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1999 shows
friday, december 31st at julie's - southie, ma
we rang out the old year and rang in the new one at julie's
place in southie. what a fun time... we did a set in '99 and
a set in '00. as soon as the clock struck midnight, there was
a little lull in the room as we all waited to see if anyone would
do anything stupid to ring in the new year. fortunately, nobody
did, and we all had a good time, partying into the wee hours of
the morning. fortunately, julie has tolerant neighbors... :)
thursday, december 23rd at toad - cambridge, ma
our final show in massachusetts before heading out to the west
coast (not counting the new year's party). special thanks to
willie bernstein and eric marcos for joining the celebration
and each playing a set that night. in honor of the holiday,
we baked cookies for everyone... apparently, we should have
made a double batch, for they were gone in no time flat.
wednesday, december 22nd at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma
as usual, the kendall throws a great holiday party. we knocked back
a few drinks with the staff and other musicians, then eventually made
our way up to the stage. during our "x-mas" song, we had a special
treat. rose (from the kendall) brought her tap dancing stage and
tapped along with us. we ended with "lucky", which has a lot of
room for tapping. it was awesome to have her join us... only at the
kendall! perhaps we'll have to bring her up on stage with us again
next time we're back there.
saturday, december 18th at border's books - hyannis, ma
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as a follow up to the show the night before, we did a border's gig...
this time, we had mercy james join us (and deep water and jennifer
stratton).
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friday, december 17th at the prodigal son - hyannis, ma
in celebration of the holiday disk, we did another show, but this
time down in the cape (where sarah of deep water and jennifer are from).
there's a nice intimate atmosphere at the prodigal (and they make great
sandwiches).
friday, december 3rd at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma
the first of our several holiday celebration nights... how fun.
we got a special treat early on to hear cyclefly from ireland.
we bet you'll be hearing more about them soon. the holiday show began
with deep water and jennifer stratton... playing some of their
favorites as well as their christmas tunes. then we hit the
stage. if you were in the crowd, we just want to say one
thing... you guys rock. you were totally rowdy and us, not
wanting to be party poopers, rocked along with you. we were
very psyched to have mike join us for a few tunes... he and
mercy played "she put the ex into x-mas" along with us and
then hung around for "sugar". mike totally kicked butt
tonight... maybe it was because he let his hair down?
we were pretty used to mike's bass parts because we've been
recording our next cd with him, but most of the people there
heard him for the first time (and were totally into it).
we gave a cd away to ron, who wins the title of the loudest
person in the crowd (a title he carried with honor). jane
became the pez administrator, making sure everyone ate out
of the santa pez (in the spirit of the holiday). during the
new shaker solo part of "gi joe" we decided to invite the
whole crowd to join our band and travel with us to
california. we'll be changing from a 2 piece into a 50
piece band. perhaps we'll need a larger apartment than we
had originally anticipated? at the tail end of our set,
the guys from willie bernstein (brian, tim, carrington
and mike) came up and played "the
dreidel tune", also on the holiday compilation. we hung
out and played and sang along with them, in fact, just
about everyone in the place sang along. it was, after all,
the first day of hanukkah. then along came mercy james for
the final set of our holiday extravaganza. he rocked (as
usual). joining mercy was chris on drums, jay on baritone
guitar and kevin on bass. sarah (from deep water) joined
us all for "christmas whine". we had so much fun that night.
special thanks to all that showed up...
it was great to have a bunch of friends in the crowd. we
even met someone named carol that night (it seemed so fitting
since we did so many christmas and other holiday songs). gloria,
rose, christine and winterboy (of the kendall) were great that
night. they made sure our drinks were full and we sounded
good.
monday, november 29th at tt the bear's - cambridge, ma
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the last time we were at tt's, we brought a light show and smoke
machine with us (amazingly similar to our halloween show). needless
to say, it was a canister and not a goh show. as goh, however, it was
our first trip to tt's. it seems rather strange to land a gig there
and have a full band and to be asked to strip down. we didn't even
bring any drums (yes, we played at tt's). i guess we'll have to use
the band for recording and not gigging this time around. we landed
a feature on boston.com due to its uniqueness, which is always nice.
we had a lot of fun differently arranging our tunes. pluto (who
put on the show) gave us rules... no kick drum, no cymbals, we had
to play 1 song with just guitar and vocals and 1 cover. we fulfilled
all those rules when we played fugazi. the room was great, you could
have heard a pin drop during the quiet parts (strange for both a
fugazi tune and for any night tt's is open). it was good to see some
familiar faces in the crowd... thanks for stopping by.
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wednesday, november 17th at pearl street station - malden, ma
our first malden show (though we've played some open mics). how fun.
jeff and josh have a big crew of friends, so the room was totally
packed. there was a lot of music that night... danielle miraglia
started it off, then more, then us, then jeff and josh (and band), and
finally bert and mike (and band). as we played, the crowd got more
and more into us with each song. we like crowds like that. perhaps
alcohol was on our side...
tuesday, november 16th at herrel's renaissance cafe - allston, ma
yum, yum. free ice cream for the band. we like ice cream, especially
free ice cream. herrel's is a fun little place. one moment, the room
was full, the next we're playing just for the staff and then back to
full again. it keeps it interesting. at one point, an old friend of
ours "mr. butch" came by and taped the show on his boom box. the last
time we saw him, he was wearing an "eat at joe's" sign, walking around
kenmore square... we had always wondered what happened to him. now
we know, he's in allston. twice we tried to play lucky, and twice
jay broke a string... finally on the third try, we pulled it off, and the
new strings made the guitar sound nice and bright.
