Redwood City Co-Op, 11-06-08 (Meizu recording [extrmely poor quality but better than nothing]):
#1 Broadway 10-15-08 (Don, Wayne, Frank, John)
1 - Young Lust
3 - Le Grange
RawGateFest 2008
From an audition in March (playing on a 99$ guitar [my guitar was in the shop]):
My best Poet performance ever! (playing the 99$ guitar)(Meizu recording [extrmely poor quality but better than nothing]):
Don playing at The King's Head in Campbell(Meizu recording [extrmely poor quality but better than nothing]):
First Set: (CLICK HERE) (18 MEG) (Don at the Kingshead 12-23-07)
Second Set: (CLICK HERE) (21 MEG) (Don at the Kingshead 12-23-07)
Link to Don playing at The Poet and The Patriot in Santa Cruz on December 16, 2007(Meizu recording [extrmely poor quality but better than nothing]):
(CLICK HERE) (28 MEG) (Don at the Poet 12-16-07)
Me playing with Kent at Mountain Charleys around February 2008.
Kent Sandvik! (Meizu recording [extrmely poor quality but better than nothing])
Link to Don playing at The Poet and The Patriot in Santa Cruz on December 1, 2007:
(CLICK HERE) (20 MEG) (Don at the Poet 12-01-07)(Meizu recording [extrmely poor quality but better than nothing])
Acouple of things (For Dec. 1st): 1) I put new strings on and the guitar goes out of tune a bit; 2) I got there five minutes before I went on, so I had no time to drink a beer, and by the end of the third song I had to stop and take a drink because my mouth was bone dry (I cut that from the recording). So it was a fairly pressured and out of tune performance. The reason: an accident on highway 17 delayed me by about a half hour. But enjoy nonetheless.
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(The stuff below hasn't been updated for a while so some of the links may not work etc....)
If you're looking for the page mentioned in the craigslist ad, this is it! I've compiled video and audio clips of stuff I've done over the past 15 years. Starting from the really challenging gigs I got at the now-defunct Cactus Club, to the ultra-cool Santa Cruz Poet and Patriot Open Mics, my old band "The First Offenders" (dormant), my new band "Four Stroke Creep" (dormant!), and various events, weird clips, and some very quickly learned audition pieces.
Read through the list for songs that look interesting and then check 'em out to see if I muster up for one of your projects. If you've got a situation that looks like I can plug into, reply to the craigslist ad (the email on this website has become polluted with spammers, so I don't read it anymore.).
DISCLAIMER: My singing and guitar-playing quality aside, the video and audio files have a quality level that: 1) Allows for quick downloading; 2) Allows for audio quality that is a notch above adequate; and 3) The video is completely sacrificed to allow for the quick download speed and the above adequate audio, and it's really not that bad either. Anyway, realize that these are highly compressed files usually reduced 1000-to-1 (a DV-quality gigabyte becomes a MPEG-quality megabye) and they still are pretty good!.
WARNING: There are dirty words used throughout. Face it... they're entertaining!
The E3 Open Mic (2006): These are the open mics I am currently doing in Santa Cruz.I realized that folks want to hear the most recent stuff.
E3 OPen Mic, Aug. 21 2006: There were a lot of kids in the audience so I had to change my set list to an "all ages" set list: Never Going Back (Fleetwood Mac), Change The World (Clapton), Boris The Spider (Who), 7 (Prince), Love er Gently (Tenacious D), (there is a brief break where I thought I was supposed to be done, but the MC didn't kick me off so I kept going), American Girl (Tom Petty), then the audience sings happy birhday to someone.
The Cactus Club Gigs: The Cactus Club gigs were gigs where I got to play for 2 hours by myself. I did about 8 gigs before they dried up (and unfortunately the club is no more [Green Day, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana all played there]). So when I got the chance to try to fill 2 hours by myself, I jump at the challenge. I've taken bits from them that show a variety of tunes:
Cactus Club, Jan 2000, 3 Songs: Rooster (Alice In Chains), Stairway To Heaven (just foolin' around), Margaritaville (Buffet)
Cactus Club, March 2000, 4 Songs: Is She Really Going Out With Him (Joe Jackson), Come As You Are (Nirv), Been A Son (Nirv), Everlong (Foo Fighters).
Cactus Club, Septemeber 2000, 4 songs : Seagull (Bad Company), Feel Like Making Love (Bad Company)(WARNING: suggestive lyrics), oh crap its Everlong (Foo Fighters) again sorry, Heart Shaped Box (Nirv)
Cactus Club, Jan 2000, for old time's sake: Plush {Stone Temple)
Note: I've got some great footage that I can't find that has an aggressive heckler swearing at me from the top of his lungs for five minutes. Probably the most entertaining footage I've got, but I can't find it just yet. I think it was also from my first Cactus Club gig. I plan on putting it up as soon as I can find it. Very very very entertaining.
