Too many irons in the fire...

Well first of all, last nights show went swimmingly. CARBONSTONE had the highest draw of the night, we even upstaged Psychostick, and we destroyed Dead by Wednesday. Bourbon Street was just about completely empty for the first two sets. The the place filled up all at once as soon as we took the stage. Once our set was over about half the crowd left. Two sets later Psychostick took the stage and did their thing. They did a great job, I loved their set, and even got a signed set list and a free CD. I almost felt bad that we had a bigger crowd than them. Once they did finish their set the place cleared the f*&% out, and there was nobody left to watch the last 2 bands.

We are in talks to play Noise In The Basement soon, hopefully that pans out.

And one other bit of news about the multi track, for those of you who have been following the roller coaster ride (see last post). I talked to the local Mackie repair place and they said there was a rash of problems with the main boards needing to be replaced because of a bad bios update and chips burning out, and that Mackie was honoring them as warranty claims because it was a problem they created. Thought I might be getting a new board for free, but such was not the case. They called me up and told me that it was the SCSI controller and it would cost $150 to fix it.

So, on to the "Irons in the fire". I have been cursed/blessed (depending on how you look at it) with a multitude of opportunities, all of which look appealing. The problem is that none of them are a sure thing, not even my current day job, which I love.

I am in 3 bands, 2 and 1/2 really since one is more of a one time project. CARBONSTONE is a fun band to be in, and we are being met with a lot of success and potentially lucrative offers. War Driver is also a lot of fun and lets me enjoy the heavier side of my musical tastes even though our progress has been slow, partly due to my cancelling practice a few times lately. The KATZI reunion project is sort of something that has been 10 years in the making, and something that has been put off for way too long. Then there is the studio and the shows I promote. 3 bands, a studio, a production company and a day job, none of which I am interested in parting ways with.

Problem #1, the obvious one, time in the day. How do I fit it all in with 3 kids, a fiancé and all that goes with it?

Problem #2, unpredictable schedule. Work has been slow, really slow. But I can't be sure from one day to the next if there will be work for me, so I can't schedule other endeavors around that down time, otherwise I would be in pretty good shape.

Problem #3, one of the bands takes off. If that happens I would have to pretty much drop everything else. The studio, the day job, everything, especially if touring is a part of the picture. We actually got a tour offer last night, but I think were going to pass on it, because it was one of the last bands, one that had no following. And were all in a position where we can only afford to go on a regional tour, one that allows us to be home most of the time, only be gone for a day or two at a time.

Problem #4, which could actually end up being a blessing. I just had a meeting tonight with a local "dude" who is trying to start a studio that is funded by doing corporate sound reinforcement. Mostly spoken word type stuff, maybe DJ stuff too. Sounds like a good idea, and he is also interested in promoting local music. He has a bunch of really good ideas, a small team of guys with some real world skills, a knack for marketing and sales and some good connections in the industry with real name brand people. What he lacks is lot of physical assets, assets I do have, and of course I have some skills to put on the table too. But this brings me back to the whole time issue. In order for this to work I would have to integrate this guys goals into the scope of Threshold Productions, and/or mine into his operation. I need to find a new name for my operation anyway since there is some techno DJ out of Scandinavia who uses that name. Otherwise we are back to the whole time in a day issue.

Well I guess that is all I really have to complain about today. We did broadcast the show last night, but we used a different service, www.bambuser.com this time. I will be adding an embedded player for that service at the bottom of this page as well. Check out the show archive, not the best quality, but fun to watch from my biased point of view.

Neely