the acffh morST cyber-blog is here now.

morst's PITOWN 2007 (pt 6)
Saturday, Sept 8, 2007


Once again, Gram Rabbit has its lovers and its detractors- too much, or not enough!?! To be honest, after the enduring strength and beauty of the Victor, Gerg, and Jonathan solo sets, I took the opportunity to cut out back to my room at the PiTown Motel and make a sandwich, and dump my camera's memory chip into my roommate's laptop so I could shoot some more, and continue to enjoy the shows. I knew Gram Rabbit had gone on pretty late- evidently they took a LONG time to set up which, unfortunately, ate up a bunch of time on the outdoor stage. I didn't get a photo of their set, but recorded the audio. Last year, I didn't make much of an effort to get their permission to post their sets on archive.org. I mailed ted quinn a copy of their disc for him to give to Jesika Von Rabbit, and never heard back that they thought it was worth posting, so that was that. If a band doesn't want to have their sets posted on archive.org, I tend to get the impression that they aren't worth listening to. I'm sure that's not exactly the case, but if they really cared about their sound, each show should at least be worth listening to, and they should attract enough recordists to get a bunch of shows out there, in any case, so that the poor performances are outnumbered by the good one, and there will be something nice for fans to hear. In the absence of a 2006 set worth listening to, I took my opportunity for a break, and, though I did record the 2007 Gram Rabbit set, I have not played it back more than about twice. If you're interested, get in touch, I can send you a CD of it, but I'm not convinced it will make much of a splash on your stereo, let alone your ears. They are a very visual group. Cute to look at, but not really my cup of tea musically. YMMV, as we say on the inter-webbie-thingy.


Cracker- Now this was the anticipated biggus giggus of the weekend. They had announced in the press that they would be playing the entire Kerosene Hat album in it's entirety, and they did it. Unfortunately, by the time Gram Rabbit set up, played, and broke down, there was only time for Cracker to play the set as advertised, and then one encore song- One Fine Day. Funny stuff with the crowd counting the "blank tracks" in between the main portion and the originally hidden tracks, but much too short of set to really be considered a favorite of mine. Honestly, it was a little anti-climactic, considering that I had just heard them play 9 hot tunes and THEN the entire album in Racine just a couple weeks before as a Pitown warmup. I know there were very few people at McAuliffes Pub in Racine who attended the Pitown gig, and vice versa, but ask Steve© or Rock what they thought of the two sets, and I'll wager that they will tell ya that Ker-RACINE Hat was the hotter one. But that's OK, cause both recordings sound great. My buddy Steve Propp made a matrix mix of the soundboard and audience recordings of both the Crampout set and the Racine one, and they're well worth listening to. I don't know, maybe the Pitown version was a little tighter, but something about seeing a band you love in a small bar with 150 people in attendance is really cool. Sure there was some funky circuit-breaker breaking at the Racine gig, but that was actually pretty cool, since the band's stage amps stayed on, and so did the power to the soundboard.


Pitown Cracker Setlist: Kerosene Hat intro, Low, Movie Star, Get Off This, Kerosene Hat, Take Me Down To The Infirmary, Nostalgia, Sweet Potato, Sick Of Goodbyes, I Want Everything, Lonesome Johnny Blues, Let's Go For A Ride, Loser, Eurotrash Girl, I Ride My Bike, One Fine Day


Did I mention that I made a sticker out of Steve©'s oil painting, with Steve©'s help? Check it out and print it out on some sticker stock!



After the Cracker set ended, Jason Molina took the indoor stage, and played a very special solo set, featuring his voice and his Les Paul, and on the final song, his special guest, the lovely Page Campbell, from Dark Meat.








