2001 blog

friday, november 23rd at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma

it seems like we have a lot of homecomings here. this was the first show we've ever played with the two of us living in different cities (chris back in boston and jay still out in san francisco). because we hadn't played together in a while, we were a little sloppy, but because we were having so much fun, it ended up being a better show (though, yes, we were still a little sloppy). our big criticism from the crowd was that we didn't have enough sing-alongs. go figure. most of the time, you can't get anyone to join in... this time around we couldn't stop 'em. big thanks to leon rich and burt lafountain for opening up. there was supposed to be a forth band playing after us, but they never ended up showing. so we played 2 sets. of course, we only prepared for one. this was also the first time in quite a while that all of jay's family was in one room at the same time. and at the kendall of all places. by the end of the night, chris ended up taking a bathroom break, so jay started playing fugazi for lack of anything else to play. leon's drummer ended up sitting in while chris sang lead, standing up like a rock star and everything! and yes, we turned that song into a sing-along. thanks to eric marcos, who joined us on stage for the set closer... american girl by petty. we were glad it was so crowded and that everyone stuck around....

friday, september 21st at avolent - san francisco, ca

before sending chris off into the sunset (actually he left from the sunset) towards the east, we did one more show. this time for the company party. we did a farewell rockoptions.com gig with eric (insert your "due to market conditions" joke here). while we waited for eric to change strings (he broke about 10, it seems), we did some goh songs. that was pretty fun. we were drinking sangria too... and one of the neighbors complained that he couldn't hear president bush's speech. of course, he was watching us and not the tv. oh well, such is life.

tuesday, september 18th at the paradise lounge - san francisco, ca

the final goh show? of course not. but it was our last official one while chris still lived in california. things were somehow a little confused so we ended up going on late and having our set cut a little short. but some friends showed up, so that was good. we gave away cds to all the nice people that wanted them so that we didn't have to pack them up and move them.

sunday, august 26th at ireland's 32 - san francisco, ca

it was good to see some friends... a few of them have never even see us play (erica and renee). thanks for coming out! chris brought both toms and got a little rowdy behind the kit. he also was drinking (experimenting with the effects of alcohol on the drummer). fortunately, we spend so much time playing, it's pretty hard to do a lot of drinking. as a result, we had another tight set. having some great last shows will make it even harder to live on 2 coasts. but, we have an album to record. we'll take care of that and worry about playing out live later. our friend eric, came up and did some tunes with his band, starcard. we'll have to post pictures of it all. the hayride set started off weird, but ended up great. pete never showed up, so jay had to play bass-like stuff on the baritone guitar. aric showed up, but had to leave to take his son to the emergency room (they super-glued his cut and aric made it back in time for the end of the set). and to top it off, dano's acoustic guitar was just weird. some strings were soft and others really loud. when aric came, dano picked up the electric guitar and we settled into a hell of a set. we all got into it, forgot about everything else and just played. we're really gelling as a band. goh got back up on stage and did a few other tunes to close out the night for everyone that felt like hanging out late.

saturday, august 25th at the fillmore - san francisco, ca

what a wacky evening. we got a little hint of what it was like to be a movie star... at least from an anonymous observer's perspective. the headliner was 30 odd foot of grunts, which happens to be russell crowe's band. getting in was crazy... we had to plow through tons of women lining up to catch a glimpse of the gladiator himself. somebody was signing autographs, but we didn't recognize him (we think it might have been the bass player). after setting up, we hung out and waited for the doors to open. when they did, it was something else. women were running to the stage (chris almost got knocked over) to secure their spot in the front... a spot they'd have to hold for the next 2 hours before the gladiator took the stage. we suppose that's nothing since the ones in the front of the line had been lined up all day long. what a way to spend a saturday. we talked with some of the staff... they said that friday night's show had only 167 guys and around 1,000 women. what a ratio. to keep things simple, we didn't bring the keyboard foot pedal, and chris only played with a snare drum (plus his usual assortment of miscellaneous noises). we had intended to actually practice with this configuration but due to craziness in the day, we never got around to it. despite that, we played great. we were really together. maybe we should go without practicing more often? we had a good time. the only bummer was at the end of the night, we heard that some certain rock stars were a little disrespectful to the fillmore and kicked a hole in the dressing room wall. it's an honor just to attend a show there... we can't believe someone would do such a thing and hope that it was just a false rumor (though we did hear about it from someone that works there).