friday, november 12th at the kendall cafe in cambridge, ma
alas, another kendall cafe gig. jay survived this one thanks to the
fine makers of nyquil, the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching,
stuffy head, fever, so you can play a gig medicine. besides being
a little stuffed up and ending the show in a pool of sweat, the gig
went great. (since the show, he's done nothing but sleep). a very
random assortment of people showed up, it was a reunion night, with
old high school and college friends there (some of them totally
coincidentally). tony, christine, mike and amy were so nice to us...
all of the kendall's staff are great. we'd like to thank shiner-jones
for playing before us and all of their friends for sticking around
and shaking their shakers with us! (our fans were in more of a drinking
mood than a shaking mood, so it was great for others to pick up the
slack). earlier in the evening, we mis-connected in meeting up with
some friends and ended up in fun and games in framingham, which
inspired the giveaway question... turns out we know our pac man
ghosts much better than the audience... they had a hard time naming
even one of the 4 ghosts (inky, pinky, blinky and clyde).
tuesday, november 9th at the fire and water - northampton, ma
this was the first time we played a full show up in northampton (we
played the open stage there before). fortunately for us, amy and
meghan brought all their friends from umass, and the place was
fairly crowded for a tuesday night. the few guys in the room were
happy because the women far outnumbered them (one of the most
lopsided shows we've ever played in that sense). that room has a
great vibe to it as well as a good selection of food and drinks.
everybody seemed to get into the shakers again... we were amazingly
chatty on stage. in fact, we had to cut out a few tunes because
we used up all our time shooting the bull in our tunes. thanks to
everybody that contributed to the money truck. don't you think that
the people at tonka should hook up with the people that make
gi joe? we do.
tuesday, november 2nd at the paradise lounge - san francisco, ca
a long time ago, chris and i were bopping around san francisco before we put
together goh, we ran into a cool area in town. we saw protein in
slims and then ran across the street to catch the surf rock of the
mermen for a late night show at the transmission theater / paradise
lounge. i thought to myself that this would be a great city to live
in. as it turned out, i was in san francisco yet again, this time
checking out places to live and i stumbled once again upon the
paradise lounge. they were having an open mic, so i borrowed a guitar
and played a couple of goh tunes for the west coasters. it was weird
playing without chris (for he was still in boston). later in the evening,
we (the whole bar) somehow ended up singing cover songs. it was pretty
funny because there was an amazingly loud show going on in the other room,
so we tried to play between songs, or really loud, or with them. every
now and again someone would join us from the other room to get a drink,
but they couldn't find the bartender because she was up on stage with
us. :)
thursday, october 28th at the cantab - cambridge, ma
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yeah, what a show! we dressed up as kiss, complete with a 4
piece band. mike dublin as ace frehley, mike stark as gene
simmons, chris harris as peter criss and jay hagenbuch as
paul stanley. it was so much fun to play together. we played
some of the stuff as we plan to arrange them on our upcoming
cd. we even played "rock and roll all night" in honor of our
new personalities. so much fun. bert and mike (and band) dressed
up as clever super heros (captain vanity, spatula man, redneck
man, slut girl and the mystery man). it was great to see and
hear them. the night ended with phil and crew grooving things out.
we can't wait till next years halloween extravaganza. the crowd
was so good at dressing up as well... special thanks goes out
to brian for working the lights and the smoke machine.
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saturday, october 23rd at border's books - chestnut hill, ma
goh and deep water joined forces along with shuann chi to soundtrack
the 1920's movie "nosferatu". goh introduced their newest song,
appropriately titled "blood" at the event. astute listeners noticed
a hint of dokken during the travels by sea scenes... it was a great
event for everyone involved (and we even got to dress up as
vampires).
thursday, october 14th at tufts university - medford, ma
our second night of playing while the red sox lost a baseball game.
who would have thought this when we booked the shows? it turned out
to be pretty fun... we got the best view of the TV being up on stage.
we learned to incorporate the score, the commercials, etc. into our
show. half the people were into goh as the soundtrack for the game
and the other half were shaking right along with us. we got a request
for the goh song they heard on the radio! (turns out it was "satellite").
that was pretty cool. we even tried out a couple of new tunes we had kicking
around. all in all, it was a good night in medford. we'll be back.
wednesday, october 13th at the washington street art center - somerville, ma
because of the red sox game, our show at the kirkland got cancelled.
lucky for us, willie bernstein was friendly with the folks over at the
washington street art center just down the street. there's some sort of
rumor about a red sox curse... perhaps it's a curse to play on the same
night as them (at least when they are in the playoffs). it turned out
to be a pretty cool night... we covered "aftershave", a willie b. song,
just for kicks and we had those guys sit in with us during different
songs. then we got to hang out and listen to their tunes (while we
all semi-watched the game). it was good to walk around and check out
all the artwork hanging up in between things.
friday, october 1st at the sidewalk cafe - nyc
it was our first friday night gig in the big city! the sidewalk
cafe was a great place to be because our friends showed up
as well as the random crowd that passes through. people had fun
with the shakers and giveaways. we seemed to play our tunes
fast that night... that's what happens when we put "lucky" early
in the set. it was a good thing we gave ourselves lots of time
to drive down there because we ended up hitting traffic in
every state along the way. good 'ole friday rush hour. new york
is such a fun and friendly town... it was great to get to hang out
there and play. on the way out of the club, we noticed that some
people were still shaking their shakers and blowing bubbles...
