GFT on BBC

At our last performance, we mentioned that GFT recently did a radio interview for BBC. It is going to "air" at 10:30AM (Seattle time) this Sunday (10/18) on this website.

If 10:30 is too early on a Sunday (and trust me, I feel ya), don't fret. We will have the interview up on our website shortly, so you can listen to it whenever you want.

Peter
GFT

Thanks

Hello everyone!

Its been a few days since our Broadway Performance Hall gig and I would like to thank everyone that came out and made the evening a night to remember. I'm glad that so many friends and family members were able to come and (as always) it was great to see some new faces as well.

If you missed the show (I know you are still beating yourself up about it), then you are in luck. We had a good friend in the audience (Tupu) who filmed quite a bit of the show and threw it up on youtube. Here are a couple videos.



So, it is right after this tune (our opening song) that James walks up front to introduce the next tune. Just as he steps forward, his daughter Olivia (almost on cue) yells "Hi Daddy!" Hold on. Come to think of it. Every time James has a family member in the audience, they have a "random outburst" at some point during the performance. I'm on to you James. It doesn't count when you seed the audience with your own personal cheerleaders.



Thats kind of how I was hoping it would have gone in Holland, but I'm glad it worked out well this time.



There are more videos (you can find them in our video gallery) so check them out.

Again, thank you to everyone that came out. You know what? I'm in a giving mood. I'll even thank those of you that really wanted to come and weren't able to. There will be other gigs that you could always go to (talk about beautiful transitions).

Friday, November 20, 2009
Mercer Island Presbyterian Church
3605 84th Ave. SE
Mercer Island, WA
www.mipc.org

This is our next public gig. If you missed the last one (you don't want to be the person that misses 2 GFT gigs in a row. Do you?), then you really don't want to miss this one. If you made it to the last gig, then you already know that you don't want to miss this one (but I'll tell you again). You don't want to miss this one. Longer set, more intimate venue, more Jake ... the list goes on. I'll see ya there.

Peter
GFT

Tomorrow at Seattle's Broadway Performance Hall!

Just wanted to send out a reminder to everyone that Groove for Thought will be performing at the Broadway Performance Hall tomorrow night (October 9th). Doors open at 8:00pm and you can buy tickets at the door (for all of you who haven't purchased your tickets online. I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are). General admission is $15 and students get in for only $10!

All of us GFT guys (and ladies) are really excited about this show. This will be the first time we've performed at home since our summer tour and we have been diligently working on making this performanc as fun and entertaining (for both us and you) as possible. If you haven't already heard, we are bringing along a couple of special guests (Zach Trandum and Amanda Taylor). We've had the opportunity to rehearse with these two amazing artists for the past couple of weeks and it has been a blast. If you don't know who these guys are, it would behoove you to look them up. Don't give me that look. People still use the word behoove.

In other words, you aren't going to want to miss this one!

Groove for Thought at the Broadway Performance Hall

After a very busy summer performing everywhere from Holland to Portland (maybe not everywhere in between those two places, but it sounds cooler that way) we are finally performing at home. I know what you are thinking. "What could be better than an evening with Groove for Thought?" Well, I'm gonna tell you. How does an evening with Groove for Thought and special guests, Amanda Taylor and Zach Trandum, sound? I know. I know. This is big news, but you are going to have to calm down because there is still more blog to read.

Like the title so elegantly states, this upcoming concert will take place at the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle. After spending so much time away, we would really love to see some familiar faces so mark October 9th on your calendars. "But how can I make sure that I can get into this exciting event?" you might be asking. You sure have a lot of questions, but I can't blame you for your enthusiasm. To answer your question, GFT is preselling tickets through our online store. General admission is $15 and students tickets are just $10. Of course, tickets will be sold at the door as well.

Lets recap. GFT with Amanda Taylor and Zach Trandum at the Broadway Performance Hall on Friday, October 9th. I'm not going to miss this and you shouldn't either.

Friday, October 9th, 2009
8:00pm
$15 General Admission, $10 Student
1625 Broadway
Seattle, WA

Peter
GFT

Tech... ica... Difficu... ti.. s...

