Performers include Ralston Bowles, Matt Forbush of Alexis,UltraMark of Stepdad, Lucas Wilson, Ben Scott-Brandt ofRibbons of Song, Nathan Kalish, Josh Burge of Chance Jones, Erin Lenau of Tokyo Morose, Jake Stilson andMichael Cunningham of GrrRoPolis with VALENTIGER as the backing band!

VALENTIGER FRONTMAN SHOW
@ StoneHouse Recording Studio
731 Front Ave, 49504
8PM
BYOB!
$7 PRESALE / $10 DAY-OF & DOOR
Exclusive, Limited 50 Ticket Availability!

QUANTITY

1 Ticket $7.00 2 Tickets $14.00 3 Tickets $21.00 4 Tickets $28.00

All tickets, once purchased,
will be Will-Call at the event! ]]> http://www.valentigermusic.com/2011/10/valentiger-frontman-show/feed/ 0 http://www.valentigermusic.com/2011/09/valentiger-artprize-pyramid-scheme/ http://www.valentigermusic.com/2011/09/valentiger-artprize-pyramid-scheme/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:02:44 +0000 B.F. Pierce http://www.valentigermusic.com/?p=1564 TONS O’ FUN AT THE PYRAMID SCHEME TOMORROW!
1. We open at noon and we’ve got lots of art and music to enjoy, inside and outside our building!
2. The Pyramid Scheme ArtPrize Artist Reception begins at 5 pm. Meet the Artists! Eat Food! Hang inside and outside with our friends from Official Shorts Brewing Company! Show us your interpretive dance skills! Shorts is bringing a bunch of new brews to try, including Grasshoppa, Black Cherry Porter, Ale La Reverend and more!
3. Finish your evening with some of Short’s favorite Michigan bands in the venue: Valentiger + Chance Jones + The Little Village! DO YOU WANT TO WIN TICKETS FOR THE SHOW? We have two pair of free tickets to give away! Post your favorite thing about Fall in the comment section and we will randomly draw two winners later today!

OH, MY GOD THIS WEEKENDs!

This Saturday, September 17 the band is taking part in the Eastown Street Fair.  VALENTIGER goes on from 4:15 to 5PM from the Toasted Lager (Billy’s) Stage.  The one-day festival on Lake and Wealthy will feature musical entertainment, food booths, children’s activities and arts and crafts.  Eastown Street Fair will be open 9 a.m. – 10 p.m.; admission is free.  Vendors include Rose’s Express, The Silver Spork (local/seasonal food including their Mitten Bagel w/Smoked Whitefish), Eastown Cafe, Jonny B’z, Chez Olga, Maui Wowi (smoothies and Kona coffee drinks), Go N Nuts (roasted nuts) and Standard Pizza Company.  YES!

Next weekend, the boys rip up their first night at Pyramid Scheme with a proper lineup including The Little Village and Chance Jones.  This is a show NOT to miss!  It will be The Little Village’s last show of 2011 and beyond?  Chance Jones is a sure good time and VALENTIGER will be set to stun.  There are ALWAYS several Short’s beers (VALENTIGER’s FAVORITE!!!) on tap at the bar.  In addition, it’s the first official weekend of ArtPrize.  So, get downtown, check out some art and land at the reception party at Pyramid Scheme.  If you haven’t made your way to the newest, most talked about bar and venue in Grand Rapids, this is your “can’t miss!”  Doors are at 8:30PM, show starts at 9:30 with a special, tiny ticket price of merely $5!  See you THERE, brah!

We woke up in the most beautiful, classic Maryland farm house on a sunny Thursday morning.  Brandi finally gave us the daylight tour, exposing a fantastic upper leverl porch that looked out over the property and a lot of original woodwork.  Our hosts then served us a hot breakfast and we did a lot of catching up before deciding to hit the road in a little bit.  The hospitality on this tour has been astounding.  We packed our things, gave the couple a pair of tee shirts and CD’s and then hit the road toward Washington D.C.

It’s been too long to remember much about the drive, but I do remember coming into the city and finding lots of construction, particularly the road of our venue being completely shut off.  This is is the luck of Valentiger.  We had arrived early and we needed to use a bathroom and Internet.  I think we parted ways for a little bit and decided to hand out free “Leaving Town” singles while we were on foot.  D.C. was pretty receptive in that respect and we were feeling pretty good in the most dangerous city in the nation.  Rider and I ended up using some Internet at a strange little coffee shop and then we eventually met up with the other two hoodlums.

