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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Mid-stream in the Mid-Atlantic States
Current mood:

tired
Category: Music

Well now -- we really should have posted something about our current tour BEFORE we left on it, but... another paver in the road to Hell has been laid on our good intentions. We’re already mid-way through our NC/GA/SC/NC tour. Many, many thanks to all of you who’ve come out to the gigs - it’s been a blast so far!

We played the renowned Old Farmer’s Ball in Asheville last Thursday, and had a packed crowd despite the fact that it was Spring Break Week and the beginning of March Madness basketball tournament. It was great to have Seth Tepfer calling for us again -- it was just about this time last year that we made a two-week tour through the same area with Seth, and though (sadly!) he’s not in the van with us this time, we’ve picked up right where we left off.

We’ve just finished playing the second night of a two-night stand in Atlanta and are headed off to Greenville, SC in the morning for an afternoon dance at the River Falls Lodge, which we hear is a spectacular, purpose-built dance hall.

After that, we’re away to Charlotte for a Monday night dance, and Winston-Salem for a Tuesday night dance, and then home. So - you’ve still time to catch us! If you’re anywhere near Greenville, Asheville, Charlotte, or Winston-Salem: bring your friends, come out to the dance, and say "hi!" And watch this space for pictures and stories from the tour -- we’ll try to get them posted soon!

See you somehwere down the road,
the Syncos

5:14 AM

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Thursday, November 01, 2007

Invading Austin, TX tomorrow
Current mood:

excited
Category: Music

OK - we've had about a week-and-a-half to recover from our various injuries and plagues, so we should be good to go when we arrive in Austin, TX tomorrow night. We've heard great things about the Fire Ant dance and "The Mansion," and we're excited to experience them. Here's hoping you're all rested up and ready to rumble - hold on Austin, the Syncopaths are coming!

1:07 AM

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Monday, October 22, 2007

End of the Festival; The World is on Fire!
Current mood:

worried
Category: Music

We had to be up earlier today, but it was for a good reason: the Notorious Brunch! Yes, we arrived at the hall to find a scrumptious array of homemade goodies spread across three groaning tables. We're still amazed that people can do something as energetic as dancing immediately after consuming a large meal!

We were still in a bit of a brunch stupor when we climbed onto the stage and settled in for our final dance. It was a lovely, warm, lazy Sunday morning, so we started off gently, picking up steam as the day wore on. We played only new tunes for this final dance, great fun and a challenge for us! Ryan and Bill had sheet music and books full of tunes scattered all over the stage as they searched for new novelties.

By the time we came into the home stretch, we were firing on all cylinders and the dancers were hollering with joy. And suddenly, it was all over but the shouting: our first visit to the Midwest: 18+ hours of music; sprains, bruises and blisters; a pharmacopeia for cold and flu management; and finally found luggage… we've conquered SoleFest! Our heartfelt thanks to Deb for having us - you put on a great party, and we hope we get to do it again some time.

Jeff, Bill and Susan had to bolt immediately for their flight out of Kansas City (more than 3 hours away by car,) so we made our goodbyes, and off they went. Christa had time to kill before her flight left Springfield, so she inveigled Ryan into visiting the legendary Bass Pro Shops. (He didn't require much coaxing - Susan had told some amazing stories about this place, and we just had to see it.)

Everything she said was true: it really is Disneyland for outdoorsman! It's HUGE, and it is jam-packed with boats, trucks, ATVs, clothing, home décor, camping/fishing/hunting gear, guns, bows, targets, live (yes, live!) animals/reptiles/turtles/fish, several restaurants, and a wildlife museum. It really has to be seen and experienced to be believed! It was a great way to cap off our visit to Springfield.

After the wonders of the Bass Pro Shop, Ryan dropped Christa at the Springfield airport, then took off on the long drive for Indiana, but was so spent that had to pull over and rest fro the night, so he won't make it home until Monday.

