This is gonna be a fun show, the Damon Castillo CD release party. We plan on having some serious fun here, you should really join us.
Downtown Brew, SLO, Sat. Nov. 1st.
Also, come see us play at Boo Boo records the Thursday before, from 5:30 to 6.
Rock!
And NO, that’s not me in the bandanna. I’ve to say that very frequently these days…..
Archive for the ‘damon castillo’
Damon Castillo CD Release Party
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Caught a lot of compliments and an equal amount of flack for my writing in this week’s Movie Review in our local rag, the New Times. That was fun.
(If link goes dead I reproduced it here)
Damon Castillo’s brand new album is coming back from mastering this week. That should be pretty damn good, they sure spent enough time on it! 
Been trying to promote the Tipsy Gypsies on that dumb website they call “MySpace“, and working up new material with Hillary. We’ve got some brand new songs we’re going to demo soon so there will be something for ya’ll outside of CA to listen to.
Working hard (or hardly working) at Grand Central Music, running the lesson program and trying to stay busy. Our online ebay sales are really taking off, which is good in this stupid economy.
A couple of gigs comin up that I’m looking forward to :
Damon Castillo - Farmers Market in SLO - Thurs, 9-25
Jazz at the Inn At Morro Bay - Fri, 9-26 (upright bass)
Damon Castillo Acoustic - Linnea’s - Sat, 9-27 (upright bass)
It’ll be good to dust off the old upright for a change….
Boise, Idaho
Boise is not a town know for it’s music scene. There are 211,500 people living in the state capitol of Idaho. There are fancy restaurants and tall buildings. All the makings of a fine little city.
The people in Boise, as I was told by the bouncer, are simply not responsive. They seemed to enjoy the music, but were not the type of crowd that would go out of their way to see a live show.
We had a good show, good energy, When we were done playing they applauded, and even requested an encore. But when we finished, they were indifferent, as if they had trouble differenciating between live music and a song on the system that they recognized.
A few short steps outside the Reef and it’s a whole different world. The streets in this particular block of the downtown area are teeming with hundreds of drunk kids roaming around. In a one block radius is literally over a dozen bars, all of them filled to the brim. There are hot dog stands on every caddy corner of this main intersection, and the cops are making their presence known.
It is a little wierd to see this big city, club type scenario in this town, because it is literally dead during the day. And anywhere else in town the night life is not so lively, but this block is hopping.
And the women! The ratio of women to men seems to be around three to one. They dress well and they know it. So if ‘clubbing’ is your scene, and if you’re into hot girls, I recommend this little neighborhood of the world.
Boise, Idaho
Somewhere outside of Boise, Idaho, the passengers are getting restless. It’s been about 13 hours since we left San Luis Obispo and we’ve been driving the whole time. I put about 130 miles in myself; we all pay our dues.
It’s time for food. There’s not much around but strip malls for miles and miles. A typical American suburbia scene. We put over on a whim to search for food. As we scour the signs we laugh at “Tacos Del Mar”. We are far, far, far from the sea.
We see a Chili’s looking place called “Wingers”. We decide to take our chances as the parking lot looks fuller than the other chain restaurants that we’ve not had good luck at in the past (like TGI Fridays). It turns out to be brand new, having opened less than two months ago. They specialize in Chicken Wings and figure that it’s a safe bet.
The first thing I notice, as I Bee-line for the restroom, is that there are more televisions in the bathrooms than in my house. There’s a flat screen above every urinal and a flatscreen above the sink. Strange, I think and go about my business, while catching up on baseball scores. Of course the tvs in the mens room are ALL tuned to ESPN news.
The waitress almost sells us on a bucket of wings for an appetizer, but our will power prevails. Not so for Larry however, he orders a winger sandwich. We laugh and joke at the amount of televisions that surround us, an average of 8 on every wall in the building, all tuned to sports channels.
Then it happens. The waitress comes over to our table to inform us that they are out of wings.
Out of wings.
The place is called “Wingers”.
Only in Idaho is this scenario even possible.
Oh, and the food was good. It didn’t suck, but Larry was really looking forward to the great wings the waitress rambled on and on about at length.
Concerts in the Plaza
Friday afternoon, and the scattered shade of the eucalyptus trees hover over the stage.
The older crowd gets there early and sets up chairs and blankets so they have a place to sit before it gets too crowded. Unfortunately, the wall of people standing in front of them during the peak hour makes sitting act of fruitless habit.
The excitement builds fast. When one is performing for over a thousand people, the amount of energy circling around is highly contagious. It infects me as I dance around stage like a clown, swaying this way and that to the beat.
