![]() Tony sings, right; Steve plays bass; Doc's head floats, apparently disembodied. We don't know who that harlequin is, above left.Click on the photo to see more photos from the show at Roux Louisiana on April 9, 2010. Ken Mensing photo
We're going back to Roux Louisiana! Et toi? Roux Louisiana itself is a swell place. Good food in the restaurant, a very kewl oval bar, nice bandstand for the likes of us! Get there early, please, to hear Jasmine Joshua sing a few tunes before she runs away. She has tickets to see Paul McCartney that night, so will just do a few tunes, then split. We understand. After all, she'll sing with us hundreds of times, we hope. But how often do any of us get to go see Paul McCartney perform live? We start at 5:45 p.m. Be there on time! Bring the kids, if you have any. We love to make toddlers dance. No cover charge. We play till 8:45 p.m.
We've played there several times -- in fact, it was one of the first places Tony and Doc ever played together as Dr Gone & Serious Condition. Earlier that day, just a block away at Courthouse Square, the Police Activities League Blues Festival is happening, with a good line-up of mostly East Bay bands. We urge you to go to that festival, then cruise by Murf's for a nice cocktail and some dancing with us! Big News Dept.: The night before we play at Murf's Broadway Lounge, about two blocks away, what used to be known as The Little Fox is going to have its "soft opening," its first show since Eric and Lori Lochtefeld took over as owners. The Fox Theatre and The Little Fox used to be owned by John Anagnostou and Mike Monte, but those fine fellows ran into recession-driven money troubles, and the place went dark in December. The Lochtefelds are a great couple and have wonderful plans in mind for the place. Click here to read about their plans. The Little Fox still has its marquee calling it that, but for now at least, the place will be officially known as Club Fox. Fine with us! The Golden Gate Blues Society Blues Jam, with Jam-Master Vince Caminiti, will be returning to that room, which is good news indeed for musicians and fans. July 23 is the "soft opening," following the Friday evening performance of the aforementioned PAL Blues Festival. A more formal kinda opening will be held at a date to be named later, we are told. -- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
The jury is in OK, I am tooting our own horn here, but trust me: I would not lie to you. Anyway, we had our first gig with the new blood, at South First Street Billiards, and the sound was smokin' hot. I ain't gonna crow about it too much. Have a bunch of stuff to get done, and little time. But ... we're excited. We're happy. Above is one of several wonderful photos Gary DesJardins made. He also shot some video, and we will post some of that eventually. -- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
We'll be playing from 10 p.m. till 2 a.m. You can bring the kids earlier in the evening, but by the time we start playing it will be 21-and-older. We are very excited to have Jasmine Joshua and our new drummer, Ty Gellis, as part of this gig! We are still working on adding tunes for Jasmine to sing, but don't worry, she has plenty to do even on Saturday. We will have fun! If YOU come, it will be even MORE fun! More GOOD news, June 8, 2010: We found another great drummer, Ty Gellis! Here's what we have to say about Ty: At practices, he's been playing everything as if he was born to it. He has corrected us on tunes we were playing wrong. He is a wonderful musician, and
Here is what he has to say about himself: "Coming from a musical family, Ty first started playing drums @ age 8. After growing up in Michigan listening to such locals as Grand Funk, Ted Nugent, & Bob Seger to name a few, he moved to LA in 1979 eager to make music on his own. He began to study privately for a few years, while engaging in many local Top 40-Classic Rock Bands. After surviving the Metal period of the '80s, Ty decided to take some time off music for a while to go back to school. During this period he developed a strong liking for Jazz, Fusion, & Blues. After seeing years of incredible musicians in many small LA clubs, it inspired him to eventually get back into playing music again once his career was intact. Fast forward many years, Ty lives up in the Bay Area, works for a great innovative company, and is now getting to finally play the Blues. He still loves to go out & see live shows whenever Serious Condition isn’t performing. Ty also drums for another local Blues band, and does studio work whenever he can. Ty list’s 2 of best ever musical experiences as getting to meet Frank Zappa & Ringo Starr." Welcome to Serious Condition, Ty! I feel Blessed to be part of this band. Getting Jasmine in the band is a dream come true, and Ty is fabulous, as are Tony and Steve. I love making music with these people, and am so grateful I get to do so. The bad news, June 8, 2010: Lesta T left the band. He'd gotten mad at Doc about something
He had gotten a street-performer permit and was going to trying busking in San Francisco for a while. But, more bad news, Lesta is now a guest of San Mateo County. He is accused of doing some things. His prelim hearing is on June 11. We don't know if he did what he is charged with doing. Lesta is a great guy, and it was a delight to have him in the band. We hope his stay behind bars is a short one, and he gets to breathe free air again soon. That's the blues for ya. -- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
Young blood in the band!
