Dave Alpert: I Know Where You’re Going with That

This 4th of July was a fun one.  My friend, and infamous TOAD bartender, Greg, had a BBQ replete with shotgunning small cans of Bud, drinking games, and lots of meat.  You know: it was very American.  After the BBQ, some of us headed over to Atwood’s to see Tim Gearan play, and after that the party resumed.  Needless to say, it was a long night. 

Now, those of you who know me know I am no stranger to long nights.  Unfortunately, I had underestimated what a toll such 4th of July activities would have on me, and I’d agreed to play a solo acoustic set the next night to help out a friend.  When I showed up at the venue, Sally O’Brien’s in Somerville, MA, I could barely play my guitar, but I was determined to entertain. 

I hit the stage around 10:00pm, and decided to play some songs in honor of the holiday weekend.  I greeted the crowd, “Hey everyone, I’m gonna start out tonight by playing some American songs.”  I started playing “Babe, It Ain’t No Lie” by Elizabeth Cotton.  For those of you who don’t know Elizabeth Cotton, she was an African American woman from North Carolina, born in 1895, who taught herself guitar and wrote songs, and had worked as a maid from the time she was 13 years old.  She was “discovered” when she became a maid for the Seeger family.  Probably her most famous song is “Freight Train”. 

Check out this video of her playing Freight Train.  You see a long close-up of her bizarre playing style; the guitar is upside down and she’s playing the melody with her thumb and the bass parts with her fingers.  But, I digress.  I was going to play Freight Train next, as a sort of Elizabeth Cotton medley.  My concentration was broken, however, when half way into the first verse, a drunk older guy in the back screamed, “YOU SUCK!”  I thought, “Wow. That’s a first.”  Just as I finished the song, the same guy staggered up to the stage, reached his hand out, apologized and disappared. 

I found out later that he was sitting next to my friend Chuck, and Chuck thought he heard, “Hey Chuck!” so he asked the guy, “What did you say?”  The guy pointed to me and said, “I said he sucks.” Chuck asked, “Why’d you say that?”  The drunk replied, “Because he said that America sucks!”  My friend corrected him, “He said: American SONGS!”  The guy told him he felt terrible and that’s when he came over and apologized.  Yup.  That gig was one for the books.

Jonny Goldstein is one of my closest friends and he’s a major videoblogger.  Jonny’s birthday was today.  In honor of the occassion, I wrote this song.  They played it on Jonny’s weekly show, Jonny’s Par-tay!

   

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What can I say?  I’m feeling a bit nostalgic.  The past two years have been filled with fun, friends and a lot of rock and roll.  This Dave Alpert music video salutes all my friends, bandmates, fans and the people who have made my life so worthwhile and filled with love and fond memories.  The wine photo is from a previous videoblog you should check out called The Wine Exhibit.  The song is called “Ties That Bind” from my Peace of Mind EP.  Enjoy!

   

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On Tuesday, I played a type of show I’d never played before.  It was Jillian Santella’s Songwriters Circle at All Asia in Cambridge, MA.  Despite the fact that these events are called Songwriters Circles or concerts “in the round”, they are generally a straight line.  Here’s what we looked like:

Yup.  It was me and three girls… Nice.

The format of the show was that each of us took turns playing a song.  It was fun to get to listen to everyone’s songs, and unlike other shows where fans often leave after the band they came to see, it encouraged the audience to stay for the entire show.  On the other hand, it was very trying as a performer.  I, for example, write short pop songs and strive to share the time.  Others write longer singer/songwriter songs.  In the end, that meant that I waited 20 minutes between singing songs and it was challenging to connect with the audience, especially since other performers felt comfortable chiming in whenever the spirit moved them.  (Below, you can hear Jillian, the host, interrupt my introduction to the last song.)  Overall, I had a great time, however.  All the performers were cool, and because Jillian brings her own sound man, the sound in the room was pretty good. 

I ended my set with Peace of Mind, the title track from my EP.  Check out my performance below. 

 

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Here’s another song from the show we played at the Abbey Lounge a few weeks ago… 

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If you like what you see, come to our next big rock show TOMORROW at the Middle East in Cambridge, MA.  We open the show at 9pm.  We’re the first of 4 great bands.  Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors headlines.  The show is 18+.

Like most rockers, I have to hold down a day job to pay the bills–or almost pay the bills.  Unlike many, I’ve been blessed with a pretty cool job.  I am a creative director and writer, and I’ve had the pleasure of working on projects for a variety of companies such as Microsoft, LYCRA, Play-Doh and even Playboy.  In the past year, I directed the art and wrote much of the copy for the VaporStream web site, wrote much of the copy for this web site sponsored by Duracell and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and I worked on a cool corporate blogging service for Waltham’s Backbone Media called SCOUT. 

Lately, I’ve teamed back up with Marc Girolimetti of Green Grotto Studios for a bunch of exciting projects centered around Second Life, a 3D virtual world that is all the rage.  Marc and I were an unstoppable team as Director of Production and Creative Director of award-winning Boston interactive agency POPstick.  And the juggernaut is back steamrolling the interactive world with Green Grotto.

Recently, I wrote a press release for Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe, announcing their forray into live singer/songwriter performances in Second Life.  Read my press release HERE. 

For more info about the shows, click HERE or the banner below (written by me and designed by Michael Leykin).

Now, if the Bluebird people would only check out my music and invite me down to play in Nashville.  Hmmm???

On April 30th, the latest incarnation of my band played our first show together at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville, MA.  We also played a new song for this band called “Catch Me If You can”.  I wrote that song originally for my old band Shake.  This version is updated for 2007 and it rocks!  Look out for more live videos from this show soon.

 Check it out:    

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I hung out with guitarist Steven Stanek yesterday who reminded me he caught the last verse of my first song from the last TT The Bear’s “Other side of the bear” show on his phone.  The video quality blows and the sound isn’t amazing, but you can watch me sit on my ass and twitch my legs a lot.  Enjoy! 

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“Can’t Let It Show” is a song I wrote about a girl (surprise, surprise).  Last month was the first time I played it with a band, and it rocked.  Check out this video.  And hear it live next week at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville, MA (October 12, 9pm).

Click here to see the Windows Media Video.

Don’t have Windows Media Player?  View it HERE.

Check out “Caught On You” performed live at TT The Bear’s in Cambridge, MA on 9/21/2006.  The song is from Dave’s Peace of Mind EP.  The video was shot by Rodrigo Valenzuela.

Click here to view the Windows Media Video.

Don’t have Windows Media Player?  You can see it HERE.

Our next show is at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville, MA on Thursday, October 12.  We go on at 9pm.  That night we’re joined by guest drummer Mike Levesque.  Come by to drink some cheap beer and watch us rock!