Baylor U Recap
Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:26 pm
Shot by a fan who is a friend of a friend. Thanks Lauren.
The Show
We were shocked at the turn out. Thanks for coming. Yeeps. Sure, plenty of students might have had nothing better to do than to hang out, listen to live music on cool Spring night. I get that... but for some dumb reason we were expecting like 500 - 750 people tops. Not sure how many were actually there. I'm ok at guestimating club crowds but not so much outdoors. Looked like a sea of people from stage. No doubt, plenty of you came from Dallas, Austin... even Houston and other places like Oregon. Thanks.
Eisley will never be able to repay you for your encouragement, for your love and support... for coming... for helping them kick off the beginning of a new record, a new era.
Baylor Interface
The folks at Baylor were quite accommodating... cordial, kind; they were students... and most were fans. The entire experience was solid. Thanks Baylor U. You guys did a great job on Diadeloso. It was a beautiful experience.
Show Review:
At the risk of coming off like we can't own up, I plead the 1nth (one off). Seriously - band/crew did everything we could to get it right. Sometimes the best laid plans go awry... for mice and men... and women and musicians and technicians. Arghh!! I guess the high's were high and the low's were low... No grading please.
Regardless, I grabbed a bunch of footage from 3 feet off the ground - at mix position - which sounded surprisingly brilliant - despite how muddy & dog-awfully whale-oceous it sounded from everywhere else (except sound-command central). If only those 2 stacks of flanking mains had been aimed at the audience, the sound would have been sweet. We pushed the mids and highs as much as possible to get clarity on the lawn but... feedback. I'll show you the difference in the footage (audio) shot from on the ground vs 3 feet up. Ouch.
New SONG Clips
I'll add more asap but figured since everyone else already posted phone- cam clips, I should toss these two new songs on Eisley's YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/eisley Note: on "Smarter", i was worried about running out of tape during this song so I stopped it at the false start and began recording again on the 2nd take... doh! - had to jam the two together. It's rough right there.
Talked to Sherri/Stacy/Weston much tonight. Guess I'm repeating but everyone was really bummed over personal performances... yes, on the new songs especially. Chauntelle even shed tears. hey, Wut-EVER; I posted them anyway. It's not about perfection. The spirit of the songs really come through - even on the crappy clips. At the end of the day - you do your best; life happens. I say: you can beat yourself up or... you can prepare an awesome home-cooked meal - and eat it... which is exactly what we did. Weston grilled chicken and we had the most amazing mashed-taters and green bean casserole (compliments of Kim) known to mankind. There was loud hilarity, festivity... gluttony. I think that was the cure-all to show fall-out.
And thankfully, tons of messages: email/facebook/myspace came in saying people really enjoyed the show. Most said they loved the set in spite of any/all problems. A few said it was their favorite show out of 5 or 6. What?! ha ha. A few Tyler friends even said it was their favorite show of all time. Yeah, we pretty much beat them up for lying. jk.
Be Kind - I've been in love with this song for months and months. it's as hearty and pretty as they come. Her garage band demo is soul melting; the song is melodically/lyrically sumptuous.
Smarter - This song was as perfect and worked out in Sherri's rough little garage band demo as anything she's ever written. One listen... everyone was sold. yes, it rocks... it needed to. Attitude requires appropriate treatment. It's beautiful, angry, sad, cutting... smart. What can i say... And the track is coming along. They'll get the live part down once the track is put to bed. 
btw - neither songs are finished - so expect tweaks. You play them live... you take the risk. Is there a choice? Being in a band is all about risk. You guys deserved something new. That's it. So you can only listen a few times... I said.
More Pics:
Chunk o students moments before eisley's set.
no Weston shots so i tossed this up as well. Not sure who fan is. sorry.
Sound Check - the night before
The night before... around 1:30am - we had a quick sound check but were curbed by campus cops and such.
Can u see how tired she looks? We were shot but it sure beat leaving early the next morning at 4am from Tyler, arriving at 7am, sound checking at 9am, which was our only other option. No way.
friend/eis-fan for decades... marky mark, who hooked us up w/ room/board/guide/escort to and from venue... took us to Ninfas, Common Grounds, etc.
REHEARSAL the Week Before
Recording
Talked to WB last week... talked to Gary over the weekend. We'll be looking at Calendar this week. I could sketch in new dates but refuse. Obviously we had delays... don't wanna get into it. Most of it was all the goings on in our lives. But... seriously, no more false starts; tired of coming off like "the boyd who cried wolf". I've been there many times... some of you old schoolers remember. It's an unpredictable, ever-changing biz. Like Sherri said at the show, "we really are going to make a record" (or something) and like I always say, "expect delays". But from here on out, we're going to see things move more rapidly.
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