Hello Lovely Ladies and Lads!

We have some excellent events coming up in the next few weeks for people of ALL AGES!!!

For those of you over 21, come join us this Saturday, Aug. 8th, as we headline the Kensington Club stage for this year's NPMT (formerly NXNP)! This festival spans two days, with over 150 bands on 20 different stages around San Diego, and will be loads of fun! You can check out the official festival site by clicking the banner below, and also find a good rundown of the music fest here: http://chickrawker.com/index.php/weblog/npmt-guide-part-ii-music-festival

Secondly, we are incredibly excited to have a long-awaited ALL AGES SHOW!!!! We have been listening to the requests for an all ages performance, and were finally able to set one up. If you are under 21, or know some people who are, this is the show to catch! Join us on Friday, August 14th at Soma with The Material and Children of Nova, and bring your dancin' shoes! the show gets started at 7pm and costs a meager $8.

Also, as if that isn't enough, voting season has opened for the San Diego Music Awards. We have been nominated in the "Best Pop" category, and will also be performing at the awards ceremony. You can click below to vote... We love supporting the arts in San Diego, and have some humble suggestions for your voting pleasure: Transfer, Gabe Vega, Get Back Loretta, Scarlet Symphony, Illuminauts, Joel P. West, Maren Parusel, Delta Spirit, etc., etc., etc..... However you vote, please do support the arts by taking part!

Love!

As you know, we have been going through a lot of changes on our side of the looking glass. The band has been traveling a ton, and spreading the good news of The Silent Comedy across the western seaboard. As these changes occur, the sound, look, and face of the group will continue to evolve. We are very excited about the future of The Silent Comedy, and look forward to sharing the journey with all of you.

As you will soon notice, the most recent evolution of the group is the parting of ways between The Silent Comedy and percussionist Joseph Nelson (J. Benedict). Joey has been a dear friend for years, and this decision does not reflect any change in our friendship. We thank him for the contributions he has made to this band, and hope to support him in his further musical adventures.

Starting this Saturday at the Soco Music Experience (downtown San Diego at Petco Park with Common, The Black Keys, Saul Williams, and more) you will see Andy Ridley (of the band Fono: www.myspace.com/fono) behind the drum kit. Andy will become familiar to our friends around the west as he plays with us for the next few months. He is an excellent musician, with a history of world-wide touring. Andy's long term plans may not involve being a permanent fixture in our traveling tent revival, and we will now begin a search for a permanent rhythm master.

We have been playing with Andy this past month, and are extremely excited to share the energy that he brings to the show. To see this new formation in action, come visit us at the Soco Music Experience this weekend (or on any of our upcoming tour dates).

Love.

-J. John

Saturday 8.13– 12:21pm

So the wagon train rolled into San Francisco around three or four Friday afternoon and some how, magically, we found parking right in front of the Make-out Room. First time for everything, right? We dismounted, found some food and a happy hour and got ready for business time.

If anyone is heading through San Francisco I would definitely stop through the Mission and visit the Make-out Room. Grab a drink at the bar and talk with the extra nice bartenders, find a dark and deep booth, or walk down the long narrow space toward the stage. With its cavernous feel the place would seem sinister and claustrophobic if it weren't for the fact that there are these long spindly metallic hangings spiraling down from the vaulted ceilings. Out of the cave and into the starry eyed evening sky of the Hogwarts cafeteria.

Ok. Business time. We found out that the show was a happy hour show, so we got going around eight (earliest bar show we've ever played). The stage has two levels, raised up a few feet in the back half, and we were kinda thrown off as to how we should set up.
It took a little getting used to to play on it, but once we got folking away with our rough and rowdy bar set this train was bound for glory!

This place reminded me of one of our first shows playing together back about a year and a half at a loft party art show. In the back of this room wedged between the bar and the bathroom was a kit sized stage for J. Benedict, so I stood up on a table in back and the rest of the fellas played up front for our bar room folk set nestled betwixt scandalous girls belly dancing with snakes to house music and the guy with the creepy faux Hari Krishna guy with the electric sitar.

Well, there were no girls with snakes at the Make-out room, but Wayward Sway brought their blend of backwoods claw-hammer banjo driven folk and gather-round-the campfire country to the stage. It was a close second to the snakes.

Once the show ended, the comrades picked up our friend the glorious, glamorous, and ever gorgeous Miss Julie B. to roll out to the after party at some bar in that little China town part of the city near USF. You know, right next door to Green Apple Bookstores. There J. Benjamin, J. Daniel finished out the evening with a long walk to find some amazing late night pizza slices and then we were off to Placerville. I think we made it to Sacramento before we found a place to crash as four or so in the morning.

Today we're on way to Placerville (all thirty-five minutes of drive) to play a show to the most excited and fun crowd of kids I plan to see all tour at the Upstairs Art Gallery. Come on down kids. Don't disappoint you're traveling minstrels that have dedicated their youthful years to your entertainment.

