GJOA Club 7/6/19 Brooklyn, New York

My return to Escape From Transit was a fun one and we performed well. 

Of Note is the inclusion of Carl Yegg to our lineup and we wish him well as expectedly he will bear grudges against his bandmates both professionally and personally in the near future from our proximity alone.

Following is a few lists beginning with the ever important set list.

Premiered tonight was I've Got A Woman (the Ray Charles classic), The Who tune Squeeze Box (as has been performed with Mike Roberto Yegg on Drums as I was detained at the prior Escape From Transit and other performances), A Week Of Sundays (an original number by Carl Yegg), Top Of The World (a standard tune made popular by someone whom I am sure I have heard of but who's name escapes me) and Blue Weekend (a Tom and Joe Yegg original).

There we are slotted amongst the second half of the day (photo courtesy of Vlad "The Viz" Uncensored LTD.)

(photo courtesy of V.U. LTD.)

The Comfy Chair who performed after our set and most enjoyable too.

(L to R) - Tom Yegg, Joe Yegg, Mike Roberto Yegg and Tom Meglino.

Mimi and me.

Refreshments were served and by request a request was placed to label such with dietary/allergy details.

External Escape.

It just isn't the GJOA Club without the displaced Johnny Pump astride the sidewalk entrance.

This Is Show # 30

The Yeggs have performed other shows without me and frankly I lost count so we begin anew.

GJOA Club 7/8/17 - Brooklyn, New York.

Always a pleasure and honor to perform at the annual "Escape From Transit" retirement celebration event for the most formidable, Humorous, Godlike and all around Nicest Man in the World Brian.

We played a good set even though I was for reasons unexplainable under the weather for the entire day.

Brian & myself. 

Photo taken A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away.

O.K. it was just two months ago.

Stage Center vantage point.

Many Plastic Cups, Retrievment Center for Ice Cold Beer and baking pan to catch the Suds.

Plate of much Appreciated Foodness. 

Rice & Beans, Tortellini Salad & Chicken Chick Pea Stew.

My Good Yeggs bandmate Thomas was so kind in picking me up two pairs of sticks. This was greatly appreciated. Also in this photo is our set list from the day.

Digital Ad campaign photo for the celebration, Thank You Vlad.

This Is Show # 27.

- Spike

Three Jolly Pigeons 3/11/17 Brooklyn, New York

Digital Ad Campaign at the top.

Two sets apiece and we all had a good time.

Many bands take a year and a day switching back and forth between sets but Reload and The Yeggs took no time at all, this was refreshing. 

We shared equipment but in prior cases some bands take a year and a week, on this night it was fluid and without major pause.

We must be like professionals or something.

Lyric cheat sheets for "You Really Got A Hold On Me" and "Mack The Knife"

taped to side of a P.A. Speaker.

Really cool Vocal monitors. Was nice to see these stand mounted as opposed to gravity driven "sitting on the floor" mounted, I did not get to utilize these but I was impressed.

The Mackie SRM 150 compact active monitor system.

Reload performed two sets mixing Classic Rock and 90s favorites and it was a joy to see my high school peers (H.S. at this point is about twenty years ago for me) Rocking Out with precision and finesse.

At this gig David proclaimed prior to their rendition of "My Sharona" that said song was the "Suppers Ready" of Pop/Rock which got a major chuckle from me.

The Dave & The Brian

When the Moon Gel Muffling System is not available just use some painters tape.

Monikered properly of course.

Shure I will sing some backing vocals.

A Cider and a Bag Of Crisps.

To make the crowd to moving their Hips.

No Pics of The Yeggs tonight, I am becoming weary of asking anyone to take photos of the band and how many can we have of us at 3JP.

HOWEVER !!! I am sure due to this lack I will be asking someone at the next gig to take pictures.

Name ? : Brian

Occupation : Shropsher Slasher

"I want to do what's right, I do"

March Madness.

Thanks to Brian asking to emcee the band introductions towards the end of our second set and revealing my name as Francis Genalo A.K.A. Spike.

This Is Show # 26

- Spike

ESCAPE FROM TRANSIT ll - GJOA Club 7/9/14 Brooklyn, New York

It has been a year since Brian's retirement and his retirement party Escape From Transit l so what better course of action than to celebrate the one year anniversary of his retireabration with an anniversary of the event itself under the banner Escape From Transit ll.

