past performances:
- 11/15/2008 at LACMA for the Machine Project takeover. ing was an alien vessel sent to Earth to collect colors. walking really slowly and playing for seven hours straight.
- 3/15/2008 at Dangerous Curve, Stuart Rappaport's dog art show. John played drums. Max wore pants he bought that day at the Gap with Donnel.
- 2/18/2008 at sinai akiba academy- jewish day school. we played some kid songs that we made up and some shel silverstein songs for four kindergarten classes at four different times. john's wife Lisa came to watch. kids participated in the favorite color song and a few lucky kindergarteners got to shake the shaker.
- 1/24/2008 - tree planting ceremony at the USC Art School. singing about trees, of course. john played the electric guitar and sang into a microphone and max played the drums and sang into a microphone. max's mom said that it changed her mood for the day. everyone had a good time. it was supposed to be outside but it rained so went went inside.
- 12/16/2007 at Dangerous Curve. An instrumental set with vibraphone, piano, accordion, trumpet, toy piano, maraca, wood block, and lots of spirit. The finale was a story told with vibraphone accompaniment.
- 12/07/2007 at High Energy Constructs with Mad Gregs for Christian Cumming's art show. Playing along with a cassette tape of songs, the dudes were looking good and singing into an unplugged microphone. For those who could hear, it was epic. Ricky and Michael said Max and John's dance styles compliment each other perfectly.
- 11/30/2007 at Dangerous Curve once again. Imagine: it is the birthday of Max's dad Barry. ing sings songs in various voice to the year-older while romping around the room and occasionally playing two miniature keyboards set back to back.
- 11/23/2007 - An intimate night with folks gathered at Truxtop Gallery in Silverlake. drums and robot play songs about fishing pterodactyls, people living inside of silverware, native americans, the man who seeks the giant squid, .... "A perfect way to reflect on the purchases made on Black Friday and prepare for the purchases to be made on Cyber Monday." - Jason Golday
- 11/10/2007 - An impromptu, rocking version of Weird Bird at Max's art show at Dangerous Curve, following the first performance by Learning Music.
- 11/01/2007 at Beta Level. ing traded back and forth, drums and keyboard, vocals and sports jersey. songs with swearing. songs of love about John's very-soon-to-be wife.
- 9/30/2007 with Machine Project at the West Hollywood Book Fair. the now-famous 20-minute ing interpretation of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. John was Ahab. Max was Ismael and the white whale. in this family-friendly version, the two enemies in the end become friends.
- 9/27/2007 Vosotros Night at Land in Little Tokyo, downtown LA. sporting bow ties and black-rimmed glasses, clapped like the monks in Burma and played a bunch of songs, including one dedicated to Max's dad Barry, a big man with big pants. made a lot of awesome new friends
- 9/21/2007 at Dangerous Curve, two ghosts, , one acoustic guitar, and one trumpet spooked the Curve. marching and stomping and flying and singing of life and death. max played guitar in public for the first time
- 9/02/2007 - AS PART OF THE CEREMONY FOR ANDREW AND MARCELLA'S WEDDING IN ANN ARBOR MI. AN HONOR TO BE A PART OF SUCH A JOYOUS UNION. THANK YOU, A&M
- 8/28/2007 - Dangerous Curve, ing vs. Corey Fogel. a trio for the night, playing together and apart, trumpet drums piano for 36 minutes
- 8/18/2007 - at Jay Nolan Camp campfire. stories about the planets, about a bear a bat and a dear, about swimming and dancing and all the stuff we like to do, and about the moon and how it's made of cheese. mistaken for "ink," lots of participation from the amazing campers, who apparently continued to sing the songs long after ing left, compared to spongebob.
-7/17/2007 - Cafe Grumpy in Brooklyn, the last show of the tour. drums and acoustic guitar. sang some oldies and some originals: one about popcorn in the desert and screaming loud at the end
- 7/16/2007 - The Space, Hamden, CT. John sang about corn dogs and max wore a yankees cap too small for his head. played "Higher and Higher" again. movin around, little penny whistle, and some joy for all
- 7/15/2007 - Cake Shop, Manhattan. the most awkward show of the tour. friends were alienated. played "Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher And Higher" twice. Max, who has never second-guessed himself or ing, quit in the middle of a song- yikes. all in all: a success
- 7/14/2007 - Sound Fix, Brooklyn. Max's favorite show from the east-coast tour, drums and sound fix's piano, playing songs from the records and new songs about wizards and magic
- 7/13/2007 - friday the thirteenth chamber pop explosion, Brooklyn. thirteen people composing and playing music for Devin McNulty's birthday
- 7/12/2007 - Monkey Town, Brooklyn, NY. video projection drums and loops and guitar and singing, with a little penny whistle to open, with a little yelling about art school to end
- 7/7/2007 - Gallery opening for Marc Nimoy at Dangerous Curve. the dudes rocked mellow trumpet and drums duets, with a lilting finale version of "Max Patch Lullaby." tempos ebbing and growing, in and out of various beats and unison melodies.
