So, wow, the past few weeks have been what they call "non-stop action!"

We have been getting ready to go into the studio (April 4 & 5) which included choosing songs to record, perfecting the arrangements, finding the right trumpet player (Kathryn King from the Hip Chicks and from the Tacky Annies), teaching them the songs, choosing what to wear in the studio...You know, the usual.

Meanwhile, in a different part of town, Panda has had to leave the band.  It's a fairly long story, but suffice to say that as far as we're concerned, Panda will always be a Complication.  In fact, there's a pretty good chance she'll be singing on the record!

In any case, in the interim, we've been looking to find a new bassist, and have spent a bit of time auditioning people.  For the record, we're going to be retaining the services of Nicko, bassist for Tiny Speakers and Seeking, and guitarist for The Steel Chops.  Nicko used to be in a band with Keith and Troy, so these past couple weeks have been an extra fun reunion for them, particularly last night's show at the Elbo Room.

And talking of last night's show, thank you all for coming out to see us--and you know who you are!  We kinda know who you are, but there were an awful lot of people!  And at 10:30 on a Wednesday night!

And thanks extra to you folks who bought the raffle tickets.  We know that some of you didn't want to write your names on the back of the ticket and took both halves home with you.  Please make sure you get those tickets to us before we do the raffle drawing at the April 18 show at Town Hall Pub, or you won't be able to win your theme song!

It was a pretty wild show; our two favorite bits were the people in the crowd shouting questions about dinosaurs (for the record, Stegosaurus is Keith's favorite) and  the band being given the finger by the entire audience for not playing an encore.  (For the record, the Elbo Room keeps a clock in view of the band but out of view of the audience.  We had some people complain our set was too short, but we actually went over our allotted time by a couple of minutes!)

Thanks again, everyone, and see you on the 18th!

Lineup:
Adam--Guitar
Danielle-Percussion and Vocals
Danny-Alto and Tenor Saxes
Karla-Vocals and Supercool Dress
Kathryn King from The Hip Chicks & The Tacky Annies-Trumpet
Keith-Vocals, Harmonica
Nicko from Seeking, Steel Chops, and Tiny Speakers-Bass and Vocals
Troy-Drums

Set List:
1 (I Got To Know Am I) Wasting My Time
2 You Can't Fool Me
3 Slave (I'm Gonna Be Your)
4 You're All I Need To Get By (Marvin Gaye cover)
5 Every Time I'm Flying Blind
6 A Fool 4 U

Hello, people!

As we're getting closer and closer to the dates we have booked for recording, we're planning more and more things, such as which guitars to use on which song, how many times to clap in this section, what kind of pictures to use for the album cover and...

Wait a second!  We never decided on which songs to record!

Well, it's best left to you guys, who've been to our shows, listened to the music, and asked us for CDs.

So, we're going to give you a list of songs (below) and let you pick your top five that you'd like to hear. Send us an email, post a comment, tie the list to a pidgeon and let loose...Actually, the pidgeon thing seems a bad idea.  So does the psychic messenger idea that was coming next.  Let's stick to emails and comments.

Here's the list of possible songs:

A Fool 4 U
By Your Side
Every Time I'm Flying Blind
(I Got To Know Am I) Wasting My Time
Slave (I'm Gonna Be Your)
The Song that Dare Not Speak Its Name
You Can't Fool Me

Let us know!

K & the C's

Lineup:

Keith: Vocals, Harp
Karla: Vocals
Adam: Guitar
Panda: Bass, Beer Bottle, Vocals
Troy: Drums
Danielle: Percussion, Vocals

Set:

1. The Clap/Ignition
2. The Time
3. Slave (I'm Gonna Be Your)
4. You Can't Fool Me
5. A Fool 4 U (w/ Mr. Big Stuff)
6. Every Time I'm Flying Blind
7. By Your Side
8. (I Got To Know Am I) Wasting My Time

The show got off to a rocky start from a technical standpoint.  There was a mixup as to the start times, and when we finally did start (an hour and a half after we were supposed to), the first thing that happened was Troy tested out his drums with a quick hit to each one, just like always.  And on his first hit to the bass drum, the pedal broke! Luckily, Dana from Youth Decay was able to lend us her kick pedal, and with only a minor delay we were ready to start.