sunday, september 26th in harvard square - cambridge, ma
we thought we try and squeeze in another appearance in the
square before it gets too cold to hang out there. actually,
by the time we packed our stuff up after sunset, it had gotten quite
chilly. next time, we'll bring more clothing. surprisingly,
there were a lot of people playing so we didn't get the best
spot in the world... but we still had a good time and met some
new people. we also have the knack for bumping into friends
there. it's kind of fun randomly meeting up with them...
thursday, september 23rd at toad - cambridge, ma
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alas, another night at toad in porter square. it was a great
night for us. special thanks to mercy james for doing a between
set show with us as backing musicians. he's always entertaining...
it seemed like the crowd enjoyed him as much as we did. also, it
was the debut of the goh band with geoff on keys and mike on his
screaming guitar! we even got to hear a little AM radio on mike's
guitar... it's that hot, it picks up everything. we played a
brief set with them, which is a hint at the stuff we'll be recording with
them in the near future. they totally rock and we are so lucky
to be playing with them. be on the lookout for them to join us
in the near future at other shows. we brought back the giveaways
which seemed to have been on hold lately. nathan won the crazy
straw glasses, which he hooked up to his cigarette, rather than
to a drink. that was a new one! also, we gave away a charlie
brown pez dispenser to patty "the bubble queen". she was able
to blow bubbles with cigarette smoke in them... quite impressive.
lawrence welk would be jealous... he had a machine, and we got people to
help us out. everyone there was great with the shakers and the
sing alongs, and being rowdy when we asked them to. we couldn't
have asked for a better crowd to play along with. we will
definitely be back there soon!
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saturday, september 6th at the deneen's - hopkinton, ma
it was the perfect day for a barbeque on the lake. we hung out,
ate, drank, and were merry. goh played along with other guests
from the hopkinton area. at one point, we did a little jam of
stickshifts with some help on bass and drums from members of
auntie darth... that was a lot of fun. we're going to try and
jam some more stuff out with them in the future. it was good to
hang out with fellow hopkintonians again.
friday, september 4th in harvard square - cambridge, ma
when we started out of the house, it seemed like a nice day, but
by the time we got to harvard square, it had become a hot day...
so we figured, why not set up in the sun? and ended up in front
of the learning smith store. we were trying to plug the new
remote control legos... we're not sure if sales went up that day
or not. we had a special fan all the way from houston, tx,
danielle! it was good to see her and good that she was able to
hear us while she was visiting. chris invented a new word...
ambidextrousity,
when describing playing the drums and the trumpet
at the same time. we played as long as we were
able to stand the heat for the lunch time crowd out there. that's
a great spot to hang out in! lots of people came by and said hello...
perhaps all the new students in town made it so crowded. thanks
to everyone that came by and took a sticker or bought a cd. when
all was said and done, chris' drum shell got warped by the sun and
jay's tuner no longer worked... maybe next time we'll search for
some shade.
thursday, august 26th live on WBRS 100.1 FM - waltham, ma
it was our first live, radio broadcast! we would like to thank
the engineers behind the scenes for making it all happen... ofer
and jeremy of WBRS and john (from ghost records). it was both
fun and weird playing on the air. nobody heckles back at us
(perhaps next time we'll have to figure out how to get the phones
to work so you could call in). we played for a little over an
hour live, then stepped into the studio for a little interview
with the one and only mercy james. he strapped on his radio voice
and chatted with us about stuff while we spun some goh tunes on
the air. it was a great experience and we can't wait to listen
to the recordings of it all...
friday, august 20th at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma
well, it was a little slow for a friday night at the kendall...
it must have been because it's the middle of summer and everyone
was running around with a million other things to do. as it
turned out though, it was a great show. for some reason chris
was into jack daniels (perhaps we spent a little too much time
hanging at the bar before-hand, just staring at those bottles
all lined up). but the jd seemed to perk chris right up and
we cranked through our tunes. happy birthday to mike (the owner of the kendall).
we pretty much played both new and old songs and took whatever
requests we got for songs from our friends. it seems that everyone
has a different favorite goh song... so on the way home, we were
just minding our business at a stoplight in harvard square when
we noticed someone at the window. we thought this to be strange
since it was raining and all.... the guy just looks at us and
says "nice saturn dude. i just wanted to tell you guys that."
turns out, he was riding in a saturn as well. he totally
went out of his way to pay us a compliment... more people should
be like that (in fact, we need to strive to be more like that).
he totally made our night (and yes, we suspect he was on
something... not that there's anything wrong with that).
saturday, august 14th at toad - cambridge, ma
after having such a fun time at toad, it was easy to
convince us to play there again. as it turned out,
jennifer matthews (whom we've played with before at the
lizard lounge) wanted us to open for her, bringing us
back there much sooner than we had expected. we almost
had to cancel at the last minute due to the fact that
jay was bitten by a dog while swimming on his fretting
hand (yes, that's right, while swimming! not something
that typically happens... let's just say that we suspect
this dog is part shark). anyway, it worked out that
he could still play, and the show went on. thanks to
everyone that showed up because the place was totally
packed. just like all of our toad shows, there was
a raging thunderstorm outside. kind of a strange
coincidence. will there be another one when we're back
there in september? we'll just have to wait and see.
the set itself, went great... no broken strings, the
sound was good, everybody was really getting into the
shakers, our energy level was high and we picked a
relatively rowdy set list. thanks to the jennifer
matthews band for asking us to play, lending us drums
and for rocking the place when we finished...
