| | Rock Lottery was a blast.
Current mood:  satisfied Last Saturday I took part in the annual musical experiment known as Rock Lottery. Started by Chris Weber in Denton, Texas 10 years ago, Rock Lottery took up roots here when he did, and Saturday was its third Seattle iteration (Chris still travels down to Denton once a year to continue the tradition down there, bless his heart).
The premise is simple: Chris hand picks 25 local musicians, the only requirement being that 5 of them are primarily drummers. The other 20 are a frothy mix of guitarists, bass players, vocalists, multi-instrumentalists, and other assorted fun things (marimba, brass, and saxophone were some highlights this year). On the morning of the event, all the musicians meet up at the venue (in this case, Neumo's) at 10:00. The drummers' names are first picked out of the Rock Lottery Hat, establishing the order of bands for that night. Then the drummers go through, picking names one after another, until all the names are gone, and five brand-new 5-member bands are established. Then the bands have until that night to come up with a name (actually the name was due at lunch time) and a set of 3 to 5 songs, with a limit of one cover.
Before the band selection, we all hung out eating the breakfast the Rock Lottery folks had so kindly provided. Most people there seemed to at least know a couple of the other participants, as did I. We all chatted amiably with the people we knew, and introduced ourselves to people we didn't, asking about instruments played and bands involved in, etc., wondering who we'd end up with when it came to selection.
The name-drawing happened in an orderly fashion, and I ended up in the only band of the day to be composed entirely of men (in contrast to last year, where all of the female participants ended up in one band). We were myself, Sam Kirk (Goondocks, The Red Note), David Terry (Aqueduct), Edmund O'Brien (Key Note Speaker), and Josh Evans (Felicia Loud & the Soul). Before too long, we had our name: Mantastic. (The period is part of the name.)
As no one in our band had a local practice space, we ended up rehearsing on the very stage we would be performing on that night, at Neumo's. We joked that this would give us a big advantage, in that we would be able to better rehearse our blocking and dance numbers. The main advantage was that we didn't have to drive anywhere, and could start rehearsing as soon as we were done with breakfast, and when it was time to go to lunch, we just had to walk downstairs. The one disadvantage was that we had to be done by 7:00, when the first band would soundcheck. Rather than using the house PA (or monitors), we had a tiny but serviceable rented number that did the trick just fine (and was certainly less intimidating than the Neumo's gear would have been).
At first, it took a little while for the creative juices to get flowing. Sam was on the drums, and Josh was on guitar, but there was some room for experimentation with the rest of us. Edmund had a bass and tiny amp, and also a sampler and some other fun electronic toys. I had brought my acoustic guitar and bass, as well as my bass amp (which I love playing guitar through), and my musical saw (which I don't play nearly enough, and this seemed the perfect opportunity). Dave had a bunch of instrumental options, and ended up settling on a couple choice keyboards. We determined that Dave and I were the two in the group with experience as frontmen, and I was happy to surrender that duty to him, chiming in on vocals when it seemed appropriate.
The writing process was incredibly democratic and cooperative. I had sort of expected that there would be an Alpha type in the group that would kind of take over and give us direction, but we all ended up being very accomodating and careful in our approach. We quickly came up with our name (Mantastic., as mentioned) and our theme (we would sing of manly things). The first song came, as I learned was common with many Rock Lotterists, out of the good ol' "Funk in E" jam, and became a song about aftershave (specifically, Old Spice). I came up with a part (actually just doubling Dave's keyboard part) using my Ebow on my acoustic, and promptly broke the Ebow, so I had to try and duplicate the sound using my overdrive pedal.
Somewhere in there we also started work on the Spanish/Mexican/Spaghetti Western-flavored "Tecate Your Body" (which was, of course, about drinking - mostly beer). We all collaborated on the lyrics, which pretty much involved thinking of all the three-syllable Mexican beverages we could (which, surprisingly, there are quite a few of). I would be playing acoustic guitar on this one, switching to saw in the middle for a little solo before we went into the repeated audience-participation solo. ("Tecate. Your body. That's right. Your body.")
Before we broke for lunch, I switched to bass and we very quickly came up with the parts to our third song, which would become our upbeat, indie-pop band theme song, "Mantastic." (although we didn't know that at the time).
