It was just the boys now, as Cheryl had taken a plane from San Francisco to Seattle the night before. The band woke up in Medford early and kept heading north. On the way home, they brainstormed about their next album to be released early 2009. Stay tuned....
We would like to make a special thanks to all of our Californian fans for coming out to see our "Time Machine" show. We had an awesome time with you! See you next year...twice maybe!!!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Sunday, March 9th
It was daylight savings! No worries. Brian's cell phone will update automatically, right? As it turned out, no. Brian and Cheryl luckily woke up early and quickly readied themselves for Todd and Clif's 8:15 arrival from Molly and Chris's house. Robert and Jill's son asked if Robert could get some Mexican pastries for the band's ride to their last gig in San Francisco which he did. Thank you, guys! They were delicious. The band made its usual stop at 14th and Market for coffee or tea, and then headed up to the beautiful Randall Museum overlooking San Francisco on a clear, warm day. The band was glad to see Scott Gelfand, founder of the Buddy Club Children's Shows, again and visited/talked shop while setting up for their last gig of the tour. Scott worked the crowd into excitement before introducing the boys and their time machine. The show went very well. They had the birthday kids get on stage and help with the hand motions in "Pirate Ship". One girl, Lillian, had been to all five shows that the band had played at the Randall, and she sang and danced with Brian during the song. To celebrate another successful, fun-filled tour, the band went to the Woodhouse Fish Co. at 14th and Market with Chris and his son, and had another delicious, seafood meal before jumping into Brian's Jeep to drive home.
Saturday, March 8th
The band awoke from a long, much-needed sleep at John and Laura's house in Los Gatos. After remembering that their show was at 1:00 and not 1:30, they quickly raided the nearby Whole Foods Market for breakfast and lunch. As it turned out, they had plenty of time to load-in and set up at the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose since they could pull right up the the auditorium door, instead of loading from the street like last year, and setting up the "time machine" show was getting faster every gig. The CDM staff was enthusiastic and wonderful to work with, and put on a great light show during the band's two, crowded concerts. The band learned how to say "peace" in Arabic and Chinese today. After the show, the band had an early, dinner party at a delicious, seafood restaurant in Berkeley before listening to 70's fusion records into the evening with Robert at his house.
Friday, March 7th
The crew was met with a beautiful morning in Santa Monica. After saying their goodbyes to the Bianco family, they had breakfast at Norm's with Todd's aunt-in-law, Ida, and Clif's college buddy, Tim. This was followed with shopping in Venice by Brian and Cheryl, and chillin' on Venice Beach by Todd. Clif and Tim set out to visit another college buddy nearby. Brian and Cheryl's friend, Share, joined them and Todd for lunch and "catching up" at the Terrace. Then, the band reunited for the drive north back to the Bay Area. By the way, vote Jim Bianco for LA County Judge!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thursday, March 6th
Off to the Glendale Libary the band went for two shows. During "Peace", the band asked the audience if they knew how to say "peace" in Armenian, and heard crickets. Ah well, maybe next time. they did learn how to say "peace" in Hungarian, though. Fans Maryellen Hooper, husband Mark and children Nate and Zeke were psyched to hear "Five Cool Cats", and cheered during the opening jam. Also, one lady who just ordered one of the band's CD's at her library, was picking it up at the main library, and stumbled upon the concert! Cheryl sold her highest amount of CD's after this show. For lunch, the group took Pam from Pasadena to Raffi's Place to thank her for all of the years of support and bookings that she has given them. Stuffed to the gills, the band wobbled onto the stage for show number two.
That night, the band drove to nearby Arcadia, and loaded into the library's beautiful auditorium. The audience was very energetic with several repeat customers who wanted an encore of "Can't Sit Still" which they got! The only hitch was that the CD player with the futuristic, percussion track for "Moon Rock Dance" ran out of batteries right when Todd pushed the button!
Driving back to the Bianco's, the group ran into classic LA traffic and made it "home" starving. Cheryl made a great decision to skip finding dinner and crashed. The boys ventured out to find O'Brien's where they heard a "jam band" playing instrumentals as they ate.