From there, though, it was all smooth sailing, as Troy and Keith started the show with just drums and clapping, calling up each member of the band one by one, before launching into a shortened version of "The Time," and sweating through the rest of the set.  There was plenty of clapping, dancing, and screaming, (which is how it's supposed to be!) and even a bit where a member of the audience tried to flash the band! (We think she's the same person who yelled that she liked Keith's ass and wanted to skip the raffle and just pay $100 to shave his face.)

By the end of the night, we had, of course, sold more raffle tickets and some buttons, left puddles of sweat on the stage (and trails of sweat all over the bar where Keith had run out into the audience), and were invited back to play again.

Lineup:

Keith: Vocals, Harp, Keys
Karla: Vocals
Adam: Guitar
Panda: Bass, Beer Bottle, Vocals
Troy: Drums
Danielle: Percussion, Vocals
Danny: Sax

Set:

1. (I Got To Know Am I) Wasting My Time
2. You Can't Fool Me
3. Slave (I'm Gonna Be Your)
4. The Tracks Of My Tears
5. By Your Side
6. A Fool 4 U (w/ Mr. Big Stuff)
7. Every Time I'm Flying Blind

Another great show!  Thanks to everyone who came out to see it, and thanks to the Stacks for lending us their keyboard!

During the show, Keith announced that we're selling raffle tickets.  You see, friends, we need to raise money to make a record,  and one of the ways we're doing that is through a raffle.

The prizes, which include
will be announced at our fundraiser party at Town Hall Pub on April 18th. 

Until the party, you can buy raffle tickets at shows or you can email us (keithandthecomplications@yahoo.com) if you're unable to make the next couple of shows.  The cost of raffle tickets are as follows:
Also, the top five donors will be given the rare treat of getting to go into the recording studio to be on the album!

So come see us next tonight at Miska's Bar, 2156 W. Belmont, at 9pm, and buy your tickets!

See you there!

Lineup:

Keith: Vocals, Harp
Karla: Vocals
Adam: Guitar, Godzilla
Panda: Bass, Beer Bottle, Vocals
Troy: Drums
Danielle: Percussion, Vocals
Danny: Sax

Set:

1. (I Got To Know Am I) Wasting My Time
2. You Can't Fool Me
3. By Your Side
4. The Song That Dare Not Speak Its Name
5. Every Time I'm Flying Blind
6. A Fool 4 You (w/ Walk on The Wild Side ad lib)
7. The Time
Encore:
8. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher

Thank you all for coming out last night, especially those of you who don't actually know anyone in the band! 

This was our first show at Underground Lounge, and it was a blast for everyone, judging by the looks on your faces and the clapping and singing along and everything.

The Budget Bucket made its debut last night, along with our Donation Cards.  Obviously, the Budget Bucket is designed to help us raise enough to record ASAP, and seems to be working!  The Donation Cards are there to make it a little more fun.  Anyone who fills out a card will be mentioned in the liner notes to the disc we're going to record, along with getting to request which songs we should choose for said recording.

And just to make it extra fun, the five people who donate the most get to record with us! Don't worry, you won't be doing the complex backing vocals--that's what The Girls are for!  But we have clapping, banging on things, stomping, and so forth to be included, with possibly a little shouting and talking, too, depending upon what songs get the most requests.

As for the show itself, well, we know that by now you all expect lunacy, from Keith walking away from the mic to encourage the clapping of audience members to Adam playing Fiddler On The Roof when Danielle was introduced.  There was even some random dude jumping onto the stage to dance! 

We had fun, and we're glad you all did, too. 

But if you think THIS show was good, you should come see us at Bottom Lounge on Feb 19, with The Stacks!

