Last night I performed with Low Spark at a place called the Emporium Arcade Bar. There were other great bands on the ticket as well, including one lead by saxophone legend Herman Green (who I might add is 89 years old and STILL performing! This means, wow, I could still be playing for another 60 years!). And holy cow, the guys in this band have played with everyone from John Coltrane to BB King to Sting to Snoop Dogg!
Another really cool thing about these performances was that behind the stage is a huge projection screen capable of showing movies. The first band Gramps the Vamp, which calls it's genre of music "Doom Funk," had a retro-ish Godzilla movie playing behind them. I thought this was genius, as the music really provided a perfect soundtrack to the monster mayhem going on behind them.
By the final band's performance, the movie was the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, at this point I started realizing the downside of projecting full-length films behind bands. I'm so easily distracted by visual things that I had to keep reminding myself, Oh yeah, there's also a really great band playing right now!
You also may have noticed in the pic above (and in the name of the club) that there were quite a few arcade machines here. There were dozens of these in two large rooms containing all of the classics like Donkey Kong and Spy Hunter. However, here are three I got the biggest kick out of:
And especially this one:
So yeah, two pinball games with Metallica and AC-DC themes and a fighting game featuring Michael Jackson. And you can't see this in the pic, but the two controller buttons for the MJ game were labeled "Shoot" and, of course the most important button, "Dance!"
All that to say, I guess you know you've made it in the musical world when you have your own arcade machine. Maybe I'll start planning mine now...
Another really cool thing about these performances was that behind the stage is a huge projection screen capable of showing movies. The first band Gramps the Vamp, which calls it's genre of music "Doom Funk," had a retro-ish Godzilla movie playing behind them. I thought this was genius, as the music really provided a perfect soundtrack to the monster mayhem going on behind them.
By the final band's performance, the movie was the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, at this point I started realizing the downside of projecting full-length films behind bands. I'm so easily distracted by visual things that I had to keep reminding myself, Oh yeah, there's also a really great band playing right now!
You also may have noticed in the pic above (and in the name of the club) that there were quite a few arcade machines here. There were dozens of these in two large rooms containing all of the classics like Donkey Kong and Spy Hunter. However, here are three I got the biggest kick out of:
And especially this one:
So yeah, two pinball games with Metallica and AC-DC themes and a fighting game featuring Michael Jackson. And you can't see this in the pic, but the two controller buttons for the MJ game were labeled "Shoot" and, of course the most important button, "Dance!"
All that to say, I guess you know you've made it in the musical world when you have your own arcade machine. Maybe I'll start planning mine now...