Well, it’s the back-end of January and my wife and I are still waiting on the little Bundle of Darkness © that was foretold in the prophecies. (End of the world, something something Mayan calendar or whatever…)
No shows for the immediate future, though I may be back in action come March. In the meantime, I’ve taken up whittling, which leaves a surprising amount of wood shavings all over the damn carpet. Maybe I should get a wood shed.
Happy Holidays and stuff. This is my last missive from 2011 and there are two things to tell you about January (i.e. the month where I lose mind):
1) For the next two weeks, I will be knee-deep in Seattle Shakespeare Company’s production of Coriolanus (stop giggling!), working as sound designer and music supervisor on one of Shakespeare’s least produced plays (though it was nice of Ralph “Don’t call me Voldemort” Fiennes to direct and release his big screen adaptation in January, too).
All performances are at the Seattle Center House Theatre, January 4-29; ticket and calendar info can be found here.
2) And, I guess the biggest news to be shared is that my wife and I have a duo project that will drop on/around January 22nd–okay, maybe DROPPED is the wrong word–because you don’t want to drop a baby!
Yes, I’m about to enter a new era of sleepless nights and poor parental judgment and, since I’ve know about the impending Life Changing Event since May, now you know why I was hesitant to revive The Dark Pioneers right after Sam’s departure; I know as soon as the band was back up and running, we would have to hit the pause button for a while. So far, my live calendar remains empty and will likely stay that way until spring; I also have this huge stockpile of unreleased music that’s growing fallow on my hard drive…guess that will have to keep a while longer since, you know…BABY!
Stay tuned and have a happy new year!
Whoa? It’s December already? Time for an update before we’re already
ringing in a new year and I become a daaah…well, we’ll get to that later in the month.
My one and only show for December will be at The Tractor in Ballard on December 17th–and what a show it will be! I’ll be part of the 9th Annual Double-Album Christmas Benefit Show for MUSICARES. The album is ‘Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs’ by Derek and the Dominos, played in its entirety, in order, and featuring a different band or artist for every song.
SAT, December 17th @ 9pm
The Tractor ($10 adv or $12 doors/21+)
5213 Ballard Ave NW, Seattle, WAfeat. BLUE SPARK, KIM VIRANT, MIKE McCREADY (Pearl Jam), THE JELLY ROLLERS, JEFF FIELDER, SEAN BATES (HalloQueen), ANDREW McKEAG (P.U.S.A.), JAMES APOLLO & HIS SWEET UNKNOWN, THE GLASS NOTES, NATHAN WADE,PERSEPHONE, SAM RUSSELL, STAR ANNA & THE LAUGHING DOGS, and more! All proceeds benefit MusiCares. These shows usually sell out, so consider advance tickets to make sure you get in!
My friend Sam Russel and I will be sitting in with James Apollo’s band for the night, and vice versa (btw, I’m playing “Tell The Truth”). There are a hell of lot of great guitarists playing that night, so I better get my sh*t together. (I’m imagining a scenario where I blow a Duane Allman-inspired slide solo while Mike McCready, Jeff Fielder, and Andrew McKeag all give me the stink-eye over their cans of PBR.)
Happy Holidays, folks! I’ll check in once last time this year with info on my next theatre production (Shakespeare’s ‘Coriolanus’) and a very important announcement.
It’s mid-October already? I guess I better let you know a few things about this and that:
Cornish College of the Arts presents
‘El Paso Blue’ by Octavia Solis
Directed by Aimee BruneauOctober 25-29th & 31st @ 7:30pm doors
October 30th early show @ 6:30pm doors
9th Avenue Studios/Studio One
427 9th Avenue N, Seattle ,WA$10 General Admission
$5 Cornish Community w/ID and Senior Citizens
I’ll perform live original music alongside the cast for this Cornish production, as well as arranging songs created for the show by Michael Hawkeye Herman.
SAT, November 5th @ 9pm
Shadowland (21+/FREE)
4458 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA
Nathan solo show w/Lincoln Barr (of Red Jacket Mine)
And then it’s my last show of the year with long-time pal/verbal sparring partner Lincoln Barr. Shadowland is in the heart of West Seattle, and I hear the food is excellent (so appetites are as welcome as you are).
And did you know about this?
Well, I’ve sort of made good on my promise to take a long vacation; masochist that I am, however, I’ve spent most of my time off moonlighting as a theatre composer and sound designer. It’s been a couple of years since I rode the old theatre horse, but I’m happy to announce that the show I’ve been working on opens tonight AND features music by The Dark Pioneers (recorded earlier this year).
Book-It Repertory Theatre Presents:
Border Songs by Jim Lynch
Adapted by Bryan Willis (w/David Quicksall)
Directed By David Quicksall
The show runs September 17th - October 9th and peformed in the Seattle Center House Theatre (305 Harrison Street, Seattle, WA). For tickets and info, the Book-It website has you covered.
