Frogs Gone Fishin' received some nice press this weekend by the good people at The Steamboat Pilot. You can read the article and interview HERE.
We really appreciate when interviewers make us sound more intelligent than we really are and don't attempt to blow us up as "the next big thing", but rather report about how hard we work and tour!
Monday, November 24
Saturday, November 15
Back at Home
The band has settled down and will take respite from tour life for the next three months until making a long anticipated move to New Orleans. Until then FGF will play shows around Colorado most every weekend, building a fan base and capital to pay rent at our sublet in North Denver which has turned out to be a perfect fit, replete with kitchen, office, rehearsal space, living room for watching Broncos wins, and an extra bedroom for hosting company.
Needless to say, band life is pretty cushy as compared to our frenetic two-month fall tour. We even had this thing called the "internet" hooked up yesterday.
Just because we've found some regularity and even fruit and vegetables in our daily lives these days, doesn't mean we don't face challenges at our job constantly. Although we've worked hard enough to build a local gig schedule that will support costs like living in a house, such an intensive schedule can have its downsides. So many gigs cause a band to walk to the fine line between exposure and over-saturation in a given market. This phenomena really comes down to supply and demand economics.
The "demand" for a given musical act in a geographic region is static at any time. As soon as the supply of live shows by this artist surpasses the demand, attendance at shows will drop.
Most successful bands I've had experience with know this rule. They will play only once every four months to once every couple years in a market depending on their overall popularity, size of the market and size of venues available. This packs out the shows they do play, giving the appearance that the artist would be a sell out every time!
This may seem a sterile, non-artistic way to look at growing a fan base. But realizing the economics of the situation can help a band realize they need to make every show special from the minute it is booked, through promotion to the last note and final curtain.
And I don't mean special to the musicians on-stage. Some bands (Phish, The Allman Bros.) have seemingly defied these laws of music market economics and are capable of holding weekend-long festivals with no support acts, or 15-night runs at theaters, all because they forge a unique experience out of every show. This requires much forethought, rehearsal and many, many songs in the band's catalog. Not to mention musicianship that is as broad as it is deep.
It is this breadth and depth of material which our substanial gig schedule does allow for. We get to hone our skills in many different genres and styles, even if we are playing for ourselves sometimes...
We do get the opportunity to make some shows special in their own way. We took the stage minutes after Barack Obama made history on Nov. 4, playing to an ecstatic crowd at the Fox Theater in Boulder who had four years of optimism on their minds. For our scheduled NYE show in Denver at The Wash Park Grille, we plan on playing the psychedelic soundtrack to a late 90's cult film classic, corresponding costumes and all.
The bottom line is that we are a very young band and it would be impossible at this point to prize quality of production and promotion over quantity of gigs necessary to support ourselves.
A quote by someone who should be an inspiration to everyone in the music industry can help sum up what I mean:
Needless to say, band life is pretty cushy as compared to our frenetic two-month fall tour. We even had this thing called the "internet" hooked up yesterday.
Just because we've found some regularity and even fruit and vegetables in our daily lives these days, doesn't mean we don't face challenges at our job constantly. Although we've worked hard enough to build a local gig schedule that will support costs like living in a house, such an intensive schedule can have its downsides. So many gigs cause a band to walk to the fine line between exposure and over-saturation in a given market. This phenomena really comes down to supply and demand economics.
The "demand" for a given musical act in a geographic region is static at any time. As soon as the supply of live shows by this artist surpasses the demand, attendance at shows will drop.
Most successful bands I've had experience with know this rule. They will play only once every four months to once every couple years in a market depending on their overall popularity, size of the market and size of venues available. This packs out the shows they do play, giving the appearance that the artist would be a sell out every time!
This may seem a sterile, non-artistic way to look at growing a fan base. But realizing the economics of the situation can help a band realize they need to make every show special from the minute it is booked, through promotion to the last note and final curtain.
