Peru v1.0

Back in good 'ole Amerrrica. Seems like I never left. Peru feels like a hazy dream -- a blur of congested city, horns, llamas, Spanish, food, and adventure. I've been back for 5 mostly miserable days. I returned to Denver and was quickly greeted with cold and snow. Normally, I don't have a problem with the cold and snow, in fact, I quite like it. However, being less than 24 hours removed from the beaches of Barranca, the foot and a half of snow we returned to was a slap in the face.

That's my car buried under that white crap

I arrived in Denver wearing flip-flops, shorts, and a short sleeve shirt. 2 hours after I landed, I was in a jacket, llama hat, hiking boots and snow pants, shoveling my car out from under this mess. Good times! Ugh... 18 hours later, I was on the road to Durango, Colorado to play a show with The Congress at The Summit Bar. No wonder I'm sick, I think I came down with the Cusquena flu. More to come soon...

Peru!

Sooooo buuuusy! No time and very few places to update -- let alone upload pics. It's been amazing! Machu Picchu is one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen, and it was THE best hike I've ever taken. I can't wait to get some pics posted. The food is amazing and inexpensive. I have some great stories to share and I can't wait to get a chance to do it.

iPhone Pictures

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So the great thing about having an iPhone, more than the instant answers to questions or finding directions to the nearest light rail station when it's 1:30 am and I've had far too much to drink -- is the ability to snap photos without having to fool with carrying a camera around.

Now, that can be a bit of a crutch as well... having the ability to upload photos to the interwebs when, for example, I'm searching for the nearest light rail station at 1:30 am and I've had too much to drink, can come back to bite me in the ass if my judgment is impaired whilst uploading.

Oh well! If I've learned anything over the last 12 months, it's that making grandiose mistakes often provides the extra bit of spice to what can be a bland life.

Anyhoo, here are some random iPhone pics:

I like the symmetry of the skyline in this

Aforementioned drunk at light rail

I don't think I need to provide a commentary

Sign 'o the times

QUIT DOING IT!!!

One of the best Adam Stern Trio shows we've played. Palisade, Colorado. I remember this young dude walking around with a huge belt buckle that read "Fuck Yeah!"

Yep, that's a buck in the middle of my runnin trail...

Antonio slangin the best gorditas this side of Mexico

Not only the best gorditas, the best Thursday afternoon march in mariachi band around.

One of the many fine establishments I've had the honor of performing at in Colorado

White light district

Stripes

4th of July

Life as a musician?

Perhaps. However, it's been how I've been making ends meet for the last two months or so. I've slowly weened myself off of the dreaded (but necessary) service industry job, and, somewhat successfully transitioned into life as a "gigging" (my friend Heather likes to call it "giggling") musician. It's cool. It's endlessly interesting. It sucks. It can be the most thrilling thing in the world and as boring as sitting in a cube farm sipping Starbucks and doing unnatural things to paperclips. In the last two months, I've played in rock clubs sharing the stage with legendary figures in American rock music... and I've also played at restaurants, biker bars, patios, churches (the regular variety and start ups that meet inside and elementary school gymnasiums), yoga festivals in the mountains, a wedding at The Cordillera (of Kobe infamy), the finish line of a singles 5k, a place named "Thunder and Buttons" that was the meeting spot for a local swingers club, and a kitchen.

People would literally walk up in the middle of our set and open the fridge or look in the sink. Adam Stern caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

When left to my own devices as a "freelance" musician, it can feel like a constant hustle. Always networking and promoting, always saying yes -- to anything -- no matter how intimidating-awesome-awful-toxic-exotic. The feeling of succeeding at something that I've been working my ass off for years is incredible. But it can be a scary proposition (not knowing where the next gig will come from) for someone like me who enjoys keeping a house over my head, doing a little traveling, and being able to afford food when I'm hungry. However, it's quite an adventure, and I think that years down the line, I'll be happier sharing stories "from the road" with my pals than admiring my big house and nice cars, though, I'll take that too.

August 31, 2009

I've been exceptionally poor at updating this Blog. Therefore, I don't expect anybody to read it. When I logged in, I noticed my last post was May, 15, 2009. The last three-and-a-half months have moved at the pace of three-and-a-half days, and I've fit three-and-a-half years worth of life into that period of time. My half year journey has arrived at a temporary intermission. I am in Denver, in a new home, establishing a new life. 67% of my time is dedicated to playing music with The Adam Stern Trio, and my new group, The Chris Webb Band. I am freelancing quite a bit and continuing to take as many hikes and find as many great new places to eat as possible.