sunday, august 8th at the sidewalk cafe - nyc
goh was part of the final night of the week long summer
antifolk fest '99 put on
by fortified records. a big thank you goes out to lach for asking
us to be a part of the event (we were the only boston performers
to play). we were really on and highly energetic that night... in
fact, you could say we rocked the place. and that was before jay
started drinking coffee for the drive home. we totally dig the
sidewalk cafe... it's good to have a home away from home in the
east village.
saturday, august 7 in harvard square - cambridge, ma
what a beautiful day it was. perfect for hanging out in
harvard square. the past few times we've played there, we
got shady spots... this time we were right in the sun, which
means we got a little color to our skin. we learned that
jay gets a funny tan (more like burn) playing the guitar and
exposing the underside of his arm on the fretting hand. you
just never think to put on lotion there... it was a fun crowd...
they all yelled hello to our friends on the rooftops (brown
bagger and crew) who were re-roofing one of the harvard
buildings across the street. while we were there, we even got
asked to play a wedding! we didn't think of ourselves as a
wedding band... who would have figured?
thursday, august 5 at tj's - malden, ma
we intended to play jeff and josh's open mic, but it
turned out that jeff was on vacation, so we played the
"and josh" open mic. we were so glad that they served
food there because we were running around all day and
totally starved by the time we got there. steve sat in
with us on djembe and we played the guitar through an
amp (of all things). it was also the debut of both
chris and jay standing up (since chris was only playing
shakers and jay got his new guitar strap). as usual, a
good time was had by all. our only dissapointment was
that they never turned on the smoke machine...
tuesday, august 3rd at the kells - boston, ma
it was our first trip to the open mic over at the kells.
we had a lot of fun and gary was a great host. both of us drank
fosters because there was a drink special where we got to
keep the glasses... which was perfect because we seem to
have broken a lot of glasses lately around the goh household.
then, to our surprise, gary did giveaways (he happened to
do some willie nelson trivia, and as we all know, jay is an
expert in willie after going to his museum the last time he
was in nashville). both chris and jay won miller lite
t-shirts! perhaps we'll wear them at our next gig..?
monday, july 26th at the middle east - cambridge, ma
our second show of the month at the middle east, in the corner.
there was a great turnout for a monday night. thanks goes out
to three day threshold and eric marcos for playing between our
sets (goh sat in with eric, as the abnormal noises for the
evening). everyone liked the shakers and the bubbles (in the
front they had the record for the largest bubble and a double
bubble). we got everyone's attention with the distortion pedal
again... perhaps we'll have to bring it more often?
saturday, july 24th at the taiwan cafe - cambridge, ma
we had a little, intimate set with some friends of ours and
some friends of jeff and josh at the taiwan cafe. it turned
out to be quite a lot of fun... we started it out like a
normal set, but ended up taking requests. things worked best
when it was a song we actually knew. singing hotel california
and spanish proved to be quite interesting. one of these days
we'll actually learn the song, then we'll actually learn
spanish and put the two together for real.
thursday, july 22nd at toad - cambridge, ma
although we've been guests at toad several other times, this
was our first night as the feature performer. it's a great
bar to play. everyone there was having a good time, which made
it real easy for us to play. in between our sets, we had some
guests play... mercy james (with goh and geoff on keys). it was
great to play with mercy because he wanted jay to play with
distortion, so we dusted off the guitar processor from canister
(another band we were in), and had a lot of fun. we were meaning
to use it for our own stuff as well, so this seemed like the
appropriate night to introduce it. imagine that, goh with
distorted acoustic guitar (at least every now and then when the
songs called for it). katrina was our second guest... she played
with steven (jay's brother) and harry on bass. as usual they
fit right in and sounded great. late night we had eric marcos
(of the normal noises) along with chris on drums and both of us
doing some harmonies. our 3 sets went well, for the crowd was
really into it. somehow we forgot to bring the shakers, but
no one seemed to mind. during our last set, there was quite
a show outside with all the lightning! although loading out
in the pouring rain, wasn't so fun, the whole rest of the
night had a great vibe and made it totally worth it. we look
forward to many more nights in that place!
saturday, july 17th at hop jam 99 - hopkinton, ma
we can't beleive hop jam 99 came and went already. we had a
total blast this year! thanks to everybody that came and played...
katrina (with steve and harry), wendy welsh, the upper open, melissa
morris, deep water, shiner jones, hugh mcgowan, 3 day threshold, mercy
james, burt and mike, willie bernstein, jeff and josh, fred, tamerisk,
and the all-star jam. it was loads of fun, and everyone seemed to
sit in with everyone else on percussion, guitar, vocals, and what
ever else was lying around. we're already psyched to do it all
over again next year! goh got special help from mike stark on bass
and mike dublin on screaming electric guitar for part of the set,
which totally rocked! while we were playing, three jugglers were
juggling bowling pins amongst themselves to the beat of our tunes.
where they came from, we have no idea. little did they know that
goh also can juggle. perhaps all that time in harvard square is
paying off. of course, we don't know how to do pins just yet.
when it got dark, they pulled out the flaming pins! we were real
happy to see the pool this year (as was everyone else), for it
hit a record 100 degrees and was certainly the hottest day of the
year. is this that global warming thing they were talking about?
monday, july 12th at the middle east - cambridge, ma
alas, another show at the middle east. we were reminiscing
about way back when... we always saw bands in the window and
randomly stopped in when they looked interesting. it was
kind of fun for us to be the band in the window. big time thanks
to katrina and her band, as well as mercy james for playing some
tunes between our sets. they both played great sets (and enabled
us to get our beers at the bar). during mannequin, jay broke 2
strings! a new record for one song. perhaps he ought to look
into a new guitar, since that one seems to be prone to breakage.