That night, the band drove to nearby Arcadia, and loaded into the library's beautiful auditorium. The audience was very energetic with several repeat customers who wanted an encore of "Can't Sit Still" which they got! The only hitch was that the CD player with the futuristic, percussion track for "Moon Rock Dance" ran out of batteries right when Todd pushed the button!
Driving back to the Bianco's, the group ran into classic LA traffic and made it "home" starving. Cheryl made a great decision to skip finding dinner and crashed. The boys ventured out to find O'Brien's where they heard a "jam band" playing instrumentals as they ate.
Wednesday, March 5th
It was an early start today, as the band's first show was at 9:30am in Pasadena. The show went well with crowd full of preschools and head start programs. Todd's cousin came to the show, and prepared the guys for their upcoming concert in Glendale by teaching them how to say "peace" in Armenian. Apparently, Glendale has a large Armenian population. The band is really excited about this new info, and is looking forward to sharing it with their fans tomorrow. After the show, Todd and Clif went out to lunch with Todd's cousin, and Brian and Cheryl went off to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary. After lunch, Todd and Clif went on an adventure to Hollywood to check out the music school. Everybody met up again at the Carter's house for a much needed home cooked meal and hot tub party!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
We have arrived in paradise
On Monday, we woke in Santa Monica to sunshine, birds twittering, and gentle sea breezes wafting from the beach. We had a relaxed morning at Jim and Lisa's (and of course Jackson and Michael's too). Todd put a load of laundry in for cleaning. Clif made coffee. Brian and Cheryl went out to Starbuck's (much better than the swill that Clif was knocking back). Being careful not to let the marauding feral cat in that had been scratching at the doors all night, we headed to the beach for some LA sunshine. It wasn't long before Todd was flailing in the surf with a huge grin and a bit of a shiver from the freezing (I mean refreshing) water. Brian made a few romps through the surf. Clif got his feet wet. Cheryl took pictures. Afterwards, Clif and Todd jogged down the beach and under the Santa Monica pier (it's cool under there ... highly recommeded for all of you who are thinking about visiting southern California).
Eventually we made it to Venice Beach where we proceeded to scour the many shops for the perfect gift (either sunglasses or t-shirts - the only choice you have in Venice Beach). Having scoured and scored big time (we can't divulge what we bought because we haven't gotten home with the gifts yet), we decided to dine. Settling down on the lawn we discovered why our food had been so reasonably priced (and there was no line at the place).
With our bellies in rebellion, we headed back to Jim and Lisa's to pack up. Todd discovered that the cleaning ladies had been there and had been kind enough to distribute his laundry in amongst all the Bianco's clean clothes! Once he finally sorted out his stuff (hopefully he didn't pinch some of Jim's socks), we headed to our FIRST LA SHOW in Hastings.
We arrived in Hastings an hour earlier than we expected and decided the best course off action was to take a nap. Then we set up in the Hastings Library. We weren't sure if the time machine would fit being nine feet tall (NINE FEET TALL!). But, fortunately, there was one spot in the Library where the ceiling was high enough and that's where we set up the stage.
The house was packed with an unprecedented 65 people (ooooooooooooh aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh). This was a quality crowd. We had a great time. Everyone was rockin and dancing. And we had a lot of really strong feedback (piercing actually... needed to adjust Clif's mic placement). Oh yeah, the crowd liked it too.
Afterwards we headed to La Canada to our friends Brian and Cindy's happy home. We only made six wrong turns (and called Cindy for directions) ... better than past years. Then we settled in for a delightful sleep. Unlike past years, when the gray kitty sprang to life as soon as you fell asleep and spent the night dancing on Todd and Clif's faces, this year we either didn't notice or the kitty had moved on to Brian's room (which could explain why Brian was tanking up on coffee the next morning).
Tuesday morning we woke early, said our goodbyes to Brian (yep, there are two people named Brian in this a' here story) and Cindy and headed out for an LA drive through breakfast experience (not McDonalds).