Onwards and upward–

Hey everybody. This is I. Forbes on the wire feeding everyone that's interested some news from the inside. Keep on coming back, because I'll be posting new journals each night. Finally, you can see life through the fiddler's eyes. Folk yeah!

Thursday 8.11– 2:45am

Give the girls one last kiss cause it's time to hit the road fellahs. We're leaving San Diego in what was Wednesday night turned Thursday early morning to go ruffle some feathers and bring the folk to the far reaches of California.

Thursday 8.11– 10:30am

We made it Morro Bay. Captain J. and first mate Josh Cass successfully docked the van minutes before they passed out in full sleep depravity. Luckily, I was snuggled deep in the back of the van for the journey, but during my brief moments of non-sleep caused by an asleep limb waking me up (ironic, no?) or a gas/stretch break highlights included:
-conversation: what was Atrayu's horse's name in the Never Ending Story?
-grape toss to mouth catch game, which I think I technically won by being the only one to successfully catch my rebounded grape and put it in my mouth.
-back seat snuggles with J. John.
-meeting this crazy man in a neon green Gilligan fishers hat in front of a 7-11 and letting him know that we're in a metal band on our way to Coney Island for a big show.

Thursday 8.11– 11:22pm

Let's make sure we took care of everything on our checklist for the first day of the tour. Get a nap. Check. Hang out around the Chorro Creek Ranch, pet some gnarly doggies, and wander around the grounds breathing the salty breeze and playing some folky tunes to the horses and the hills. Done. Bring the folk to the people at the ranch. Done and done. Tonight was an amazing start to the tour and as always, we love playing for the folks at the Ranch. We got a chance to play a lot of our newer mellow songs that never get any breathing room in the wild barroom shows like River Rolls, Beware, and Purple Heart, plus all those other rowdy standards that get the room moving and even threw in a cover of the Weight. Good times. Time for a little hanging out and some sleepy time. Watch out San Francisco, cause tomorrow, here we come.

Oh lovers, oh killers, the storm is a comin'…

 

Here are all the details on our upcoming trip to Portland:

 

Friday, April 7^th

We are playing at the home of our good friends Charmaine and Ryan.

This is a somewhat belated birthday gift for Charmaine, and it should be a grand time. They are good people who fraternize with good people.

Email us if you want to be a part.

 

Saturday, April 8^th – All Ages,  8:00p.m., $5-10

AÇAO GINGA STUDIO (3016 NE Killingsworth, Portland OR 92711)

This is a benefit show to raise money for new classrooms at Lewis Elementary School. We are very excited to support this cause. There will be food and other festive things, so come show some love.

We will be performing with Stainless Japan (www.myspace.com/stainlessjapan).

 

Sunday, April 9^th – All Ages, 8:00p.m., donations

Redbird Studios (2927 NE Alberta, Portland OR 92711)

This show should be a lot of fun! Redbird Studios is a multi-purpose space for music and arts events. Please make a generous donation at the door to support the arts.

We are performing with Arman Augusto (www.myspace.com/armanaugusto).

 

Monday, April 10^th – 21+, 8:00p.m., FREE

Blondie's Bar and No Grill (540 Valencia, San Francisco CA 94101)

We are playing Stuck in the Mire, which is a weekly folk event at Blondie's. This is going to be a raucous good time, so get there at 8:00 so you don't miss us. This is our only bar show on the trip, and you know how we love a good bar show! Ask about the two dollar drink special.

We are playing with our good friends Or, The Whale (www.myspace.com/orthewhale).

Blue Mire, who put on the event, will also be performing (www.myspace.com/bluemire)

 

 

Well, well, well… If any of you made it this far, there are some things you can do to help us.

 

1. Haul your sweet smiling faces out to the shows and spend some quality time with us
2. Let us know if you live in San Francisco and would like to lodge some ruffians for a night
3. Repost this for all of your Portland/San Francisco friends
4. Sing along 'till your throats bleed

 

 

 

Love,

 

 

- J. John

Check out a review of our Gelato Vero bootleg recordings here:

http://www.whiskeyandapples.com/reviews_Gelato_Vero_bootleg.htm

I got a stamp that could hang on my grandfather's chest
As a token for takin' a bullet in his head
Well the crowds never smiled quite as big as you thought they did

When you were standin' with the soldiers
And the trumpets
The flag
And the Pin

On my bed made of wheels
I'd shudder and shift
With the cute little nurse whose name I forget
She'd deliver my letters
I'd borrow her pen
We were younger then

And we were miles from the Soldiers
And the trumpets
The flag
And the pin

Now my son is collecting pictures and print
From a time of my life that I'd rather forget
All the ships and the mortars
The sirens and sweat
It was different

But all he sees are the soldiers
And the trumpets
The flag
And the pin

It was more than the soldiers
And the trumpets
The flag
And the pin