We did a gig in Gresham, Oregon yesterday at the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival. Yet another beautiful outdoor summer gig (with no rain). Because it wasn't our show, we didn't get a soundcheck. We set up all of our gear backstage and then brought it onto the stage right before our set, checked to see if our mics were working (quickly) and then ran on stage. About 2 seconds into the first song, we realized something was horribly horribly wrong with our wireless microphones. Our mics were cutting in and out constantly. If you weren't there (this probably wouldn't have happened if you had shown up, but I'm not going to point fingers), imagine GFT singing the title to this blog. Yeah. It was that bad.

We had 2 sets planned already so after 4 songs (of us looking incredibly stupid trying to find invisible "good" spots around the stage) we took a break. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off looking for enough wired SM58s and set everything up really quickly and then ran back out to continue with the gig. Fortunately, the audience stuck around through everything.

The rest of the performance was a blast. The audience was great, Nick was smokin', it didn't rain, and the mics were working. What more could we ask for?

Peter
GFT

GFT in Canada

We had the fantastic opportunity to perform at MusicFest Vancouver this past Saturday. Not only did we perform in an incredible venue (the Vogue theater) we also had the privilege to share the stage with the talented Dee Daniels. It was a night of firsts for GFT that I won't soon forget.

It was the first time GFT performed with Randy's sub Amanda (I could make a joke about Randy's sub being a 17 year old girl, but I'll leave that alone. Oops.). Performing with her was truly a blast. She is an amazing musician check her out. For the first time (in what seems like a long time) we performed with a trio. Nick Moore on keys (of course), Dean Schmidt on bass, and Mark Ivester on drums. Unfortunately, we don't get to gig with a trio very often; but it is always a great time when we do and this time was no exception. It was also the first time GFT has performed in Vancouver. We couldn't have asked for a cooler venue or a more receptive audience. What more could we ask for?

Like I said earlier, we shared the bill with the amazing Dee Daniels. She has a voice that is out of this world. At the end of the show she came out and sang "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" and "Revelation" with us. Talk about a fun end to an incredible evening. She even came out with us to do an encore. It was an incredible evening in beautiful Vancouver. Thanks to everyone at MusicFest Vancouver and the Vogue theater.

Peter
GFT

Germany! (July 25, 2009)

We left Utrecht at 7:00 am (some of us had way too much fun hanging with our friends in Utrecht and didn't get back to the hotel until 3:00 am) by train to Germany. After jumping trains once we arrived in Mainz. We then took a van and two cars to our hotel (we kind of take up a lot of room).

We stayed in a lovely hotel that was kind of like a B&B. The hotel was actually closed that day, but they were open for us. No, I'm not making a joke here... seriously. Our gig was a little ways away in the village of Boppard. It was an outdoor venue in the courtyard of a church. It was beautiful, but halfway through our soundcheck the bells of the church started ringing and ringing and ringing and ringing. Fortunately, we all thought it was funny that they were ringing for so long; Unfortunately, the bells were letting everyone know that church was starting. We continued our soundcheck and a (understandably) upset church goer came out and asked us to keep it down during the service... woops.

We started the gig and everything was going pretty well. The audience was enthusiastic and we all were having fun. Then... (this is where you would usually hear a dum dum duuuum sound effect. I'll let you make the sound yourself... I'll wait) during "Walk the Straighter Road" as soon as Randy started his first solo in the tune, the clowds opened up and started poring rain down on the poor audience members. Normally, something like poring down rain would be a gig ender; not in Boppard. They ran for umbrellas and pulled out their ponchos and sat out the rest of the gig. Not only did every single person watch the entire gig, they had us do 3 encores on top of the entire gig. After meeting with some of the audience, we went back to our hotel and ate some amazingly wonderful homemade German food.