Since May 15th, I've produced another successful Radiohead tribute show (I've just received the DVD!), opened for guitar legends Jimmy Herring and Dickie Betts, wrote lyrics for a song(!!) and played around 80 gigs with numerous bands and musicians.

I will continue my travels in October, as I'll be heading to Peru in search of ceviche, Machu Picchu, and Birdmen:



I can feel the creative juices starting to fester again and I think it's getting close to time that I endeavor on another arduous project... I just don't quite know what it is yet.

Victor has suggested that I rate liquor stores in Denver and blog about it. Might be an interesting task.

You And Brew's Army!?

Happy Spring!

For the second year in a row, I've decided to attempt the impossible, putting together a band to cover Radiohead. Instead of focusing on one album (OK_COMPUTER) we've decided to go ahead and tackle songs from all of Radiohead's albums -- yes, even Kid A.

dun dun dunnnnh!!

Here's the twist. we (Trima, Foma, DJ Anemone, Jade Day, Jen Pumo) have decided that it's a good idea not to rehearse any of the music until the week before the show. Actually, that's a lie. You see, I am so enamored by the ridiculously talented musician friends that I have, I've decided to fly them into Denver from Austin, Austin, and Nashville to perform this impossible show with me... with one week of practice.

It's going to be incredible!

Most of this group collaborated last May 29th to recreate Radiohead's OK_COMPUTER to rave reviews from the local media. It was one of the proudest moments of my life, and I hated every minute of it. I thought so much of the experience that I've decided to do it again. I've tried to make it easier on myself by adding some astonishing musicians to the bill. Foma* is an up and coming Denver band that combines good looks and good looks to make catchy hooks -- and party time. Jade Day is a singer-songwriter and a freak of nature. He sounds like Jeff Buckley and Thom York's falsetto love child. This guy is amazing and I'm very happy to have him singing with Lanny Boyer and Trima this time around.

Here's the nitty gritty:

A ton of people receiving this email are out of state, I appreciate your support in telling anybody who you think might be interested in this show about the, er, show.

Here is a promotional video from last year's performance at The Oriental Theater

The show this year is on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at The Oriental Theater in Denver Colorado

We will be performing all of your favorite Radiohead songs, although we won't be doing Creep.

If this message has reached you in error.

--
Damon Scott
From The Drummers Chair
http://yodadrum.blogspot.com/
http://damonscottmusic.com/

You And Who's Army?

Hard at work on putting together the Radiohead show at The Oriental Theater at the end of the month. I'm hoping to have some time to provide a glimpse of the work that I am doing. Whatever goes on inside this brain of mine that leads me to want to do things like this, I'll never quite understand. However, if I write about it, perhaps it will make more sense. Or not. Anyhoo, here's a promo video that my friend Rhett did over the weekend.

Mastodon @ The Fox Theater, Boulder, CO

The genre of "Heavy Metal" music and it's exceedingly difficult to distinguish sub genres--

Avant-garde metal - Black metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Groove metal - Power metal
Progressive metal - Speed metal - Stoner metal - Symphonic metal - Thrash metal - Viking metal Alternative metal - Christian metal - Crust punk - Drone metal - Folk metal - Funk metal - Grindcore - Grunge - Industrial metal - Metalcore - Neo-classical metal - Nu metal - Post-metal - Rap metal - Sludge metal

has always been somewhat humorous to me... "Viking Metal" are you kidding me? However, heavy metal is a legitimate style of music that is appreciated all over the world. It's thunderous power chords bleeding out of skyscraper-tall maaaashall stacks matched with super-human drumming prowess and lyrical content that effortlessly deals with delicate subjects such as devil worship, murder, blood, and riding your trusty steed to save a fair maiden from the sword wielding dragon.... uh, where was I... oh yeah--the music is loved by angst filled, pimply faced teens from Colorado to Croatia and everywhere in-between. Perfect example: Kansas.

Well, I kind of missed out on all that (too bad, right?) Though, I guess had a little metal in my soul, after all, here is the first band I ever saw live:

Until recently, Metallica's "Black Album" was the closest I came to listening to metal until the fateful day about 4 years ago when my good friend, Toxby (QDRO specialist and champion of metal) took me on the "metal ride" that changed my life. OK... well it didn't exactly change my life but it certainly changed the way I thought of the style of music.