As a mildly seasoned musician (chili powder, cumin and bay leaves notwithstanding) it was ironic and quite humorous to leave my apartment with two used pairs of drumsticks in a rite-aid shopping bag as opposed to a carload of drum gear and a garden gnome in tow but I am certainly grateful about my light luggage. 

(Thanks go out to Phil for providing the Tama drum kit & Eugene for the Zildjian cymbals).

This afternoon's spot held great promise as Joe pulled his back out so much and was in such discomfort that he considered performing this gig in a sitting position (of which he did not) and this was my first time back behind the drums since I recently had an organ removed of which I am thankfully in full recovery and we had not played together in some months with no rehearsal for today's spot as well but I personally like it like that and we sallied forth as Yeggs United.

Looked like this afternoon might be a performance by The Wounded Yeggs but we delivered.

The removed organ (three octaves as you can see).

Brian's friends & family put on quite the bash for him at the GJOA (pronounced Joya) sporting club in beautiful Sunset Park (the neighborhood in which I was raised in) with the promise of Free Food & Free Beer which almost always ends prematurely and lands flat especially with a lot like us but the promise was fulfilled entirely as there was no shortage of food items or drink stuffs at anytime.

The Dillon Lane Syndicate - Brian (vocals, guitar), Sylvester (vocals), Phil (drums), Thomas (bass), Joe (guitar).

Guesting tonight as syndicate members was our very own Thomas "the fish" Roberto on Bass and Joe Vasquez on Guitar.

These guys are up and coming and gigging quite a bit. Well,... with Sylvester as front man I am frankly not surprised at all.

The Good Yeggs - We went on at 5 p.m. and played our normal set, nothing outstandingly different here except we swapped out a few numbers and were asked for two encores. Since we do an absolute minimum of on stage patter great vistas of time open up for us to fill our allotted quota. The crowd did enjoy the Johnny Cash numbers so we added "Folsom Prison Blues" following "Ring Of Fire".

Brian graciously purchased us all a whiskey on the rocks which was proffered by our third number.

In this photo we see Joe telling me to "Get on with it and stop taking pictures for the Blog !!!" as we were ready to proceed with our set.

photo courtesy of DLS/Facebook.

Nohrmal - ?... Bill (Everything)

It is always something different with this guy. Dare I call him a performance artist or just plain THE performance.

As I was preparing to leave the stage after The Good Yeggs set Bill offered me the opportunity to sit in with him in a "if you want to stay and play the drums then go ahead but don't play anything for the first three verses" kind of style.

Aside from this being a "flying by the seat of your pants" performance for myself I feel this is great for any musician, mind you Bill is vocals and electric guitar unfettered by guitar effects or much in the dynamics department which a challenge does make and I love a challenge. We performed "Creep" by Radiohead, David Bowie's "Five Years" (accompanied by Brian Dillon on backing vox) & Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as well as a few other tunes.

As a much added plus I got to duet with a drummer from our clique of whom I admire, Phil was on Cajon so kit and sticking dynamics on my part of the unobtrusive kind was just the ticket. 

Low pressure, jamming fun gig and we had a nice time.

photo courtesy DLS/Facebook.

Black Death - Brian (vocals, guitar), Vlad (vocals, guitar), Sal (guitar, vocals), Phil (drums).

Like always Black Death performed a 45 minute set of family fun and kids songs for people of all ages. Free balloons and cotton candy were NOT on offer.

(L to R) - Beef Empanada, Sweet Italian Sausage, Vegetable Samosa.

I have been "jonesing" for some Indian food and there it was, A Samosa.

The GJOA Sporting Club.

Digital Ad Campaign.

This Is Show # 24

- Spike

Three Jolly Pigeons 7/26/14 A Night Of Three Trios and Two Asian Drummers - Brooklyn, New York

A Great gig with the band and nary a mistake from any of us. I did walk away with a nice feeling at the end of the night though as there is certainly camaraderie, support and friendship within our little circle of Friends who perform at and frequent the Three Jolly Pigeons. It was Vlad's Birthday Celebration eve so a splendid time was had by all but there is also an unspoken respect and support system built in.

I saw my bandmates from SMOOCH too and we all joked around and chatted, I told no one this but I was so exhausted and under the weather for many hours before and up until showtime that I just needed to sit down or maybe even take a nap but did indeed put on my brave face, in the end a Great night and I live to write about it.

