hahah oh wow, now, where to even begin with this show experience?! 😉

well, see, it all began with a thank you text to T-ROY, the gentleman kind enough to book for us our first L.A. show at crane’s hollywood tavern! he explained how this was the opportunity of a lifetime! one that every musician and band dreams of! playing the house of blues in hollywood! woo hoo! not sure if we be having the same dreams, but i knew what he meant, haha.

anyhow, only catch was that there was a presale ticket requirement in place. boooo! it didn’t seem much at first glance, 50 tickets at $10 a piece, a grand total of $500, but sh*t! still! pay-to-play! come on! lame. but “hey!” we thought, “how often does one get the opportunity to play at the house of blues?!” so, reluctantly, we as pom-c all chipped in and put $250 down as a deposit for our performance.

next to come was the process of promoting the show and selling the tickets (which, by the way, did not even have our bands’ name on them! pretty lame, wouldnt you say?!) anyhow, turned out that the majority of people interested in buying tickets for our show were our close friends, fam, and fans! mos’ def’, THEY are the ones to support, but the thing was that we didn’t want them to have to be the ONLY ones to have to support our show! they had already done so much for us that it felt really whack to put them on the spot a 2nd time for tixs, but, God bless them, they were all so gracious and supportive that they stepped up to the plate anyway and without hesitation. SOOO many thanks go to them.

now, the folks in-charge of the production were lagging pretty bad + failing to uphold their end of the bargain (a.k.a. promotions, flyers, etc). pretty disheartening stuff. but whatever. screw it. only thing to do at this juncture was step up and do it ourselves! so we did 🙂

come the night of the show, we had succeeded in selling approx. 25 tickets and all were really jazzed up to perform! however, a bit of that enthusiasm got rusty-razor-shanked when we were asked to pay $15 for parking at the venue. double lame!! especially after paying $500 jus’ to play! freakin’ jackals! hahah, but once again, sweet “peaceofmind” prevailed oh yea!

we proceeded inside and instantly were taken aback! the decor was hella nice and plush! everything super lavish and eye-candily tantalizing! the walls ornate. the rooms decked out. we even had our own green/dressing room! (though t’was shared with a few of the other bands performing that night, many of whom, we would later find out, were straight off in their own little worlds with no time for conversing with us). however! there was ONE sweet exception! and that was the MARC PALMER TRIO! these kats rocked it like none other and are an amazing rock trio, mos’ definitely check ’em when ya have the chance!

anyhow, we decided to forget the lame promoters and musicians and instead jus’ straight up chill and kick it, laughing having a good ole time, watching and supporting the other bands on the bill, drinking getting all geared up enjoying each other’s company, all while trying not to focus on the fact that our set was slowly but surely getting pushed back 5-10 minutes with each preceding act! hot damn, keeping this positive upbeat tip was becoming a difficult thing to do, but most definitely not impossible. amazing how good thoughts and positive-minded people and the ability to laugh at life can truly lift you up, yup yup, believe that.

so now, here we are, hitting the stage, it’s 12:35 am, the official time our set is supposed to have been ending, and we are setting up on stage and most of the crowd has already cleared out on account of it’s a wednesday night. but it’s still all good! cos yo check it, once again our crew is there in full force! 30 or so strong mobbin’ deep! oh yea!

but then it happens, the opening song, the beat drops all crazy and the sound is all f*d up! shiznit! dj kenny k scrambles to adjust, figuring it out quick, and the crew pom-c keeps rolling on strong as the show goes on! excellent as our peeps are now getting down and loving it! a half-hour later we reach the end of our set, the homeys screaming out “encore! encore!”, which is perfect, cos we’ve got just the right track lined up and ready to drop for ’em, when BAM! shut down! the sound gets cut and the projector screen starts lowering onto the stage. booo! our set is done. darn 🙁 and the night is over for peaceofmind. or so it seems…hehehe 😉

anyhow, shoots. how anti-climatic. but you know what?! there is always a silver lining in every gray cloud, and the silver we found imbued in this cloud was that even though the venue was grabby and over-priced, the promoters kinda sheisty, and the other bands/musicians a tad snobby, our fans and friends were integrity, our band fam fraternity, and our direction and goals as a crew became clearer than we’d ever known before! the peaceofmind movement! hard up in the underground arena, the corporate-free zone, the independent district circuit! strictly and always playing for our OWN peace of mind and as to serve as an example to other artists and to show future generations of musicians that that which we do and that which we create, and how what we do, isn’t for the glitz and the glamour or for the cash money dollars, but rather, for the devotion and passion and integrity we share as musicians, artists, and human beings. we jus’ wish to experience life and all of the sweetness it has to offer, free from the corporate bureacracy and the materialistic bullshit. always remembering that music is art and art is music. and both are, just like people, priceless.

once again y’all, thanks for all your continued love & support! we love you all!

peace & love fam 🙂

sincerely,

-sam the pakman & the peaceofmind crew