of course, we ended up breaking another one before the night
was through. near the end of the night, we had a random crowd
member free style with us... that was pretty fun (and kept us
on our toes). we'll be back there in a couple of weeks to pick
up where we left off...
thursday, july 1st at the taiwan cafe - cambridge, ma
we only stopped by to say hello to everyone on our way home from
a couple of beers at the plough and stars... turns out they
lent us a guitar and an egg and asked us to do "gi joe". it was
nice to get a request for a song we actually know how to play.
tuesday, june 29th at tj's - malden, ma
jeff and josh started a new open mic in malden. there weren't
too many of us playing, so we got to do 3 sets. during the
second set, we noticed that there were all kinds of cool lights
in the room and we somehow convinced them to turn them all on.
the big highlight was the "fog hog" smoke machine on the ceiling.
they turned that on and it was a whole different show! quite a
moment for us... it worked quite well. maybe down the road, we'll
work that into the act. maybe even with the bubble machine (that
we hope to someday buy).
saturday, june 26th at josh's - malden, ma
we got to hang out with our new friends jeff and josh. it was
a fun party (until the cops showed up and we had to stop playing).
actually, we had a lot of fun after that... hanging out till the
wee hours of the night. we'll be doing some more shows with them
down the road. the big hit of the night was the mad libs while
we changed strings (those darned things keep on breaking).
saturday, june 19th at frank's place - ft. lauderdale, fl
we took the opportunity to head south and hit jay's old stomping
ground in ft. lauderdale to play at frank's housewarming party.
what a blast that was! we saw some of our old friends and got
to meet some new ones... it was especially great to meet the
newest addition to frank's family, desmo (the little puppy).
everyone was so much fun there, that we played every song we
knew and a couple that we didn't know. derek set up the
bootleg section in the back of the room, so perhaps in the future
we'll post a live song or two on-line? the quick listen of the
recording sounded pretty good. a big thank you goes out to frank
and valerie for being such good hosts to us (and to everybody
else).
saturday, june 12th at the smith's - stowe, ma
we didn't even know the smiths, but were invited to show up to
their all day party with our instruments. what a place!
they had a man made pond, lots of food and drink and a PA
set up for bands to play at. we were dog-sitting haley
that weekend, so we brought her along. she was having a blast
meeting all the new people, checking out the other dogs and
stealing everyone's food. somehow human food looked so much
better than little pebbles of dog food... who could blame
her? we played a couple of small sets in between the groove
tubes and skunk as well as an assortment of other musicians.
we sat in with other people and they joined in with us as
well... that made it kind of fun (and kept us on our toes).
thanks again for being so welcoming to us! we'll try to
come back next year.
friday, june 11th at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma
it was good to be back home at the kendall cafe once again... we
decorated the place with wall to wall fish and got to play on their
new stage. the upgrades to the kendall came out great. hats off to
mike for everything he's done. special guests that night included
kyler, pamela means and the mark cutler band. it was a full house
with a lot of our old and new friends in attendance. being summer,
we brought out the bubble stuff to add to the ambiance while we
played. it was a pretty high energy night for us, probably becuase
everyone was singing along to the older goh songs. we introduced
everyone to our newest tune, "cute", written only a few days before.
channel 7 was there for
mark, doing a piece on MP3's. the camera man stuck a fish on his camera!
perhaps we'll be famous just yet?
monday, may 31st at the cantab lounge - cambridge, ma
it had been a long time since we visited the cantab lounge.
our first public performance ever was here! geoff (the host
of the open mic) laughed so hard during the first line of
darwin, he spit his beer all over the sound board. we suppose
that's a good reaction... at least the sound board is still ok.
later that night, we wandered down the street to the middle
east and sat in on percussion with tamarisk.
saturday, may 29th outside in harvard square - cambridge, ma
it was such a beautiful, holiday weekend kind of day, we had to
get outside and play. for all the complaints we have about
the weather in boston, this was a reminder that when we get
great weather, it's usually a perfect day. we didn't get the
best spot since we arrived a little late (that's what happens when
you hang out the night before at the middle east until it
closes), but we found a nice semi-shady spot across the street
from the juggler's corner to play in. the people that stopped
to hang out were friendly. it seems that there is a big trend
for all the kids to wear the goh stickers on their clothing. we'll
have to make sure to order more since they're going pretty fast.
as we were wrapping things up, a woman came by with her son and
his new tommy the train drum (we saw them earlier in the day).
perhaps chris inspired a future rock star? perhaps chris was a
little jealous and will show up to a future goh show with a new
and shiny tommy the train drum of his own?
thursday, may 27th at the taiwan cafe - cambridge, ma
another new open mic! this one was hosted by our new friends
burt and mike (or was it mike and burt?). we met those guys
at the kendall open mic when we were hosting. this was a little
different, no mic, no amplification. we got to play one song
each time it was our turn to play and we ended up playing about
6 songs. everyone helped out and tapped or sang along where
appropriate. good thing chris has such a big bag of tricks
because there was enough for just about everyone to share.
we're starting to figure out our new open mic configuration with
no drums and just percussion accessories. eventually they're
putting in a stage and having regular music... we can't wait.