And I don't mean special to the musicians on-stage. Some bands (Phish, The Allman Bros.) have seemingly defied these laws of music market economics and are capable of holding weekend-long festivals with no support acts, or 15-night runs at theaters, all because they forge a unique experience out of every show. This requires much forethought, rehearsal and many, many songs in the band's catalog. Not to mention musicianship that is as broad as it is deep.
It is this breadth and depth of material which our substanial gig schedule does allow for. We get to hone our skills in many different genres and styles, even if we are playing for ourselves sometimes...
We do get the opportunity to make some shows special in their own way. We took the stage minutes after Barack Obama made history on Nov. 4, playing to an ecstatic crowd at the Fox Theater in Boulder who had four years of optimism on their minds. For our scheduled NYE show in Denver at The Wash Park Grille, we plan on playing the psychedelic soundtrack to a late 90's cult film classic, corresponding costumes and all.
The bottom line is that we are a very young band and it would be impossible at this point to prize quality of production and promotion over quantity of gigs necessary to support ourselves.
A quote by someone who should be an inspiration to everyone in the music industry can help sum up what I mean:
"Now... what ya'll wanna do?
Wanna be Ballers? Shot-callers?
Brawlers -- who be dippin in the benz wit the spoilers
On the low from the jake in the taurus
Tryin to get my hands on some grants like horace
Yeah livin the raw deal, three course meals
Spaghetti, fettucini, and veal
But still, everything's real in the field.."
-Puff Daddy, "It's All About the Benjamins"
Wanna be Ballers? Shot-callers?
Brawlers -- who be dippin in the benz wit the spoilers
On the low from the jake in the taurus
Tryin to get my hands on some grants like horace
Yeah livin the raw deal, three course meals
Spaghetti, fettucini, and veal
But still, everything's real in the field.."
-Puff Daddy, "It's All About the Benjamins"
Saturday, November 8
Tour Visuals
This is what tour looks like...
Cheers everybody! Frogs Gone Fishin' Tour '08.
Portwood sometimes wears a flag on-stage, to show his patriotism.
Playing music makes me smile.
Oftentimes tour is a blur; it's not so black and white.
The Mustache Dance.
Frogs in Minneapolis, MN.
Colorful attire keeps things spicy at work. Photo by Sari Blum.
A nap can help keep you refreshed......and ready for the next show!
Monday, November 3
Tour... Check!
Frogs Gone Fishin' rolled into Denver on Saturday, weary and tired from 50 days on the road. The mountains have never looked so good. Traveling west on I-70, you don't see the distant purple outline of the Front Range until you are well inside Colorado, a beacon for your arrival in Denver.
The final driving leg of tour was particularly grueling, 23 hours and 1,141 miles in the car after our last gig in Asheville, NC. We stopped for a Halloween get-together with our friends Kinetix, another Denver-based band, in Columbia, MO. Switching off in the driver's seat every three to four hours, I drove the 6 30am shift through that less-than-scenic neighbor state, Kansas. The sunrise over the cornfields was pink and inviting as we approached the Colorado border.
We've had a short break from music since Saturday, but rehearsed yesterday in preparation for our homecoming gig in Boulder tonight at The Fox Theater. This will be our biggest show in Colorado to date, and we couldn't be more excited. We'll have more of an extended break from touring through the winter, as we plan on playing shows within Colorado until we depart for New Orleans for another semi-permanent stay in February.
Some highlights of tour included:
- Making it to Flagstaff for the first gig of tour, after our car failed to start in New Mexico.
- Discovering Bar PM in Lubbock, TX. They treated us well and the kids at Tech know how to get down.
- Austin City Limits (I scored a free ticket!).
- Helping people in Houston feel some sense of normalcy after Hurricane Gustav wreaked havoc on their city. (After going through Katrina in NOLA, I could relate).
- Discovering Lake Charles, LA.
- Everything in New Orleans, always. See the post here for a more complete write-up.
- Playing for the debate watch party in Nashville. For a town as conservative as Nashville, the Democrats really know how to party and get behind their candidate.