The next morning, we left the hotel and drove from Boppard to Rockenhausen (I truly agree that Rockenhausen is the greatest name ever and you can be sure that we made all of the bad puns possible). We got an amazing oportunity to do a bit of sight seeing along the Rhine river. We got to our hotel in Rockenhausen and discovered that the venue for the performance that night was actually at the hotel (we knew a little earlier than that, but its a better story if we found out when we got there). In fact I could see the stage from my hotel room. It was another outdoor venue (if you didn't pick up on that earlier) and fortunately for everyone involved we had a rain free performance. We were fortunate enough to have another incredibly enthusiastic crowd. It was a fantastic end to a wonderful tour and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Peter
GFT

Greatest Night Ever (July 24, 2009)

The four groups that we have been working with all week long had their concert tonight. It was great to see how much they have progressed throughout the week and they did a great job at the concert. Everyone we talked to after the concert was very complimentary of all of the groups.

After the concert we all went out to hang and say our goodbyes. Since it was the first time we weren't in a “teacher” kind of roll, we were able to have some fun and really get to know the people we have spent so much time with. It was a great night.

Peter
GFT

2 Gigs, 1 Night (July 21, 2009)

For the first time in GFT history, we performed two full sets in one evening. Even though we were all extremely exhausted, it was a great night. We were fortunate enough to be able to perform for two great crowds. We ended up having to do 2 encores which made the sets even longer, but still a really great feeling.

After the first set, we went out into the hall to meet with the audience and sign CDs. By the time we were talking to the last few people from the first set, a large number of people from the second set were lining up in the hall to get into the venue. So, we had to run back in and get ready for the next set immediately. It was a crazy night indeed.

Jame's wife (Autumn) was at the first set. Talk about devotion. She flew all the way to Utrecht to see a GFT gig. Well that isn't entirely true, but it sounds good. Anyway, during the intro to Take My Hand Precious Lord (when James is improving during the intro of the tune) Autumn yells out “Your so sexy!” Wow.

We performed our newest song How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You for the first time. It is my feature (not trying to toot my own horn here its just an important part of the story) and James had told me to find a girl in the audience and sing to her (as a joke). During the second set, I decided to do just that. I felt so badly for the poor young girl that I chose to sing to. She was so awkward about the whole situation. She wouldn't even look at me. It was the most awkward thing that has happened on this entire trip so far. Sheesh. Thats what I get for listening to James.

Peter
GFT

Work Work Work (July 20, 2009)

We have been having a blast at Europa Cantat. We performed at the opening ceremony in front of about 4,000 people and have been working with 4 very talented vocal groups in our atelier. We have finally overcome our jet lag and have been able to really enjoy the beautiful city of Utrecht. Brennan and myself, being the intelligent young men that we are, have fully embraced the Dutch culture and have rented bikes for the week. I wasn't really trying to imply anything about the other guys with that little comment, but if thats the conclusion you jumped to...

We were originally schedule to do one performance on Tuesday at 8:45pm, but they have rescheduled us to do two shows due to high demand. So now we have a performance at 8:45pm and 10:45pm on Tuesday night. You are, at this point, probably thinking the same thing we are about now. 10:45 AT NIGHT!? It looks like we are in for a very long night, but we are looking forward to it. The 8:45pm show is already sold out and we heard this morning that the 10:45pm show is close to selling out as well. Looking forward to tomorrow night. We all need to get some good rest tonight. In fact, I should really call it a night.

Peter
GFT

Long Walks and Longer Days (July 17, 2009)

We made it to the Netherlands! Considering our last adventure at the airport, I think that there was more than a little doubt in all of our minds that we would actually make it here. We left Seatac at 1:00pm on Thursday and arrived in Amsterdam at 7:00am on Friday.

Jet lag is a beast! There is a 9 hour time difference between Seattle and Utrecht. Combine that with the 10 hour plane ride and our collective inability to sleep on the flight and you get a group of very tired people. As soon as we arrived in Utrecht, we discovered that the predominant forms of transportation in Holland are bicycles and walking. Much to our dismay, that meant hauling all of our luggage and sound equipment around for about an hour to get to Jaarbeurs (the main hall and area to check into the festival) and our hotel.

