7/3/07 Moe's Alley (Santa Cruz Ca)

This was a special gig being that we were opening for Salvador Santana. If his name sounds familiar its because his dad is Carlos Santana. There were a lot of odd connections this night. Our producer Art Hodge won a Grammy for Santana's Supernatural album. Walter Miranda played keys on our album and used to play with Salvador Santana's Sax player who also used to play with Ozomatli. Walter and the sax player also used to play in Ozomatli with Alfredo Ortiz, who is now playing percussion for the Beastie Boys. Our producer Art Hodge used to share a studio with Money Mark who plays keys with the Beastie Boys and Walter fills in for him when he can't make a show.....whew. So the show was great after we connected all the dots. We had a good opening set, the crowd was primed and ready for some pre 4th of July fireworks. SSB came out blazing, drumming was killing and the sax player setting things off. We had to cut out before the end of their set, but it was great. I always thought it would be a double edged sword having a famous dad. On one hand if you become successful in music people will assume that it was because of your dad. If you don't become successful people will wonder why because of the huge advantage. Salvador seemed to be at ease with his situation, he plays keys and raps in the group.

6/8/07 Arte Americas (Fresno, Ca)

40 Watt Hype @ Arte Americas 6/8/07
Originally uploaded by aaronwall@sbcglobal.net

The Nights in the Plaza concert series put on by Arte Americas is a special event for us. Its great to be one of the onlyl groups playing all original music at a local venue downtown. We constructed the set as more of a concert rather a club show. Its an earlier night and a different crowd so we pulled out a few new surprises and played rarities like "On & On" and the new "Can U Dig?" Going up against 8 graduation ceremonies we did well and the seats were full. Below is the Arte version of "Animated World" Its always special to be a part of something as unique to the Valley as Arte Americas.

5/31/07 Frog & Peach (San Luis Obispo Ca)

Wow, this was a horrible night as far as equipment goes. We show up and load in to discover that the main cables to the speakers have bee cut. A "soundman" was sent over to try to fix the problem, he took a look around and gave us the "uh, I guess you'll just have to work with it, you should be fine, and he split. All he needed was a banana clip. That means our vocals and anything else that should be going through the mains went through these small speakers nestled above the bar. All night people were yelling "turn up the vocals, can't hear the vocals" so we ended up screaming our lungs out. Other than that it was a good night, its just frustrating when the soundman doesn't have his S*** together.

5/23/07 Moe's Alley- Santa Cruz Ca

This was a cool little midweek trip to Santa Cruz. Below is the footage of some of everyday things we do on the road besides play music. We played with a local group called Para La Gente. Really cool guys, sound like a Latin Rage Against the Machine. Its nice to see a band angry and speaking their mind. The crowd was decent for a Wed night as you can tell from the video. One of the most amazing 8 bit video games is in Moe's Alley and its called hot shot, check the video for a heated battle between awall and Sean....