We broke for lunch at 3, discussing possible manly covers we could do ("What a Man"? "Iron Man"? "Thunderstruck"? "Boys Don't Cry"?). Dave went home to grab some extra mics, and the remaining four of us finished our lunch and headed upstairs to continue hashing out our three numbers. By the time we were all together again, it was past four and we had less than three hours to get our songs refined and in decent shape to be performed that night. It was starting to look less and less likely that we would be able to work out a cover.
But we soldiered on, arranging the songs, coming up with vocal and instrumental ideas, beginnings, endings, all the little things that make a song a song, things you might normally spend hours, days, weeks on for one song, that we had to get together for three songs in just a couple hours. When we had everything figured out just the way we wanted it, we barely had time to run through our set before we had to surrender the stage to the first band.
We now had a good four or five hours in which to eat dinner, write a few last-minute lyrics (the aftershave song was to involve rapping, natch), and forget our songs (we were fourth in the lineup). I was afraid of that last one, but I needn't have been. We had played them so many times that day, that they are still haunting my every waking moment, two days later. (I actually woke up early Sunday morning and had a hard time falling back asleep, haunted as I was by the main theme from "Tecate Your Body.")
Dinner was Vietnamese sandwiches, which I love. And soon the beer showed up (there was even some Mexican beer: Sol, a brand we had neglected to namecheck, but which didn't really scan anyway), which we'd all been waiting for. The doors opened at 8, and people slowly trickled in, but by the time the first band went on at 10, there was quite a good-sized mob in attendance. The first three bands went by in something of a blur, but they were all terrific and impressive, and appeared to be having a hell of a time. I don't think the image of Damien Jurado belting out an alt-rock anthem in full-on rockstar frontman mode (sans guitar) will leave my brain any time soon. And the incredibly soulful vocal stylings of Choklate, complemented by the baritone sax of Craig Flory and the violin of Michaela Brangan (where were all the bass players? Oh, I guess we had them) was a perfect combination. There were so many of these inspired, random combinations and pure musical fun throughout the night, which I guess is part of what makes Rock Lottery so special. I was pleased to see that it wasn't just the musicians who were having a good time; the crowd really seemed to be loving every minute of it.
Before I knew it, it was time for us to go on. We loaded our gear on to the stage in a hurry, I tried to set up my three instruments in a way that would make sense for playing our three songs (bass and guitar through one amp with an a/b box; chair for sitting on, but not in the way when I stand; saw and bow within reach but not somewhere where they'll fall over; etc.). We did a quick line/mic check on all the instruments, and then Sean Nelson was at my microphone doing his inimitable MC thing. Before I knew it, Edmund and I were starting "Mantastic." - or rather, I was screwing up the beginning of "Mantastic." I couldn't really hear my bass, and I guess I was hearing the way his part fit with mine in a new way, but it confused me. But after one false start, we were on our way. There were some screw-ups, of course, but we held it together, and next thing I knew I was switching to guitar for the aftershave song. The rest of the set just flew on by, but what a feeling! Playing on the stage at one of our towns biggest venues, to a couple hundred screaming, clapping fans! Having them sing along to our anthemic Mexican beer song, and then blowing them away with our rocktastic (mantastic!), epic ending. Oh, the applause! It was great, I tell ya. I love playing the music I play in my normal life (you know, dark, pensive, sad-bastard songs about animals), but there really is something to be said for direct, goofy, fun music that gets people excited and clapping and yelling.
The final band, "The Most Popular Girl in School," took us out on a perfect note. The centerpiece of the band was the gigantic marimba of Erin Jorgenson, and her incredibly deft handling of it, with vocal contributions from her, Jen Wood, and Nate Mooter of the Lashes. They fused some Caribbean influences (hard not to go there with a marimba and a super-funky bass player) with some of the prettier, more fleshed out songs of the evening. Their last number was a gorgeous lullaby, and the perfect ending to what had been a dream of a day.
And that was that. We all loaded out, said our goodbyes, and went back to the rest of our lives. Thank you Sam, Dave, Josh and Edmund for a hell of a day, and thank you Rock Lottery for one of the best musical experiences I've ever had!
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