Christa, Jeff, Bill and Susan all experienced rocky flights home due to the Santa Ana winds that were howling across the Southwest. As we flew into our various southland airports, we also got to witness from the air something we'd hoped never to see again: massive wildfires burning out of control all over Southern California. They were awesome (in the negative, overwhelming sense) to behold from above, clearly visible for hundreds of miles. We stepped off our planes and into snowfalls of ash and soot. We have all been trading phone calls, getting updates on the safety of our friends and colleagues, some of whom have been evacuated from their homes. One of the fires was burning less than 6 miles from where Christa lives.

Fortunately, thanks to the heroic efforts of many firefighters, we are all OK, as are our families, friends, and most of our colleagues, but we know that many people are losing their homes as we write, and our hearts go out to them.

Wishing peace and safety for you all out there,
The Syncos

PS – on a lighter note, we also offer our condolences to Susan, whose beloved Indians failed in their bid for the World Series.

See you in two weeks…..

9:00 AM

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Sunday, October 21, 2007

No rest for the weary....
Current mood:

exhausted
Category: Music

We had a bit of a lie-in on Saturday morning – all except for Susan, that is. She was up early and on her laptop, hunting for good airfare to go watch her beloved Cleveland Indians play (she hopes!) in the World Series.

We took stock of our condition after the previous night: Christa was strapped and taped and on anti-inflamatories; Ryan was feeling a bit better, but still under the weather; and Bill was taking Air-borne and Emergen-C to ward off an advancing cold. We had a bit of breakfast, then headed out to the venue. Our schedule for the day was really long: two workshops, a "house concert" and another evening-long dance.

The workshops went well. Susan was in fine form, teasing and joking with the dancers, who were cheery and laughing in return.

Our lovely caller for SoleFest: Susan Michaels.

We had the same air conditioning problem we had the night before, but Christa figured out how to turn it off (ironically, by turning on the heat.) It popped on periodically, and every time it did, poor Ryan suffered under the Arctic blast. We all got a bit of a break when we headed out for dinner at a Thai restaurant with Deb and some of the wonderful dancers from the festival – including one young lady who was celebrating her 16^th birthday. Then it was back to the hall for a "house concert" (minus the house!)

It was only an hour, so we did an abbreviated set, revisiting some of our songs for the first time since our March/April tour through the Mid-Atlantic states. That was fun! It went off quite well, all things considered, and then -- in less time than it takes to say "boo" -- the chairs had been cleared, masks and costumes had been donned (in an early nod to Halloween,) and we were off and running through the evening dance. Our dinner companions brought extra masks to the dance, so even the band got into the theme of the evening.

Who are these masked men?

We played so long and Susan worked the dancers so hard, by the time we slithered to a halt at the end of the night, half of them opted out of the traditional Saturday night post-dance pub crawl. We wore them out! Even Deb, who'd been disappointed the night before when we turned in early with promises of hanging out for drinks on Saturday, decided to send the band home for the night. We went back to our hotel with bottles of Chimay in hand (thank you, Deb!) to have a celebratory tipple before tumbling exhausted into our beds. Turns out, we wore ourselves out, as well! It was a fun day, but loooooooong. We figure, by the time the weekend is over, we'll have made at least 18 hours of music!

Go, Syncos, go! (To bed!)

PS - Jeff's luggage finally arrived... clean clothes never looked (or smelled) so good!

9:00 AM

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Saturday, October 20, 2007

SoleFest Off And Running - Injuries and Illnesses Aside
Current mood:

exhausted
Category: Music

After a well-earned, peaceful night's rest, we gathered in the lads' instrument-crowded room and got down to business: introducing each other to new tunes! This is always great fun for us - the closest we get to anything resembling a rehearsal.

This pretty much consists of someone saying, "Hey, do you know this one? It's great!" and off we go, exploring. We come up with a bunch of cool chords and rhythms along the way, and - much later, sometimes weeks later, when we can hardly remember what we discovered - we get around to trying it on again, but this time, on stage. Happily enough, it always seems to work out, and it always sounds fresh, because we're having fun re-discovering it.