sunday, august 12th at ireland's 32 - san francisco, ca

what a fun night! it started off weird because of the whole double booking thing and the fact that we had all kinds of guests slated to join us on stage. we thought we were getting the whole night, and ended up with most of it. anyway christine played first... then we got the hayride up there. it was a killer show. we all were really into it, the sound was great (at least up on stage) and aric was smoking on the guitar. oh yeah, and for a sunday night, the room was reasonably full. then goh became a cover band... we don't know how it happened. we started off with the fresh prince and went from there. then we decided to play "government secrets" with dano. turns out, james was in the crowd and he co-wrote the tune with dano.. so he came up too. then we brought up eric and re-formed the rockoptions.com (due to market conditions, we no longer have the web site). again we played covers... this time indie rock style. eric was really getting into it. then we wrapped up the evening, with a few "normal" goh tunes and called it a night. we'll be repeating this thing in another couple of weeks. next time, we'll have to bring the camera.

monday, august 6th at the fiddler's inn - seattle, wa

well, i brought the guitar along on our road trip... might as well play it. as it turns out, i was the first performer of the open mic and the second person never showed. so i took some of his set time and played for half an hour. i was barely prepared to play that long. it seemed to go pretty well. lonesome steve was a nice host. it's fun to play solo, but i really missed having chris and his drums... - jay

saturday, july 28th at hopkinton jam 2001 - hopkinton, ma

it seems like before we know it, another hopkinton jam comes and goes. it was a good year for collaboration... everyone sat in with everyone else. thanks to all that showed up... eric marcos kicked it all off with some tom petty tunes to break the ice. the last time we saw eric was at the petty show out in california. it seemed appropriate to be playing petty tunes with him. goh ended up the rhythm section for eric later in the day as well as mercy james and meowcow (and chris drummed with everyone else). although willie bernstein didn't play due to carrington finishing up the appalachian trail up in maine, the rest of them were there... they sat in with people, did some cowboy songs, and had a good old time. jay had a temperature of 101 that day. crazy. anyway... thanks to all that were there. daniel miraglia, meow cow, eric marcos (and steve), mercy james, members of willie bernstein, shiner jones, davidr, poultryguist, winterboy, and the all star jam band. we'll see you again next year. :)

tuesday, july 17 at the paradise lounge - san francsico, ca

well, ethan was in town, so we decided to hit an open mic. we went over to berkeley to the starry plough, but ended up getting there too late to sign up, so we headed back into san francisco to check out the paradise. talk about taking the long way to get there. it was good to go there because there have been lots of rumors flying around lately about the sale or not sale of the club. all we have to offer in the rumor department is that all of our friends still work there and nothing has happened yet. because of all these happenings, ben no longer runs the open mic there... but they did have one. not too many performers, but a few people wandered in to listen to us from the other show going on downstairs. as a result ethan and i got to play quite a few songs each.... and the pa sounded a little better than i remember it sounding in the past. later that night we recorded a demo of ethan's next album (rough ideas for him to listen to before recording them for real in december). - jay

wednesday, june 27th at ireland's 32 - san francsico, ca

haven't been to ireland's in quite some time... i decided to swing by play a few tunes, hang out and have a couple of beers. it wasn't too crowded (in fact the host never showed up), but we all had a good time playing and everyone was quite friendly. and i still made it home at a reasonable hour. - jay

wednesday, june 13th at the paradise - san francsico, ca

another night on the main stage at the paradise... it was a really good night of music. liz sheldon and band kicked the night off, then jim greer took the side stage, then we played, then jim greer again, and finally little john. sylvia was the proud winner of the latest goh album, "motorized" just 'cuz she was the fast one to make it to the stage. since we've played the tunes on the latest album so much, we threw in more covers than usual. we played "stickshifts and safetybelts" by cake, "parent's don't understand" by dj jazzy jeff and the fresh prince and "waiting room" by fugazi. it was good to play some other tunes for a change and everyone seemed to like how we've arranged them to be goh-like. thanks to burke for showing up. also thanks to kristin and dana. dano and sheila went to see us, but ended up at the hotel utah thinking we'd be there. oops.

