Gearing up

Lots to prepare for.

Doing my best to promote ETB's sorta last minute idea of recording our set tomorrow night at the Saxon Pub for a live album. Last minute yes, but very good time to. We're playing Saxon enough to finally be comfortable with the stage, last few gigs this week we've really felt on top of our game, and it sounds amazing there. Win/win/win. Be great to finally capture the energy of our live show and have a limted edition disc to help raise funds for the new album.



Eric should be en route back from New Orleans, where he went Tuesday night after our HAAM benefit set at Sam's Town Point to play a show down there as Anders Osborn's lead guitar player. That is awesome and will lead to bigger things for him and ETB as well. Awesome!

Anders and Eric



Also prepping for recording the Forever Town album starting next week with Frenchie Smith. We're getting together tonight for rehearsal with the man himself overseeing. Been running through the music alot yesterday and today to keep it tight.

HAAM Benefit on Tuesday was a blast. Thanks to Loranda Stuart for putting together such an awesome night of music and being so involved in HAAM. If not for Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, none of us in ETB would have any medical help. Sam's Town Point is also a great venue, so go check it out.

Courtesy of Loranda Stuart

ETB Monday residency at Friends was pretty epic, one of those nights where we were on fire and played almost 2.5 hours before finally taking a break. The crowd stuck around for it and we melted faces the rest of the night. Definitely a good night compared to others the past few months as APD is cracking down on the noise ordinance and Friends cna no longer have the windows behind the stage open. We really depended on our sonic spill-over to get foot traffic in the bar. A few people will come in and leave cause it's too loud (for them) but most people don't seem to mind. Hearing music with your ears is one thing, but feeling it in your BONES is a whole nother experience. Then of course some drunk pissed on the side of my van at the end of the night. Buncha savages in this town...

ETB also had a great set in San Antonio for the Sam's Burger Joint annual block party. We played a blistering 45 minute set and that was it. Wow! So used to playing long sets that we're just getting warmed up after 45 minutes! Had a great crowd and great response on the indoor stage.

Photos by Sonny Saenz





And continuing on this note, ETB also had a great show at the Saxon Pub last Saturday. Good times with good people, we felt great and played great. Rob's first show back with us since getting back from a brief Norway tour with another project. Reunited and it feels so good, heh! The poster Eric made for this show has been selling well, particularly on this night.



Having a large variety of cool posters on sale at the merch booth is definitely helping our sales. The new T-shirts are doing well as well. Having a new disc, and a live album no less, will be a great boon to us. We're still selling 'Green Diamond' which is more than 2 years old and was a completely different band.

Pretty cool that we have been working elements of "Green Diamond II" and "III" into "Armadillo Strut," that'll sound awesome on the live disc \m/,

Arcana Mundi had some good sets last week as well, we finished out our Wednesday September happy hour residency at Gypsy Lounge and had a Dunn Brothers Coffee set previous to the Saturday ETB Saxon show.

The band is really getting tighter, and I'm liking my Epiphone Valve Standard as an amp over the Marshall Lead 12. Just warmer sounding. And thought my Phase 90 was going out, making weird crackle noise on guitar rig all of a sudden. But fixed that right before Dunn Brothers set. Turns out having the acoustic guitar EQ with Treble and Brilliance maxed out was causing interference with the pedal. Weird. Dialed some out and problem solved, and saved me $50 from having to buy another one \m/,

So much to catch up on.

I've really been slacking on this blog.

Not that nothing is going on in my life, quite the contrary. But my laptop has been having some issues, its really hard to type anything longer than a few sentences using the Blogger iPhone app, and some personal reasons as well.

Busy busy busy.

Continuing to have a full gigging schedule, 2-3 shows with ETB every week and Arcana Mundi has been doing 2 happy hour slots a week as well. Have jammed with the Dead Oak guys twice since my last post. Have been going over Ocean of Stars material with drummer Ric Furley. About to gear up for recording the Forever Town album with Frenchie Smith, have two rehearsals next week been overseen by the man himself. I also turned 38. And today I was offered the position of Musical Director for Runic Productions who will be doing the Spirit Chronicles paranormal investigations series. I mentioned that earlier this year on this blog, it fell through initially as things sometimes do. But was back in contact with them this weekend, met with them yesterday on the way back from vacation on the coast and before the ETB monday residency.

I will do several recaps of specific things and time frames, rather than list it all in one novelesque post. Still have yet to go through most of the pictures as well.

So yes. Things have been very busy and have had lots of ups and downs as of late. When I am feeling down I'd rather not even discuss it with people, let alone post about it here. Lets just say that being a working musician or any kind of professional artist has an inherent struggle against the soul-crushing aspects of this occupation.

As the above list shows, I have a lot going on and a lot to be thankful for and a lot to be proud of. However, I will need to keep it real for the rest of this paragraph, as the point of this blog isn't just the day-to-day activities of a working musician, but also the side affects of this particular profession. No big revelation, but I am struggling financially. I have good months, and I have very very lean months. Can barely keep up with bills. Buying food even on a SNAP card is more stressful than dealing with the crowds at the supermarket, hoping to the Gods of Bargains that we dont go over budget as that will affect bills. Doing constant financial gymnastics to stay on top of things and keep a little gas in my van. And it weighs heavy on my psyche. Part of me is proud of my career, the other half feels like an almost total failure because I am 38 years old and can barely pay my bills. Which snowballs as it gathers mass from other related worries and leaves me in a pretty bad mental state. But then something good happens, like the music director position, and suddenly all is right in the world. My bills will be paid when I have the money and that's that, worrying won't help. I just need to keep in mind I've pretty much taken a vow of poverty for the betterment of mankind. I'd have thoughts of getting out of this business if it wasn't the only thing I've really wanted to do with my life.

I didn't choose Music. Music chose me.

So that being said, I had a really awesome birthday celebration at Headhunters last week Sunday, and a pretty awesome birthday weekend all around. Which will have it's own post. I really needed that. Good to know how many good people and great friends and amazing musicians I have in my life. In my early 20's I'd read Jack Kerouac and wish that I too had this amazing group of friends to draw inspiration from and vice versa and have all these crazy adventures together. Well, this has sure as fuck come to pass. None of us are really famous like the Beats were, but Goddamn it our lives, stories and adventures are no less worthwhile.



Much love,
Danny G