I had been in contact with a blogger we now know as Megan from Les Enfants Terrible (now Fuzzy Logic).  We were trying to meet up with her during the day but it just didn’t work out.  However, she suggest we eat at the famous (and Cosby approved) Ben’s Chili Bowl and we did just that.  Sitting at the counter and stuffing our faces with chili dogs we ended up chatting with another patron, J.T. who happened to be the promoter for Flying Dog Brewery.  After exchanging cards he later contact us exclaiming he thoroughly enjoyed our music and wished for us to perform at their SXSW party in Austin, TX.  Of course, we said yes and history was made.  This encounter finally cemented the importance of human contact and simply talking to others and networking.  It’s a hard thing to do, especially when you’re on the road, tired and unkempt.  However, it paid off, as we now know in the future.  However, the band’s luck was not over for the day.  Down the road, the then relatively unknown act Mumford and Sons was playing a show and we decided to hand out singles to the ticket line.  This genious idea was only topped by Kehoe’s aggressive idea of sneaking in the loading door in the back of the building.  He went in and the three of us waited for nearly 20 minutes before he came back out.  Apparently, he had told someone who questioned him he was a roadie and made his way to meeting Mumford and Sons, who was sound checking.  He handed them a Valentiger CD and was on him way.  And if this weren’t enough for you, we also ran into Wheatus on the street in front of another venue.  Having no idea who they were, I handed them a Valentiger CD and asked if they were playing that night.

Wheatus Chick: “Yeah, we’re Wheatus.”
And I said, “Oh.”
Wheatus Chick: “Haven’t you heard of us?”
And I said, “No, I’m sorry.”
Wheatus Chick: “You know, ‘Teenage Dirtbag?”
I said, “Mmmm, nope, sorry.”

Then Kehoe came up and knew what they were talking about.  At any rate, it was a pretty comical encounter on our end.  Probably not so much for them.

We made our way to The Red and the Black where we’d be performing that eveing and everything seemed to be in line (other than the road being closed).  There was some extremely shady business going on at the Jiffy Lube across the street and some people just looked downright crazy.  We unloaded the van in a back alley and then had to search for a parking space that ended up being about 10 blocks away.  We were pretty much stranded at the bar and they boys were watching what I think was some sort of hockey.  We were surprised to see Founders beer on tap and ordered a few after we set up our equipment.

We shared the show with Jeremy Steinhaus and Somerset Frisby for what turned out to be a great and successful night.  Before the show began, we were able to meet up with Megan the blogger and chat about life on the road and music, of course.  I felt like I was talking her face off, so I definitely bought (and made her try) a Founders Dirty Bastard.  We found a common love of The Jam and, as far as the show goes, I’ll let her do the explaining:

“What does Michigan mean to you, friends? Perhaps you think of it as homeland to such important bands as the MC5 and The Stooges. Perhaps you think of it more for it’s Upper and Lowerness. Or perhaps you’re all about the Lions or Tigers or Red Wings. I tell you what, though. After seeing Valentiger at The Red & The Black, I’ve got another pretty fine band to attribute to the great state of Michigan (and it’s not just because they totally bowled me over with their cover choices).

MINI RECAP: Valentiger = Nice Guys Finishing First! Overall score: A.

So there I am, clutching a vodka cranberry in one hand and a Founder’s Dirty Bastard in the other (yes, dears, yours truly double fists every now and again). Founder’s is a perfect beverage to swill whilst seeing a Michiganian band, you see, because it also hails from Michigan. I was verily impressed with both the beer and the band (though obviously moreso by the band). I was hooked one song in, their sweetly adorable, rustic sound reeling me in. And bands, never underestimate the importance of entertaining banter. Guitarist/vocalist Eric Kehoe related a rather amusing tale about his visit earlier in the day to a barber shop on U St. where his beard was attended to, and received many a chuckle for his trouble.

