My band has shows + here are the bands w/which I'm playing

My personal pan pizza pet project Freeze is slated to play The Central Saloon today (Thurs 9/15), and The Lair (blue house next to Lo-Fi on Eastlake) on Saturday.

Two weeks ago, I played Black Zia Cantina--nice people working there, punk vibe, cheap drinks, New Mexico-themed, 10/10 would recommend--which was kind of like a practice run for me. My last show as Freeze was at Lo-Fi about six months ago. Since then, my wife and I changed jobs, summer flew by, and my kids started school. Last August, I suddenly had three shows lined up for September, and another way out in December. When it rains, it pours.


The December show will be at Louie G's--a benefit for veterans. I'm really looking forward to that one.

This one-man-band setup I'm trying out is working. There are kinks, but there's also elbow grease. At Black Zia a few weeks ago, my mix was all wrong--too much geetar and backing vocals, and not enough drums. So, for the past week I've been editing. All the drums are at this level, all the guitars are at that level, the lead vocals are muted so that I can take that over live, and the backing vocals are at this level. So now it's steddy across the broad. I'm throwing in two new tracks tonight, replacing two from the Black Zia set list. Going to play a less obscure Metallica cover, from their first album. It's difficult to gauge at what volume to set my live guitar monitor as I play along to all that shit too, so if you come to the show, be sure to be a vocal audience member. Talk to me up on stage. I love that shit. Tell me what needs to go up or down.

You know, I've had this vision of party-friendly metal for Freeze. Like, imagine being able to see a metal show, you as a show-goer, and not have it totally assault your ears. That I can turn the drums down during my live shows allows me to do that. But you never know, sometimes people are gonna want it loud. However, metal's not big anymore. So I think to not exactly pound my crap into people's heads, but instead draw them in with excellent guitar technique, stage presence, good songwriting, and a great live sound, would be a better route to travel.

Imagine a house show with friendly metal and a great vibe and no rules and people just being cool to each other. That's my ideal show right there.

Leading up to my performance at Black Zia, I really didn't practice guitar enough. Combine that with a shit live mix, and you had me getting lost mid-song, frequently, and being embarrassed by it, and probably letting it show. It was kind of a shitshow. People who were there playing fantasy football left pretty quickly after I cranked up the volume. I set it too high, betraying my party-metal ideal. They couldn't talk to one another. They left. Predictably. Exactly what I'm trying to avoid with my metal shows.

Gotta find that perfect petite balance, that mirror's edge, of metal, and non-metalheads, together, enjoying, as one. Like, I want my metal to be brutal, but I don't want it to be a boyfest. Ya know? I want it to be human, also, and badass. To have melody, and singing. To appeal to a broader audience, while not being douchey, but instead by travelling a road of ... uh, like, the path to that thing inside all us humans that we can't grab but we're desperately trying to reach. That one, inner goal, that bright, shinging thing. You know it's there. It's buried, but it's there. That's what I want my metal to speak to. That one thing we all have. It's like, a big, invisible, thing. I'm envisioning a hand grabbing a big black-green blob right now, it's formless but it's very important and it's bright yet black and full of positivity.

When I was set up and playing along to the house music before the show, at Black Zia, it was all gravy. The fantasy footballers (a table of at least 10) were fantasy footballing, the pool players were billiardsing, and all was well. There was a weird longhair guy onstage jamming quietly to the overhead music and the vibe was chill.

Maybe I should have just done that all night, just quietly jammed along to the overhead music. Like, I could have done some kind of kareoke thing where I invite people up on stage to sing, and I sing and play guitar with them on any song they want????? MUST DEVELOP THIS IDEA. Oooh, ultimate crowd work. Combining band and standup comedian, you know, like how Todd Barry did that Crowd Work Tour. People would have stayed inside, played more pool, bought more drinks, it would have been better for band, bar, and everybody! Maybe the customers would have actually gotten up and started dancing! OMG why am I in a metal band? I'm just a metalhead, I dunno, that's what I tend to write and love the most. I have a feeling my future music's going to take a less metal turn. Just a feeling. We'll see.

Here are some links to bands I'll be playing with tonight and Saturday:


This is Pour Life Decisions from Tacoma.

The Considerate A-holes don't seem to have a Bandcamp page.


Hostilgato do, but you should check out their FB page too, for additional explanation on the Godfish thing. I love when bands create their own lore like this.

Jared from Hostilgato got me this Central Saloon show. Thanks Jared. Hostilgato, Pour Life Decisions, The Considerate A-holes, and I are playing tonight at The Central Saloon.

On Saaaturday, we've got three bands with which I'm excited to play, all metal of various forms. It's a house show. No rules. Gonna try to make it party-friendly and let the beer and smoke and merriment and metal flow freely.

First, we've got Truth Decay. Now this band features my ex-bandmate in Freeze, a tall redhead guy who doesn't have social media accounts and is kinda off the grid. But he's now Truth Decay's lead guitarist. He's so fucking talented. They've got a great drummer and bassist too. Check them out. I'm really excited to play a show with my good friend redhead, without being in the same band with him. It'll be a first. We can help each other load shit too. And a house show man. No fucking rules. Except to not hurt the house or people. Duuuh. Gonna be a great show.

So here's Gidrah, the touring band from Portland who's headlining the show. Awesome doom sound. Total PDX metal.

Next up will be Dark Mystic Woods, doing hella bong rips for Jesus. DOOOOM