- The surprisingly chill atmosphere and creative energy of Dubuque, Iowa.
- Carbondale and Normal, Illinois. Cool people all over Illinois.
- Staying at Carl the sound guy's house in Minneapolis. This house is filled with musicians, sound-guys, light-guys, creativity and energy. A house like this would benefit the music scene in any city.
- Too many car-bombs at the Irish pub show in Milwaukee.
- Thanksgiving dinner, prepared for us in Green Bay.
- Going to sleep back in Nashville after driving straight from Green Bay.
- Collaborating with our friends DJ Bowls and The Green Horns in Tennessee.
- The hotel room in Kentucky, a luxury so late in tour.
- Discovering North Carolina and Asheville, a heady town in a beautiful state.
- The first glimpse of our beautiful home under the mountains, Denver.
To distill all the events and faces of tour down to such a simple list would betray tour itself. In private we will thank everyone that fed, housed, helped, handled, handed-down, and tolerated us for their hospitality.
It takes me several days to adjust to life at home after tour. Sleeping in a bed, eating regular meals and interacting with the same set of people everyday outside of the band all feel awkward. Driving a car less than 30 feet long feels like driving a go-kart. The show tomorrow night at The Fox will help ease us back into the routine... We get to see all our friends at once.
The final driving leg of tour was particularly grueling, 23 hours and 1,141 miles in the car after our last gig in Asheville, NC. We stopped for a Halloween get-together with our friends Kinetix, another Denver-based band, in Columbia, MO. Switching off in the driver's seat every three to four hours, I drove the 6 30am shift through that less-than-scenic neighbor state, Kansas. The sunrise over the cornfields was pink and inviting as we approached the Colorado border.
We've had a short break from music since Saturday, but rehearsed yesterday in preparation for our homecoming gig in Boulder tonight at The Fox Theater. This will be our biggest show in Colorado to date, and we couldn't be more excited. We'll have more of an extended break from touring through the winter, as we plan on playing shows within Colorado until we depart for New Orleans for another semi-permanent stay in February.
Some highlights of tour included:
- Making it to Flagstaff for the first gig of tour, after our car failed to start in New Mexico.
- Discovering Bar PM in Lubbock, TX. They treated us well and the kids at Tech know how to get down.
- Austin City Limits (I scored a free ticket!).
- Helping people in Houston feel some sense of normalcy after Hurricane Gustav wreaked havoc on their city. (After going through Katrina in NOLA, I could relate).
- Discovering Lake Charles, LA.
- Everything in New Orleans, always. See the post here for a more complete write-up.
- Playing for the debate watch party in Nashville. For a town as conservative as Nashville, the Democrats really know how to party and get behind their candidate.
- The surprisingly chill atmosphere and creative energy of Dubuque, Iowa.
- Carbondale and Normal, Illinois. Cool people all over Illinois.
- Staying at Carl the sound guy's house in Minneapolis. This house is filled with musicians, sound-guys, light-guys, creativity and energy. A house like this would benefit the music scene in any city.
- Too many car-bombs at the Irish pub show in Milwaukee.
- Thanksgiving dinner, prepared for us in Green Bay.
- Going to sleep back in Nashville after driving straight from Green Bay.
- Collaborating with our friends DJ Bowls and The Green Horns in Tennessee.
- The hotel room in Kentucky, a luxury so late in tour.
- Discovering North Carolina and Asheville, a heady town in a beautiful state.
- The first glimpse of our beautiful home under the mountains, Denver.
To distill all the events and faces of tour down to such a simple list would betray tour itself. In private we will thank everyone that fed, housed, helped, handled, handed-down, and tolerated us for their hospitality.
It takes me several days to adjust to life at home after tour. Sleeping in a bed, eating regular meals and interacting with the same set of people everyday outside of the band all feel awkward. Driving a car less than 30 feet long feels like driving a go-kart. The show tomorrow night at The Fox will help ease us back into the routine... We get to see all our friends at once.
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