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brian -
the skeleton masks are a rarely worn, and extremely uncomfortable element of The
Nebulas' wardrobe closet, often sparking some mild internal debate when the
"costume congress" votes in favor of donning them for a show. its something
different, but a real pain in the ass to play in if one likes to drink, talk,
see, breathe or smoke during the set, all of which are impossible with them on.
I think they made their debut last Halloween at the Sky Bar in Somerville, MA &
have probably been worn only 2 or 3 times since. The only other time I can
remember is at The Block Island Music Festival this summer - it was really hot
and the middle of June, and no one expected us to come out in masks and top
hats. Rumors had been circulating about our performance the year before - the
Star Trek things and what not - so we had to up the ante for ourselves.
As far as wearing them @ The Surf Festival in Gent, we knew there would be 2
other bands (there wound up being 3 others for a total of four surf/instro
acts), so again, we had to do something to stand out visually - even though it
was torture to stare at the forbidden tray of Duvel beers without being able to
suckle the nectar from their amber glass teats - and then to have one of our own
accidentally knock them over after the masks had been removed for the encore
created near anarchy. Originally, we had caluclated that show as being our
50th performance (defined as anytime we actually played as a group be it at a
club, a radio station or a private function), but upon further analysis and a
brief website update, it was discovered that our 50th performance as The Nebulas
was actually the day before in St Niklaas, but regardless, after playing 8 or 9
shows with about 5 or 6 uniform combinations, we wanted something different.
And while I'm rambling, I'll also to respond to your post about the sound
quality and volume properties of our borrowed tour amplification - that stuff
was just plain F'in loud - great sounding, but F'in loud - especially Rudy's BF
Showman head with modified 1X15 cab - I think it sounded comparable in quality
to many of amps in his current Fender stable -and as a drummer that relies
heavily on the lead guitar player, to have that sound a half a world away with
an unfamiliar power source to boot, is just too much to ask for - we told the
promoter to just lock the F'n thing up and not let anyone play it until we come
back.
The bass amp had a very big and boomy sound - probably ideal for the bigger
rooms - I know the sound of the whole band - specifically the amps- must have
been deafening in the smaller room and/or those with a hard surface like glass
or exposed concrete behind or on the side of us. Fortunately, the crowd was
very close at these shows and probably absorbed alot of the sound.
Personally speaking, my ability to hear the bass and the rhythm guitar varied
from venue to venue based on the positioning of all the instruments on stage.
On the cramped stages I was in front LS style with the bass amp directly behind
me, Rudy back right, and Dano back left - other times I was actually set up
behind all the amps, so hearing the bass and the rhythm guitar was almost
impossible. Despite the positioning of the amps, I went to bed each night with
a distinct loud ringing in my right ear (Rudy's side), so hearing him was never
a problem. Ideally, I like to hear Rudy loud on one side, Froto loud in the
other side, and a nice booch from Dan as icing on the cake.
And that photo page,
run by our pal Philippe now has 198 Nebulas photos that he took in just 3 shows.
I was there for 12 days, and I only took 96 pictures - too many of which I
later found out were of the ceiling and floor of the Amsterdam train station
taken after a visit to that city on our day off.
tfj
ww.thenebulas.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Neal
To:
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 6:47 PM
Subject: RE: [SurfGuitar101] Nebulas Euro tour pictures
Awesome! I love the skeleton masks...what was that all about? :)
BN
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jim --
Thanks for the long and interesting post...you guys rock. I'm glad
the tour was successful...how was the crowd reaction? Dano had good
words to say about that on your website. Was the crowd mainly surf
fans?
Any problems with the language barrier?
So, the next logical question, when can expect the next Nebulas
CD? :)
BN
