Donikers! last night.

Donikers opened a show last night at Lost on Main. It went well, I think we're tightening up as a band and getting our sound worked out. We got a lot of good feedback from the crowd and the staff at Lost was awesome.

After we played the Cheating Hearts took to the stage. They played a solid set but suffered a bit from lack of a lead guitar player. They lost some dynamics as a result, but still they played a good solid set of music.

Joe Buck Yourself! headlined the show and performed as a sort of one-man band. He played kick-drum and strummed a distorted hollow-bodied Gibson. His music is a rhythmic blend of punk, country and metal. He is a unique artist and I was glad we got to see him play - though man it was a late one for a Monday night show. We left early and still didn't get home until nearly 1 a.m.

After we left Joe was joined on stage by Captain Sean. I didn't catch any of that but there are some great pictures here compliments of Dain Sandoval.

Oh BTW check out the Donikers new myspace page by clicking here.

Cafe Coda last night...

Played a fun show at the Cafe Coda last night. It was what you would call an "intimate" crowd - but it was a respectful and friendly audience. DJ X of KZFR's Chico Butter was taping the show - so it will be interesting to hear what might be on that tape.

Garrett Gray of the "Perpetual Drifters" opened the show - his tunes and his voice were really good.

"Dick and Jane" went on second. They are a fantastic local folk duo - Scott plays guitar and sings and Molly plucks a ukelele and sings harmonies. They both have great voices - Molly's is strinkingly beautiful. They were joined for a song by Karisha who also has an exceptional voice. Let me just say that Scott has got something figured out.

I played third - it was a little shakey at the start and I played a song too long, but overall I was pretty happy with the performance. I played "Forgotten Son" in front of people for the first time and forgot one of the verses for a second but managed to recall it after a longer than normal hold on the C chord. Live music... I forgot to play "Darkened Doorways" and "House on the Hill," two of my newer songs. I played all three covers I had on the list: Warren Zevon's "Desperadoes Under the Eaves," Townes Van Zandt's "Waiting Around to Die," and "Pills I Took" by Those Poor Bastards. They all went pretty well, particularly "Desperadoes." I was happy to be able to deliver that song live. I finished the set on a really bad version of Steve Earl's "Here I Am;" I need to re-arrange that one if I am going to play it solo - I may just scrap it though. It's a true rocker that really requires a full band to do it justice.

After I was done San Francisco based "Aerial Ruin" took over. They were pretty awesome - a two electric guitar band; Erik and Erik. They clearly had some heavy metal influence but the music was slower and more gothic. At one point the Erik playing lead guitar took what looked like a home-made bow and used it to generate some truly unique tones on his SG. The other Erik played a black-faced Les Paul. It was metal instrumentation and some very thoughtful, evocative music. The whole time they were playing I was thinking "man this music would be great for a movie soundtrack."

Aerial Ruin are on their way to Portland. I bought one of their CD's and just heard a couple cuts off of it this morning. It sounds great.

I have to apologize to "Mr. White." I cut out after Aerial Ruin was done with their set. It was getting upwards of 11:00 o'clock and it looked like they were going to be louder than my ears were prepared for. Loud bands get fiercely loud in Cafe Coda - the place is mostly cinder block and glass. So I left and headed for home.

I sold two shirts last night - one Mad Bob shirt and an old "I♥Sleazy Earl Ray" shirt - the last one I had left! So that was cool. I used $10 to buy the Aerial Ruin CD.

Thanks to everyone who came out.

Donikers Practice last night...

We had a pretty fun practice last night - spirited you might say. Apparently though there are only two existing copies of our 4-song demo and one of those has been eaten by Steve's CD player. Fucking CD's man; they made this big to-do about how they would never skip and they would last forever. Bull fucking shit. CD's suck worse than tapes or records. All of our records play through even though occasionally they skip or repeat. Our 20 year old tapes still play. but we have fucking CD's that are less than 5 years old that won't play through. Bullshit. Pisses me off.

