Monday, October 26, 2009

Monte Carlo 76's Arizona Trip (Tag: Monte Carlo 76,gigs,Arizona,TonaTierra,Chicano Batman,Olmeca,Carly's Bistro)

Just got back from Monte Carlo 76's trip to Arizona with many good memories. First and foremost the music and playing was great, with all three shows coming off without a hitch. Adding a computer to the mix has been interesting and I think we'll need to streamline in some areas, but overall it's working.

We were lucky this time to be able to travel in Alex's RV! I'd never traveled in an RV yet and now I'm hooked. With lots of sleeping room, a stove, bathroom, etc. it's a luxury compared to the vans I've toured in in the past. Except for the last night, Gomez, Alex and myself slept in the RV.

It was great to see Arizona through meeting Marisa's family and friends. We got to meet her mom, aunt, sister, and other friends in Phoenix. Our last night in Phoenix we spent with her husband Chris' family on what was basically a ranch outside of the city. The next morning we had an awesome breakfast that included grilled steaks. Maya even got to ride a horse (see slideshow).

One of the side benefits of playing live music are the people that you get to meet and I really enjoyed getting to know Maya better on this trip. She sounded great on backing vocals and on the raps that she contributed to Sun Will Rise and Intoxicating. We also got to hear some of the tracks off her new album. Stay tuned for that one, it sounds really strong.

Speaking of Intoxicating and Sun Will Rise, we're working on remixes of those tunes that we hope to release soon. The beats are strong and danceable, we'll let you know when they're ready. 

It must be a time for new music, as Chicano Batman were selling their new CD and Olmeca is getting ready to drop his new one. This was the lineup for the first two shows at Sports on Congress and TonaTierra. Both shows were pretty well attended and were a great way to show Phoenix our own little cross-section of LA music. One of the highlights of the TonaTierra show were the jams that got all of the musicians together for some freestyle raps courtesy of Maya and Olmeca over some funk and cumbia.

At Carly's Bistro Doug Bale and Mike Montoya played solo sets before and after ours. Doug's set was acoustic versions of mostly 90's rock, while Mike gave us a set of his originals, which got me intrigued to hear more. Special thanks to Doug for letting me use his Super Reverb.

That's about it, the pictures should give you a little more as well.

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