Last night at Jaxx opening for Circa:
Words cannot describe what a wonderland it was at Jaxx for me, Matt and Michael. Matt walked in and immediately met Alan White and Billy Sherwood and was jawboning with them. We got set up and had a decent soundcheck in front of Circa's gear. I got to give Alan a Kinetic Element press kit which he graciously accepted saying he was looking forward to hearing us. Odin's Court was there early too, and their leader Matt was also a great guy and we had no problems at all working with them to get on and offstage.
We had a set that was not one of our best but the intimate crowd of about 40 gave us a warm reception and a number of them were right in front of the stage taking pics. I got blinded by a couple of flashes while trying to switch sounds and hit the wrong button! Matt's bass pickups started frazzing and he had to switch basses after the second song. But the applause seemed genuine and after two pieces, "The Ascent" and "Blues Variation" it was sustained. We went over our 45 minutes by about six minutes but it was cool. It seemed the audience was enjoying our set.
In between us and Odin's Court I got to meet Billy Sherwood and he was such a great gentleman, as well as Jimmy Haun who patiently explained that no, he wasn't with ABWH years ago which I had though he was. They posed for so many pictures with many fans and I was blessed to have my photo taken with them both. It seems Billy also was eager to hear Kinetic Element. You can imagine how encouraged I was to hear that he really liked us.
Odin's Court did a very good set although I thought their sound was a bit muddy. They are all excellent players and both their guitarists did mind blowing lead passages throughout the set. But I was distracted because I found out that we were selling a ton (well OK, we sold 10 LOL!)of CD's of Starship Universe and I was being asked for autographs by people who were plainly serious collectors of prog stuff and were beseiged by requests for the Powered By Light Suite EP which we have at present only in a homeburned edition, but we had almost all of them leave with either fans or with Circa. Meanwile my wife Eugenia got all the Circa guys' autographs and wound up being kissed on the cheek by Billy Sherwood. She was a bit dazed LOL!
Circa then did a wonderful two-and-a-half-hour show of their new CD and the very long Yes music instrumental through-the-years arrangement. Tony Kaye, who hadn't been in the music hall all night, showed that he can play all the Wakeman parts and all the Moraz parts and is a more versatile player than I remembered. This guy is the one who turned my idea of how to play the Hammond inside out in 1971 with The Yes Album and Time and a Word. After their set I was privileged to have a good ten-minute chat with him onstage while he was starting to break down his gear, after introducing myself as the keyboardist of Kinetic Element. He didn't think Circa: had played well. What?!?! We talked about Yes, what happened after The Yes Album (he said he'd decided to retire, which didn't last long), music, the role of the organ, being on the road, and then he told me in is wonderful British accent, "I really liked your band." That made my night. I gave him copies of Starship Universe and The Powered by Light Suite which he seemed happy to receive.
Let me mention that for me the highlight of Circa:'s set was their encore, performing (with vocals) "The More We Live / Let Go" from Yes' Union album. This is one of my all time favorite Yes songs and I was emotionally floored by how well they did it, with backing vocals on a harmonizing synth by Billy's brother Mike who was their second keyboardist.
I don't really know what to make of what happened next. We were leaving the club and ran into an old friend of my wife Eugenia who was running the door. He told us that all the members of Circa were standing outside in the lobby while we were playing listening to us. Somebody in the band asked who we were and when he told them that person said, "Oh yes, we've heard of them." He told us that we made a big impression on them. I honestly don't know what that may mean and I'm taking his word for it. So perhaps we accomplished more than we imagined we would.
I want to thank GarryG who introduced himself after the show, for coming so far. Jason from DC-Soar was there too. My lifelong friend Billy Dee from New York came down again to see us. This fall we will be putting out the Suite plus another 36 minutes of music. And let me say Thank You to God who has brought me so much farther into music, the creative process and the wonderful world of prog rock than I ever thought I would see in my life.
Michael, Matt and I look forward to seeing some of you over the next two weeks. God bless us every one.
Mike V.
www.kineticelement.com
www.myspace.com/kineticelement