Sportstime's Sunday Night Open Mic - June 26th

Greetings Cats and Dogs!!

Once upon a midnight dreary, and so the stormy weekend continued and I learned a couple things.  JB Williams is a crafty dude, and I like playing the Blues in a storm.  Even though FA-Q ALLiance gigs to several places and haven't played beyond a Sunday at Sportstime for a year, it is our home base and our Sunday nights seem to always be special nights.  The prayers and hopes of the entire extended FA-Q ALLiance family goes out to John Dubs Gomez as he and his family deal with difficulty.  Dubs is a good friend, great musician, amazing Sound Master, and a fantastic human being. We were also without Bryan Bell who has been on vacation but will return next weekend for Savannah's Birthday party (a Rockabilly Luau) Saturday at Sportstime II in Doraville.

JB Williams and Bubba did the hookups while Sergio and I set the stage up.  Despite the storms we had a pretty good crowd of very cool people.  A lot of our regulars were there and we draw some great new people each week, some of whom seem to become regulars.  Anna and Lena have to run all day and night, not an easy task, so I hope everyone tiped well.  After playing 5 hours Friday Night, I welcomed Chris Edwards holding half he bass down on Sunday. 

Sergio did his Classic Accoustic Guitar routine to start, then FA-Q took the stage and played some of our staples.  Blaise played in with FA-Q then ran his own set which gets better each time he does as his comfort level rises each week.  We had a gentleman named David come in with his buddy Daniel and they were going to play together but Daniel had to run, ruining my Double D band name.  David did some originals which sounded good, I hope he had a good time here in Atlanta.  Mike Nii joined in and did some drums and flute during David's set and Rob Roux's first set.  FA-Q rejoined the stage with the ever amazing Diva hit the house.  She can be heard at Savannah's Birthday Party Saturday with FA-Q ALLiance and again at Sportstime I in Duluth July 7th with Multiple Dimensions.

I think our version of Practice what you Preach with Bubba singing was the best we have ever done.  Hugh came back and led a set with Chris and JB that was great, it climaxed with an impressive Mustang Sally.  Brian George came in with some prolonged and enjoyable harmonica riffs during this jam.  It was well like by the crowd and the musicians.  We closed the house with Diva freestyle singing to an impromptu 12 bar with Rob Roux, Bubba, JB and myself.

The Music Chart of the Night:

Performance Time		Band Name	Musicians					Comments
Start	Finish		Singers	Guitar	Drum	Bass	Keys
8:15	8:30	Quesada		Sergio Quesada				Classical Preview, 3 song set.  He gets better each time he plays
8:30	9:00	FA-Q Alliance	Bubba	Sergio Quesada	JB Williams	Brent L Miller	Bubba	Blues only tonight
9:00	9:30	Blaise Set	Blaise Zieman	Blaise Zieman Sergio Quesada	JB Williams	Chris Edwards		Classic 50’s Rock and Blues
9:30	9:40	Double D Set	David	David	Mike Nii	Chris Edwards		Originals, Country Rock kindof sound
9:40	10:10	Rob Roux Jam		Rob Roux	Mike Nii	Chris Edwards	Bubba	Grooving Jam
10:10	10:45	FA-Q Revisited	Diva Bubba	Sergio Quesada	JB Williams	Brent L. Miller	Bubba	Some classic fusion covers.  Sawanya was the Diva and is amazing
10:45	11:15	Hugh Handford Jam	Hugh Handford	Hugh Handford	JB Williams	Chris Edwards		Grooving toons.  Brian George played Harmonica
11:15	Close	Rob Roux Revisited	Diva	Rob Roux	JB Williams	Brent L. Miller	Bubba	Groovin close

We struggled with loudness last night as everyone ran through amps and it was a little too loud but it was still a great night.  The new Mixing board at Sportstime is great, I hope to get the Titanic out of my trunk soon.

We worked through over a dozen musicians last night, in all kinds of combinations.  Musically this is well below average for us, but it doesn't really impact the quality of music we put out.  Our unique policy of putting together whole sets of strangers works well as we do set people up for success.  As FA-Q ALLiance gets around and gigs different places, we alway try to bring people out for our Sundays.

