Jazz Pianist, Composer, and Teacher based in Vancouver, B.C., Canada

>Well some RTB updates, that’s Rachel Thom Band to any new readers out there.  We’ve been doing some pretty steady rehearsals lately and are getting all the ‘old’ songs  back into the brains and fingers.  I just wrote out all the tunes on my massive white board and we’ve got 16 songs, with 14 memorized and ready to go by everyone in the band.  Some of these songs are pretty rockin/drivin songs that make me want to get up and dance which is tricky while playing the keyboard, I just shake my head and shoulders a bunch, kind of a rhythmic convulsion

Hopefully we’ll put these songs to good use soon.  Next big gigs are in April but until then we’re always looking for a place to place, so let me know if you hear of somewhere.

As always, please share,like,tweet,post,and other wise monkey around this der blog to all your der friends. 
(the dog walker from Mad About You, anybody, please catch it der Buckmans)

Ryan

>So on Valentines day I had a gig at the mall down in Langley.  It’s a good sized mall with a lot of traffic.  They had the stage set up just outside of Purdy’s Chocolates so needless to say I had a good crowd for the entire time I was there.  People purchasing their valentines chocolate were ending up lining up outside of the store just to pay for their chocolatey goodness.

I happen to have had a few ‘sampler’ cds I’d made out on the stage and wouldn’t you know I sold them all.  Turns out I should play at the mall more often.  Had lots of good comments.  My favourite was from one handicapped guy who was having a mall day.  He walked by the stage going one direction and was talking to his friend saying, “hmmmm, sounds pretty good, but I think it’s a synthesizer”  (which my keyboard obviously is).  Then about 20 minutes later he came back from the other direction.  ” Yep, it’s a synthesizer”.  It was funny.

Hopefully get to play the mall again sometime.  I’ll bring more CD.s.

Ryan

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>Well, this last Friday was the Supaskillz competition put on by the CVC (Chinese Varsity Club) of UBC. I was playing there with the Rachel Thom Band and we were doing our thing.  It was an interesting day to say the least.  We had a dress rehearsal/sound check at 3:15 in the afternoon, which lasted about and hour, then a lot of time to kill before actually playing at 8:30 or so.  So we walked to a mall down a few streets and took a very long time getting supper and eventually made our way back to kill time in the actual theatre where the competition was.

The competition itself was a variety show.  Everything from magic and dance, to freestyle rap and  singing.  Turns out we were missing a key component for the evening…being Chinese.  There were definitely some odd cultural things that most of the performers (who were mostly Chinese) did and ways the audience reacted to them.  They sure do love their medleys and Michael Jackson quotes.  Perhaps a tad bit hokey, but that’s just what I thought.

Our performance, just after the intermission was not bad.  First song went fine and the second one we messed up the starting a bit, could anyone tell I’m not sure.  Our guitar player, Alexis, was rather sick all day so the fact he was standing and singing was pretty great.  The group after us, which won the audience choice award, was absolutely horrible.  It was weird medley of songs sung off key on the piano and guitar and it turns out most of the audience were their friends, power in numbers.

We did not place, top 3 acts were all, you guessed it Chinese.  That being said I believe the judges got the first two acts right.  Winners were these two Chinese guys doing Irish dance, (yes Lord of the Dance with Chinese guys) and they were good, they should have won.  Second place was a singer song writer who could sing, play and was great with the crowd.  Third place though was a dance troup that was not so hot minus the lead dancer….

Been about 7 years since I’ve done a variety show and this was much stranger….we’ll be steering clear of those in future.

Nice stage and the sound guy was easy to work with so that part was fun…

Until next time…

Please, like,share,tweet, friend, follow, scream from the top of a mountain, etc…

Ryan