Lineup:

Adam: Guitar, Godzilla
Danielle: Percussion, Vocals
Karla: Vocals, Tambourine
Keith: Vocals, Harp
Panda: Bass, Beer Bottle
Troy: Someone Else's Drums


Setlist:

1. By Your Side
2. You Can't Fool Me
3. The Song That Dare Not Speak Its Name
4. Every Time I'm Flying Blind
5.(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher--First Time Played!
6. A Fool 4 U w/ You Can't Always Get What You Want (tease)
7. (I Got To Know Am I) Wasting My Time

Now, we know what you're thinking..."Beer bottle?"  Yes, Panda whacked a beer bottle with a drumstick during the percussion section of "Every Time I'm Flying Blind." No, it didn't shatter and spill beer all over the stage.  Which woulda been kinda cool from a visual and audience standpoint, but probably not from a Panda's safety standpoint.

Thanks to Daysleeper for letting us use their bass amp and drumset.  And if we may say so, them's got to be the nicest drums we've ever seen!  The drummer from Dorsey, another band on the bill, brought with his sparkly gold 1967 Ludwig set (which we all thought looked like what would happen if Danielle was a Transformer who turned into drums), and smiled as he stated that this was the first time he wasn't the guy with the best drumset!

We should have some pictures up soon, so check back!

So, first things first:

Thanks to each and every one of you who came out to see us last night.  We had no idea so many of you were going to come, no idea the cops were going to come, too, and certainly no idea the cops were going to kick so many of you out!

For those of you who weren't at the show last night, here's the scoop.

Last night, we played our first show with this lineup-

Keith-Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
Adam-Guitar, Godzilla
Karla-Vocals, Percussion
Danielle-Percussion, Vocals
Danny-Saxophone
Panda-Bass, Vocals
Troy-Drums

The Set List was as follows

1 A Fool 4 U
2 Baby Do Some More
3 Sweat
4 Love By Numbers
5 By Your Side
6 You Can't Fool Me
7 Every Time I'm Flying Blind
8 The Song That Dare Not Speak Its Name
9 (I Got To Know Am I ) Wasting My Time
10 The Time (Encore)

Owing to Keith's acoustic performance at a show that was last-minute-closed-to-the-public on Monday, 1/5, the plan was for Keith and Adam to play an acoustic mini-set to appease the people who were upset that they couldn't come see said show.  After the acoustic set, the rest of the band would pick up their instruments as Keith put his guitar down, and then the roof would then be raised, so to speak.

Now, here's what ACTUALLY happened.

A whole lot of people showed up.  Way more than we thought would, and more than we even thought were there.  The first act, a band called The Steel Chops, played to a packed, packed house. One of the members of Steel Chops is Nicko, honorary Complication and co-writer of The Time, By Your Side, and If It's A Whuppin' You're A-Wantin...  Also, we'd like to thank them for letting us use their gear--it saved a lot of hassle, which was good, because there was real hassle to come, only one sentence away!

About halfway through the Chops' set, badges were flashed, and Alex, the bartender, had to pause the show.  Apparently, the place was well over capacity, and so the solution, according to the cops, was to kick everyone (including the performers) out, and let them trickle back in until we had exactly the capacity, and then tell everyone else "You don't gotta go home, but you can't stay here!"  It was either that, or send Alex to jail.  Since Alex has been good to us at our shows there, and since his arrest would 86 the show entirely, we went along with what the cops said.

So, many, many people were turned away (including people coming from Highland Park, Arlington Heights, and other far-off lands) as we all apologized repeatedly.

Back inside, we brushed the snow off and Steel Chops played a few more songs to a capacity (yet considerably sparser) crowd.

After the Chops finished, The Tacky Annies were up.

The Tacky Annies are a Charleston dance group featuring up to 12 ridiculously hot girls.  For venues this size, they use only use three ridiculously hot girls. Of the three ridiculously hot girls, one was Debra, late of Keith & The Complications.

The girls shook their assets, eliciting cat calls, wolf whistles, and other animalia from the still capacity yet still considerably sparser crowd.

After the Tacky Annies, Keith and Adam grabbed their acoustic guitars* and launched into their mini-set.   People were clapping, dancing, and singing along, and this was just the first number!  For Baby Do Some More, Keith dedicated the song to "my friend who's naked on the internet." Several people laid claim to being that person, but she knows who she really is. Next was Sweat, by which point both Keith and Adam were dripping with it.  Keith announced that he was going to do one song, solo-acoustic, while Adam tuned his electric guitar and the rest of the band got themselves together. 

