Tag Archives: music

w00tstock presents: Wil Wheaton vs. Paul and Storm at Largo

Later this month — March 29, to be precise — I will be joining Paul and Storm for a show at Largo, here in Los Angeles. This show will be a sort of concentrated w00tstock, expanding my 20 minute set of one story to about 60 minutes of probably 3 stories, and doing approximately the same for Paul and Storm. There will also be as much Captain's Wife's Lament as the audience can stand.

Look:

Tuesday, March 29 – Wil Wheaton vs. Paul and Storm
Largo at the Coronet, Los Angeles, CA – 7:30 pm
Tickets: http://bit.ly/h2vuPk

I'm excited for this show, and if it's well-received, we'll know that we can take it on the road with a reasonable expectation of success.

See, w00tstock is awesome, but it's expensive and complicated to produce. The four of us who are in the core of the show have busy schedules that don't always compliment each other, so blocking out a few days where we can all go to the same place at the same time isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. If we can produce shows with some of us, instead of all of us — a sort of w00tstock presents kind of thing — then it significantly increases the chances of a w00tstock-style show coming to your town.

Yes! Your town! Can you believe it!? It's just that easy! Act now!

Um.

So, to the point: I've loved performing the same two stories at the various w00tstocks we've already done, but it's time to retire them and do something new. This is where you come in: if you're familiar with my published work, it would be really helpful to me if you would tell me what story or stories you would like to see performed live, with musical madness provided by Paul and Storm.

Here are a couple of examples from w00tstocks past, to inspire and entertain you.

Rocky Horror Picture Show at Chicago (w00tstock 2.2)

 


The Trade at w00tstock San Francisco (1.0)


Wow, watching about 5 minutes of those clips made me simultaneously nostalgic for those shows, proud as hell of what we already did, and positively giddy with excitement for what we're going to do in the mysterious future.

If you're in or near Los Angeles on March 29, I hope you'll come out to see us. It's no secret that Los Angeles sucks balls for live shows, because people just won't come out to see shows unless you tell them things like, "Hey, San Francisco sold out two shows, and you can't even sell out one?" and "What happened to you, Los Angeles? You used to be cool." Or maybe just, "This is a new show, different from the last one you saw, and I promise you'll have fun."

So, tell me, potential-future-w00tstocker: what would you like to see me perform at a w00tstock near you?

Seattle! You can see Marian Call with Molly Lewis and Jason Finn on Thursday! GO GO GO!

One of the great joys of w00tstock 2.4 in San Diego was finally getting to see and hear Marian Call in person; she is brilliant, and totally One Of Us.

I was talking with Marian this morning, and she told me that she has a show coming up in Seattle:

Well, we're having a sort of mini-w00tstock 2.4 reunion up here, with me, Molly, and Finn this Thursday night. I am very very very excited as I get to have a full band and strings and such for the show, which my usual gypsy-ing about prohibits.  I'm also releasing a single tomorrow in conjunction with the event — that'll be at http://mariancall.bandcamp.com.

Marian was incredible with a typewriter and a guitarist … I can't even begin to imagine how wonderful she's going to sound with a full band and strings! And Molly will be there! And Finn!

If you live in or near Seattle, and you like things that are awesome, you simply must go see this show. I promise that you will hear great music, and – even more important – you'll be supporting a rising indie star, who just happens to also be an awesome person.

Details:

Seattle, WA // Thurs. 09.09.10 – Fremont Abbey: the Very Very Big Seattle Concert


Marian almost never plays with a band, but this September in Seattle it shall come to pass. Strings, drums, and every good thing, including the unsinkable Molly Lewis opening (#freemolly!). 8pm, all ages, tickets $10-18 with student/senior/military/disability/starving artist discount. Tickets will be available in advance at http://mariancall.com starting August 26th and at the door. 4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle WA.

Marian thinks the show will sell out, or get very close to selling out, so you people who are lucky enough to go see the show should buy your tickets in advance, or at least follow @mariancall on teh Twitters for sales updates and last-minute panicked buying.

Oh, and Vancouver? You're next! Marian is coming to entertain you on Saturday.

the obligatory w00tstock post

Everything I could possibly say about w00tstock has already been said by Paul and Storm, who made a lovely list, and Molly, who made a comic that captures exactly how I felt the whole time we did our shows.

I loved feeling the terror and exhilaration of trying something totally new (The Trade, with music) that was raw and unrehearsed enough to allow for surprises every night.