As we were heading down c-470 to a nondescript bar in a nondescript area of suburban hell, aka, Highlands Ranch, Toxby blasted Mastodon's "Leviathan". HOLY SH*T! I heard 30 seconds of it and I was enthralled. I thought to myself, The drumming! the songs! no male falsetto vocals! even the artwork was cool! Who are these guys and where did they come from? Mastodon was my gateway drug into the realm of metal music...

...I got my fix last night at The Fox Theater in Boulder.

I was going to attempt to write a review of the show, but I just found this review in the Westword and I can't see a way that I can write it any better myself. However, I do have a funny story from backstage. Shoot me a comment/email if you want to hear about it.

For those of you who don't know Mr. Davis

He's my BFF and he has an awesome blog at http://deepjunk.blogspot.com/

There is a TON of content there and some incredible links to music. Like he said to me when I was bitching about how much information he has on the blog, "Yeah, well you'll love me when you're stuck in an airport!"

Back to a (somewhat) normal life

Top of Beaver Creek ski resort

Damn,

This blogging stuff can be a pain in the ass to keep up with but I am motivated to keep this going. Now that my travels are over (for the time being) I'm going to shift the content of the blog over to the music side of things, most likely interspersed with some beautiful nature pics of snowboarding and hiking in Colorado. After all, there's not much better than a beautiful summer day in the Colorado mountains, except perhaps a beautiful winter day!

"Asssspen: Where the beer flows like wine and the beautiful women flock instinctively like the salmon of Capistrano"

Victor and I made our way up to Beaver Creek ski resort last Monday for some awesome late season snowboarding. We were fortunate to have a "bluebird" day following a weekend of snowstorms that dumped close to 40" of snow. After a abnormally dry January, February, and early March in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, we got hammered with storm after storm in mid-to-late March, making for epic late season pow-pow, brah! Too bad the Texas gapers on spring break were crowding my corduroy and poaching my tree lines. (Tongue firmly implanted in cheek)

By the way, I have a run named after me at Beaver Creek. "Damon's Trees" are not for the faint of heart or those afraid of deep pow turns and tight tree lines. I'll provide you with a guided tour in exchange for some pulled pork and a tall P.B.R. at Moe's BBQ in Vail.

On the way back to Denver, Victor got a request from our mutual friend Tim Beichley to find a particular t-shirt. Tim, who is a Denver native but now lives in Anchorage, Alaska, had a faint memory of going to a liquor store in Beaver Creek and finding some pretty funny shirts that were cleverly named after the liquor store that contained them. "Beaverliquor" is every Texas fratboys dream t-shirt shop, combining the "coolness factor" of a t-shirt that came from a Colorado ski town and the bathroom humor that a sixth grader appreciates. Vic and I searched around Beaver Creek for the liquor store for 15 minutes or so until we called Tim to find us directions on the interweb. We found the shop, looked around for the t-shirt Tim wanted until I saw the huge sign hanging on the wall that said "find our shirts on line at www.beaverliquors.com" Sweet. Thanks, Tim.

Today, I am spending time working on the "business" end of the Radiohead tribute show that I am organizing for May 29th at The Oriental Theater. I hope to keep the blog updated to provide a glimpse as to the inner workings of putting together a show of this magnitude. I hope it will serve me well as a journal of sorts for posterity.

I'll be heading to The Fox Theater in Boulder tomorrow for a special engagement with MASTODON! They will be performing "Crack The Skye" in it's entirety. Maybe I'll try my hand at a review of the show. For those who don't know, now you do:

(Sorry about the lame intro in the beginning)

Tapas (IPA: [ˈtapˌas])

is the name of a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or warm (such as puntillitas, which are battered, fried baby squid).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas

"Tapas" in Murfreesboro (The geographical center of Tennessee, the fried culinary capital of the south?)

Avoiding The Blogosphere

So... I'm back in Denver. I've been here for a few weeks now and I've been avoiding this blog of mine like the plague. Partly due to the fact that I've been busy working, trying to recoup some (all) of the money I spent on the road. Partly due to the fact that I've not wanted to tap into the many emotions, good and bad, that I experienced on my 6 week road trip from Northern California to Asheville, North Carolina and back to Colorado. Mostly due to the fact that I despise writing and it takes me the right frame of mind to get to the point where I have the time and energy to sit down and put finger to keyboard.