Here's what we know about her: Doc met her through his day job. One day they were talking, probably via e-mail, and he probably mentioned this band, and she probably mentioned that she was a singer. That led to Jasmine trying out with the band on Saturday, April 17, 2010, and she knocked everybody's socks off. In fact, it took all day and evening to find them all. One of Doc's socks turned out to have flown up his nose, and surgery was required to get it out of his nasal passages. At any rate, we also know that Jasmine has sung in rock bands and bluegrass bands, and we know that when she sang with us on Saturday she really brought the goods. And she was able to improvise on the spot, which is, ya know, important to a band that has Doc in it, because ya never know what fool thing he might try. Jasmine will be singing lead on some stuff and helping out on background vocals on some tunes. We love the way she sounds and feel like we won the lottery. In other imporant kinda news: Serious Condition is going to make itself available for gigs without Dr Gone on weekdays. This is because the Mad Doctor can't do most gigs on weeknights because of his "day" job. Sigh. But Tony, Steve, Ty and Jasmine will be a potent force for the delivery of musical entertainment, even without Doc. Or maybe for some gigs, Doc will show up at the last second for the last set or something. The point is, we are now an agile, flexible, fully equipped and multi-talented entertainment powerhouse! Well, we always have been, but even more so now. -- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
A great time at Roux Louisiana For us, it was a complete blast to play for such a great crowd, on April 9, which included a lot of our friends. There were pals of ours there we hadn't seen for years. Plus, some families -- we love it when we get toddlers dancing. What a blast to see the tykes bouncing their hips around. So cute. Anyway, a real fun time. Word is we might get some more bookings in there, and we sure hope we do.
-- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
Come to Roux Louisiana on April 9 If not employed, drop by anyway, you'll still have a good time.
-- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
Here we are at Sonoma Chicken Coop Almaden But I like that hat. It'd probably help if I dropped some weight. And don't worry about Steve, I think that's his happy face. We liked the Sonoma Chicken Coop Almaden, hope we get to play there again sometime.
-- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
In praise of the noble Chicken
Because, what happens if there is an uneven number of wings in the bucket? What if there are 21 wings? Were there ten and a half chickens? Or was one chicken born a freak, with only one wing? Was it allowed to join in all the chicken games, or was it relegated to the freak corner of the barnyard, where it was laughed at and teased by the bi-wing chickens? It's a lot to think about, and frankly, I just don't have the time. At any rate, chicken is a great food. I am convinced that if it were as rare and as difficult to farm as lobster, it would be worth even more than lobster. But as it is, anybody can raise chickens, almost anywhere. Given the ease of farming them, and how great they can taste, it is no wonder that chicken is such a great and popular food. Chickens, I salute you. (I have a slightly off-topic story to tell you about chickens. I used to have a friend named Alan who was gifted with a gigantic IQ but not much desire to use that IQ in regular, expected ways. As far as I know, he never went beyond community college in his education although he was a bit of an autodidact, and last I saw of him I think he was working as manager of a mobile-home park or somesuch. When Alan was still in high school, he had a pet chicken. Wherever did Alan go, the chicken did follow, and so forth. Alan being Alan, and being gifted with a big brain and no interest in using it for anything really constructive, Alan spent a summer learning chicken language. Yes, actual chicken words. Yes, I snorted in derision when he told me about chicken language. But one day we went out to Leona Valley to visit our journalism teacher, who kept a number of chickens in a coop. Alan said, "Watch, I am going to tell all these chickens there is a potato bug in the area. They love potato bugs." And he made a certain clucking sound. All the chickens immediately started hunting around in a bit of a frenzy. And then he sweet-clucked a hen into walking very slowly and romantically toward him. ["Well, he may be a BIG rooster," I can imagine she was thinking, "And he's kind of funny looking, but man, can he talk that sweet talk!"] And then Alan picked a fight with the resident rooster, who started strutting around impressively to show Alan how tough he was, and to convince Alan to look elsewhere before they had to get down to serious cutting time. I have since played with chicken language myself on a few occasions, but I seldom meet up with live chickens in my current lifestyle.) So, here is the point of all this stuff about chickens: On Saturday, January 23, 2010, this great band, Dr Gone & Serious Condition, will be performing at THE SONOMA CHICKEN COOP! Think about that. It's heavy, man. As it happens, I was raised in an area where there were many chicken and turkey farms, and let me tell you, you do not want to be downwind of a real chicken coop on a warm day in the Antelope Valley, unless you happen to have been born without a working nose. But, The Sonoma Chicken Coop isn't like that. It's actually a really nice building, kind of modern, pretty, with, you know, tables and chairs and stuff, and serving people who will bring food to your table if you are willing to pay for it. Which is to say it is a restaurant. The family can come! Many fine bands have played at The Sonoma Chicken Coop, and we are very pleased to finally be able to add it to our own résumé. We'll be making music at The Sonoma Chicken Coop Almaden from 8 p.m. to maybe midnight. Please come see us. Have some dinner (I understand the chicken dishes especially are very good), have a few drinks, enjoy the music. We hope you will dance the chicken dance (as performed by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in "EDtv"), but we can't ask for everything. Regular dancing would suffice.
-- drgone@seriouscondition.com Send comments
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