friday, may 21st outside in harvard square - cambridge, ma
we had such a busy spring, we didn't even get the chance to pick up
our permits to play outside in cambridge. so being a beautiful day,
we took the afternoon off and finally dealt with getting permission
to play. then we celebrated in the only way we knew how... playing
in harvard square. we were lucky enough to get a great spot right
in front of the T station. during our almost 5 hours of playing, we
had all kinds of adventures... at one point, we played our best
rendition of a hip-hop groove while somewhere between 5 and 20 people
(once they started, it seemed like they multiplied) came up and
free-style rapped with us for about 20 minutes. that
was certainly unexpected. at other times, we had groups of strollers
surrounding us while the children danced about (of course everytime
they danced it seemed like we were playing songs with less than
obvious grooves, or maybe it was that they weren't used to their new
legs). it was the day of bumping into people... we saw
chris' cousin and 3 people we used to know from northeastern. we
suppose the beautiful weather brought everyone outside. when we were
all done, we were exhausted and jay was complaining of a broken
finger... but we were very glad to be back in harvard square.
wednesday, may 12th at the lizard lounge - cambridge, ma
in our second trip to the lizard, we got to play with jennifer
matthews and tamarisk. unfortunately, the bruins lost that night
(we got to watch the end of the game upstairs at the cambridge
common). since there were so many instruments lying around, we
had a very interactive set. in addition to the shakers, they had
a washboard, coconuts, bongos, and other assorted percussion
devices. oldita even picked up the tambourine to show us a little
bit of her rhythm. our big giveaway was to rob, winning the
re-issued 3D viewmaster. one of the coolest things about that night
and about the lizard was that they played black sabbath between
bands and it was somehow appropriate.
monday, may 10th at the middle east corner - cambridge, ma
this was our first show at the middle east. it was cool to play right in
front because we got random people coming from the other rooms as well
as strangers looking in the window. the people there were so great...
darci brought us and all of our friends cake and other sweets when we
played the sugar song. i guess she liked it! playing for 2 hours was
a great way for us to start off the week.
sunday, may 2nd at the sidewalk cafe - new york city
it was our first show at the sidewalk cafe, located in the heart of the
east village. we really felt at home here, although we got off to a
little rocky start. the D string broke on the very first chord. fortunately,
we're getting quick at changing strings while we distract the audience
by doing something (usually a giveaway, but this night we were simply talking
with everyone while giving out the shakers). they got into the shakers. even
annie was shaking along while mixing the sound for us. during the quiet part
in "gi joe", the crowd started singing "fisher price people and weebles".
that was awesome! new yorkers will never be accused of being shy, they'll
shake, sing, or heckle whenever the mood hits. that's just our kind of
crowd. thanks again to daniel for being a host and taking us out to a
great hamburger place before the show.
lansdowne street music hall (mama kin) closes it's doors
on thursday, april 29th, the lansdowne street music hall had their last
show (an excellent, rare performance by peter himmelman). when the show
ended, they played "it's finally over" and the whole rest of our CD as
we all finished up our last drinks. it was sad to see it end. thanks
to everyone there for all the support they've given us (especially eric
marcos)!
saturday, april 24th at the brown and brew of tufts university - medford, ma
we hung out for 3 hours and played just about every goh tune we knew, as
well as some we didn't know. they claim we were playing the songs real
fast when we began the night, but slowed down to normal as the night
went on... you would think the opposite would be true hanging out in
a place that served coffee. our friends from sweden and germany came out
to visit, as well as some of the goh regulars and people from tufts. they
are so friendly over there (we got invited to play at a barbecue, but
unfortunately, that was the same night... maybe next time). the brown and
brew is set in an old fire house, which made for a great vibe. if all
goes well, we'll be back there when they all return to school in the fall.
friday, april 16th at the lansdowne street music hall - boston, ma
the red sox didn't do so well across the street, but that didn't stop the
people of the lansdowne street music hall! we met some more new friends... some of
them came all the way from new hampshire. john was our big winner
of the evening with his chewbacca pez. chewbacca defeated fozzie bear in
the battle of the pez dispensers! don't worry, some lucky winner will get
fozzie in a future giveaway. we played some new tunes (darwin and sugar)
as well as a bunch of the old favorites. since it was a very electronic
evening (the other bands had all kinds of electronic gear), we brought
out our sampler to play some piano parts for satellite. perhaps this
is a hint of future things to come with goh? when the bartenders
weren't serving drinks, we caught them shaking along with us!
wednesday, april 7th at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma
we hadn't playted at the kendall in 2 whole months! we were going
through withdrawals. chris brought his new open mic configuration...
no snare drum, just his bag of tricks. he even learned the trumpet
part for "autograph" on the harmonica (just so he didn't have to lug
around that heavy trumpet). for once, the drummer had the lightest
setup... jay had to lug around that heavy guitar. we had a lot of fun
as usual and got to see some old friends (mercy james and merrie amsterburg)
play as well as some new people. they have a great open mic there.
friday, april 2nd in the parque del buen retiro - madrid, spain
goh went unplugged in the park. it took us a little while to find a
spot away from the puruvian bands, the drum circles and soccer games,
but we ended up in a sunny spot where we played a little music (and
also a little hacky sack).
thursday, april 1st at triskel's tavern - madrid, spain
this week, we had a little more sleep under our belt and we intended
to stay relatively sober. of course, as fate would have it, the
mexican restaurant we went to had different plans for us. our waiter
refilled our pitcher of sangria and gave us complimentary margaritas
(we asked for the check and got margaritas... we were starting to doubt
our spanish skills).
regardless, we were in better condition than the week before. we did
a set of gi joe, little red corvette and it's finally over before taking
a break. later we sat in on tambourine and bajo (bass) for a couple of
other people playing, then got back up on stage for stickshifts and
lucky (with help on bajo from a spanish woman). muchos thanks to all
our new friends in spain... mike, natalia, andrew, john, colin, ed,
matthew, melanie, kathy and all the others with names camouflaged by
the bar room noise and erased by all the cervezas. we hope to return.
thursday, march 25th at triskel's tavern - madrid, spain
our preparation for this night involved staying up for 2 days straight,
wine, coffee, sangria and mucho cerveza's. we didn't intend to play
until the following week, but there was room for us to do a couple of songs.
fortunately, they spoke english there and we ended up with a snare
drum (out of the back closet) and a borrowed guitar. our intro was...
