normal check, and I did end up taping it. As the band was checking their gear, Joey was standing out on the dance floor which had been put down over the sandy ground in the dead center of the floor. Evidently Frank Funaro, the drummer for CVB and Cracker, told her at some point "NO LAUGHING AT SOUNDCHECK" so she and I made a sort of game out of not laughing. I told her it was important to do what Frank said, and so she could SAY "Ha ha" or sing it, but not to actually laugh. I don't know if Frank was really serious about the policy, but he's from Brooklyn, and I would not wanna get on his bad side, just to be safe. Casey put the band through their paces one sound at a time, just like most normal soundchecks. For David's guitar check, David played the riff from Might Makes Right, and that was the first "song" of the check. Once Casey was satisfied that all the mics and direct lines were functioning, he had the band play a couple tunes, they did ZZ Top Goes to Egypt, with a very loose ending, then Ambiguity Song "Everything seems to be up in the air at this time!" All three of the songs wound up being played during the Camper set, so I don't feel that the rough-sounding check versions would add much to the total picture, but if anyone really feels like they need to hear 'em, I suppose I could make them available. I will probably not be likely to transfer that tape until I am through with the music that took place on the indoor stage though.
I was the only audio recordist that I know of for the weekend, and I wound up using two DAT machines to capture everything, thanks to Bugs Salcido I had a microphone to use on the indoor stage. Next year I'll have to bring two complete rigs, or make sure there are more tapers than just myself there. Father Dan actually had his Archos hard drive recorder and tiny mics there (as well as a keg of Devil's Canyon Lager, which is another factor in the storied history of the weekend's frolic!), but he said his mics tend to overload when the sound gets loud. Upon reflection, I think it's his recorder- I was told by a friend in Madison who uses an Archos that they don't have very good software included, and that the free Rockbox software is much better. I offered to run Dan's recorder for him so he did not have to rely on his mics, and he was happy about that. Probably due to the weird software, his recordings all came out distorted from overloading, so I have been uploading the shows to his server and he's been placing them online. http://64.164.101.69/campout/ is the link for his site if you want to check the videos and sounds, or look at the various photo albums from the weekend.
ON WITH THE SHOW!
Day one started with the Thrift-Store Allstars, I already mentioned their performance on my last blog entry. Next up was John Doe from the legendary LA punk band X. John performed a solo acoustic set which was wonderful and heartfelt, then towards the end of his time on stage, he called members of Camper Van Beethoven to the stage. Greg Lisher, Victor Krummenacher, Jon Segel and drummer John Hanes came up and joined John for several rocking songs, all in the key of E. Later, John called David Lowery up to sing one, and they shared vocals for one number. I met John briefly after his set, and told him that I recorded it, and would be glad to send a copy to him, and he seemed pleased. I also told him that his set was "shredding" which I think confused him a bit. He said something to the effect of "that's an interesting adjective- what was shredding about it?" I told him I really liked the whole set, but it was probably Greg Lisher's face-melting guitar solos that got me.
I was up near the front of the crowd for the John Doe set, and I connected visually with John Hanes, the drummer who played the next day on Jon Segel, Greg Lisher, and Victor Krummenacher's solo sets. I was boogieing down to the sound, and when John played a particularly rhythmic beat on his floor-tom, his eyes and mine met, and we shot each other a smile. After the set I ran into him at the bar inside the club, and asked him his name, and he explained that he was there to play on the solo sets the next day. I told him how excited I was for those sets, that the chance to see Victor and Jon and Greg do their things was really the factor that tipped the scales for me to attend the California weekend. I've seen Camper a bunch in the midwest, and Cracker comes around plenty, but I knew that to see Jon Greg and Victor I'd have to go to where they were playing. I also told him how much I enjoy Victor's solo album Nocturne that he played on. Some of the tunes on that album kick my ass. In the best possible way.
After John Doe's set was Gram Rabbit, which was something to see! I found their music to be kinda like desert-techno. Maybe ambient-trance-tweeky-trippy would describe it?! Their stage show involved girls in skin-tight cartoony rabbit suits, with bunny ears. I don't think I got any photos of them, but I know there are some linked from Father Dan's compilation page. For some of the crumbs, Gram Rabbit was the unexpected highlight, but they didn't really grab me. I think I took a break during their set and went back to my room for a sandwich.
Backtracking just a bit, I'll mention that on our way to the desert, Steve© and I stopped at the Von's in Redlands to stock up on food and beer, so I figured I should eat what I brought. I did a great job of finishing my food, I did not leave much uneaten, and came home with a few light snacks remaining, after eating a bag of chips and a container of hummus on the plane-ride back to wisconsin. I had planned to stop at Clark's Nutrition and Natural Food Market which had been recommended by David's sister Stephanie, but I found what I needed at Von's. Right next to the Redlands Von's was a Trader Joe's but I had found most everything I needed at the Von's so I elected not to stop anywhere else.
