Some of my Favorite Things about Song Fight Live

[ken]

meeting new songfighters
drunken shenanigans
seeing songfighters improve as performers
Spud. What's he gonna look like this year?
hearing songs I may have missed in the fights
seeing old songfight friends
playing music for three days straight

[JonPorobil]

ROCK!

In other news, the Salt Lake City airport actually has free wifi. Which is good, because I'm here for three frigging hours. See you all real soon!

\m/

[roymond]

drunken shenanigans

I'll have none of that.

[jack]

lucky bastards. have fun. wish i was going.

to anyone going for the first time and is nervous about meeting a bunch of strange people from the internet. relax. it will be the high point of your summer.

[HeuristicsInc]

me too. i am bummed to not be going.
there are a lot of "west coasters" and "midwesterners" that i would love to meet sometime.
-bill

[Paco Del Stinko]

I too wish I were going but am unable. There are many folks I'd love to meet and watch perform, and wish I could play with. I will echo Jack's statement about any nervous first-timers, though. At my first Live! event last year, everyone was gracious and accommodating. You already have a bit of a head start in knowing each other and it makes it easy. Have a great time everybody, and keep the updates coming.

[JonPorobil]

Well, I just had dinner with Glenn, Rachael, fluffy, Sheail, and InevitableGuy (after meeting them all for the first time tonight) and had just a wonderful time. Hit it off with everyone immediately.

Nothing to worry about, folks!

[ken]

I remember my first dinner at sfl seattle with spud, hoblit, fluffy, and mad dog. I kept thinking , "that voice is sooo familiar. Oh yeah its the guy from Octothorpe."

[fluffy]

Meeting Mad Dog for the first time: "holy crap that's his actual voice"

Meeting Jon Eric for the first time: "holy crap that's his actual voice"

[Hoblit]

I remember my first dinner at sfl seattle with spud, hoblit, fluffy, and mad dog. I kept thinking , "that voice is sooo familiar. Oh yeah its the guy from Octothorpe."

Whats really funny is that after you meet everyone, for weeks after you read their posts in their voice. Takes some time to shake off.

[JonPorobil]

I remember my first dinner at sfl seattle with spud, hoblit, fluffy, and mad dog. I kept thinking , "that voice is sooo familiar. Oh yeah its the guy from Octothorpe."

Whats really funny is that after you meet everyone, for weeks after you read their posts in their voice. Takes some time to shake off.

Why would you want to shake that off? One of the best parts of this so far is being able to put a face and a voice to all these words.

(t-minus 45 minutes to first rehearsal! squeee!!!)

[roymond]

Waffles with Blue in Seattle. Trying to recreate either part of that, but so far the waffle part looks unattainable.

[fluffy]

Well there's no Blue either.

[jack]

i don't miss 30 people trying to cram into my little house to practice.

but it was cool for one day anyways.

[jack]

hey, you guys with twitter accounts should post updates with something like #songfightlive or #sfrr. or #octothorpe (although that's kind of redundant).

[roymond]

1. Songwriter, singer, guitarist and SF house drummer Ken.
2. Informal jams after the show. In this case, Glenn Case playing almost every one of his 10,000 favorite songs.

[fluffy]

Eating breakfast at a diner whose mascot/logo looks like a very constipated dog and with a rather ominously ambiguous slogan of, "You'll never leave hungry"

"Accidentally" leaving copies of my CD in weird places

Not needing to explain how my music is a hobby that I do for fun

Getting a reminder that I am at best mediocre as a musician but that it's also okay since it's all just for fun

Free coffee from venues which are confused about how many people are in "my band"

Random jamming

Finding weird signs while being around other people who immediately get the jokes I make about them

LARPing as a rock star

[JonPorobil]

Getting smashed in real life with people I've only known online for SIX YEARS.

Being snarked at for missing SF Live 2004 in Austin.

Snarking back.

Watching the John Benjamin choir rehearse, and then being called out: "Jon Eric, would you like to sing with us?"

Hearing a ton of Songfight classics that I'd never heard before.

That guy who wandered up to us looking for a community of musicians; Glenn let him play a song and he sounded just like Jason Mraz.

Those two audience members who used to follow Songfight back in the day, and actually paid to see the show without knowing any of us personally.

Sheail saying "I don't know the first thing about how to play a banjo," and then absolutely nailing a banjo solo on an impromptu rendition of the Nutwalls' "Crossroads."

Peer pressuring Hoblit.

Finally buying Spud that beer I owed him.

Glenn's acoustic rap version of Frontalot's "Gonna Be Your Man."

Breakfast with Sam & Erin.

Tons of great Songfight Trivia questions, most of which I'm sure I'll forget.

This was some of the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. It's a little strange; I've spent most of this weekend with a sort of parallel-universe life flashing before my eyes:
"What if I had made it to Austin after all? What if I had met (most) these people five years ago?"