Most of the set was pulled from the fantastic record Power Lines to Electric Times, including the perfect, twangy pop of “Bosses In Their Offices” and “The Girl That Everyone Forgot”. Not only was their own material played beautifully, but then they went and played a pair of covers that totally and utterly won my love and affection: “In The City” (The Jam) and “Picture Book” (The Kinks). Any band that’ll tackle two seminal British bands in one set is automatically awesome in my book. And they covered the songs in such a lighthearted, energetic way, as well, with just enough reverence. Bellissimo! “Thanks for being a nice audience,” they proclaimed, before commenting about the difference between a DC audience and a Boston audience (which wasn’t exactly complimentary), and launching into a most excellent rendition of the lively, bouncy “Leaving Town”. Come to think of it, we as an audience probably shoulda thanked them for being a nice band.

The bottom line here, my friends, is that Valentiger is a great, great little band. They’re not only good musicians but good people to boot. Brent, Eric, and Scott have decamped back to Michigan to work on more fantastic music, but next time they’re out and about on the road I highly, highly, highly recommend you check ‘em out. Their music is earnest, honest, and pretty much salt of the earth. It’s real, and it’s really lovely. I do believe I’ve found me another pet band.” – Megan Terrible, Fuzzy Logic

We simply had a great time and a lot of familiar faces had come out to see us including Jenn Hall, Stephanie Sargent and Pat Host.  We talked to a good number of people we did and didn’t previously know at the end of the night.  It felt good to find a genuine interest and have real conversations outside of our little camp.  But eventually we had to get the van, load it and make our way across the city to Pat’s place where we were crashing.  Kehoe parted ways in the name of partying and the three of us followed Pat to our eventual demise.  After he showed us where to go, he explained that he had to work in the morning and was crashing at his buddy’s place.  He gave us several directions amongst a slew of F-bombs and we were left along to drink whisky all night.  Joe sensed trouble and went to bed, but Rider and I were hell bound for “a morning.”  We chatted it up on Pat’s balcony all night and inevitably made the decision to try to throw things into the dumpster that was within pitching distance below.  Rider ended up successful but I’m not sure I ever even made one by the time the night came to a close.  We even filled our empty pop bottles with water in order to create more “ammo.”  Somewhere in the middle of the night Joe opened the slider to tell us we were “being really loud,” and once the neighbor yelled we called it quits.  Eric was stranded on the whole other end of D.C. and we went to bed only to wake up in just a few hours.

Joe woke up to a gloved hand touching his shoulder.  “Ya’ll alright?” asked a feminine voice.  It was the cleaning lady, who had come in to find us while tidying up the computer lab.  “Yeah,” Joe said, a little off put by waking up this way.  I don’t think we managed to go back to sleep after that and she said, “I guess I forget I’m working around college kids.”  We chatted for a little while about the tour and driving before making our way back to the dorm room to shower.  Mike was in rough shape from the 21^st birthday celebration when he let us in.  I showered first and then went back to the computer lab before going down to let Rider in, who had slept in the van.  Somehow, even though he was present in the vehicle, had gotten a ticket for not putting change in the meter.  The officer wrote it from behind and then come up to the open window and asked, “Do you want this?”  He explained he could tell the meter had not been paid since 8AM and had seen the van parked there since.  And so Rider’s day was off to an awful start.  Eventually, everyone had showered and we made another game plan, using the Internet to find record stores in Baltimore.

None of us had been to Maryland in general and I think we were pleasantly surprised.  Arriving fairly quickly and easily, we found our destination, Teavolve.  The place was a second installment of the very popular first location.  Where as the first one served tea only, this one also did coffee and a bit of fine dining.  It was on a corner in the busy commercial area and consisted of a big open room.  We checked in to find all details were in line and then I napped in the van.  Kehoe and Joe uploaded pictures to the website and edited video while Rider explored a bit of the city.  When I woke up, upon Rider’s recommendation, Joe and I headed to the “cobblestone” area over by the wharf for dinner.  Joe had his heart set on fish and chips so we strolled down the coast until we found a place serving the like.  We joked about what a romantic date we were on and there were hipster couples EVERYWHERE.  “Kiss…”  We dined and spent a little more than we wanted to but the solid meal was worth it.  We head back to Teavolve and, before we knew it, the time had come for us to perform.