The First Offenders: This was a very cool situation where three friends and I were able to commit to be a band for a couple of years. We played the Pioneer Saloon three times, a wedding at the Mirassou Vineyards, as well as some house parties and a middle-of-nowhere "lollapalooza". The songs were all covers:
Wedding, Running Down A Dream (Tom Petty), September 2001
Wedding, White Wedding (Billy Idol), September 2001
The Pioneer Saloon, August 2001, Sexy Thing (Hot Chocolate)
Practice, TV Dinners, audio only
A full set: The Pioneer Saloon 2003 (13 meg)
Four Stroke Creep: Recently I've been playing with this band, but we've had to lay low due to extraneous circumstances. I played as Lead Guitar and backup vocals. The songs are original tunes that I think are pretty darn good. A retro feel with a fresh feel. I haven't taken the time to pull out individual songs yet, so I'm including two files of entire shows (45 minutes long):
Four Stroke Creep at Studio ZLive (7 Meg) Our first gig. John, Bill, our first drummer , and me.
Four Stroke Creep the Holiday Bowl (23 Meg) Our last gig. John, Bill, our last drummer JT, and me.
The Poet and the Patriot Open Mic: My favorite place. I've been going there for a long time. Maybe around 7 years. I've got dozens of recording scattered around. I put my most recent ones from 2005 first and then older ones:
Nothing At All (5 Meg) Allison Krause. I learned this for a wedding. Uses a trippy wave effect. September 18, 2005
Don't Give Up (12 Meg) Peter Gabriel. A little reggaed version.uses a scrolling lyrics effect (although you might not be able to read it). September 18, 2005
(audio only) Margaritaville , Hotel California
Other Open Mics: Santa Fe Bar and Grill and Brainwash open mics:
Santa Fe 2004 (audio only): Beer Run (Todd Snyder), Family Tradition (Hank Williams Jr.), Never Going Back (Fleetwood Mac), You May Be Right (Billy Joel), Desperado (Eagles)
Brainwash 2003 (audio only):Love Her Gently (Tenacious D), Love Her Gently Again! (different date), You May Be Right, Explosivo (Tenacious D),
Cool Miscellaneous: A wedding and a party:
Rebecca Singing at Mark and Debby's Wedding: Rebecca and I did Nothing At All during the wedding ceremony and once before the band started to play. This is the version we sang before the band was going to play. The video is fairly hard to see, but the audio is fairly good. You can hear the band start to join us towards half way through. It was pretty cool. I let the guitarist even do a little solo before the ending. Nothing at All (2 MEG) September 2004
Casa Padilla House Party with Ken Stringfellow: This was Ken, John, Tom and I playing "Sweet Home Casa Padilla". Ken recants many a verse of John stories. I am off screen playing Ken's awesome guitar, and I can't help but go into a completely over-the-top shredding solo everytime I get the chance. It more than what's required for the tune, but I was in heaven playing that sweet piece of axe! Click HERE (8 Meg) (10 minutes long) around March 2004
So-so Miscellaneous: These are included purely to show how fast I can learn a song. These are songs that I did as a dare or an audition piece. Enjoy!:
This next song is a weird one. I had create a myspace group to have musician learn, play and record songs that other people request. So to get the ball rolling, I offerered a challenge: I would pick someone's song, learn it, record it, and out it on the Internet within ONE HOUR. The song I chose was "Tiger Lily" by "Matchbox Romance" and it took me a total of 70 minutes to get it on the Internet. So remember.... this is a song that I'd never heard before! I downloaded it, downloaded the music and lyrics, practiced it maybe three times through, recorded it, transferred it to m y computer and uploaded to the Internet in a little of an hour. Tiger Lily by Don (3 Meg) It was either that or "Hazy Shade of Winter" or "Barbie Girl".
Here's the original: Tiger Lily by Matchbox Romance (4 Meg)
Another quickly learned number, this time for an audition. There was no hurry so I did it in day. One Of These Nights (3 Meg) They never called backed.
A Couple Pictures:
pic1 from Santa Fe
pic2 with Four Stroke Creep
Three Galleries from Santa Fe
Revision History: I'll keep track of additions to this page here.
Version 1.2: December 2, 2007: Added the recent Poet recording.
Version 1.1: September 20, 2006: Added the first E3 MP3.
Version 1.0: December 14, 2005