Pictured above is the Chalked Up advertisement for the band and it was so nice to see our name in calcium sulfate on slate.

We arrived with the Amplifiers, P.A. and accoutrements before 7 p.m. so were plenty early before Sound Check and the Drum Kits arrival, not to even mention the other bands.

First band on tonight was Girl To Gorilla and they played a Great Set.

Catchy Tunes, Great Lyrics and Music and we were instant fans. Steve brought the Kit Drums down and this was one of the most interesting Drum Kits I have seen and my bandmates were also Very impressed and amused, I was So looking forward to trying my hands (and feet) at it.

We made comrades with John (Guitar,Vocals), Steve (Drums) and the Enigmatic Spyro (Bass), Great Guys, Great Tunes.

Thomas had heard that it was a larger than usual Bass Drum, I was fine with that.

This was not only slightly larger but is a Marching Band Bass Drum usually played with Mallets rigged up as a "Kick" Drum. The Drums were Ludwig green sparkle finish with Paiste Cymbals and a Beautiful Ayotte Wooden Snare Drum, more on that later. Actually maybe it wasn't "rigged" up but certainly unconventional, the Spurs and Hoops were in place.

The Good Yeggs played the second set and as I said in the opening paragraph we performed very well, someone even yelled out "Drum Solo" I wish I knew who it was.

Premiered tonight was The Elmore James Classic "Dust My Broom" and new original songs "Goin On Without You" and "Good Enough Is Good".

Thomas Of The TONE.

The Premiere Live performance of Joe using his newly acquired 1959 Danelectro Short Horn Bass.

To end the nights festivities was Brian Dillon's friend Steve White who had just flown in from the U.K. only to immediately proceed to 3JP for a set of Music and of course we were all excited to hear him.

Being an Anglophile myself I just had to smile through his set what with songs mentioning how it is always Christmas at Tesco's and how American's drink Budweiser as they watch the World Cup.

Steve did mention how he was going to perform a long song so after the set I said to him "Well you must know who Roy Harper is then" to which of course he replied to my delight "Yes".

Pictured above are our friends Fran and Brian backing up Steve with grace and élan.

The Ayotte Classic 10 ply Snare Drum. This was pretty much life changing for me which is always welcomed from any progressive minded musician and I must say most of us are, aside from Steve's (Girl To Gorilla) unethical Drum Kit I was also checking out his Snare Drum and as Drummers we do chat about hardware at first. I saw the wooden hoops and was highly expectant of a Great Tone as I had seen a former bandmate playing with his band and that Drummer had wooden hooped (rims) of which I questioned him about, that was a Tama Bubinga Star Classic Snare Drum which I loved the sound of.

Snare Drums are personal so of course I brought down my beloved DW Custom Series wooden Drum but when trying to mount it on the stand which Steve supplied found that it would not fit. The Ayotte is 13" and mine is 14".

Panic Time !!!

Thomas kindly asked if I could borrow his and Steve obliged informing me that he forgot it was a 13" Snare Drum stand which is a bit of a specialty and not standard size. I of course was somewhat elated, I would Love to try out this Drum. The elation only rised as I played it, what a Joy to perform on.

Steve and I discussed after The Good Yeggs set how he enjoyed "hearing" his Drums as as a listener. It is quite different when you are actually "playing" them and I got a thrill from "playing" a wooden hoop Drum for the first time. I still adore my DW but I want an Ayotte now as well. We are both Asian Drummers as well and I nearly asked for a photo with him but we just met, maybe next time.

Aside from Cider or some Jack on the Rocks (the official band drink) I do Love a Blue Moon on Tap with the obligatory Orange Wedge, most refreshing.

(L to R) Steve White Direct From England and the incomparable and much Loved Brian Dillon.

Prior to the gig we had time for a bite to eat, tonight it was at Circles Cafe. We all got the "English" Burger that is served on an English Muffin which are filled with "nooks and crannies". A Passable Burger, I think my bandmates enjoyed it more.

OF NOTE - While ordering I informed our waiter that Thomas would not be needing his Lettuce and Tomato which is included as part of the entree, I do have a theory.

Thomas was made to eat his Vegetables as a child, now as an adult he is shunning the entire process altogether, I have seen him throw his Veggies asunder to the wind. no waste, no want.

Digital Ad Campaign

Digital Ad Campaign

Set List

Had To Play This Word.

This Is Show # 16

- Spike