Once we were all checked in at our hotel, we had a rehearsal with Dox (a six person dance group). We had to work out a transition between Dox's performance and our performance at the opening ceremony. We have never claimed to be great dancers (publicly), so we were all a bit nervous going into the rehearsal. Fortunately, we weren't asked to dance and the transition (although completely out of our comfort zones) was relatively painless. Judging by Nick and Andrea's faces, they thoroughly enjoyed watching us look horribly awkward.

So, we have had a very very very very very very long 48 hour day. Looking forward to some rest.

Peter
GFT

Failure to launch

We have had a very stressful couple of days. We have spent the last 2 days at SeaTac airport trying desperately to get to Nebraska to do a performance.
Currently, I am exhausted, extremely irritated and smell heavily of Lady
Speed Stick; but I am getting ahead of myself.

It all started Monday morning. We arrive at SeaTac at 5:00am for our 7:00 flight. We check our baggage, which includes most of the sound equipment we need to perform and all of our performance clothes. We have to pay extra to check 2 bags, but because of the amount of gear that we travel with, each member has to check one case of equipment and carry on one case of equipment.

Our flight has been delayed for 2 hours. We board the plane and prepare for take off. I should probably mention a fun little known fact about Groove For Thought and airplanes at this point. We ALWAYS end up sitting at the back of the plane. This time was no different. My seat was the LAST seat on the plane. Once we are all settled into our seats and deal with a complete lack of overhead bin space for our 2 carry on items, the pilot announces that we cannot take off because the mechanical issue (that appeared to be fixed) was actually still broken. We get off the plane (remember where I said we were seated on the plane) to see a huge line of about 130 very upset passengers.

We stand in this very very very slow moving line for 2 and a half hours.
While most of us are in line, Kelly and Jeff go back out to the front desk to see about how we can get to Nebraska before our gig on Tuesday night. Finally, Brennan and I get called up to talk about a new flight. The man at the desk suggests that we get a flight to Omaha and then drive (an hour and a half) to where our performance is. At this point we decide that this is our best option so we agree to this and he gets us tickets on a different airline to San Fransisco with a connection flight to Omaha. By the time we get our new tickets, we have half an hour to get from the S gate to the C gate, which is 2 shuttles away.

We run (literally) from the S gate all the way to the C gate. Meanwhile Kelly and Jeff start to head towards the C gate and get stuck in the security line because of a security breach. We all finally get to the correct gate only to find out that the flight to San Fransisco has been delayed. When we talk to the woman at this gate she tells us that we would be delayed to long to catch our flight to Omaha. So Brennan goes back out to the front desk to see about our options. In the end, the airline (whose name I won't mention) comps us hotel rooms in SeaTac and books us for a flight Tuesday morning at 7:00am. We leave the airport at about 3:00pm to go to our hotel.

We get to our hotel, which is actually quite nice, and check into our rooms. Keep in mind that we have checked all of clothing and toiletries. We have to sleep in the clothes we have been in all day and fortunately the hotel has some free shaving cream, toothbrushes, and deodorant (this is where the Lady Speed Stick comes in). So the next morning 7 grown men come down stairs to eat breakfast at 5:00am smelling like women's deodorant in wearing the same clothing we wore the day before.

We show up at the airport at 5:30am. Go to get our boarding passes and find out, that we aren't actually booked to be on any flight. Even though Jeff has our reservations in his hands they say we don't have tickets for our flight. Most of us sit down while Jeff and Brennan try to figure things out. They have to stand in 3 different lines. They get to the head of one line only to find out that that particular line is for a different airline (even though there is no way to identify the difference between the two), the get to the head of the next line only to have the woman at the counter refuse to help them because she "wasn't going to deal with this" because she "got off in 10 minutes". Finally they were able to speak to someone who actually was willing to talk to us about the situation, but was absolutely no help. We couldn't get to Nebraska (because of the delays from the previous 2 lines) until well after the performance would start and end.