Magnolia Electric's archival team has not yet posted my recording of their set, or the Molina solo set on archive.org, but if you are able to download a BitTorrent, I posted the MECo set here and the Molina set here. Jason's list was as follows:


Lonesome Valley, Twilight Come, One Thin Dime, What Comes After The Blues, Bowery, I've Been Riding With The Ghost, The Farewell Transmission
(2009 update - this IS on the archive now - Click Here or if you prefer the MP3's, Click Here)

Labels: Cracker, Dark Meat, Evan Farrell, Gram Rabbit, Jason Molina, McAuliffe's Pub, Page Campbell, Pappy and Harriet's, Pioneertown, Racine

morst's PITOWN 2007 (pt 3)

Friday, Sept 7, 2007: After getting things going on Thursday, Friday morning and early afternoon was time to relax. We sat around at the Pitown Motel, perfecting our porch-sitting techniques. We amused ourselves by catching up with friends old and new, enjoying food and drink, and doing a little listening to the recordings from the night before.
Friday was the debut of the Crampout sticker, based on a painting by Steve© Dwyer, and modified somewhat by me with some photoshop help from Steve©. A last-minute effort, we only had time to print up about 40 of them, but the image here is the same as the one we used to print them, so feel free to make your own.
At one point in the afternoon, I wandered over to Pappy and Harriet's to see if I could figure out when the CVB soundcheck
would be taking place, and set up my recording gear for the outdoors stage. I set up next to the soundboard area, just behind the board, in a space which I felt would be out of the way of most of the concert crowd. Like the previous year, the outdoor grill has a large woodpile of mesquite logs, and I set up my gear in a little nook protected on one side by the woodpile, and on the other side by the shed which served as the soundboard area in 2006. This year, the sound console was set up further forward, under a tarp-type shelter.

As the crew set up the PA system, and the Campers began to set up their stage gear, I snapped a photo or two since it seemed so strange to see the place empty. The CVB soundcheck took place some time later, and like the previous year, there were only a few people in the stage area listening. I took the opportunity to begin recording, and get the levels set on my DAT machine. Nice to be able to tape the check, since I'd rather not have wildly fluctuating levels on the recordings of the musicians who came to play for us. Camper's soundcheck included some funny banter,CVB's check included Jonathan vocalizing his tribute to the Integratron, Casey asking for Greg "Gerg" Lisher to give him a test signal for his vocal channel ("GERG ANGRY," requested Casey), Frankie singing Frankie - "Summer Wind", Frank then requesting to hear the prepared intro to Processional then launching into it, David working through a guitar part of Cracker's Sidi Ifni, and One Of These Days.
Casey then asked if they wanted to do anything else, and Jonathan said "Casey, all we know how to do is play songs!" So they played She Divines Water, and satisfied, called it a wrap so they could let Casey and the crew get ready for the other bands who were playing first.

The sun high in the sky, I took the opportunity to go back to the motel to relax. Not a very long walk, the bar and motel are less than 100 yards apart!

The evening's outdoor entertainment was kicked off by Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

Their set consisted of Street Fighter, Ghost Trails, Leaving Tennessee, Dear Honey, Oh Icicle, The Weight (The Band), Minor Swing (Django Reinhardt), Goodnight Moonshine and The Ballad Of Graff.


Meanwhile, the stage indoors had Tim Easton getting things started, since Sean Kennedy was not able to arrive for his scheduled set. Kennedy did show up the following day, and started things off on the indoor stage on Saturday, but I should try not to get ahead of myself.



The Dusty Rhodes outdoor set was followed by Magnolia Electric Company. Jason Molina from MECo was kind enough to loan David Lowery a guitar and amp when CVB's gear got ripped off in 2004 in Montreal. I am sure the bands have a good relationship, but it was mighty cool of CVB and Cracker to invite MECo to the 2007 Crampout.




I took a few photos of each band I saw at the Crampout, but normally don't like to use a flash, since it is artificially bright, and destroys the stage lighting just long enough for the exposure. Dring the MECo set, there were a group of Crumbs taking flash photos of each other, which I was calling a "Flash Fight." Here are the culprits, I'm sure when you look through their photos of the weekend, there will be a profusion of flash shots of camera-wielding Crumbs.






Anyhow, the Magnolia's set was approximately as follows: Talk To Me Devil, Again, Memphis Moon, Bowery, Montgomery Bound, Hammer Down, Lonesome Valley, What Comes After The Blues, Astrabel, Shiloh, Hard To Love A Man, and finally, Here Comes The Night.

(January 2009 addendum - The MECo electric set is now on archive.org in flac format, and on PRY.com as MP3's)

Stay tuned for more from Pioneertown, the next installment will feature Camper Van Beethoven's Friday night set, and there's lots more after that, too!

Labels: California, Camper Van Beethoven, Dusty Rhodes And The River Band, Jason Molina, Magnolia Electric Co., Pappy and Harriet's, Pioneertown