thursday, may 17th at the stork club - oakland, ca

we haven't been here since december, but the decor hadn't changed a bit. the place was still covered with christmas decorations and something like 100 barbie dolls. we were disappointed to learn the ms. pac man was no longer there. but the pool table looked like it was new. in case you were wondering... chris out shot jay in pool this time around. we were sandwiched between rubber side down and yellow 5. both bands sounded good and were fun to hang out with before our sets. we were glad we all got there fairly early because it's a lot better if you get to meet the people you end up playing with first. although we didn't have the biggest crowd in the world, we still had fun. our friends dana, kristin, dave, steve, craig and jeff all showed up. we also met some new friends... cory, josie and zak... they're all with us in the picture to the right. cory was the smartest one in the house and walked away with a brand new slinky (she guesed how many eggs were in the world largest omelette).

monday, may 14th at the blue lamp - san francisco, ca

this was my first night at the blue lamp. for a monday night, it was kind of crowded... and people were drinking. i was hanging out with ethan and jason and we decided to head on over to the blue lamp after ethan did a set at sweetwater in mill valley. 2 open mics in one night... not bad for a monday. all 3 of us each got the chance to do a set. i met some people on their first night visiting san francisco from out of town. they were from ireland, but living in dorchester, ma. how funny. i can't seem to get away from bostonians. --jay

saturday, may 12th at moxie's - chico, ca

jay tagged along with ethan daniel davidson's tour for a few days playing bass and met up with chris in chico. we all sat in with him that night and did a goh set in between. as always, the people of chico are such good people. they listen to you when you're playing and talk to you when you're through. we offered our cd's away for free (matching ethan's price) and they still gave us money. how nice is that? we even saw a few familiar faces there from the last time we played up in chico. we'll have to come back up there a little more often.

saturday, april 28th at the fillmore - san francisco, ca

another night at the fillmore... as the commercial goes, the history of rock and roll echos in this hall. it's true. semisonic was the headliner act of the evening with pete yorn opening. pete was nice enough to lend us a hand and hold the door open as we loaded in our gear. he was totally our roadie and probably didn't even know it. again, thanks to mark for making us sound good. the night always starts off slow in the lounge as people filter in. half the people probably don't even know the whole upstairs exists, which is a shame, because that's where all the posters are (and us, of course). upn was taping the show, so we'll have to see if we get our few minutes of fame when they air the program next month. unfortunately, we didn't have the pull to be able to stick around for the secret prince show later that night. maybe next time? we turned a bunch of heads when we played "little red corvette" though. thanks to all the people there that gave happy homes to the shakers. at the end of the night, we handed out stickers and saw quite a few shakers still shaking. :)

one of the best things about being the lounge band is that you almost get to view the evening from the perspective of the fillmore itself. we're not the big rock stars rolling through town on a tour. they're all very aware of the magic of the fillmore, but it's also just another stop on some grueling tour. we're not the people in the crowd. we didn't wait in line and buy tickets. we're still fans of the band, just that this isn't the only reason we're there. we're part of the fillmore family. that's what the staff is. they've been working there for years. that place is magical to them. they're proud of it. and now we're one of them.

friday, april 13th at the kendall cafe - cambridge, ma

a homecoming! as always, we love the kendall. we saw a ton of our east coast friends at the show... bill, greg, meghan, mercy, dina, steve, tommy, brian, dina, jeanette, merrie, peter, leanne, mike, christine, oiffa, lisa, brian, drew, laura, the turneys, the salvis and a whole bunch of others. and of course, we brought kristin and dana along from the west coast. matt did a great job in making us sound good. rumor has it that the show even sounded good over the internet. we gave away and sold a bunch of cd's. thanks to all of you for supporting us. in new york, we picked up an evil bendy and a self inflating woopie cushion. brian knew that redwood trees have flame resistant bark (a little west coast trivia thanks to the thinkling). it was so much fun to get to hang out there with everyone. now that we've been bouncing back and forth between coasts, we have a little secret. in general, pizza is much better in boston. that's where we ended up. :)