Now, tired and extremely irritated we go about trying to figure out 1.) where in the world (literally) our baggage is. 2.) how we can get our money back after the non-comedy of errors. We find out that, miraculously, our bags made it to Omaha. I know what your thinking. How did they... and you couldn't...? Yeah. Still working that one over in my head. We set things up to get our bags sent back to us. Which needs to happen as soon as possible because we leave on Thursday to to fly to the Netherlands. Then we spend hours and hours trying to get our money back which at first seems like it is NOT possible.

Brennan and I go to see if we can talk to someone higher up than the people who work at the front counter. I ask one woman if I could speak to her manager. She replies "OK. I'll go get Roy". About 5 minutes later a different woman asks if we are being helped. We say "Yes. A woman left to go get Roy". She replies "Roy? Roy is on vacation". We didn't see the first woman again, but the second (much more friendly, helpful, and attractive woman) [yeah. I said it.] went and actually found a supervisor. After another couple of hours we had finally gotten our money back for the tickets that took us nowhere. After another 6 hour day, we were finally able to go home. Poor Jeff had to call the people who were running the performance in Nebraska and tell them that we weren't coming and call Nick (our pianist who was already in Nebraska) that we wouldn't make the gig and that he needed to make arrangements to come back home.

How is that for a travel story? It was the longest and shortest trip of my life!

We sincerely apologize to Phil Hesterman and Nebraska ACDA. We hope to make it back to perform for you again in the future. I think this is the first performance Groove For Thought has had to cancel in our 10 years of existence.

Onward to the Netherlands. We leave tomorrow. We'll keep you updated from the road.

Peter
GFT

Questions and Answers

Hello All.

For this blog entry, we wanted to take a minute to direct you to an interesting section of our new website.

On each of our individual bios you can click on the link that says "Questions and Answers". There you can learn more about each individual Groove For Thought member than you probably ever wanted to know.

Did you know that Jake may have created the soundtrack to one of your favorite video games? Did you know that Kelly once shared the stage with the great Joe Williams? All this and more can be found at the "Bios" section of our site under "Questions and Answers".

Enjoy.

Buffalo Coin

Hello All.

So we have entered the twentieth century (albeit a little bit late) and are now excited to have our own Groove For Thought blog. We thought we'd use this as a way to share interesting stories, thoughts, and other more personal GFT moments with you. Comments and replies are always appreciated. Here's a funny anecdote from our trip to France last October.

We had a few hours to kill before our last gig of the week. We had completely run out of change for our CD sales table so Peter, Brennan, and I went searching for some Euros in small denominations. The problem was that it was Sunday afternoon in St. Lo, a pretty small town quite a ways outside of Paris. Nothing was open except for a few restaurants. I remembered seeing a change machine that spit out 1 Eruo coins at an American style, Buffalo/Cowboy themed steak house we had eaten at earlier in the week. When we got to the restaurant we tried for about 15 minutes to get the machine to accept our 20 Euro bills. No luck. We tried a 50 euro bill. No luck. It kept spitting them back out at us. After a while, we flagged down a friendly hostess that spoke very little English (why should she, it's not like she has three American schlubs like us coming in every day trying to use the change machine with out actually purchasing anything at the restaurant). She gave us a pretty funny look, but figured out what our problem was and tried to help us change our bills into coins using the machine. Still no luck.

Finally she took two 20 Euro bills of ours and went back behind the counter to exchange them for crisp new bills from her cash register. Finally the machine accepted them and coins came spitting out like we had won the jackpot on a slot machine. It was about this time that we looked more closely at the coins to realize that they all had images of buffaloes on them. This whole time, we had been trying to get buffalo tokens only accepted in the restaurant's arcade games. No wonder the hostess was looking at us funny. Three American adults trying to get upwards of 50 euros in video game tokens. In any case, they wouldn't refund our money so we were out the 40 Euros.

We were forced to go make small purchases at a McDonald's with large bills so that we could get the change we so desparately needed. Turns out they serve McBeer in French McDonald's. Who knew? Would it have been possible for the three of us to look like stupider Americans than we did that day? Probably not.