The Precinct at the Sundance Film Festival!

Back when we looked like we do above, before Mason and I had any original songs in our repertoire, we used to pack up the guitar and the fingerless gloves and head up to Main Street, Park City to play on the street corner at the Sundance Film Festival. We'd park ourselves right under the clock on Main St., open up our guitar case, throw a dollar in (people need cues), and sing our hearts out, hoping to earn a few bucks, or the attention of someone who could book us a REAL Sundance gig.

Well, we finally have one! The Beehive Tea Room is acting as Sundance's official Salt Lake City Festival Cafe and we were asked to play opening weekend, this Saturday the 17th!

The Precinct

appearing at the Sundance SLC Festival Cafe

Saturday, January 17, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

The Beehive Tea Room
12 WEST 300 SOUTH SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
(on 3rd South, just West of Main Street)

Once opened at Sundance 2007, and got the 2008 Oscar for best song with "Falling Slowly." Because everyone who saw Once told me that the movie reminded them of The Precinct, we've decided to pay a little Sundance tribute to Glen and Marketa--we'll be playing our own version of that song on Saturday night. Stop by on your way to see a film, or to get a cup of hot tea and hear some music.

Also, as an added bonus, we'll be playing a song live on KUTV Channel 2 this Friday the 16th to promote the SLC Festival Cafe. I'm not sure if it will be on right at noon, but we are filming at noon. Keep an eye out! Somebody Tivo it for us!

Top 12 Shows de la Year

To help me remember and document my favorite shows, I, like many, used to save up all my ticket stubs. After generating quite a pile, I decided to mod-podge-collage them with photos onto a wall hanging. Here's the whole thing: My plan was to create a series of these ticket walls: a new version for each year or two of show-going. But somewhere during the digital revolution, the virtue of the tangible, paper ticket was lost forever and replaced with e-tickets and will call. So, here's a digital collage for my favorite shows of 2008. I couldn't possibly narrow it down to 10....so here's 12.

12. Flogging Molly’s St. Patrick’s Day show – March 14 at the House of Blues Las Vegas. My good friend Liz bought her hubby tickets to this show but then they ended up not being able to go. Who was there to take the tickets off her hands? You bet we were. Mason and I met at a Flogging Molly show back in 2001, so we have a long-standing love of their Irish punk rock.
11. RX Bandits – 2008 was a slow RX year, I only saw them three times: twice in Salt Lake and once in Las Vegas at Jillian’s. 2009 had better go back to normal, and I have a feeling it will, because they are releasing a new album. Whenever their new album drops, Mason and I tend to follow them around the country like a couple of puppy dogs.

10. Ani Difranco – June 22 at Library Square. Ani is the musician and poet that I’ve looked up to most since I was 15. I’ve seen her at least 10 times. This time was a kick-off concert for and organized by the Utah Arts Festival, and I just happen to sit on the board of directors for that organization. We made so much stinking, unexpected money from this concert. It was a line item on the budget that made us all very happy, and still does, at each and every finance meeting.

9. Portugal. the Man- March 8 up at some obscure club in Logan. First time seeing them live = life changing experience.
8. Say Anything – March 18 at In the Venue. I’ve been a huge fan forever, but this was my first time seeing them live. They didn’t disappoint.

7. Jose Gonzales – March 22 at the U of U Ballroom. Incredible. Goosebumps.
6. The Swell Season a.k.a. “Those people from the movie Once” a.k.a. Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard - May 2 at The Depot. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, go Netflix it ASAP. They were so brilliant live. They switched up the vocals so she sang a few of the songs that were his on the album, a lovely surprise.

5. The Faint – July 30 at In the Venue. You were all there, the whole of Salt Lake City, so I guess I don’t need to recount anything. You know how it went. He wore a labcoat and goggles for crying out loud:

4. Jackopierce – October 17 at The Key Club in Hollywood. The first mix CD that Mason ever made me when we were dating contained a beautiful song called “Vineyard” by Jackopierce. They had a major label deal in the 90’s but then broke up. Mason thought he’d never get a chance to see them live, but our family trip to Disneyland in October coincided with a rare, intimate acoustic show at the Key Club. We sat on the second row, and they played our 3 favorite songs as the encore—an amazing night. I may or may not have shed a tiny tear during “March.”

3. Maylene and the Sons of Disaster- October 22 at The Avalon. That show marked my first time seeing this fabulous dirty southern metal band live. You know it’s a good show when, for the next week, you listen to nothing else but them in your car, on your iPod, at work on iTunes. The guitar solos were just as great in person as on the record and in my opinion, Guitar Hero is missing out big time by not including at least one Maylene song. The rest of us deserve to faux-wail like they do on “Plenty Strong and Plenty Wrong,” and at least pretend. Don’t we? We do! The most interesting part of the evening was when they would shout intermittent Republican battle cries between songs, about how we Utahns should be proud to be from a red state. Forgive them, they’re from Alabama, they know not what they yell.