Our festival passes, on the mirror.

Susan has a friend in Springfield who took her out to eat "real barbeque," and introduced her to the wonder that is the Bass Pro Shops. On our way to the gig venue, she regaled us with amazing stories of this "Disneyland for Hunters and Fishermen." More on that later…..

We actually arrived early for sound check (a novel experience for the band, as we tend to show up just in the nick of time for these things.) The festival is being held in the gymnasium at the Franciscan Villa, which used to be an old hospital.

The SoleFest Sandwich Board. Our venue for the weekend.

The entry hall motto - by the
end of the weekend, we were
all begging for Mercy!

The first thing we noticed when we came through the door of the hall was the artwork created in our honour by some local students. There was a poster for each of us: pianos, fiddles, guitars, bodhráns, voices; all were represented. They were gorgeous! We were truly dumbfounded by this unlooked-for, amazing gift.

The amazing artwork in the Hall!

The hall was a huge, airy room – lovely to look at, but hell for our sound crew. Every surface was hard and reflective, and the 30-foot tall ceilings and windows created cavernous echoes and lots of slap-back. Bob and Dusty did a masterful job of coaxing beautiful sound out of this monster, but it took longer than anticipated.

As a result, we were late heading out for a last-minute dinner with Deb, our festival organizer. We sat outside a local pub, enjoying the fine Indian Summer evening as we ate, keeping an eye on our watches while the witching hour for the dance crept up on us. Deb was unperturbed by the idea that we might be late – "after all," she said, "the dance can't start until the band gets there."

Yes, dear reader: we got to the dance late… but no-one seemed upset or in a hurry to begin. Maybe Missourians are more laid-back than other folks.

We settled in for the dance – a really long one, four hours. Immediately, the air conditioning popped on full blast up on the stage. At first, this didn't seem too much of a problem, because the dancers were putting out a lot of heat, but poor Ryan – who'd arrived in Springfield in the grip of what seemed to be a nasty cold-cough – was right under the blower, and by the time we got to the end of the first half, he was miserable, shivering and coughing and congested. Trouper that he is, you'd never have known by the quality of his playing that he was feeling awful – the music sparkled, Susan was calling in fine form, and the dancers applauded wildly at the end of each set. We were cooking!

We played a mix of old favorites and new sets, and it was fierce joy to be playing together again, but despite our delight, the duration of the dance got the better of us. By the time we arrived at the last waltz, we were really the worse for wear: Ryan was drooping with fever; Bill was beginning to cough, as well; and Christa was in agony, having somehow sprained the small muscle at the base of her thumb on her left hand (she later learned this is the "Opponens pollicis") as well as bruised the heck out of her left arm and the soft tissue between the thumb and index finger of her right hand, plus assorted giant blisters.

Many of the dancers headed out to party, but we begged off, pleading illness and the intense schedule looming tomorrow. We've staggered back to the hotel, and it's nearing 2AM. We've got two workshops, a "house concert," and another full-on evening dance to get through tomorrow…man, that sounds like a lot of music!

And to add insult to injury, Jeff's luggage (which went missing between CA and MO) didn't arrive at the hotel, so even our normally sunny Jeff is out of sorts.

Well, here's hoping a good night's sleep gets us all back on track!

9:00 AM

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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Dangerous Start....
Current mood:

scared
Category: Music

Well, we got one heck of a welcome on our first Syncos trip to the Midwest: tornados!

Truthfully, only half of the band got to experience this hair-raising start to the Sole Fest Dance Weekend in Springfield, MO. Christa was flying in from Washington D.C. by way of Chicago, and had to fly through the evil weather. The turbulence was so violent that she truly thought this might be her last flight. During one particularly tumultuous stretch, the plane was under such stress that the bulkheads burst open and launched the contents as large, heavy missiles.

