1-23-09

The first show we threw in NYC was at The Knitting Factory, an indie-rock venue noted for its vintage atmosphere and willingness to host both the famous, the infamous, and the unheard of.

Although I don’t remember too much about the show, I can bet we were probably really out of tune and played every song way faster than we were suppose to. It’s impossible for any cellist to play in tune when there’s a loud drummer pounding cymbals in their ears – (sorry about that guys and gal!). Electric shows were always a little loose, but we made up for it with LOUDNESS, and with some fun, experimental theatrics.

For example, System of a Down’s song BYOB was a great tune to play live. I remember when we were first learning it: we were having trouble figuring out what to do at around the 25-second mark.

You see, at the 25-second mark, Serj, the lead singer for System, belts out a scream meant for the weirdest of horror movies. I mean, it’s just disgusting, and amazing at the same time. We couldn’t figure out how the heck to get a cello to sound like that. We tried fast bowing techniques and glissandi of all kinds. Nothing seemed to work.

And then, it came to Patrick. He randomly tried this:

It was AMAZING, and I’d never seen anyone do that to a cello before: He scraped his hand across the back of his cello, creating a loud screeching sound. It was pretty cool acoustically, but as soon as he plugged in and threw distortion on, it KILLED!

Every time we do a public school performance, the “cello scream” is one of the big highlights, along with another BoR invention…

The Over The Head Cello Solo

Yep, I remember this like it was yesterday. We were playing at The Knitting Factory, performing Parabolic Cosmos, a composition by our friend (Brian Sanders), and we get to the break down section. This is always a fun section to play; I get to lay down the slowest, sickest, loudest drumbeat ever heard in Western music, and the cellos follow suit.

This run through, however, went above and beyond normalcy thanks to a little pre-planning by Patrick and Chris.

Rather than laying down the bass line, Chris and Patrick both stood up with huge grins on their faces. Erin and I looked at each other and were like, “This CANNOT be good.”

As it turns out, it was the best thing in the world, ever.

I think Patrick and Chris rehearsed this in private, and just decided to go for it at the show. Thus, the Over The Head Cello Solo was born.

More Shows!

Yeah, lots of them. We performed at The Triad on West 72nd Street, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, The Luna Lounge in Brooklyn, Baruch Performing Arts Center, the Laguardia Performing Arts Center in Queens, and various corporate and special events around the city. Each show was larger than the one before, and the “Break heads” in NYC took cabs, subways, rode bicycles, and roller bladed out to our shows.

Although our calendar was filled with both real performances and street performing, the overwhelming amount of playing continued to take its toll on all of us, especially Erin, who developed tendonitis in her wrist. Although she began to see a physical therapist, she found it more and more difficult to play at a loud volume. Soon, playing with pain became the norm for her. I hated to see her like that: I could tell by the look on her face that playing the cello was not as comfortable as it once was for her. To top it all off, winter had started, and the freezing temperatures in subways began hurting us all…

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Next Week on BOR Blog: It’s freezing out! The band is faced with an injured member, financial woes, and frigid playing conditions. And to top it all off, we’re still playing THE SAME OLD MUSIC. Something’s gotta give…

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