Current Plump News!!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Fault Lines Journal (Mid February)

The beginning

We were very excited to be asked by Horsehead Theatre Company to work with them on the play "Fault Lines". "hat had happened was" was that one of my neighbors (who is often found amongst a group of people standing and sitting in front of my house drinking beer) is the cousin of the wife of this dude named Drake. Drake began drinking beer in front of my house on occasion and came to see PLUMP several times, and I guess liked what he heard. It also happens that Drake is a damn fine actor, is a member of the theatre company, and played "Bill" in this here play.

Anyhoo, when they started doing prep work for the play, they decided they wanted some sort of live band for the play. As such, due to our connection with Drake, they approached us about possibly doing the music. Which was very nice. Especially since we had limited experience doing this type of thing. Although Al and Jason might have, now that I think of it. But so what. SO, all they had to go on was what Drake had heard. So then Drake asked for a "meeting" and so we had a "meeting" with Drake and the Director of the play (another dude named Kevin) in which they came to our practice studio and discussed the particulars of the play, what they wanted from us, etc. And they brought a bunch of Lone Star beer (and I immediately knew that they were our kind of people). (Of course, Drake already knew of our speciial affinity for Lone Star.) So, back to what they wanted of us-- which happened to be an "overture" (if you will) which they call "Ceremony" that had to be raucous and raw and loud and building up and up (and lasting 5-10 minutes). And then they wanted us to provide the underscore for the play. Which meant playing quietly underneath the play action. We thought this was a capital idea. They thought this was a capital idea. Etc. Still, the director hadn't really heard us.

So, our first assignment (two weeks away) was to come up with the Ceremony part. After some starts and stops and misunderstandings and Doug even yelling at Jason (for god know's what), we had something that we wanted to show them. We wanted to give it to them a bit early so if they hated it, we would still have time. Luckily, they really liked what we had done, and even said make the beginning part much more long and early Pink Floyd-like, which we liked. Kevin told me, "I didn't know if you guys were any good or anything. I asked Drake before we went in there--what if we hate it, What do we do, and what do we tell them? " Luckily, they really dug it, and we shook hands and laughed and ran around in circles. Good, great, wonderful. And we were on to the underscore. To be continued....

Monday, March 15, 2010

Luna on FEB 27

Made the haul into Lake Charles a couple weeks back. LUNA was the place. For those that have never been to LUNA, they have very very very good food, and they always give us sandwiches or burgers and a case of miller high life or miller light. I love it!!

Everybody at LUNA is always really good to us. We had a pretty decent crowd on FEB 27. We played an early set, and part of the reason for the crowd was that the show had been double-booked, and some DJ's from Oakland were in town to do a DJ set, that also included some live instruments. It looked and sounded pretty cool.

Good crowd, and we had them up dancing.We always stop in Beaumont on the way back after the show at the PETRO. If you have driven 1-10 east to Louisiana you have driven past it. If you ever go in, tell them PLUMP sent you. Jody gets the spirit award for even drving on back to Austin after dropping us off.