[irwin]

<mad dog>
Knock knock
(Who's there)
Masturbating.
(Masturbating who?)
ME!
</mad dog>

[Mike Lamb]

- Meeting kindred spirits, the fine people of Song Fight!

- The unconditional hospitality of Glenn and Rachael (and Roy, thanks for driving!)

- The epicness of it all

- The harmony vocals from the audience on "Mad City"

- Glenn: "Admittedly, I did not know what to expect with Kasper, but they, I think, just rocked our collective socks off."

- Being asked to play on people's live fights! Sorry about all the mistakes

- Pulling off a song written in 10 minutes about the undead Jackson 5 and taking home a WIN!!

- Living the rock star life for a week.

[inevitableguy]

What everybody else said, plus:

- Being the new guy and never feeling like that made me any less relevant.

- The best grilled cheese sandwiches in Spokane.

- Seeing my band name on a poster hanging in random store windows throughout the city.

And it's already been said, but I'm going to say it again because it deserves another mention:

- Glenn and Rachael's never ending hospitality.

[GlennCase]

Some thoughts (and thank yous) regarding the people that made Song Fight Live: Rock and Rocker what it was!

- Nelle and Travis
Nelle and Travis are local friends of ours, and they worked very hard behind the scenes to make the breakfast and barbecue a success on Saturday. Travis cooked at the BBQ, Nelle did a ton of prepwork, and they provided many of the extra chairs and amenities. Quite simply: things would not have worked out nearly as well as it did without their assistance. Thank you!

- Hoblit
It was fun to peer pressure Hoblit into performing an impromptu song near the end of the night on Friday. It was totally worth it too, because the song rocked! Was stoked to see that he brought his "Dangerously Cheesy" shirt with him. Hobs has not missed a Songfight live event since the first one he attended! That has to be some sort of record! Why, the only person I can think of that might apply to is...

- John Benjamin
Sunday/Monday gave Rachael and I the chance to spend some extra time with JB, and that worked out very nicely. We played his "Full Metal Jacket" at the end of this month's portion of my 120 song countdown. I squeezed in an interview with him, we started writing a song together, we went and saw "Moon" in theaters, checked out the Japanese gardens at Manito Park...

- Jon Eric
It was such a kick to finally meet Jon in person. Jon joined Songfight at an early enough age that we've been able to see him genuinely improve over the years. I think he must have taken classes at the 15-16 puzzle institute, where he was encouraged to write songs with 12,000 chord changes in them. Kudos to Jon for hanging in there during the live fight, even as the song fell to pieces.

- Irwin
People say that I am animated when I play Rock Band. Those people have not seen Irwin. The man plays in FULL ROCK STAR MODE, complete with jumping and erratic movements. I didn't know what to expect from Kasper (Irwin and Mike Lamb), but they played a thoroughly entertaining set. A highlight of the weekend: Irwin saw my Run DMC shirt as I walked into Neato Burrito, and he started an impromptu, acapella version of "You Be Illin'". I gladly joined in, as did many others.

- Mike Lamb
I didn't get to hang out with Mike very often over the weekend with everything going on, but he was nice enough to play bass for our "They Meet" entry. As I mentioned with Irwin's entry, Kasper played a great set, and I'm very glad that both of them made the trip from California to be here for Songfight Live. You know who else made the trip from California?

- Ken Mahru
I'm not going to lie: I've been friends with Ken since Songfight Live Austin, and he is one of my favorite people on the planet. Among his many charming traits: He's helpful, honest, kind, and a hell of a songwriter to boot. He may not have played drums on everybody's set, but he was on that stage more often than he was off. He's probably still recovering from that. I'm glad I was able to take some time to interview Ken on my podcast over the weekend.

- Marcus and Theophilus Monk
I didn't get a chance to hang out with the guys from Theophilus Monk, but I did attempt to keep up with Marcus and Stuart on their impromptu cover of 15-16 Puzzle's "Fuzzy Logic" on Friday night. I didn't do so well, but it was fun. I was shocked to hear that they got into a car accident on the way home, and I was glad to hear that they're okay, even if their car is not.

- Merisan
A group of us shared a house during Songfight Santa Cruz, and that group of friends will always be Team Seahorse to me. Sam and Erin were part of that crew, and it was so nice to see them again! I was so nervous about ruining the Berkeley Social Scene set, so it was a relief when it went well. It's worth mentioning that Sam and Erin helped with chauffeuring songfighters around, and Erin also worked very hard behind the scenes at breakfast and the BBQ. Very helpful, wonderful peeps!

- Glen
Was nice to finally meet the guy that shares my name minus one N. Not sure I made the best first impression when I drove past our destination after Ken and I picked him up at the airport, only to turn around and miss it again. Heck of a guitar player and a nice guy, too.

I still owe y'all some thoughts about - Sean (Crank Radio), Naked Philosophy (Mike), Octothorpe, Rachael, Roymond, Sheail and Fluffy when I'm not needing to get ready for work.

ROCK!

Glenn Case