This is the end of my live show calendar for this personal music project before the realities of the pandemic set in. I had a three show run after the 12th that was, of course, cancelled. Since these are the venues I was playing at, I only want to speak to them and not places like the Show Box which are already well covered. The show at the Central Saloon was surreal to say the least since that was the day or day after the governor of Washington declared the shut-down depending on who knows what anymore. I remember talking with Michael, the booking agent for the Saloon, and his outlook was not optimistic, and turns out he was too right. The historic nature of the Saloon is likely to keep it afloat until live music can return sometime later this year or 2022. Tim’s is actively soliciting support. Louie G’s closed. The Blue Moon similarly has a historic element to keep it afloat. The Skylark already had a good business model that should facilitate its sustenance until musicians can hit the stage again. Then again, I am no authority on their past year of pandemic responses.
I am authority on fronting a band. Fronting a band is difficult for a variety of reasons, but not being able to get together with other musicians to actually build sound together is like not having electricity for my amp and guitar. Like many businesses and families, I had absolutely no plan whatsoever to adjust and adapt to the forced shutdown of live music. My reactions were not like everyone else’s: I may have posted a brief Instagram video or two but once the political narrative shifted to action in the streets–and, in my case–that this was happening here in Seattle right by Seattle Central College, I realized my portion of Fantasy Land came to a close that day, and my need to be visible was eclipsed by those hot 2020 summer days of protest. I was already in the midst of finding a new drummer since Alex was moving on. Now, what does it even mean to be a band if people cannot come together? Now, I went by own name instead of a moniker or a band name because of ego, but also because of structural organization. The hope to be in a band with my best friends came along twice, lucky for me, but neither moments culminated as I dreamt with enough notoriety to live a decent life as a musician. I wanted to travel, make money doing it, and enjoying my 20s and 30s before settling down. I ended up doing both at the same time. As the second band with promise, Attack With Care (2008 – 2013), began its decline, my 30s shifted towards building a family of my own since I was doing better as an adjunct.
From 2013 – 2016, I wasn’t in any long-term projects, but I was involved with a recreational music community formed by Tom Tafelsky, later partnered with Matt Taylor who would go on to form its successor Band It. During this time, I often appeared on stage to support temporary bands that worked on a set for 4-6 weeks and then played it before a raucous crowd. I got to be a bassist during a run of Hank Williams tunes. It was awesome to get to learn old-school “oompa” bass lines, focus super hard on laying back rhythmically to give the whole sound that feel live music gives you. I somehow got to play drums for series featuring The Clash; one for The Cranberries; another for The Sex Pistols; and wow, playing Alanis Morrisette was a lot of fun! There were a lot of great guitar experiences I simply would not have had without all the programming I got to guest or facilitate. I continued to learn pre-production since I needed to reduce the amount of outsourcing I was doing overall. But by the end of 2015 I was formulating my plans to launch as a “solo” artist (again). By the end of the year 2016, I was organizing a new debut DIY EP, with a release party at the Skylark in early 2017.
From that point until the final show at the Central Saloon, I set out to record, release, promote, repeat at my discretion. My organizational model tried to straddle business and creative entanglements often in the way of band longevities. When there is no money coming in, if the labor isn’t of love, you will not sustain members. I have little patience for second guitarists since I have to give up so much just so that I can have more dazzle at a live show. With the live show gone, the need for a second guitarist becomes tougher to justify, not to mention the outright difficulty in communication produced by the pandemic. With Alex gone, me and the remaining members tried to power on with an application called JamKazam that allowed us the ability to get together virtually and play–with manageable latency even! However, the medium became the message. I avoided Zoom for fear of how it would drag on me if we did it for as long as we have. Like many, the strain of trying to define a band in the quicksand of lost physical spaces to congregate and build sound as a band simply became to great as we tried catching ourselves with one of Mr. Peanutbutter’s strainers.
Tom Esch Era 1 – 2016 – 2020: two EPs, The Modern Devices EP (March 2018) and Afterimage (October 2019). One music video for Power of 3. Interestingly, I realized both music videos I have made have been for songs that were not the best songs from their respective releases. Matt Taylor, if you’re reading, you were right all along about The Game. Too bad we didn’t have Crowd Review then. Shame on me for not using it before making my second video almost a decade later. Music video makers, I’m a clown, ready to clown.
Tom Esch Era 2 – 2021 – 2025: I will review in retrospective then. In the meantime, what I hope to record:
–Acoustic Project – 10 songs (Am I Wasted, Dream Confessions, Reintroduce You, Hey Now, The Sugar and The Spice, Online, Can’t Help It, Out of the Loop, Time Frame, Walk in the Rain, Forever Yours) end of 2021, possibly early 2022 release.
–EP #3 – Title TBD – 3 songs (Me Time, Burning Like the Sun, Kickboy Face) spring release.
https://www.centralsaloon.com/
https://www.thebluemoonseattle.com/