Our set was acoustic and we merely played what we really wanted to, with the exception of popular favorites in the way of “Leaving Town,” etc.  It was enjoyable to really “hear” the music and not just blast out a way of sound and shouting over it.  We sang through a multi-channel amp that we’d brought along and I distinctly remember wearing a plain, white t-shirt with a thought process of letting the music simply stand for what it is.  The single thing that sticks out the most in my mind, though, is debuting the song “The Dawn Just ‘Aint Enough Anymore.”  Neither of the fellas had heard it yet and, in fact, I had just wrapped up the broad structure and lyrics before we left.  I had ripped out the page from my book and hit the road with it.  It felt good to play something new and just put myself out there again.  We’d been playing PLTET material for so long, I had forgotten a little bit what the thrill is like to play “unsafe” material.  There was an early part of the band’s career where I would just make up lyrics on the spot.  Our very first, original bass player hated it and I’ve tried not to do it ever since.

The show went just fine, I guess, considering it was booked pretty last minute as filler.  A lot of people made mention they really enjoyed the music and we sold at least one CD that I can remember.  We got paid a modest amount and we were on our way through the rest of the country.  After all, it was fun for us all to see Baltimore for the first time anyhow.  So, we set off into the night to find our friend Brandi’s place.  The drive was a little over an hour but we managed to get into a few ridiculous topics including “Scott’s Baby Dropoff” and an entire theme involving the accent of Joe’s grandma.  “Joey…I looove you.”  At any rate, it managed to kill enough time until the GPS eventually led us into near complete darkness.  Brandi lived in a very old farm house about in the middle of Nowhere, MD.  It was fairly late, though I think we called them to confirm whether or not we were in their driveway/barn.  We wouldn’t find out quite how incredible the house was until daylight, but I threw my sweatshirt in the wash and we chatted a bit with our hosts and their baby.  Over the internet, Joe confirmed that his OTHER grandma indeed DID have a crush on Rider, “the round faced one.”  Joe and Rider laughed about this for some time, while Kehoe and I retreated to our small bedroom upstairs where we’d be sharing a bed.  He was either having girlfriend troubles via text or we just plain had no chemistry.  However, I think it was the former.  We turned out the lights in a quiet, cool night on a mansion of a farm house in Crownsville, MD.

Joining the band for a run through the album in it’s entirety were long-time producer and friend Steve Holsinger on lead guitar, Mark Lago on brass, Bill Kahler on keys and Matt Young on pedal steel.  Shirey was quoted, “This is Valentiger as you’ve never heard or seen them before.  We really wanted to present the new music in as close a fashion as we could to the recordings.  We desired to give people something striking in both sound and vision.”  Attendance was large, quickly filling the 100+ room at a ticket price of $20.  This included admission, a copy of “Oh, to Know!” and free draught beer for the evening.  The line for beer was out the door!

There was an electric energy of excitement in the room when the band began and immediate and loud applause in between each song.  Gradually, the guest players joined as their parts emerged throughout the record.  Grand Rapids Social Diary was in attendance and captured “Good Day, Goodnight” on film as well as several great photos.  Holsinger’s slide guitar really sung into the gang vocal chorus!  From there, the three-piece Valentiger tackled a hour-long encore of favorites from both “Power Lines to Electric Times” and earlier, Happy Hour classics.  One highlight was definitely “Joke,” with included a jam session from the brass, keys and lead guitar sections.  Valentiger also pulled out a surprisingly fantastic version of Stone Temple Pilots’ “Interstate Love Song” in a rock-solid closing to the night.  Double encore was finally satisfied with their ever-trusty Pavement’s “Summer Babe.”  Rider took quite a heckling from behind, something few drummers may ever experience, given the setup.  It may or may not have incited a “Beer Monster.”

All in all, a dance party followed but there were too many people for the band to converse with each and everyone.  Apologies to those they could not get to!  Sales were through the roof even though each and every person in attendance received merchandise with the purchase of their ticket.

After all was finally said and done, Shirey and Rider partied until close next door at Gardella’s with friends and family.  Shirey ended up walking home to the west side in a rage over cab availability.  Could he have seen into the future by referring to Kahler as Valentiger’s “fifth Beatle” earlier in the night?  The boys headed out on tour the very next Tuesday with CZ of Halfway House at the media helm and MuseBox out of Brooklyn giving the whole album a mega-push.

Thanks to all who attended, made everything possible, fought for parking and stood in the beer line!  We all hope you’re enjoying “Oh, to Know!” thoroughly and might consider picking up the vinyl copy, now available (give the download card to a friend)!  The artwork is simply beautiful in the large format.

Valentiger – Good Day, Goodnight from Michael Cook on Vimeo.

Check the locator if you wish:
http://www.amientertainment.com/locator/

My personal favorite: Kuzzins Lounge!