- 7/6/2007 - ing 6 CD RELEASE! at Machine Project. Warming the audience to an ideal summer-evening degree, the heroic Christian Cummings sang about ghosts, love, and being an artist-- awesome!!! ing danced to their favorite old-school Jamaican jams and played songs from the new album, which, as john described, was a big deal for ing, who usually make it up as they go along. the new ing vibraphone had its virgin concert appearance alongside the drums, guitar, bells, and keyboard. eventually the audience joined in the dancing and the party carried on into the night, accented up beats and offbeats, kicking legs and twisting hips until eternity
- 7/4/2007 - performing as part of "The Military Industrial Complex is Sucking the Living Blood from this Nation: A Psychedelic Lightshow" at Machine Project, from 12:01 to 1:01 am. ing and others improvised to the very trippy lights, ghost sounds and other spookies, singing a cymbals and keyboard holding a long long long chord
- 6/28/2007 - The final evening of the month at Dangerous Curve, Greg Muon played gorgeous, quiet songs with his home-made Orchestron 7. ing shared a dramatic set of storytelling with classical guitar and synth string and bass patches from the nineties.
- 6/24/2007 at the Edgemar Building in Santa Monica. summer solstice festival. ing recorded keyoards to their tape deck, which they then played along to with other bells and whistles. the second half of the two-hour set was comprised of short songs about animals and the summer and of course love.
- 6/21/2007 - Calibungi Sergaents blew away the competition (though there is none) with their uniquely glorious originals and a brilliantly attempted cover at the third Thursday show in June. ing appeared out of nowhere at piano and trumpet to accompany the opera being sung in their heads.
- 6/14/2007 - The second Thursday in June at Dangerous Curve. Lewis Keller played laptop along with the sculpture, rhythms of electronically sublime soundings. john played his new banjo; max played drums and sang into his band-mate's bare arm- oooooh...
- 6/7/2007 - Week One of the month-long Dangerous Curve residency: an intimate evening of guitar and snare drum color tones taken from some forgotten Italian film score.
- 6/1/2007 - Betalevel, China Town, LA. With Emily Lacy, Marshweed, and Mad Gregs. a fine and magical evening with films and music. ing played "i am going to a picnic and i am bringing..." until max wound up carrying john in his arms, both screaming, having only made it to the letter v
- 5/19/2007 - at Dangerous Curve, downtown LA, opening of art by Anna Kim. oh yeah, getting to stand and play next to awesome moving sculpture; keyboards, percussion, and lap steel inevitably led to a minor blues with beat-boxing
-5/7/2007 - live at pehrspace, Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles, with Mad Gregs and an exceptionally large Fireworks, this mean duo on drums and guitar (with a little trumpet) rocked the space hard, with original songs by max and original songs by john.
-5/6/2007 - Rainbow-Making Workshop at Machine Project, epilouge to the rainbow series. Ben and Dan led the construction of a giant rainbow - GIANT - which was then intricately decorated with the seven colors, all to the music of yours truly, tooting their horns and beating their drums over in the corner. The beauty made John's mom cry.
-5/5/2007 - Kentucky Derby Party in Silverlake.
everyone watched the ponies then listened to songs about ponies in the backyard; a quick fifteen minutes in the sun
-4/27/2007 - VIOLET seventh and last color of the rainbow series. In the final chapter, several cities towered over the man-machine creatures of the future, who's electronic sounds caressed the scape for one Earth-hour straight.
-3/25/2007 - INDIGO, 6th rainbow show - max and john taught a lesson on indigo and how it came to be. creationism in the classroom? they had a lot of fun. max rubbed cake frosting in john's hair and got 7/8 naked. john put his finger in the air and played the guitar standing up.
-2/18/2007 - BLUE, the fifth rainbow show - YIKES! ing freaked everyone out, unintentionally hiding from the audience beneath blue tarps in the bathroom and shower. everyone crawled through a maze of blue yarn searching and running amok, some ending up in the basement, some ending up in the echo park film center, sitting in the dark, some just gave up and went home. a very wierd experience for everyone
-1/27/2007 - En View Gallery, Long Beach.
Accompanying OROGENY by Sarah FitzSimons, getting to play along with beautiful work featuring rocky mountains. very pretty and quaint
-1/26-28/2007 - representing Machine at Art LA 2007.
A weekend-long piece with different movements occuring every day. on sunday a fort was built and havoc reigned.
-1/20/2006 - GREEN 4th of 8 rainbow shows at Machine Project. Each audience member was prompted to write a word on a card. The duo, in the cluttered office area, staggered around discovering instruments until every word was sung. Every person in the gallery (and just outside) received two hugs before the music finished.