Ryan also got to experience large, heavy missiles: enormous chunks of ice which hurtled down on him as he drove from Indianapolis, IN, dodging funnel clouds and biblical winds. At one point, caught in wind-and-rain-paralyzed traffic, he also had "this might be it" thoughts as he watched a funnel could forming above his car.

Thankfully, all's well that ends well. Both Christa and Ryan safely made it to Springfield, where they joined up with Jeff and Bill, and our traveling companion for our next few out-of-state weekends: California-based caller Susan Michaels. We're safely bunked down at our hotel, looking forward to making great music this weekend!

Peace,
Chris and the gang

8:18 PM

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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Getting ready to hit the road...
Current mood:

energetic
Category: Music

Let's get started with a new unreleased RAW track on the songlist. Check out "Gates of Hell" on the main page here... we recorded it recently in Santa Barbara. This is actually the first time we played this set and the energy behind it really cooks! As it was live at a contradance - and unedited - the track is long. So if you've got eight minutes or so...

In a little over a week, we hit the road again. First stop is Springfield, Missouri for the SoleFest Dance Weekend. Reports from friends who have played this festival in the past have been very positive, and we're definitely looking forward to meeting the fine folk out there.

Two weeks later we'll be in Austin, Texas which is an amazing town for music. We'll be playing for Fire Ant Frolic at the Women's Club (aka "The Mansion" aka "The Fed"). We hear the facility is awesome and our collective experiences in Austin have us thrilled to be able to play there.

Both of these dance weekends have "a la carte" options (though preregistration may be required), so if you're in the area, come on by and say "hello!"

We'll also be playing out on both coasts in January and we'll soon be posting about gigs in Atlanta, Asheville and Winston-Salem in March. Maybe another town or two might pop up around then as well. We'll keep you posted!

12:27 AM

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Saturday, July 07, 2007

Man, it's been awhile!
Current mood:

listless
Category: Music

It's hard to believe that after spending ten intense days eating together, sleeping together (no, not like that!), and making music together, we went our separate ways and have not seen each other in almost four months. While some of us have found other musical outlets with each other (Chopped Liver, Jax...), it's always a very different experience with The Syncos.

But with much anticipation we realize that in four short weeks we'll be reunited again for a weekend of fun and musical exploration in Southern California. And we're hoping for a lot of exploration as we return to our roots. And we're not talking Scottish roots, we're talking Synco roots.

Ever since "Rough Around the Edges" was released we've been playing tunes from a well established setlist that we've used extensively since our first days together. These tunes and arrangements were crafted in our first few gigs together and have held together nicely over the years. But the joy of discovery and living on the edge of those first gigs has given way to settling into a nice rhythm with those tunes. And now we feel it's time to shake things up again.

So for those who come out to our California dances, be prepared for a lot of new Syncopath material, created on the fly as we get to know these new tunes. Some of the tunes will be traditional, some will be neo-traditional, while others will be new tunes written by Ryan or Christa. The creative juices will be flowing as we mold these tunes into arrangements that may be on our next CD - whenever it shows up! And don't worry... we'll throw in some of the old favorites, too - but we're really looking forward to seeing what happens when we let loose with the new stuff.

Four weeks.

Ah, the anticipation!

5:03 AM

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Monday, April 02, 2007

Triumphant Finale in Pasadena!
Current mood:

ecstatic

Oh, the bliss of uninterrupted sleep in your own bed! Three-quarters of the band had that luxury on Friday night. (Ryan enjoyed some uninterrupted sleep in a nice, private hotel room.)

Bill, Christa and Ryan at least, got to sleep in a bit before starting their day. (Jeff has a 2-year old, so there was no reprieve for him, poor fellow.) We rendezvoused at Jeff's for some mid-day tune making -- we've got a dance weekend in Missouri in the fall for which we'll need 18 hours of music! It was great fun to toss new tunes around again in Jeff's living room.

We were scheduled to close out our tour at the Fifth Saturday "Zesty" dance in Pasadena -- always a treat for us, because loads of dancers come out for the occasion, and they're always full of rumbustious energy. We were really looking forward to it!