Our morning show was at the Pasadena Central Library where we saw Pam and her fantastic crew. The show was open to the public and the theater was PACKED (must have been thousands even though the theater only holds 200). This small stage created new challenges - we couldn't see each other with the time machine between us! So we had to use our musical instincts, our sense off smell, and duct tape to bring it all together. The crowd was way into it. After the last tune (Moon Boot Dance ... or something like that) they were calling for an encore. However, there was a little wrinkle. It turns out there were orchestra auditions scheduled for the Theater at 11am. We learned about this plan as we were busy signing pictures for kids at 11:05am. But hey, we're professionals. So we made a quick get away from the CD table and hustled out of there in record time. The only injuries sustained in the fray were Todd's tweaked back and Brian's bashed finger. Not bad for a 10 minute break down.
To recover, we headed over for a feast at McCormick and Schmidt's (we recommend the Mojitos, Brioche and Blackened Catfish ... in that order!). Then Brian and Cheryl headed off to get gussied up for their pending wedding anniversary (14 years tomorrow). Cliff and Todd headed back to the Library, sprawled in the grass, soaked up some more sunshine, and then headed in to write this rambling blog post. That's all for now...
Eventually we made it to Venice Beach where we proceeded to scour the many shops for the perfect gift (either sunglasses or t-shirts - the only choice you have in Venice Beach). Having scoured and scored big time (we can't divulge what we bought because we haven't gotten home with the gifts yet), we decided to dine. Settling down on the lawn we discovered why our food had been so reasonably priced (and there was no line at the place).
With our bellies in rebellion, we headed back to Jim and Lisa's to pack up. Todd discovered that the cleaning ladies had been there and had been kind enough to distribute his laundry in amongst all the Bianco's clean clothes! Once he finally sorted out his stuff (hopefully he didn't pinch some of Jim's socks), we headed to our FIRST LA SHOW in Hastings.
We arrived in Hastings an hour earlier than we expected and decided the best course off action was to take a nap. Then we set up in the Hastings Library. We weren't sure if the time machine would fit being nine feet tall (NINE FEET TALL!). But, fortunately, there was one spot in the Library where the ceiling was high enough and that's where we set up the stage.
The house was packed with an unprecedented 65 people (ooooooooooooh aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh). This was a quality crowd. We had a great time. Everyone was rockin and dancing. And we had a lot of really strong feedback (piercing actually... needed to adjust Clif's mic placement). Oh yeah, the crowd liked it too.
Afterwards we headed to La Canada to our friends Brian and Cindy's happy home. We only made six wrong turns (and called Cindy for directions) ... better than past years. Then we settled in for a delightful sleep. Unlike past years, when the gray kitty sprang to life as soon as you fell asleep and spent the night dancing on Todd and Clif's faces, this year we either didn't notice or the kitty had moved on to Brian's room (which could explain why Brian was tanking up on coffee the next morning).
Tuesday morning we woke early, said our goodbyes to Brian (yep, there are two people named Brian in this a' here story) and Cindy and headed out for an LA drive through breakfast experience (not McDonalds).
Our morning show was at the Pasadena Central Library where we saw Pam and her fantastic crew. The show was open to the public and the theater was PACKED (must have been thousands even though the theater only holds 200). This small stage created new challenges - we couldn't see each other with the time machine between us! So we had to use our musical instincts, our sense off smell, and duct tape to bring it all together. The crowd was way into it. After the last tune (Moon Boot Dance ... or something like that) they were calling for an encore. However, there was a little wrinkle. It turns out there were orchestra auditions scheduled for the Theater at 11am. We learned about this plan as we were busy signing pictures for kids at 11:05am. But hey, we're professionals. So we made a quick get away from the CD table and hustled out of there in record time. The only injuries sustained in the fray were Todd's tweaked back and Brian's bashed finger. Not bad for a 10 minute break down.
To recover, we headed over for a feast at McCormick and Schmidt's (we recommend the Mojitos, Brioche and Blackened Catfish ... in that order!). Then Brian and Cheryl headed off to get gussied up for their pending wedding anniversary (14 years tomorrow). Cliff and Todd headed back to the Library, sprawled in the grass, soaked up some more sunshine, and then headed in to write this rambling blog post. That's all for now...
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