I loved how totally geeked out we all were to be working with each other, too. I mean, I knew it would be cool to meet Adam Savage – the guy's a freakin' genius, after all – but I was unprepared for how completely and utterly cool, kind, and enthusiastic he was. And his 100 wishes are wonderful, especially that he, like I, wishes for his children to have careers that they love.

I loved feeling like we were creating something unique and special, that people would be talking about long after it was finished.

I loved how much fun we had every night, even though I was exhausted down to my bones by the time we finished our last show Wednesday night (actually, Thursday morning).

I loved how wonderful the audiences were at all the shows. Geeks truly are the best crowd, because even when they heckle us (I'm looking at you, Los Angeles front row) it was done with enthusiasm and love. Yes, even the hecklers were, in their own way, supportive.

I loved that we released the entire show under a Creative Commons license, so anyone who wanted to could record and share the show online. There are tons of videos at YouTube and pictures at Flickr, as a result. 

I love that I can blockquote myself right now:

someone recorded all of w00tstock 1.1 from Los Angeles, and uploaded it. It's an audience recording, so you can pretend you are actually sitting at Largo next to the guy who recorded it! If it's the guy I think it was, he had a magnificent pimp hat on. If it's not … well, now you know that there was a guy at w00tstock in LA with a magnificent pimp hat, and you have yet another reason to wish you were there, sukka.

>I love that that recording was done on a freakin' iPhone, and it sounds fantastic.

I saw a post this morning that pretty faithfully recreates the show in Los Angeles from YouTube videos, so rather than try to duplicate that for all three shows, I thought I'd share a couple of my personal highlights, in video form:

First up, a wonderful compilation … almost a montage … from the LA show:

Here I am, recreating the moment when Luke Skywalker saw the smoking hulks of his aunt and uncle. This probably isn't as funny out of context, but if you were at the show, you'll know why I was so amused by this. By the way, the flapping hair in the wind was all Molly's idea, and it killed at all three shows.

Kid Beyond absolutely blew my mind when he performed Wandering Star by Portishead … using only his voice to create loops. If you think this is incredible on video (and it is) you should see him perform live, especially if he brings his video mashups.

Finally, everything Molly did was simply brilliant, and her cover of Toxic is sensational, but I just adore her song about breaking up with Wikipedia:

There's more, of course. Paul and Storm got a lovely pair of, um, undergarments thrown at them in Los Angeles. The acoustic Date My Avatar was great. Jeff Lewis did comedy as Vork, and completely killed. Kasper Hauser made me laugh so hard at the 1.0 show I bruised my medulla oblongata. I've known Chris and Mike forever, but I'd never actually seen them perform as Hard 'n Phirm in person until the Los Angeles show, and I wish I hadn't waited so long to enjoy the majestic wonder of El Corazon live. Josh Cagan seemed a little bemused that we'd added him to the show, but after seeing what he did to just 30 seconds of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four craptacular, I hope he'll come with us for 2.0. And, oh yes, three different versions of The Captain's Wife's Lament, each longer and more ARRRRRRRRRtful than the last. Those two videos (I can't find a video from 1.0 at the moment), do a great job of capturing how much fun we all had together.

When Paul and I talked about w00tstock a million years (or a couple months) ago, we hoped that it would be successful enough to justify the time we would need to put into creating it, we hoped we'd have fun working together, and we really hoped we'd draw enough people to make it worth doing future w00tstocks.

I don't think we ever seriously worried about having fun together, but I was very worried about actually drawing an audience. When we sold out two shows in San Franciso, and only had 20 or so seats left vacant in Los Angeles – where it is notoriously difficult to get people to come out to see shows – we knew that in the future, there will be w00tstock v2.x.

I want to thank everyone who was in the show, and especially everyone who came to watch us, for making the three days of w00tstock so memorable and wonderful. I can't wait to do it again.

everything’s drawn and super 80s

Anne and I went to the grocery store this afternoon. When it was time to get the orange juice, there was only one left, and it was way in the back of the cooler.

I reached in really far to get it, and as I did, Anne began to sing the chorus from Take On Me.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know this*, but even if you do, I'm telling you this story right now because it's a perfect excuse to point out, once again, that my wife is awesome. It is also a perfect excuse to repost the Literal Version of Take On Me, which is almost as awesome as she is.

Almost.

Take on Me: Literal Video Version – watch more funny videos

*and, um, a lot of other things. Like, at least 6090 things, which is why you shouldn't follow me on Twitter.