-1/13/2007 - going-away party for Andres Charles Epstein and his future wife Marcelita Orozco Rubio, with work, caibungi seargents with special gets, the Forget Me Nauts, and a couple renditions of Red Red Wine. A thrilling night, Andrew and company built a giant structure from which max and john were harnessed and hung, swinging as they sang and played in time. Moving into the living room for the second half, lots of fun was poked around and screamed, hearts racing only to be slowed and soothed one final calming movement.
-12/10/2006 - YELLOW 3rd show in rainbow series at Machine Project. ten songs based on the words of Shel Silverstein. very memorable for those who had the pleasure of being there; john and max, for the first time, wrote all of the music before the performance. these songs are now on a new ing album: You Can See It Here, Flashing.
-11/12/2006 - ORANGE, the second of eight monthly shows at Machine Project. perched above the project door, Zeus was interviewed, costumes, leaves leaves leaves flying, mother earth sacrificing her child for the sake of life-- whoa.
-10/28/2006 - RED 1st of 8 monthly shows at Machine Project. sitting in the dark with red lasers and LEDs on their foreheads, ing told the story of the birth of Red, Zeus et al.
-10/6/2006 - party at Heather's with friends, Echo Park, CA - The duo sat back to back on the same chair and with breath made sounds in the dim corner.
-9/16/2006 - Dangerous Curve, LA, CA - Another night at the Curve for a great art show. max and john sang ten songs about ten different animals with john on guitar and max on drums. a very pleasurable event
-9/9/2006 - instore (not Inscore) at Sea Level Records, LA, CA - played with hearts filled with shine! lots of people came to the store and shared the lovely loops, loops, loops, samples, drums and singing. Mr. Markowitz Senior confirmed that it rocked.
-8/26/2006 - Dangerous Curve, LA, CA
w/ Yek Koo and Pumice (from New Zealand) - lots of people fell asleep, including max and john; max got near naked before falling asleep, john took off his socks
-07/27/2006 - High Energy Constructs; China Town, LA
a beautiful beautiful audience and atmosphere led ing through songs of stories and summers through the ceiling, based on an outline designed by max; began with solo song by john; ended with solo song by max, who made people cry
-06/10/2006 - Il Corral; Los Angeles, CA - twenty five short pieces for max's twentyfifth birthday, tiescoguitar, keyboard, singings
-06/9/2006 - Mama Buzz; Oakland, CA - the show went on without ing, spending the night against our will in Newman, CA (look it up) due to car failure; almost a really creepy experience, but the pleasure of hanging with fellow ingmates made it all better; coming soon: the photo-journal of our trip
-06/4/2006 - 3rd Annual Cochina Festival; Riverside, CA
lots of cool bands under the hot hot sun, playing outside with the wind in the grass and the big tree, made some great new friends
-06/3/2006 - House Concert at Andrew's; Highland Park, CA - emily lacy blessed us with her music, max and andrew played ("FUCKERS!"); audience participation with pieces of the glockenspiel, max's awsome bell collection
-04/28/2006 - Gallery 1307, los angeles - ing played a bunch of synthesizers, max struggled to stand up, john pondered, max sang
-04/21/2006 - Andrew's House with Calibungai Sergeants, Highland Park CA - a deathly-ill max couldn't make it, was replaced by stellar understudy Jason Golday (of Suicide Note/ Texan Hex), joined Calibungai Sergeants (John's favorite band) on a few songs
-04/18/2006 - the Derby, los angeles - simple yet beautiful guitar keys singing ukulele
-03/18/2006 - Future Gallery, los angeles
our cd release concert for ing 5, a festivus explotion of great love, guitars bass keyboards cassette tapes television water audience participation tambourine sing-along falling asleep and holding the head.
-02/22/2006 - Silverlake Lounge, los angeles - duet band show w/eagle & talon and fairmona, max sang and danced along to a mix tape, listening on headphones, while john played rhodes along to max in front of a packed bar of bewildered yet entertained silverlakers
-01/14/2006 - En View Gallery, long beach CA - some miniature drums, suits ties, electric guitar, miniature keyboards, led on by special samples and always singing
-12/12/2005 - Tangier, los angeles - 2nd grade kabuki theatre, our favorite performance, donning special costumes, a tree (max) grows from a magical seed planted by an old wise man (john), thirty minutes of slow motion movement performed to ing 5 for the super hip Tangier crowd, the Los Angeles Times predicts: "Won't lovers revolt now?" with Willoughby
-11/20/2005 - Mr. T's Bowl, los angeles - crazy late night sample with typewriter wrote a letter to jason about life and love (as if we have a clue)
-11/20/2005 - Future Gallery, los angeles
show with bear bear, little and big kids, family, moms
-11/18/2005 - Scoops Ice Cream/Art Gallery, los angeles
a great night with just our voices, acoustic guitar, lap steel, and a map of the future