The Song Fight Bulletin Board

And since you are traveling with Holly, I reckon she would need a Sunday slot as well.

Hmmm. This is going to take some logistics.

Here's a thought.

Saturday- solo night and Sunday- group night.

Saturday, we do some solo acoustic sets.
Sunday, we form up as bands and do sets.

Currently, we are leaning heavily on the Sunday side. This way we have sets for both.

Might I make a suggestion that breaks with tradition?

If we are loaded heavy on Sunday, could we please do the Live Fight business on Saturday? Most acts end up G n' G anyway.
I'd much rather have a longer electric set than have to stop earlier so we might do the live fight business.

just a thought.

I'm open to opinions on this.

Looking at the Mise en place website it looks like they also allow drums and amplification in their performances, so that doesn't necessarily require that Saturday shows must be G+G/acoustic, right? Like, my set is going to be guitar+bass+drums but isn't going to be, like, intense in-your-face death metal or whatever, so I might be able to work that out logistically with my drummer friend (who lives in Brooklyn anyway).

Niveous wrote:Also worth noting, JB's band Menage A Garage will be playing at Don Pedro's in Brooklyn on 7/15.

If that's not your scene, you can also come check out Sidewalk that night. My buddy Bipolar Bradley will be premiering a rough cut of his film No Sequel (The first—and last— horror-satire-end-of-the-world-sci-fi rock musical) at 6, to be followed by performances by John C. Hall of King Missile's new band Unusual Squirrel, and Lorraine Leckie.

Sweet, thanks for the the info: I will aim to do as many of these as possible! Touching and going and such

Okay folks,

We have Mise-en Place from 7 to 10, which isn't a lot of time but that's fine because we are loaded on the Sunday side.

We should consider Glennny's suggestion of a Saturday Live Fight Night so we can best utilize the short time frame.

I'm so pumped for this! I've never been to NYC;kind of a dream come true! I'll be driving down solo on Saturday the 16th, before Jim Tyrrell (who'll roll in on Sunday), so feel free to throw me into a Sat. slot if need be. I'm fine with either day, though. Country mouse in the city, I'm looking forward to connecting with folks when I get in! I'll be staying in Bushwick/BKLYN.

Here's a potential plan of attack:

7/11. Announce Live Fight title. Announce it at Sidewalk open mic as well if randos (or folks I know) want to play along.

7/14. I'm going to a bluegrass show at City Winery. Any SF'ers in town are more than welcome to join me. I have no clue how much tickets cost as I got mine for free.

7/15. Ménage a Garage is playing at Don Pedro's. You can check them out there. Or you can come out with me to Sidewalk where my friend Bipolar Bradley is showing a rough cut of his horror satire musical No Sequel (followed by performances by Unusual Squirrel featuring John C. Hall, and Lorraine Leckie). Or you can do both- you're a rebel.

7/16- Rehearsals at Rivington Studios (I still have to contact them to see if I can get a good group rate). Hop the M train into Bushwick. Saturday night show at Mise En Place. We do a Live Fight Saturday Night. If we run short, we have feature sets from the Fightmasters to end the evening. The night is still young and Bushwick is full of places to go. We can probably hit up Bushwick Public House. Their slogan is Coffee, Whiskey, Culture. That sounds like a potential thing. There's also Gotham City Lounge nearby which is a comic themed dive bar which a pool table and a Street Fighter cabinet.

7-17. We can rehearse or we can do brunch or take in some part of the city. Yay for flexibility. 6 o'clock rolls around and it's time for a night full of Songfight sets. We've got 11 bands. Figure we do something like this (list is just a jumping off point for talking about who goes when)

6:00 Kenka
6:30 Pepper Jane
7:00 Roymond
7:30 Holly Furlone
8:00 The Howling Monkeys
8:30 Sockpuppet
9:00 Jim Tyrrell
9:30 Ben Krieger
10:00 Niveous
10:30 Cavedwellers
11:00 Ménage A Garage

7-18. If you're still in town, return to Sidewalk the next day to take part in NYC's longest running open mic.

How does that all sound?

Thread bookmarked! Will definitely come and see peoples' sets, and I'd love to do a quick song or two saturday with my keyboard if that show is on. Let me know if somebody needs buvox or something for their thing!

The day-to-day schedule looks pretty great.

Is everyone going to play their set on the 17th, then? What's happening on the 16th? It seems a little odd to have such a tight 30-minute schedule for Sidewalk - that's not a lot of time when you consider band changes and so on, and personally I'd love a bit more than just half an hour (as I'm sure everyone else would as well).

EDIT: On re-reading I see that's exactly what you said would happen, with overflow time to "feature sets from the Fightmasters," whatever that is - that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Something that does make sense to me, though, is after the livefight ends, it turns into a general open mic where we can take turns playing the songs that we couldn't fit into our half-hour sets on Sunday, or play RxW tributes or whatever. :)

I would be glad to put in a number or two in the hat for such an open mic. Works for me.

fluffy wrote: Is everyone going to play their set on the 17th, then? What's happening on the 16th? It seems a little odd to have such a tight 30-minute schedule for Sidewalk - that's not a lot of time when you consider band changes and so on, and personally I'd love a bit more than just half an hour (as I'm sure everyone else would as well).