The three piece horn section really puts the icing on the cake and makes the band sound larger than life. Nervous energy makes some songs played too fast, but the crowd loves it. They erupt after every solo and hang on every note.
It’s the kind of crowd that makes you invincible.
Congratulations!
I’m playing a jazz set at my good friends’ wedding. It’s a dry wedding and no one is paying attention to us except the other musicians there. Which almost makes me more nervous than if random non-musicians are watching.
The ladies, girlfriends of the drummer and I, are carrying flasks in their purses, and they’re having a good time together. Upon reaching the non-alcoholic drink bar their reaction was perfection: “Oh look, Mixers!”.
A good vibe floated throughout the Monday Club. The ceremony was perfect. Short and sweet, and the choice selection of songs to walk to, Nuages by Django and Something by the Beatles. Great food, good people.
The Damon Castillo band performed and the groom lit up a drum solo like I’ve never heard,he really cut loose, and looked damn good doing it in a tux!
I wish Jennings and Holly Jacobsen the best!
I left my heart in…
The beauty of San Francisco is more than just visual. It is an understanding of sorts that the people share. It’s possibly not known consciously, but it’s there. A freedom. The people here are comfortable in their skin, and act out naturally, for bettor or worse. They feel little or no social pressure to conform.
We met this exceptional gentleman, Patrick, for lunch. He’s old friends with Damon’s booking agent, Wendy. He’s one of those guys who’s cool as hell, and a total bro. He got the tab at this great little cafe in North Beach. We sat outside, sipped on coffee, ate massive calzones and discussed the end of the oil age, reasons why none of us smoke pot (anymore or ever, depending on who’s asking), and the music scene. He lives a charmed life.
He had to make his departure, to head back to work, and we walked down to Washington Square and took a pseudo-nap on the lawn. It looked like the popular thing to do so we didn’t exactly feel like bums.
And the sun still follows us where ever we go.
The Cisco Cat
His best friend, J, was in a bit of a bad way. He had promised to cat-sit the cat temporarily until he could take her back. He got home and found that the cat, Cisco, had missed him tremendously. He had to beg friends to go feed her while he was gone, and now that he’s home, she won’t leave him alone. The little attention starved animal, if she weren’t so cute it would get downright annoying.
It’s a relief to not have any shows this next week, he thinks to himself as he plops down on his bed, now covered in cat hair. He was on tour for 10 days and played 6 shows in a row the day he got back. It started to wear him down but he won’t let it. It comes down to a simple game of refusing to believe the signals the body tells him and just plowing through as if it’s nothing.
Thoughts swirled around in his head, like ‘Laundry, I’ve got to do laundry’ and ‘Man, I’ve got to clean this place’ and the cat jumped on his stomach, taking him by surprise and knocking the wind out of him.
‘You’re getting fat!’.
She was indeed, too much food, and too little to do. He decided to take her outside and let her run around. She walks outside, finds a shady spot and lies down.
‘You’re getting lazy too!’
At least this is temporary, he thinks.
He walks inside and the phone rings.
“Hello?”
“Hello Forrestt, this is Jan, J’s sister.”
“Oh, Hi, how are you.”
“Good. Listen, I’ve got some bad news. About J”
“Uh, oh.”
“Yeah. (sigh) So he relapsed and is now in Santa Barbara county jail.”
“What!?!?!”
“Yeah, he went back down south again, got spun out and got arrested. We’re not going to bail him out this time. He’s got to learn. But he’s facing charges. He’s going to do a couple of months at least. They’re not going to let him off the hook by sending him to rehab like last time.”
“That sucks.”
“Yup. Looks like you own a new cat, too.”
What would happen if you put both Castillo brothers’ bands together:
A break on our tour with the Damon Castillo band and hangin with his brother’s band, The Rock Savants. Chillin in Portland on a Monday night with a grip of musicians and nothing to do. This is what happens! (Since I’m an awful singer, that’s me in the back with the upright later in the vid)
Small World
We finally find the ferry, which wasn’t exactly the easiest to find, and drive the van aboard. That was pretty fun, I’ve never been on a vehicle ferry. It held over 100 cars on it. Wild.
It took us out to Vashon Island in the Puget sound. It is a beautiful area worth checking out. We arrive at a restaurant club called Bishops, near the only stoplight in town. It’s a cool spot and we meet the co-bill. It’s a band called Izabella. It turns out that the drummer is San Luis Obispo, our hometown, and knew about half of this band. But if you think that’s wild, I called my girlfriend and she told me that the guitar player in Izabella is her cousin! Small world indeed.
We had a fun show, kind of a small crowd, but we had a good time. It was just such a random encounter I thought it was post worthy.