Open Jam at Sportstime - The FA-Q ALLiance March 25th, 2012

Greetings Cats and Dogs!!

Last year we had upwards of 30+ musicians seeking to participate in our Weekly Open Jam, and it was a constant struggle to try and work everyone into the excitement.  This year, we definately have some roudy crowds coming out to enjoy the fun, but we are also running around 20 musicians out on the stage over a given night.  While those moments were true magic is performed onstage has not slacked off with the lightened load of musicians, we are actually able to run a lineup's groove into multiple songs.  We have actually been forced to short a few people on performances, but hope to remedy that in the coming weeks.

Last Night was an Original Night for the FA-Q ALLiance as we played all originals with the exception of a little diddy on Green Onions that we did to sound check our Line 6 on the 6-String prior to more originals.  We received strong feedback on our set and sold a few of our live CDs.  Added to the list this week was a first time playing of "Favored" by Bubba.  It is our first Gospel song, and it sounded great.  That is a lot for a jew to admit.  Another song we have been working on for a few weeks is Bryan the Cucumber Bell's original song, "Voices in the Night."  Bryan's song is a rock song, but has a very funky bassline reminiscent of the Gorillaz.  The band is really coming together on that song, and it is now a part of our gig sets.

The first band to try out for the Battle of the Bands being promoted by the newest Gwinnett outlet, CraZe, and Atlanta's Best Bands came out last night.  Doug Funny and the Freshtones are a great band, a mix of both covers and originals.   DJ Reese, Adi, and Brian on Bass played with Mark and Mike Nii at drums and really let a great set.  They are being offered a seat in the Battle of the Bands and it will be fun to hear them again.  You all may see some of this performance on youtube soon as we recorded all but their last song in HD sound and Video.

The chart of performances for the Night:

Time	Performance	Comments
8:30 – 10:15	The FA-Q ALLiance Some Jam sound check, then started with Lady of the Night, Voices in the Night, Magic Island, Favored, Funky, All in All.	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Sergio Bryan JB Mark Bubba Bubba Brent Mark Dubs We played almost only originals except for an acoustic Green Onions, a lot of friends were out so it was great.
10:15 – 10:30	Open Jam	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Cameron Chris JB Bubba Bubba Funky sounds, great musicians jamming.
10:30 – 11:00	Doug Funny and the Freshtones	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Adi Brian Mark Mike Nii DJ Reese DJ Reese Mike Bubba Adi A good new band, will be in the CraZe Battle of the Bands
11:00 – close	Open Jam – Closing Jam	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Cameron Chris Mike Mark Dubs Mark Mike Dubs Some seriously great musicians

Some great musicians who came out and performed with us, include Mike Nii and Mark on drums and percussion.  Cameron is an amazing guitar player, who is considered extended FA-Q, and is a touring lead guitar player.  Cameron is an enigma, because he is simply an amazing musician who is also just real easy to play with.  Total team player with the skills of a sick madman on the six string.  Chris and Cameron has some great dueling going on in the closing jam.

In total we went through under 20 musicians, but we all got our chops in. 

The peformers chart of the evening went at follows:

Performer	Performance	Affiliation/contact
Bryan Bell	Guitar, Bass, Lead Singer, Backup Singer	The FA-Q ALLiance, Shrewd Louis
JB Williams	Lead Singer, Drums, Percussion	The FA-Q ALLiance, Multiple Dimensions
Sergio Quesada	Guitar	The FA-Q ALLiance
Brent L. Miller	Bass	The FA-Q ALLiance
Bubba	Lead Singer, Keyboard, Drums	The FA-Q ALLiance, Multiple Dimensions, 3 Piece no Fries
John Dubs Gomes	Lead Singer, Guitar, Percussion, Sound Master	The FA-Q ALLiance, Shrewd Louis
Chris Edwards	Bass	So What
Mark	Percussion, Drums
Doug Funny and the Freshtones	Original Band	Very Groovy rocking sound, kind of fusion and a very good sound to their originals.
Adi	Lead Guitar, Backup Singer	Doug Funny and the Freshtones
DJ Reese	Lead Guitar, Lead Singer	Doug Funny and the Freshtones
Brian	Bass	Doug Funny and the Freshtones
Mike Nii	Percussion, Flute, Drums

We will at the very least post videos for Favored and Voices in the Night this week so those of you who missed the show can check out our sound on our newest originals.  Next week we will be doing mostly covers as we prepare for our April 7th show at the aforementioned CraZe bar.

We should have a number of bands showing up over the next few weeks as the Battle of the Bands nears.  FA-Q is not partaking, but I will be a judge and several of the affiliated FA-Q bands will be taking part so it is guaranteed to be a great time for everyone.