"hola, hablo solomente poquito espanol. we're called goh, we're from boston, we haven't
slept since tuesday and we've been drinking... so bear with us." we
did gi joe and autograph to a very supportive crowd. afterwards, they
filled us in on the busking scenes in madrid and sevilla (and drank mucho
more cervezas).
monday, march 15th at fire and water - northampton, ma
it may have seemed a little strange to drive 100 miles just to play
for 7 minutes... but it was worth it to us. we had heard good things
about fire and water and wanted to check it out for ourselves. the
big surprise is that their open stage is just that, an open stage. no
microphones or amplification. the trumpet really cut through that night.
it was a great vibe and the people there were really supportive and
helpful. we'll be back.
sunday, march 7th at cb's 313 gallery - new york, ny
so we took a little road trip to our first gig in manhattan... it started
out with about 6 inches of snow when we got up. a couple people didn't
make it because the weather, but the determined 10 of us rolled on down the
highway in our luxury rent-a-van. the van was so big and old that it bounced
all over the highway, it accelerated worse than a yugo, and when it finally
got going, was so loud that nobody could hear anybody. if you were riding
in the back, it felt like a turbulent airplane... turns out mercy james was
back there after spending the entire night at the harpoon festival. the van
wasn't very nice to his hangover... so we dropped him and dina off at the train
station in framingham. and then there were 8. randomly, we were near tommy's
house, so we stopped by, said hello and couldn't convince him to come along.
so with tears in our eyes, we headed off towards the highway to continue our
journey. the ride down was pretty fun... we brought snacks, maps and mad libs.
before we knew it, we were arriving in the big city. we even found a parking spot big
enough for the monstrosity right on the street near chris' uncle's apartment.
one of the highlights was parallel parking that beast (our driver's ed teacher
would be so proud of us). chris and jay hung out at uncle dean's while the
rest of them ran off to explore the city with daniel (we should take the time
to thank uncle dean and daniel for being such good hosts to all of us... we
all really appreciate it). in their exploration of the city, they found a
brewery where they bought pairs of beers and a drag bar that serves chinese
food. not bad for an afternoon. just before we were to go on that night, we
saw everyone walk by the club and keep on going. turns out, they went to
CBGB's and not CB's gallery (we hunted them down and brought them back, after
all, who wants to play without all your friends). regardless of what people
might say about new yorkers, they're really nice people... we made a few new
friends and contacts playing there. :) all in all, everyone had a great time
and we were all relieved to make it home in one piece, especially because
that van didn't give us a lot of confidence. we'll have to do it again real
soon...
thursday, march 4th at the lizard lounge - cambridge, ma
what a fun night! we really hit it off well with christine baze and crew.
chris brought his newly constructed disco ball and red spotlight, which added
to the cool vibe the room already had. coincidentally, christine brought her
lava lamp as well (unfortunately, it broke early on in the set... if you were
wondering, lava is really slippery). it was also a great night for giveaways...
we gave out the woolie willie (the guy with magnetic particles that look like
hair with the magic pen that allows you to give the guy a mustache, a hairdo
and even nose and ear hair... if you're into that). christine also joined in
on the fun with spice girl paraphanilia while she played. in addition to
our normal sets (if you can call them normal), we had christine join us on piano
on "it's finally over" and accompanied her on "the prozac song".
saturday, february 20th at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma
between all the performers there that night (nick thomson, tamarisk, kevin so, and
ourselves), we completely filled the house. people were even standing on their
seats in the back to see over everyone in front of them! we're sorry we ran out
of shakers... we'll have to make more next time. chris had a lead-foot that night...
his kick drum was moving all over the stage (which he eventually learned to move back
in place without missing a beat). at one point, the drum fell off the stage and into
the monitor. without that monitor, it would have landed on the floor. in some ways,
we felt like the who (except we didn't destroy our instruments, we just came real
close). we ended the set playing "lucky" missing a string, and in general a complete
mess. our equipment wouldn't have survived another song. we met a lot of new
friends that really got into it and loved the slinky jr. and the teenage
mutant ninja turtle pez giveaways. the kendall is always a great place for us
to play. hats off to the staff for keeping the beers flowing, our stomachs full
and everything sounding great!
friday, february 12th at mocha java - dedham, ma
goh played once again in downtown dedham at the intimate setting of
mocha java. one of the most interesting things about playing there
is that we're right next to a glass window and you get to see the reaction
of passers-by on the street. everybody shook along with us and hung out
when wendy played (she filled in between our 2 sets). as usual, it's
always good to hear her, and we got caught up on some of her newer songs.
they had a mid-sized etch-a-sketch there, which brian happily created
artwork for us on, as well as a mini hungry hippos game. some of our songs
we ended up playing kind of fast... it must have been the coffee.
thursday, february 11th at fitchburg state college - fitchburg, ma
so we took a trip to fitchburg to check out "the underground" pub and play
for a couple of hours. the first thing we saw was a giant poster of the
fishy car and "goh" painted on the windows of the student center. :)
good to see that they were hyping up the show for us. from what we heard
our cd was getting pretty good rotation on their radio station as well...