Our Performers Chart of the Night:

List of Performers:	Band/Performer	Performance Skills	Links and Upcoming Events
Brent L. Miller, Rabbi Pimp Shoes, Mr. Brand New	Performer, Host	Pocket Bass, Lead Singing	FA-Q ALLiance
Preacher Bubba	Performer	Keyboards, Lead Singing, Bass, Mixing and Production	FA-Q ALLiance
JB Williams	Performer	Drums	FA-Q ALLiance
Sergio Quesada	Performer	Accoustic Guitar, Lead Guitar	FA-Q ALLiance
FA-Q ALLiance	Band	Fusion R&B and Alternative Rock Band	June 24th at Zuffy’s Bar   and July 2nd at Sportstime II in Doraville
Chris Edwards	Performer	Bass
Blaise Zieman	Performer	Lead Singer, Lead Guitar
Dave	Performer	Lead Singer, Guitar
Daniel	Performer	Drums
Mike Nii	Performer	Drums, Flute, Keyboards
Rob Roux	Performer	Lead Guitar Extraordinaire
Hugh Handford	Performer	Lead Singer, Lead Guitar
Sawanya Stanley	Performer	Lead Singer	FA-Q ALLiance

Before I finish this Blog, I want to say how cool it was for Gary and Tammy to celebrate Gary's birthday listening to us last night.  The crowd last night is really what made the night, what a great group of people. 

So until next time, FA-Q ALL!!

FAQ ALLiance plays at Zuffy's Place - June 24th

Greetings Cats and Dogs!!

For the first time in our short history, we were actually given long enough to play that we weren't asked to stop playing so they could close the bar.  Zuffy's Place accross from the Pink Pony on Buford Highway just north of North Druid Hills stays open until 4am.  Monty over at Zuffy's gigs you from 10pm to 2am, so being the FA-Q ALLiance we went on around 9:30 and played until around 3:30am.  We would have gone longer but our Trumpet player Steve Michaels decided against my outspoken wishes to take down all our microphones.  Dubs, Mike Nii, Sergio and myself played a final set without any singing due to this, but play we did.

This was our first gig without Bryan the Cucumber Bell playing with us so I spent the entire time holding the bass.  Without the Cucumber Effect in play, Sergio started off the event playing Classical music on his guitar.  After three such songs I joined him onstage and we played a Flamenca.  From there the band joined up and we played Green Onions followed by Chameleon.  This is when Londee took the stage and led us until almost midnight and our first break of the night.

Dubs led off our second Set with some serious rock and roll, from Sublime to Originals, he sounded good.  My favorite song of the night was playing Seven Army Nation in this set.  Londee came up at the end of this set and dominated the crowd until almost 2am.  Londee is a special talent who is a pleasure to work with, and a dream to listen too.  The crowd could not stop talking about Londee. 

The last minute booking, the heavy rains, the accident on 85 right before Zuffy's exit; none could stop the FA-Q followers from partying hard on Friday night.  The beautiful ladies of Zuffy's Place (not talking about Monty obviously) worked extra hard and I hope they were tipped well.  While most of our crowd were FA-Q ALLiance followers, those of Zuffy's regulars that showed up were great people who partied like they were one of us.  A great location worked by great people, with great patrons who love great music.

Performer	Performance
Londee Ighile-Thomas	Featured Entertainer, Lead Singer
Preacher Bubba	MC, Keyboard
Brent L. Miller	Accoustic Bass, Bass
John Dubs Gomez	Lead Singer, Guitar, Sound Master
JB Williams	Drums
Sergio Quesada	Accoustic Guitar, Guitar
Steve Michaels	Trumpet, 2 Trumpet
Mike Nii	Drums

Hopefully everyone will be able to see us joining the rotation at Zuffy's Place on a regular basis.

So until next time, FA-Q ALL!!

Sportstime's Sunday Night Open Mic - June 19th

Greetings Cats and Dogs!!

Father's Day is a time many people spend at home, or visiting with family.  We still had a good crowd and enough musicians to push our closing time yet again.  Though enough people chipped in that we cleaned up quickly after ourselves with plenty of time left to watch Bryan do his fire spinning act.  The Fire Spinning is cool to watch, but this is a music blog.

We were blessed with a number of very accomplished lead singers last night, and we had the lowest number of accoustic songs in our short yet storied history.  Sawanya who is a supremely talented lead who overflows with charisma, played with FA-Q ALLiance in the beginning and closed out the show in the Rob Roux set.  Diva is her stage name, and she performes not just with FA-Q ALLiance (July 2nd at Sportstime 2 in Doraville) but also with such bands as Multiple Dimensions.  Judy came with Dr. Funk and lit up the bar with her soulful renditions of classic covers.  Listening to her and Diva sing the night away, I wonder why more gigging bands looking for incredible lead singers with great attitudes don't come check out our scene. 

Dubs is being groomed in FA-Q ALLiance as Rock and Roll presence when he takes the lead, and he showed why last night.  I think his set was well positioned between our Soul set and our Rob Roux set.  Dubs was great last night, and I look forward to hearing him and performing behind him the next two weeks (Gigs not just Open Mic).   Bubba is always a great presence, but he is our MC and he mixes it in for spice over the night.  The Cucumber did his edgy progressive sound well and for at least one song, PawnShop, inspired a massive new version of that song (4 performers took turns singing Sublime's little baby, it was incredible).  Carlos Hayes of Black Shampu showed why he is such a versatile talent and closed the house in a Duet with Diva.