Well, I don't know where to start. My last official post was about my experience in Memphis. From there, I headed to Murfreesboro, TN where I was to reunite with my partner in musical chaos, Josh Cochran, aka, DJ Anemone for a very impromptu concert at Main St. in Murfreesboro. I called up Josh about a month prior to my trip to see if he might be able to throw together a show for us to play when I got to town. He obliged, booked a date for us to open for his awesome funk band Sky Hi and we didn't really talk about it again. For many musicians who don't get completely annihilated on drugs and/or alcohol before they play, this can be terribly frightening--"I'm going to be playing, on a stage, under lights, in front of a bunch of people, and I don't know what I'm going to play? No way in hell, I'd rather go streaking through the venue, get some pizza stix from Dodge's and take 20 hits of acid before I do that!"



The interesting thing is that I have total confidence when I take the stage with Josh. It's been that way since the first time I ever played a note of music with him some 10+ years ago. No matter how bad things may start or end, no matter how retched the conditions of the venue, no matter how awful the vibe of the crowd may be, there will always be one moment when we play music together that will be special. Something that the crowd may or may not recognize but something that I can be proud of... something that is spontaneous and creative and unique to our collective consciousness, something that I've never quite reached with another musician no matter how skilled or educated. In Murfreesboro, on February 20th, 2009, Josh and I reunited on the stage to play original material for the first time in 7 or 8 years... it was epic

We fell on our collective faces.



Not so much fell on our faces but it was challenging to say the least. There were some technical difficulties--like other musicians who WOULDN'T GET OFF THE STAGE! It was an awkward set up, it was really loud, and we had no idea what we were doing. There were a couple of moments, but this is definitely one I wish I could take a mulligan. Oh well, so be it. I hung out, heard some great funk music, kicked it with some of my best friends in the world,

reeked of cigarette smoke, and I went to Dodge's... TWICE!

All in all, it was a great night. We didn't get out of the venue until close to 3 am and we didn't get back to Josh's until 4 or so. I woke up at 7am, headed to Nashville to help my sick dad and worn out step-mom replace their water heater. After a 7 hour process of lifting, welding, sweating, and passing out standing up, I had to face the reality that my father was very ill and I was really scared. That took all the fun out of blogging and about everything else...

Upate

I'm currently in Asheville, NC. It's snowing outside and I don't know if I'll be able to leave tomorrow or not. I was in Nashville for a little over a week. My dad was in and out of the hospital... he seems to be doing better now but I was very worried for a while. However, I realized that I was very fortunate to have the time to spend with him and my step mom. I haven't felt much like writing or updating the blog after Nashville. I've got a bunch of pictures and some good stories from the road that I'm hoping to post soon. Thanks for checking in.

Memphis, TN.

I was in Memphis for less than 24hrs but I definitely made the most of my time there. Memphis was an unplanned stop. In scouting out the drive time from Austin to Nashville, I decided that 14 hours was little too much for me in a day. I remembered at the last minute that I have a friend of a friend (who is now a friend) that lives in the heart of Memphis. He's a journalist, and BBQ lover. I knew he would make a great guide to show me around a few of the sights in town.



I arrived in Memphis around 7pm on Wednesday, February 18th. My friend Toby told me to meet him at the Red Rooster bar right off of Beale street. Toby was hanging out with a few co-workers when I arrived. We were the only people in this bar. It wasn't a small place and it felt very empty. We were there for an hour or so before anybody else walked in the door. Three girls and a guy walked in the bar and stood together in the corner. I didn't pay much attention to them until the guy approached our group and asked us if we wanted some "dip". We all said no and he asked if he could take some pictures with us for a website of the dip he was marketing. We agreed and the three girls took off their coats (it was brutally cold in Memphis when I was there) and were in matching Kayak (the brand of dip) outfits.

I had to take the opportunity to be featured in a dip marketing campaign, right?

Toby looking sexy with his girlfriend and a can of grape Kayak

This guy oozes male model

One of Toby's co-workers, male Kayak model, and husband to woman below
(forgive me as I forgot some names!)

Another Kayak pose. We should have been paid!


Kayak stacking... the kiddies love this game... and the grape flavored chew(!?)

Lamps at the red rooster

The following day, Toby and I met up for lunch. Being in Memphis, of course I had to get some BBQ! I had asked a few folks at The Red Rooster what the best BBQ in Memphis was. Many said I had to go the the legendary Rendezvous and eat the dry rub ribs.