2. Ghostland Observatory – May 15 at the House of Blues San Diego AND May 29 at Club Sound in SLC. As shows go, the one in Salt Lake was infinitely better than the San Diego one. A group of 19 or so of my closest friends got all hot and sweaty right up front, danced on stage with the band, kept the encore going for close to a half hour, and got kicked out by mean bouncers at the end. However, the San Diego show holds a special place in my heart because I was there on a business trip, but got to stay an extra night with my friend Al at his apartment at USD and go to the show with him. He showed me his college world (in the nick of time, a week before graduation), we took the SD trolley to the club, drank a few gin and tonicas, boogied to the beat, and got cheap Mexican food on the way home. A perfect evening from all angles.
1. The Presets- May 26 at Urban Lounge. This was not only the best show of the year, it was the best night of the year. Period. I’m not exaggerating. If May 26,2008 was my Groundhog Day, I wouldn’t think of inventive ways to change the course of the day, nor try numerous creative methods of killing myself like Bill Murray. No sir. I would be just be ridiculously giddy, hoarse, and in incredible shape for the rest of forever. I must’ve burned over 19,000 calories that night, so with a few of those under my belt, think of the possibilities. I could literally dance my ass off.

The Precinct’s TOP 06 of 08

It was a good year for The Precinct. There are moments when I get so frustrated at not being able to devote enough time or energy to really make the band “happen,” amongst careers and family and all that. There are shows that don’t seem worth the effort and times when we want to quit.

But after the show’s over, those feelings disappear and we are ALWAYS happy. Satisfied. Full of gratitude for our ability to make music together. Looking through the 2008 calendar just confirmed to me how lucky we truly are, and how we’ve gotten to where we are all on our own. No record label, no managers, no publicists, no booking agents, no time off work for a world tour, just two crazy kids with a smidgeon of “free” time to devote to their passion of music.

So who cares if we didn’t make millions of dollars or acquire Brazillions of fans? Here’s what we did do--all on our own.

#6: Booked and played 17 shows

#5: Made our television debut, performing live on PCTV
#4: Booked our first summer festival show: Uncle Uncanny's Music Festival.

#99: Got rained out and cancelled at our first summer festival show: Uncle Uncanny’s Music Festival
#3: Recorded an album, And By We I Mean Us

#2: Hit the 15,000 views mark on our YouTube videos. We have 6 songs posted. I know, I know, some bands get twice that many views in a day, but that’s big for us, OK?

#1: Played our favorite show EVER in Precinct history. We got to open for two of our favorite bands from the old days, and the show itself was epic. We had a captive, sold-out audience at Burt’s Tiki Lounge…and for once, we could hear ourselves play over the clink of glasses and the loud bar banter. They were all listening to us.

Calendar Junkie

I hate even numbers. As a result, 2008 was met with some hostility and dislike, right from the get-go. Since about November, 2009 has been lingering on my horizon like a mirage of odd-numbered goodness. And at last, 2009 has arrived. Cheers!

As I put up my new calendar at work this week, I decided to indulge in an old Carly-style tradition: debate with myself for two hours about whether to throw out the old calendar, or to keep it around, you know, just in case. In case of what, you ask? A worldwide used calendar shortage? My question to myself exactly, hence the debate. I did the same with school-issued “agendas” in junior high and high school, my day planner in college, and now with my cubicle wall corkboard-ready office calendar. Will I ever NEED this calendar again? Be able to USE it again? No. Obviously. Those dates and days of the week will not be accurate again until the year 3016 or so, and even then, there’s no room among my hasty handwriting for new entries. So why do I feel a desire to keep it? What is with my need to hold on to this, when I only have ONE already overstuffed closet in my whole house? How much more crap can I really accumulate and store, logistically?

I continued flipping through the months, and as I did so, I realized what a sucker I am for memories. And I also realized that to my dismay, uh-oh, I think I may have actually liked 2008. Nay, LOVED 2008.

So why am I a calendar junkie? I love the memories they contain: tiny, handwritten reminders of good times. And I love how two simple words scribbled in the box for February 24 can make an entire day’s worth of memories vivid and new again: Superbowl @ Susie’s.

And others:
GALLIVAN
gelato w/ Liz
Underoath @ Venue
SATC party!
Sing Mom’s RS 10:20
7 years!
Jackson’s b-day NOON
depart balty 4:30 land SLC 7:29
RELEASE DAY BOO
Putnam County Spelling Bee @ Kingsbury
SPA DAY!!! Breathe

I may have had my reservations about 2008, but it turned out to be an amazing year—one worth tossing in a box and keeping around for a few years, you know, just in case.

I toyed with the idea of compiling 23 different of my own TOP 10 LISTS for the year. My top 10 movies, top 10 concerts, top 10 nights out with friends, top 10 regrettable meal-ordering decisions, top 10 pairs of shoes I bought in 2008, etc. However, the afternoon is slipping away from me. I have groceries to buy and a corn, avocado, and tomato salad with cilantro lime dressing to make before tonight’s potluck dinner party. See? 2009 is starting out fabulously already, but let’s not forget our good old pal, 2008, so quickly.

Even if he is the even man out.

So my next couple of posts will a few lists dedicated to you, old chap.

IAMA Concert Series

The Intermountain Acoustic Music Association (IAMA) puts together a Local Concert Series each year, where two acoustic bands are featured in a Friday night concert at the Unitarian church in Midvale. We (The Precinct) were honored to be asked to play the series last year, and it's an even bigger honor to be asked back a second time.

The concert is tomorrow night, Friday January 2. The headliner is an appalachain old time string band, which is sure to be just as entertaining as the bluegrass quartet we played with last year. Come and expand your musical horizons.

Address, time, cost etc. can be found on the flyer above, designed by none other than my talented ball-and-chain.