EDIT: On re-reading I see that's exactly what you said would happen, with overflow time to "feature sets from the Fightmasters," whatever that is - that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Something that does make sense to me, though, is after the livefight ends, it turns into a general open mic where we can take turns playing the songs that we couldn't fit into our half-hour sets on Sunday, or play RxW tributes or whatever.

30 minute sets is pretty much the SFL norm.

Agreed, Livefight followed by Songfight: the Open Mic sounds like a swell idea to me.

30 minute sets is the norm but I feel like we could do better. :) But anyway the open mic time is probably enough to cushion the blow.

As a new-bean I have a qn: are we supposed to only play a) Songfight songs (understandable)
b) only SF songs we actually got around to submitting, c) only those that we wrote ourselves or
d) what?
I have a few that I didn't quite complete in time ('House Red', the beginning of Nur Ein's 'Unnecessary' (psychadelic was an interesting concept for g&g) and an idea for 'Hot Tea for my HoT')

I don't know if there's a hard and fast rule. Personally, I have always played a mix of things: songfight songs, ones that I hadn't submitted, outside material...

Same here - I only play stuff that's either Song Fight or SF-related (Circle of Titles) but in the past others have gone far afield and it hasn't been a huge deal. Back in the early days the shows were run like actual Song Fights (we'd take turns playing songs for the same title) but that fell apart after 2003 just because the archive was too big and that's when we switched to sets. People have generally played mostly-Song Fight stuff but I know occasional non-SF things sneak in, and that's fine.

The one thing I'd complain about is people doing covers of non-Song Fight artists. Play your own stuff, or cover stuff by people who would be in the same room if they were able. And most of your stuff should have been for SF/CoT/Nur Ein/etc. - but that's just my opinion. Use your best judgement. :)

Time to do some logistics.

Who needs rehearsal space and which day is better? Saturday or Sunday.

Using this as a starting point, what do you think about your position on the lineup:
6:00 Kenka
6:30 Pepper Jane
7:00 Roymond
7:30 Holly Furlone
8:00 The Howling Monkeys
8:30 Sockpuppet
9:00 Jim Tyrrell
9:30 Ben Krieger
10:00 Niveous
10:30 Cavedwellers
11:00 Ménage A Garage

Getting around on Sunday.

NYC has a vast subway system that will help you get around. Pick up a Metrocard and it's 2.75 per ride. Sidewalk Cafe is located at 94 Avenue A which is the corner of East 6th Street and Avenue A in the Alphabet City section of Manhattan. There are lots of subways nearby.

Take the 6 Train to Astor Place, walk on St. Marks Place (and take in all the sights of East Village) until you hit Tompkins Square Park. You'll be on Avenue A. Head downtown, pass the park, pass the Joe Strummer memorial graffiti, and you'll be at Sidewalk.

Take the L Train to 1st Avenue. Head downtown. Uptown will lead you into the labyrinth of boredom that we call Stuyvesant Town. Don't go there. You'll get lost in twists, turns and a whole lot of nothing. Just head down 1st Avenue until you hit East 7th then head up to Avenue A (The avenue after 1st Ave). One more block and tada.

Take the N or R to the 8th Street NYU stop and you'll be a block away from Astor Place. Then see above.

Take the F Train to 2nd Avenue. Walk uptown on 2nd Avenue until you hit East 6th street and then turn and head to Avenue A (It goes 2nd, 1st, A).

If you get lost, you can always give me a call. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I'm easy enough to catch.

If the NYC subway is too much for you, there are a sea of cabs at all times in Manhattan. Pricier but you pay for convenience.

If you are at Rivington Music Rehearsal Studios rehearsing, go to Attorney Street and then head uptown. You'll hit East Houston. For all you non-New Yorkers, that's HOW-ston, not HEW-ston. Take Houston over to Avenue A and then walk uptown. It's not a very long walk.

Niveous wrote:Time to do some logistics.

Who needs rehearsal space and which day is better? Saturday or Sunday.

Using this as a starting point, what do you think about your position on the lineup:
6:00 Kenka
6:30 Pepper Jane
7:00 Roymond
7:30 Holly Furlone
8:00 The Howling Monkeys
8:30 Sockpuppet
9:00 Jim Tyrrell
9:30 Ben Krieger
10:00 Niveous
10:30 Cavedwellers
11:00 Ménage A Garage

I need rehearsal space, Saturday is better, and 8:30 is fine by me.

Getting around on Saturday

The best way to get to Mise-En Place is the M train. Take the M to the Central Ave stop. When you get out of the train, you'll be on Myrtle Avenue. One exit from that station will land you closer to Hart St., the other Cedar Street. Either one will work. You just need to go up Hart or Cedar to Central Avenue. Then you go onto Hart St. (Hart Street has a break in it) and it's not far down the block. I'll have a Songfight sign up.

If you use the L, take it to DeKalb Ave. Walk down Dekalb until you reach Wilson Avenue. Turn and then go down Hart St.

If you use J, so to Kosciuzko St. That will land you on DeKalb ave. Until with the L, you'll walk up to Central Ave before turning on to Hart St.

You can also use the Z but who the hell uses the Z.

If you are at Rivington Studios rehearsing, the M is the way to go.