Good time to show the chart of the night:

Performance Time		Band Name	Musicians					Comments
Start	Finish		Singers	Guitar	Drum	Bass	Keys
8:00	8:45	Sound Check and opening Jam		Sergio Quesada	JB Williams	Brent L. Miller		Flamenco, waltz, 12bar blues.  The
8:45	9:15	The Cucumber Set		Bryan Bell	JB Williams			The Cucumber started with his solo act, it is always great to listen to him play.  Our New Accoustic set needs some practice.  Steve Michael did his thing.
9:15	10:00	FA-Q ALLiance	Sawanya Stanley Bryan Bell	Sergio Quesada Bryan Bell	JB Williams	Brent Miller Bryan Bell	Bubba	True Fusion from Jazz to Funk, to Rock to Blues.  Sawanya lead for us and is an amazing talent.
10:00	10:30	Chris Edwards Set	Judy	Sergio Quesada	JB Williams	Chris Edwards Bryan Bell	Bubba	Great Soul Covers.  Judy has amazing stage presence and really heated up an already humid night.  Anthony played his harp well and grooved.
10:30	11:00	Dubs Set	Dubs	Sergio Quesada	JB Williams	Bryan Bell	Steve Michaels	Sublime, Johnny Cash, Dubs is a rocker
11:00	Close	Rob Roux Set	Carlos Hayes Sawanya Stanley	Bryan Bell Rob Roux	Bubba JB Williams	Chris Edwards	Bubba	We close like nobodies business with Sawanya and Carlos doing duets

Before I write about the non-singing musicians of the night I need to address two things.  First Gretchen Schmid has taken video documentation of our band as a personal project.  That is very cool as she is a serious artist and I look forward to a chain of videos hitting youtube.  Her first attempt at documenting our events is already one of her top draws and climbing.  Everyone who performs gets full credit when the video gets produced.

The Second thing is the addition of JB Williams fully to the FA-Q ALLiance.  His experience and versatility really takes us to a new level and it was obvious to everyone in the band after the event.  He is not a one-genre kind of performer, but Jazz was never one of his mains.  Then at the Event he was doing the Flintstones for the first time live, and did one of the most inspiring solos I have ever heard.  I almost cried.  Welcome to FA-Q JB!!!

I don't overly discuss such band members as Sergio and myself as this blog promotes the band and featured artists, and we are trench guys.  Steve Michaels is one of us now, and gets the treatment.  Great to have you in the fold though Steve. 

Anthony not only bought me a beer, he had one of those moments as he got on stage and jammed with a Chromatic Harp.  Good guy, played smart and well, and I hope he had a great time.  Chris Edwards is just and awesome musician and a great guy, his amp is big time and next week while the Cucumber is out, Chris going to be the main bassman next Sunday.  Mike Nii came for a bit, but left without playing even though we could have used a breather at the drums.  Rob Roux almost didn't come, but come he did and as always closed.  Not going to write a lot about Rob today as he is only now going to start reading this blog, and let him get caught up.

Our Performers list for the Event

List of Performers:	Band/Performer	Performance Skills	Links and Upcoming Events
Brent L. Miller, Rabbi Pimp Shoes, Mr. Brand New	Performer, Host	Pocket Bass, Lead Singing	FA-Q ALLiance
Preacher Bubba	Performer	Keyboards, Lead Singing, Bass, Mixing and Production	FA-Q ALLiance
Bryan Bell, the Cucumber	Performer	Lead Bass, Lead Guitar, Lead Singing	FA-Q ALLiance and Shrewd Louis Trio
JB Williams	Performer	Drums	FA-Q ALLiance
Sergio Quesada	Performer	Lead Guitar	FA-Q ALLiance
John “Dubs” Gomez	Performer	Sound Master,  Lead Guitar, Lead Singer, Song Writer	Shrewd Louis Trio and FA-Q ALLiance
Sawanya	Performer	Lead Singer	FA-Q ALLiance
FA-Q ALLiance	Band	Fusion R&B and Alternative Rock Band	June 24th at Zuffy’s Bar   and July 2nd at Sportstime II in Doraville
Steve Michaels	Performer	Trumpet, two trumpets at once, Keyboard	FA-Q ALLiance
Mike Nii	Performer	Drums, Flute, Bass
Carlos Hayes	Performer	Lead Singer	Black Shampu
Judy	Performer	Lead Singer
Chris Edwards	Performer	Bass
Anthony	Performer	Harp
Rob Roux	Performer	Lead Guitar

So hope to see you all at our next show or Open Mic.  

Until then, FA-Q ALL!!