Anyway, we got the show at Gear Head Barbershop and Tattoo coming up - we're playing there on Tuesday July 7th along with the Murderous and Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies.

It should be a blast.

No posts!

Sorry for anyone who has been following this blog - no posts in awhile!

I have a heap of shows coming up - both Donikers and Mad Bob solo stuff. Check out myspace for the dates:

www.myspace.com/madbobhoward

I went out to the Honky Tonk Night last night at the Maltese. Cheating Hearts did their thing with Loki sitting in on guitar. Apparently there was some drama in the band and Rob ended up moving back to Portland. Musicians. Anyway - they sounded just as good as ever and they just held their 26th Honky Tonk Night up here in Chico.

Also a band called Hellbound Glory played - they are down from Seattle I believe. They were pretty good - but I believe their band fell apart at some point during the 7 days on the road and so they had guys sitting in for their set.

It was fun - $1 cans of PBR and $2 shots of some whiskey, maybe Jim Beam. The fabulous Ms. Rebecca was bartending - she is always a delight and also the powerful vocal force that rides on the top of the musical onslaught that is "Trucker's Wife." They are rad.

Anyway - I'll try and get back into the groove here and keep you posted on the musical goings on here in this little town.

Cafe Coda last night...

I love Cafe Coda. I played a solo acoustic show there last night. The crowd was sparse, but the audience was attentive and appreciative - except for one guy who sat right in front and never looked at me once. He spent the entire evening talking to his girlfriend and texting his friends. I ended up for the first time in my career actually having to vibe him and get him to move. He finally got the message when I said into the microphone: "I really don't understand why you would go to a show and watch your phone the whole time...." and blah blah blah and finally he got up and moved, I think he left. Good riddance. I mean, I don't mind if people talk in the back, but to sit right in front, I mean I could have reached out and patted the guy on the head - and just blab away and text the whole time - it's just rude.

But I'm sorry, the show was great, the people were woderful. I sold three t-shirts and I can't wait to play there again.

Donikers tonight!

Updates...

Sorry for anyone who has been following this Blog - I haven't updated in awhile. So here goes:

I'm meant to be recording my vocals at Scott Barwick's studio tonight. We recorded the tracks a week ago, but I shot my voice out pretty bad singing "Dig the Holes Deep" and wasn't able to deliver them when it came time to. In addition to Dig the Holes I also will record the vocals to "When I'm Gone."

I have two shows coming up this week - a solo show on Thursday at Cafe Coda and a Donikers show on Friday at Lost on Main. They should both be pretty fun.

I wrote a new song last night - I ripped the title off from a song the Shankers do called "She Shakes It" but I think the song is radically different.

Here are the lyrics:

She shakes it, In back rooms,
In bed rooms, And bathrooms,
She shakes it, For money,
She shakes it, For free.

I don't know, where she goes,
When she goes.
No I don't know where she goes...

I've seen her, a time or two,
Spectator, in the human zoo,
She shakes it, for me,
I pay her, money.

I don't know, where she goes,
When she goes.
No I don't know where she goes...

He stands in, dark doorways,
Slips in between, secret alleyways,
He spies, on you,
He spies, on me too.

I don't know where he goes,
When he goes,
I don't know where he goes...

She shakes it, for me,
He watches, he sees,
I pay her, money,
He watches, for free.

I don't know where they go when they go,
I don't know where they go...

I don't know where we go when we go,
I don't know where we go.....

Anyway, that's ti for now.

Humbling session...

We recorded (The Donikers) this Saturday with Scott Barwick. It was a good session, we got four basic songs down. But I completely floundered on the vocals. I'd shot my voice out completely during the live session and I just didn't have it when I went back to do the vocals. I'd had too many beers, sang too hard, and just generally sucked. It was humbling.

Cody on the other hand nailed his vocals - I think he did them in 1 take each and they sound great.

No big deal though - I am going to go in on Wednesday or later this week and get those vocals knocked out. Hopefully my voice will be in some sort of shape by then. It's Monday and it is still pretty screwed up.

Man do I suck!