And since I’ve already saddled up, I’ve signed on to do two more shows guaranteed to keep me busy through January 2012. More on that soon (plus a solo show in November), but to continue the horse metaphor…there’s this EP I keep alluding to that has yet to be released…
Before I blow out of town for a while, I shall perform a quiet coda to my Dark Pioneers days with one last show this summer.
THU, July 21st @ 7:00-8:30pm (sharp!!!)
Egan’s Ballard Jam House ($5/All Ages)
1707 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107
w/Dawn Jewell and Andrew Norsworthy
Egan’s is a small, cabaret style club located in Ballard, and I’m excited to (literally) share the stage with my friends Andrew and Dawn. We’ll be playing “in the round,” so we’ll all be on stage at once, trading songs and collaborating on each others music when we can.
It’s an early show (7-8:30), so we have to start on time to make way for an event at 9pm. Seating is very limited while excellent food & drinks are available; perhaps consider it a good night out for dinner and a show. Bonus: you’ll be on your way home before 9! Come join us for a one-of-a-kind evening and my last show until…who knows when.
And so it has come to pass: The Dark Pioneers have ceased to be a live band, and yet the music will continue to flow like a river (a river of tears, perhaps?). Don’t worry, there’s still a healthy amount of Dark Pioneers studio and live material yet to be released, so I’m not boarding up the windows and liquidating my TDP assets just yet.
Over the next twelve months or so, I’ll be delivering more goods via the internetz, perhaps while you’re sleeping or eating cheese, perhaps while you’re watching a Law & Order marathon. Who can say? And all the while, as I busy myself playing curator at The Dark Pioneers museum, I’ll have new projects to share with you. But before all of that can happen, what I really need is a long vacation.
Long live The Dark Pioneers! Don’t wait up, we’ll leave the light on for ya, etc.
The last days are upon us!
SAT, June 18th @ 4:45pm
2011 Washington Brewer’s Festival
Saint Edwards State Park (All Ages)
14445 Juanita Dr. NE, Kenmore, WA
If you love dads, brews, and live music, this Father’s Day weekend event is right up your alley. We play a 90 minute set in the late afternoon, so expect to hear all the hits. Check out the Washington Beer Commission’s website for details and tickets.
SAT, June 18th @ 9pm
The Skylark (21+/$5)
3803 Delridge Way SW, West Seattle, WA
w/We Found A Lovebird and Little Beirut
And then we come to the end as we ring out whatever juice we have left in the machine. Join us as we close a 4 year chapter in Dark Pioneers history and bid farewell to our multi-talented friend and bandmate, Sam Collins.
We’re approaching the end of the road for the live version of The Dark Pioneers with only a handful of shows to usher us out of this existence (two per day, no less). Here’s what we have in store for May:
SUN, May 29th @ 4pm
Northwest Folklife Festival
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA
We’re playing a short set on the new Indie Roots Stage at Center Square (between the EMP and the Center House). This is a free, all ages event.
SUN, May 29th @ 9pm
The Comet Tavern ($6/21+)
922 E Pike Street, Seattle, WA
w/ The Sumner Brothers and Ganges River Band
We’ll follow up our family-friendly daytime show with a raunchier nighttime throw-down on Capitol Hill. Strum, twang, and dystopia after dark.
More announcements to come in June!
Since 2007, Sam Collins has been one of the original Dark Pioneers. If you ever had a chance to see our band live, you know that he effortlessly switched from upright acoustic bass, to keyboards, to electric bass, then back again (while singing backing vocals all the way). If you haven’t seen us live, then you’ve heard his work on The Chroma Session EP, The Gospel of Rust (where he also did all of the string arrangements), and the experimental Argot album.
Sadly, Sam is leaving the TDP compound at the end of June for warmer climes, pursuing higher education down in Santa Barbara. This is a completely amicable departure and we wish him all the best. He brought so much creativity and finesse to this band and we will miss him terribly.
So what comes next? Well, the music ain’t gonna stop, but starting in July, The Dark Pioneers are going on an indefinite hiatus until Brian and I have time to build TDP v2.0. I’ve always reckoned that we’d need to hire 3 people to replace Sam–a bassist, a keyboardist, and a cellist (because he also played bowed bass like nobody’s business)–and now may be the time to do just that.
Since this hiatus mostly applies to live situations, we still have an EP to lay on you this summer. We’ll also cull the archives for live recordings and maybe produce a few more gems from the vaults. Coincidentally, I’ve been on a pretty prolific songwriting jag, so there’s plenty of new music to come; only time will tell how it comes to light.
Stay safe/stay vigilant,
Nathan Wade