they ranked us #23 in their top 30 for the week! about 100 people came by
and danced and shaked along with us. it seems as though the most popular
thing were the giveaways... everybody wanted free stuff - shakers, t-shirts,
stickers, fish, etc. this evening's prizes included play-dough and the
first "battle of the key chains"... the rubik's cube defeated the etch-a-sketch
in fitchburg! our women's tees made their debut that night, now we need to get
our butt in gear and get guys tees (for everyone was asking for them).
there was a lot of clapping and creative percussion with the shakers that night.
we kind of liked it. the loudest person of the night had to have been the
"spy guy". he screamed "spy, spy, spy, spy!" throughout the song and then
for the rest of the night.
in addition to playing for a couple of hours, we introduced 2 new songs...
ventriloquist and darwin. after the show, we even stopped by a party. it's
still weird to us to hear our cd on someone else's stereo.
thanks again for having us there and to everyone for
coming out and hanging with us. on our way out of fitchburg, we heard
"spy, spy, spy, spy!" off in the distance.
wednesday, february 3 at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma
happy 5 year anniversary to the kendall! we were happy to play a
late night set in celebration of 5 years of our favorite cambridge
bar... this is where we got our first real show! we did an old one
(gi joe) and a new one (spy) for everybody. then we stuck around on
stage to back up eric marcos with a couple of his tunes. later on
someone played tom petty and it wasn't even eric! so we all sang
along (of course).
sunday, january 31st at the lansdowne street music hall
this was the last night of our residency here. in some ways, it was
sad... we'll miss alex, jason, flute, scott, eric, charlie and doug.
and of course, we'll miss our pre-show episodes of the simpsons with
them all. rumor has it, there was a football game on that night, and
a lot of people were watching it, some for the game, and others for the
cool new commercials that come out. that helped make the show a little
more intimate than some of our others. we kicked it off with special
guest mercy james (with some help from leon rich and our own, chris).
then we played, and then we sat in with eric marcos (we called ourselves
gibraltar). we brought a little bit of the kendall over to this place.
it was good to get to play with so many of our friends again. perhaps a
side project or two have been rekindled. :)
sunday, january 24th at the lansdowne street music hall
as it turned out, this was quite a crowded night... the hearde helped out
by bringing so many people. for us, one of the best things about the residency
is meeting new friends each night. they all love the shakers and we love to hear
them use them. as it turned out, one of the guys from the hearde saw us playing
in harvard square. small world, isn't it? during "thumb", we had a little mishap...
jay's string decided to break, and since it was capo'ed, it stuck around to get
tangled with all the other strings. sometimes acoustic guitars can be tricky.
then, during our giveaway (stalling while we changed the string), we
couldn't see everyone because the lights were so bright. that made it tough to
see who had their hand raised to answer the question... so we had to rely on the
"ooh!, ooh!" factor to hear who had the answer (reminding us of "welcome back
cotter"). regardless, we had another winner, the proud owner of a viewfinder!
remember them? then chris decided to get the crowd singing... he chose the
oscar mayer bolognia song! after that, the set went pretty well. while we were having
a drink after the show, jay's brother came running in and made us come outside to
listen to the car radio... WBCN was playing "gi joe". we were pretty psyched
to hear that! thanks shred!
sunday, january 17th at the lansdowne street music hall
this week, they moved the show to the big room, the playhouse! our biggest
stage so far. the stage was so big, we had to walk up steps to get on
it. we even had a special light show thanks to eric... next time, we'll have
to bring the disco ball. between songs, if you listened carefully, you could
hear the techno music coming from axis (so chris played along, of course).
all in all, it was a good night, we even had a new friend from the northeastern
news there to do a story on us. everybody in the crowd was shaking along and this
time, we brought enough so that they didn't have to share. it's cool that in such
a big, loud room, we can still hear the shakers and sing-alongs. the club did
a good job with the sound so that everyone didn't go deaf while we played. big thanks go
out to boys attick and the aloha steamship for sharing the stage
with us.
sunday, january 10th at the lansdowne street music hall
for the second week of our residency, they named the club! it's the lansdowne
street music hall. thanks to our friends and friends of three dollar knob
for coming out and making the place look crowded. the more the merrier. our
set consisted of mainly all the songs that we didn't play the week before, with a
few overlapping ones. we had a good time this week with another enthusiactic winner...
jason won the duncan "imperial" yo yo, which became the toy of the night behind
the bar. the "think-ling" came up with a great question this week... Q: how many times
per day does a cow poop? A: 16 times! That "think-ling" never ceases to amaze us!
sunday, january 3rd at mama kin?
we started off 1999 with our residency at mama kin only to find out, it wasn't at mama kin.
apparently, aerosmith pulled out of the club the day before because they didn't want to
be so involved with a club when they were so busy with their band along with their
families, etc... so we played the "club formally known as mama kin" which is now an
unpronounceable symbol. we had a contest to come up with a new name for the club.
so far the best name is 36 lansdowne street. perhaps another name will pop up in
the weeks to come (the contest is still open). so goh was the first band to play
at this new club! we had a lot of fun playing. we did post christmas giveaways
(why should christmas giving happen only once a year?), we won the staff over by
surprising them with a fugazi cover, survived our first snow storm (it turned out
to be rain), and didn't break any strings! also, we introduced our newest song,
mannequin! it was a great beginning of our month-long stint at this new place
(whatever they decide to call it)!
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