While I am tangentially on the subject of my travel-mate Steve© (aka Steve ROCKS©) I should mention that he is a very fine painter. He brought along a painting he made of Johnny Hickman in order to give it Johnny for his 50th Birthday on Sunday, but wound up donating it for a silent auction to raise funds for some Pitown residents who were displaced by the giant desert fire a few months back. Here is a photo of Steve© on the airplane with the Johnny painting:
We stopped along the way to pick up a cooler for me at a large discount store which I won't link to cause they are too big already. At the discounter, Steve© bought some paints, brushes, and art boards so he could do some painting in the desert. He wound up taking our rental car over to Joshua Tree National Park and painting some pictures which he gave to three different friends. I think two of the pieces are of the park, and the one of the burnt Joshua Trees was painted in Pioneertown.
Ok back to the concert- Camper Van Beethoven was the Friday headliner, and midway through their set, they brought out John Doe to do the X song "White Girl." Evidently, Jon Segel was walking on air the rest of the weekend, ecstatic that he had jammed with John Doe. He and Greg Lisher also sat in with Cracker the following night, but that is not unprecedented, so I don't blame him if his weekend highlight was getting to play during John's set, and have John join CVB for a song.
CVB totally rocked, but I was a little bummed out at how many people were chatting during their set. Lucky for me, the encore put me in a much better mood- they pulled out I'm Not Like Everybody Else, a song by one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever- the legendary Kinks.
Disc 1 (69:55.05)
1. intro
2. Mao Recollects His Days In Southern China
3. White Riot
4. (I Was So) Wasted
5. Shut Us Down
6. R 'n' R Uzbekistan
7. The History Of Utah
8. White Girl*
9. Circles
10. Waka
11. Turquoise Jewelry
12. Tania
13. Eye Of Fatima Pts 1 & 2
14. Prelude >
15. Sons Of The New Golden West
16. 51-7
17. L'Aguardiente
18. The Long Plastic Hallway
19. One Of These Days
10. Hippie Chix
21. Skinhead Stomp
22. Take The Skinheads Bowling
Disc 2 (48:50.69)
1. Pictures Of Matchstick Men
2. ZZ Top Goes To Egypt >
3. Flowers >
4. Cattle (Reversed) >
5. The Day Lassie Went To The Moon >
6. Club Med Sucks >
7. Interstellar Overdrive
8. encore break and announcements
9. All Her Favorite Fruit
10. tuning and banter
11. I'm Not Like Everybody Else
12. outtro
After the CVB set, Johnny Hickman played a fantastic solo set on the indoor stage. He was joined by Bugs Salcido on guitar and shaker, Kenny Margolis on keys, Chris LeRoy on acoustic guitar, and John Doe even came out and performed Twin Brother which was great.
1. intro
2. Prerequiem +
3. Southern Cal
4. Hold Of Myself
5. (Doe Break)
6. Twin Brother *
7. Catholic Girl + (lyrics)
8. Little Tom
9. The Great Decline
10. (drink order)
11. Papa Johnny's Arms + (lyrics)
12. (band intros)
13. Whole Lotta Trouble
14. San Bernardino Boy
15. Wedding Day
16. (no rules banter)
17. Trials and Tribulations
18. Friends
19. Another Song About The Rain
20. (encore break)
21. Beauregarde's Retreat
22. Lucky
23. (outtro and taper signout)
(+ = first time played)
Still with me? OK. Johnny's set ended after 1:30 AM, and the bar was closing, so then it was over to Bugs' porch for PORCHSTOCK IIa aka Bugsstock! I did not use my camera for that, but I took a bunch of shots using Matt's Tiny Camera. I will post them some time down the road when I get a chance. I will also post a link to the music when it's online, it will probably wind up on the Father Dan page, so check back there if you're anxious.
The setlist for Porchstock IIa was as follows:
1. intro
2. intro 2
3. If You See Her Say Hello (Johnny)
4. Porch Jam in A (Johnny)
5. Streets Of Bakersfield (Johnny)
6. Tangled Up In Blue (Johnny)
7. Everyone Needs Some Love Now (Bugs)
8. Love In Vain (Bugs)
9. Here's To Us All (Casey)
10. Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny)
11. Goodtime Charlie's Got The Blues (Bugs)
12. tuning
13. Wake Up Lil' Children (Bugs)
14. outtro
Porchstock ended around 4-something in the morning, and I only counted 32 people there at the peak crowd. Not everyone had the stamina to make it that long, but becuase Bugs had a small PA system set up, the campers said they could understand every word sung at the late-night jam! Well it's getting late here, so I'm gonna call this a blog, and wish y'all a happy new year! Yep, as of dusk tonight (Friday September 22, 2006) it's Rosh Hashanah, aka Jewish new years 5766-5767! L'Shana Tova everyone and goodnight!
posted by morst at 9/23/2006 01:46:00 AM -
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