Throop Church, our Pasadena venue. The amazingly beautiful window in the Nave.

We took off for the dance late-afternoon and arrived before the sound crew was ready for us, so we took a moment to scarf down sandwiches and rest before the evening began. Bill arrived from Ventura with an expanded arsenal (he was tired of the 'flavour' of his tour mandolin,) which (in addition to two mandolins) included a Dobro!

Bill's expanded arsenal....

The wonderful Susan Michaels arrived to call the dance, and we settled in to start the show.

Christa looked down at the dance floor and noticed that there were three full sets on the floor. Normally, folk trickle in a bit late, and it takes 3 or 4 dances to reach three full sets; here we were, starting with three full sets! And you could feel the energy in the room... We started out with a laid-back set, then powered into a barn-burner for the second dance, and the crowd let out a mighty whoop. We were discussing what to play for the third set when Christa noticed there were now four full sets of dancers on the floor!

Four full sets of dancers... hardly room to move!

We'd never before seen so many people crammed into the hall -- a fact confirmed for us later by the dance organizers: we garnered the largest attendance they've ever had! Go, Syncopaths, go!!

We had Susan dancing ecstatically on the side of the stage, so lost in our wicked grooves that she nearly forgot to signal us that it was time to end each dance. In testament to the fabulous time everyone was having, no-one left at the half-way mark, so we started the second half with those four sets intact. Fueled by the electricity in the room and the bittersweet knowledge that this would be our last chance to play together for many months, we played with incredibly intensity, and by the time we slithered to a halt at the end of the evening, the crowd were stomping, whistling and cheering!

And to top it all off, we finished with the loveliest rendition of Wallflower that we've ever played.

It was all so perfect: great caller, great dances, great energy, great music !!!

Triumphant, happy (tired) Syncopaths!

Flush with the glow of wicked good music, great friendship, and adrenalin, we decamped to our traditional post-Pasadena haunt (Lucky Baldwins,) where we toasted our great success with Chimay and Wyder's. (Seth was there in spirit, much invoked!) We laughed and drank and talked about the tour and future plans until they closed the pub around us, forcing us to make our farewells and part company. After all those months preparing and looking forward to the tour; it was hard to believe that it was all over!

We sadly said goodbye to Bill outside the pub, and he motored away to Ventura. The rest of us drove back to Jeff's place, still laughing and carousing all the way. We were high as kites, giddy, so full of good cheer, so reluctant to bring things to a close that we stood in Jeff's driveway talking until nearly 3 AM. Maybe not the smartest thing for Ryan and Jeff who headed out to the airport at 5 AM so that Ryan could get back to his family...

But all good things must indeed come to an end. We made our final farewells, and called it a tour.

We'd like to thank the wonderful people who made all this possible...

First and foremost, we thank Gigi and Brooke for holding down the home front(s,) making it possible for Jeff and Ryan to get out on the road! You are the unsung, unseen foundation on which this band rests: we wouldn't exist without your loving support. Molto grazie to you - you are both remarkable women.

Huge, heartfelt thanks to Seth Tepfer for being such an amazing human being, such great company on the road, and for the tremendous organizing and promotion you did on our behalf on the East Coast. We miss you more than words can tell! You're now firmly part of the Synco-family. (And if you ever decide to give up your day job, we want you for our band manager!)

Profound thanks to all you dance and concert organizers for taking a chance on an unknown band from CA - we hope you enjoyed getting to know us as much as we enjoyed getting to know you, and we look forward to playing for you again in the future!

And last, but certainly not least: massive thanks to all you dancers and concert-goers! Your enthusiastic whoops and shining, happy faces fed us with electricity and turned on the juice in all our performances. Thanks, too, for all those standing ovations, and for buying our CDs. We had a blast sharing our music with you, and can't wait to do it again -- soon!

So, from the Syncopaths: ciao for now. We'll see you somewhere down the road!

3:03 AM

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