Toby and I tried to eat here but all they were serving was ribs, nothing else. I wanted to taste a few different items aside from ribs and Toby wanted some BBQ nachos. We were going to try to hit up Central BBQ, which is supposed to be amazing but Toby forgot how to get there. We ended up at The BBQ Shop, "Home of the Dancing Pigs."




Toby got the BBQ nachos and I got the 1/2 and 1/2 BBQ pork and BBQ spaghetti. Twas amazing! Never had anything like the BBQ spaghetti. I'm sure you can imagine what it is... here is a picture to tempt your (and my) taste buds.

Some of the best BBQ I've ever had. I miss them dancing pigs!

Austin--->Memphis (647 miles)

Day 11 (Tuesday, Feb. 17th) Lanny, Christina, Jade, and I headed out to a attempt to play an open mic at a really cool bar/venue/coffee shop called Ruta Maya in Austin. This was the first time in over a week that I have given any energy to thinking about music, which has been a nice mental break. I was really hoping we would get a chance to play a bit because both Lanny and Jade Day are two of the finest and most talented vocalists I know. They are both incredible song-writers as well. I hope that you have a minute to check out their music.

Lanny Boyer
Jade Day

I've known Lanny for 4-5 years now and have played music off and on with him over that time. Lanny's album, "I'll Shine" is due out sometime in the next few months, I'm very much looking forward to the album finally being released as it's been a loooong project, spanning the entire time I've know Lanny... plus some. I performed on 5 or 6 tracks and I must say that I'm very happy with the way everything turned out.

In May of '08 Lanny was brave enough to accept my invitation to pretend he was Thom York for a night. A incredibly daunting task that no person should ever be asked to do once, much less do it again, which I've asked him to do. Here is a video of Lanny killing "Exit Music For A Film" from Trima's (my band) reconstruction of Radiohead's landmark album, "OK Computer".



After we were unable to hit the stage at Ruta Maya (impossible!) Jade suggested that we check out the Elephant Room(?) Austin's best jazz club. It looked like what a good jazz club should look like... a little seedy, dark, dank, and cramped, with just enough glow from the neon signs behind the bar to shade everybody's profile in a mysterious red hue. The band was smokin (of course--it's Austin) and it wasn't until we left the club and headed back to Lanny's place that I learned the drummer was JJ Johnson, who spent some time as the drummer in John Mayer's blues trio.

I tried to get an early start on Wednesday morning as I had a 10 hour drive ahead of me but I was having difficulty getting the Honda to fire up. After trying unsuccessfully for a couple of hours, I waited until Lanny woke up and asked for some help as I was pretty clueless on what to do. He obliged, came outside, popped the hood, blew the condensation out of my distributor cap hoses and the car started right up. Lesson learned. Thanks Lanny.

On to Memphis...

Revisite: Tucson in pictures

I just got these pictures from Victor last night. These were from a "rock" party on Tuesday, Feb. 10th

School is out! Victor and Adam. This picture should be accompanied by music... 80's sitcom music like Charles In Charge or Silver Spoons.

A Wrestling match ensued after being let out of school

Victor and our Australian friend, Marcel

Adam, me, and Victor, clearly tired from all the hard work

Drum circle, brah!

Someone likes being the center of attention...

I taught them all a lesson

I let the woman behind me play my pandeiro. She wouldn't give it back to me. She loved that tamborine--and her white gloves

Adam, Marcel, and me.

This is Nikki. Nikki is, um, interesting. Nikki came to Victor's warehouse from his Dad's rock show across the street. I spoke with Nikki for a few minutes. Here is an excerpt of the conversation

Me: So, where you from?
Nikki: Northern California
Me: Oh, cool. I was just up in Napa Valley
Nikki: Yeah, it's nice there
Nikki: Where are you from?
Me: Denver
Nikki: Do they have trains there?
Me (perplexed): Yeah... they have Amtrak that runs from Denver to northern Cali. It's a great trip, I've done it before. Beautiful.
Nikki: No... like, um, freight trains?
Me: What?
Nikki: You know, like the train you hear in Tucson, with the horn?
Me: Yeah, sure we have freight trains. Why, you gonna hop one to Denver?
Nikki: No. Do you have Union Pacific?
Me: Well... I don't know. I think we have BNSF?
Nikki: (long pause) I like trains.

(End of Conversation)

Vic and Adam. Picture says everything