STS9 Riverside Theater, Milwaukee March 15th, 2013

          We hustled in to the venue to secure our spots close to the stage. The suspense was building as we waited, anticipating a great performance from the band we hadn’t seen since early September in Chicago.

          The lights went down, and the conversations in the crowd quickly elevated to cheers of excitement as the LEDs illuminated and so began the Activation. The five members of Sound Tribe came on stage and dove right into Golden Gate, followed by a fan favorite, Instantly. Only two songs in and they already had the crowd dancing and grooving. Clearly they were gearing up for an epic night.

          As always, Saxton’s lights were on point, a constant wave of rainbows to my eyes. Accompanied by the Great Cycles Spectacle Mayan temple shaped LED visualizer made for quite the visually  mesmerizing experience.

Check out the video of Instantly:

          Sound Tribe kept it crunchy going with Arigato. Next was Blu Mood, an old fan favorite from years ago that has recently been brought back into their live show repertoire, featuring a pretty unforgettable hook by Hunter Brown on guitar. They got the funky grooves going with T.W.E.L.V.E. and Move my Peeps, and rounded out the first set with some high energy songs, the Rabble and One a Day. Murphy of course signed off with his familiar voice “Were gonna take a short little break, have some water, meet some new friends we’ll be back!”

          The second set opened with Scheme (my guess was my favorite song Scheme Reprise) so I was pleased. Grow was another fantastic groovy jam along with Squares and Cubes, a song I haven’t personally seen live or really listened to. They slowed it down with Looking Back on Earth and finished the second set with Aimlessly.

          Breathe In is a great song that features Phipps on some beautiful piano solos. This song is a great example of a mixture of STS9’s Axe the Cables acoustic style shows and their more electronic, crunchy Great Cycles Spectacles shows. Overall a great piece of beautifully written music. When the Dust Settles is always a great song to end the night on. High Energy to lkeep you dancing and allows the band some freedom to jam a little bit. After the show I did not want them to stop playing, but we are lucky enough to be seeing Sound Tribe Sector 9 on April 11th in Minneapolis and the following night at home in Madison.

Here is the Setlist from the Riverside Theater

Set 1: Golden Gate, Instantly, Arigato, Blu Mood, T.W.E.L.V.E., Move My Peeps, The Rabble, One A Day
Set 2: Scheme, Simulator, Grow, NIN> Tooth, Squares and Cubes, Moon Socket, Looking Back On Earth, Aimlessly
Encore: Breathe In, When The Dust Settles

Click Here for a sound board audio recording of the show from STS9’s own record label 1320 Records

Since the Beginning of Time

Indigo Sun

I’m seeing Indigo Sun for the first time since last Summer Camp at Diablo’s Cantina in Neenah, WI. This spacey future funk band is an awesome group of guys from Chicagoland that always have fun during their shows. At Summer Camp they set up their own stage area in the middle of the forest and keep the late night dance party going until the wee hours of the morning. Steve Florian holds down the funky drum beats accompanied by Mike Cantella on the  basslines while Kyle Liss plays spacey synthesizers and Lucas Ellman grooves out some catchy melodies or improv jams on his sax or EWI (electronic wind instrument). They are a really fun band to watch as they put on a great show. These guys are great and don’t get the respect they rightfully deserve in the Midwest. If they come your way don’t miss them.

Visit their website here: www.indigosunjams.com 

or support them buy buying some music on their bandcamp site: indigosun.bandcamp.com or listen to live performances at www.archive.org/details/IndigoSunJams

Enjoy A snippet of Indigo Sun’s Late Night from Summer Camp 2012:

Some Pictures from Summer Camp 2012:

Summercamp 2012 Tent Set

 Lucas groovin’ hard on that sax

 Kyle jammin’ during the late night “secret forest set”

Late night Funky Forest Party

Indigo Sun glowing in the forest in the middle of the night.

a shot from Trillium Connect Music Festival in Northern Wisconsin in May 2012.

Hope to see these guys back at Summer Camp 2013, maybe a longer set time at a better time slot? I’d be very disappointed if they didn’t continue their traditional late night forest set.

Lasagna

Pretty classic recipe.. you know

Stuffed French Toast

First off, STUFFED French Toast.  Ultimately, cinnamon-coated caramel cream cheese stuffed french toast with fruit inside. Foodgasm– epic breakfast style.
Recipe:
– sourdough bread loaf
– container of blueberries, strawberries, and a few bananas
– container of caramel cream cheese
– 2-3 Eggs
– ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Now, SLICE and GATHER your fruits

2. Divide the bread loaf into even slices [~2 inches thick]

3. Cut the 2 inch slices in half half-way. [Quite the confusing statement- Cut it in the way that allows you to stuff the bread slice]

4. Spread the cream cheese into your newly formed stuff-able bread slice

5. Add the fruit inside

6. In a seperate bowl, beat the eggs. Add as much ground cinnamon as desired

7. Dip your stuffed bread slices into the egg mixture on all sides

8. Cook on stove until golden brown

Enjoy, you’ve got yourself a foodgasm.