Keith played through Love By Numbers, until the last chorus.  During the last chorus, he strayed a bit, singing "Sometimes, it makes me wonder...Oooh, really makes me wonder..."  Then Adam strummed the appropriate chords, stepped back onto the stage with his electric guitar, and the two of them launched into the solo and ending of Stairway To Heaven!**

After the screams died down, the rest of the band joined them on the stage.*** 

Panda launched us into By Your Side, and from there, everything was a bit of a blur.  People in the audience were still dancing and clapping and singing along, jokes were made about "Thanks for tipping your bartender so that he has bail money for when the cops come back," Karla did a striptease**** to Panda singing a blues riff, Keith dry humped just about every memebr of the audience, Adam played behind his head, the band all picked up percussion instruments for the "dance section" of Every Time I'm Flying Blind, and who knows what else?!?  We'll have photos and possibly even a video posted fairly soon. 

During the last song, (I Got To Know Am I) Wasting My Time, Keith stood on the bar to get the still "only" capacity crowd to sing along during the a capella bit.  Meanwhile, back on stage, Adam was using his trademark Godzilla hand***** to "sing" along.

For the encore, Danny switched over to drums, Nicko grabbed a bass, and Debra rushed back up to the stage, and we launched into The Time. 

After a brief intermission, Nicko grabbed the bass, Keith grabbed Adam's guitar, and Troy sat back at the drums.  Now, for those of you who don't know how momentous that is, it should be explained that the three of them played as a trio called Eccentric for about 2 years as they were learning to really handle their instruments.  Then, about ten years ago, Troy's relocation split them up.  Now, for the first time since then, all three were in the same room at the same time.  So, they dusted off some old relics--Thimbles, Wasted Like Caviar-- and some oldies--Runaround Sue, Ain't Too Proud To Beg, (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher--as people slowly trickled onstage and to the mics to sing along.  Some instruments were switched around--Adam back on guitar, a fan named Mark on drums, Keith on harmonica--and a blues jam ensued on Stop Messing Round.  Finally, with everybody fairly drained, Troy came back to the stage, Adam gave Keith back the guitar, and Eccentric closed the night with their old set-closer, everyone's favorite disco song: I Will Survive.

Which, is what we plan on doing.  Surviving cops and jilted fans to bring something better and betterer to you from one show to the next.

At the moment, we are searching for a bigger venue for the show we have planned on the 30th, with Seeking and The Amazing Tomas.  Keep your eyes on our page to find out where it will be!


*For those of you interested, Keith's guitar is named Cate Blanchett.  When he first bought it a year ago, he insisted some of his pals come over to take a look at it.  His filmmaker pal Kenzie commented that "She's beautiful!  What are you going to name her?"  Keith, of course, responded, "What?  I don't name my guitars!" (Which, by the way, is not strictly true.  He just doesn't name ALL of them.) Kenzie said "Why not?"  Keith's response?  "Do you have a name for your right arm?"  So Kenzie said "Well, either way, she's beautiful."  Then Keith said, "And another thing... why are you calling my guitar 'she?'  It's an 'it.' Wood and metal and plastic and stuff."  Adam now felt the need to put in his two cents. "Dude, all guitars are women."  Keith disagreed.  "No, man, I see guitars as genderless and ethereal, like Cate Blanchett!"  So, amidst great laughter, the guitar was dubbed Cate Blanchett.  The end.

**January 9th, the date of the gig, is Jimmy Page's birthday. By our count, this year he turned "Still Old."

***Except for Danny, who just played in front of the stage, not on it.  It's not a very big stage, and there's seven of us!  Keith LEFT the stage, and there still wasn't quite enough room for everyone!

****Just her shoes, but she still made it sexy.  How does she do it?

*****It's really only a puppet.  But don't tell him that.  He thinks he can shoot fire out of his hands!

So, some of you may know that Keith has been attending the open mic at Uncommon Ground.

Those of you who know that know that said open mic is a contest--for six months, two winners a week are added to the Finals, where they will compete for a hefty chunk of change.

Keith won tonight, making him a competitor in the Finals this January. 

We hope you'll all come out and support (pronounced scream and clap for) him when the audience vote comes around!

We'll let you know when it gets closer to Finals time.