With the weather getting nice, our Sunday shows should keep expanding.  I hope everyone tipped Anna and Barbara well, they worked their tails off last night.

So until next show, FA_Q ALL

Open Jam at Sportstime - The FA-Q ALLiance March 11th, 2012

Greetings Dogs and Cats!

Sorry for the delay in blogging both the Band Gigs as well as the Open Jam Sessions.  As some of you may know, the band acquired a Zoom Q3 and has been taping all of our performances.  We then try to post the best videos from each night on youtube, so goto youtube.com and search for the FA-Q ALLiance to see what we have done.  We will be putting out a Live CD of our activities this year, and it will feature only FA-Q ALLiance Originals.  Come check out our Pre-St. Patricks day Party this Thursday at Sportstime Bar and Grill, we will be selling our Live CDs at the gig.  T-Shirts are not that far behind.

The focus of this Blog regarding the Open Jams is not to just push the band's business though.  We started off with the return of an old friend as Blaise led the initial Jam session hitting some of his classics.  Bryan and Ryan played in on Bass and JB manned the Chocolates for the grooves.  Everyone enjoys listening to the Blaise Set and it is a great start to our Open Jam.

We then went into the Cucumber set which while normally solo, involved a lot more people this week.  Sergio la Quesadillas joined on Guitar, I played in a song on Bass, JB and Alex took turns on the Chocolates, Sean played percussion, and Bubba joined in on Keys.  Great sound and a perfect leadin for the FA-Q ALLiance as a group.

The FA-Q ALLiance covered most of our originals going from Bubba's "Lady of the Night" to Dub's "All in All" with a final rendition of my theme song, "Funky Like the Jew" to close the FA-Q set.  We record everything, but played hard for these songs in preparation for our gig this Thursday.

Our Closing Jam featured Double Bass with both Ryan and Chris playing, it was awesome.  Sergio hit guitar, Sean and Alex hit the drums, with Mark getting a turn at the Chocolates before it was all said and done.  Bubba on keys is always impressive.

Our Performance Chart of the Night:

Time	Performance	Comments
9:00 – 9:45	The Blaise Set Great Classic Rock Set	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Blaise Bryan JB Blaise Ryan Bryan Bell’s original and cover solo jam, very jazzy
9:45 – 10:00	Cucumber Set Ad Lib blues with group, expanded Cucumber set	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Bryan Bryan JB Sean Bubba Bryan Sergio Brent Alex
10:00 – 11:00	The FA-Q ALLiance Originals only.  Making recordings for our Live CD.	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Sergio Bryan JB Dubs Bubba Bubba Dubs Brent Alex Brent Dubs Ryan Sean Sean
11:00 – close	Open Jam/Closing Jam Some Great jams, double bass to end with Ryan and Chris	Guitar Bass Drums Purc Key Oth Lead Sergio Chris Sean Dubs Bubba Bubba Ryan Mark

Our crowd started off small, but built up nicely as the night went on.  To be honest the crowds have been very solid and seem to be getting better each week.  I like introducing new fans to Sportstime through our Open Jams.

Overall we worked through 15 musicians, which got tight late as we monopolized a lot of time with our Original Set.  We always do that the show before a gig, but the other musicians don't seem to mind. 

Our Performers Chart of the night:

Performer	Performance	Affiliation/contact
Bryan Bell	Guitar, Bass, Lead Singer, Backup Singer	The FA-Q ALLiance, Shrewd Louis
JB Williams	Lead Singer, Drums, Percussion	The FA-Q ALLiance, Multiple Dimensions
Sergio Quesada	Guitar	The FA-Q ALLiance
Brent L. Miller	Bass	The FA-Q ALLiance
Bubba	Lead Singer, Keyboard, Drums	The FA-Q ALLiance, Multiple Dimensions, 3 Piece no Fries
John Dubs Gomes	Lead Singer, Guitar, Percussion, Sound Master	The FA-Q ALLiance, Shrewd Louis
Chris Edwards	Bass	So What
Brian George	Harmonica, Backup Singer, MC
Blaise Zieman	Lead Singer, Guitar
Ryan Taylor	Bass	The FunGuys
Jeff the Entertainer	Guitar, Bass, Lead Singer
Sean	Percussion, Drums
Alex	Drums
Leah	Lead Singer, Guitar, Bass
Mark	Drummer

I do hope everyone tipped Anna and Barbara well, they worked their tails off last night and deserve the special attention. 

I will blog next about our Thursday gig, then again on Sunday for our Open Jam.  We will also work to put up more videos on youtube (or replace them with better sounding ones at the least).  So until then...

FA-Q ALL