wednesday, april 4th at the hotel utah - san francisco, ca

a huge thank you goes out to each and every one of you that showed up and celebrated the release of our second album with us. who was there? joe, kristin, dana, eric, andrea, reid, jp, david, gabi, angela, jayesh, jess, renu, dave, dano, sheila, alex, beth, peri, janet, lindsay, jeff, and many more (sorry if we didn't mention your name). the drop seeds opened up the night... and sounded really good. hopefully, we'll get the chance to play with them in the future. we may have given away as many cd's as we sold... perhaps we aren't the best business people in the world, but who cares... you're the ones supporting us, you might as well get a complimentary disk. besides, chris was all excited about having a "thinkling" that works again. our set list was pretty simple... we played the entire album, in order. it seemed to work on the cd... why not live? we dusted off all our old tricks... we had fish sticks, bubbles and (of course) shakers! thanks again to everyone in SF that have made this place feel like home.

sunday, april 1st at alan and matthew's - oakland, ca

nothing like playing on april fool's day. we hung out in beautiful oakland, where the sun always shines (unless it's night). alan and matthew have a cool setup for a barbecue. we stuffed our faces with hotdogs and hamburgers, then set up and played some songs for everyone. we really need to learn "happy birthday", since it seems like there's always the need for it. it was fun to hang out with all the people (and there were dogs to play with too). although we liked the sun, the guitar didn't. it kept on getting out of tune. fortunately, chris could distract everyone with a giveaway or two. in case you were wondering... the "thinkling" is back! thanks to the world wide web, we found a new one.

friday, march 30th at the fllmore - san francisco, ca

oh yeah. the fillmore! we were totally psyched to play there. it was a friday night! the show sold out! we got to play with fellow bostonians, guster! how cool is that? the fillmore is such a magic place... just being in there is an experience (and if you haven't been there yet, well you really ought to). you get to walk around and look at the posters of all the bands that have been there before throughout the decades. a lot of our friends ended up not getting in because the show sold out on the last day... but kris and dana got in. it's always important to have friends along with us. dana even got to meet ryan from guster before the show and gave him one our our new cds. we met some new people up there... jerrod was our charlie brown pez winner. joe walked out of there with just about all of our merchandise (chris was wheeling and dealing after our first set). we even signed a couple of cds (lucky for us, we brought the silver pen because a black cd is tough to sign). all in all, we had a fun evening, playing a total of 3 sets between all the bands. the first set, was the longest. all the others were just a few tunes snuck in between everyone playing. oh yeah, and another thing... you never realize just how far up the lounge is until you have to lug all of your equipment up the stairs. :)

thursday, march 15th at the paradise lounge - san francisco, ca

how cool is it to get to play on the ides of march. fortunately, no one named brutus was out to get us. we were a little nervous about playing the show since the day beforehand, chris was just about completely without a voice. we were hoping he wouldn't have to resort to mime tricks. a bunch of friends showed up. our furthest guest came all the way from alaska! lewis from one of the radio stations up there just got our new disk and happened to be in san francisco. isn't that pretty cool? he's on his way to becoming another new friend (although later in the night when we wanted to chat and buy him a drink, we couldn't seem to locate him). kristin, dana, allen, jeff and beth were also wandering about the crowd... we apologize for not bringing the camera. congrats to both jennifer and allen for being the big prize winners of a pez dispenser (yoda and bart simpson). cat did a great job making us sound good... we heard a lot of compliments about her work. and we played a pretty good show... a lot of energy and a good vibe from everyone in the crowd.... especially the whistler.

thursday, february 15th at ireland's 32 - san francisco, ca

after a little time off, we decided to try out some stuff just down the street at ireland's 32. we had some new songs and some new arrangements and some new equipment to try out. chris played harmonica and drummed at the same time, using one of those headgear harmonica holders (impossible to look cool in until now). jay played some keyboard parts with his organ foot pedal... of course we now know that the barstools at ireland's 32 are a little too tall to properly play foot pedals. next time we'll bring our own stool. thanks to the girls from misfire, most of purse (dana, jeff and steve) and jess, allen, eric, debi, and jp for swinging on by. next time we'll bring our own pa... there's wasn't so hot.