the Martian Entropy Band

Hi folks,

 I have posted the Michigan Theatre concert tape on the home page. You can listen by going to the home page and selecting the Michigan Theatre gig from the selector, or just by clicking the following link:

http://martianentropyband.com/default.aspx?audioaction=1&program=3

 All in all it was one of our best concerts, I'd say. And at least for a good portion of it there was an appreciative audience. At least it sounds as if I felt fairly comfortable onstage for this gig. I didn't hesitate to fill up space with lead guitar playing (maybe too much!) Tim was solid as usual but it sounded as if there were some issues with getting Tim in the mix. Billie sounds like Billy Cobham reborn on this tape -- awesome. We had a new bass player on this gig, I don't remember his name. He did an admirable job and fulfilled his function well. And he played trombone on some songs when Mike played bass, like on Music Man. I will say, however, that the main benefit we achieved from getting the additional bass player was not a better band, but the ability to learn more songs, faster. Mike (the Spaceman Bassman) was taxed with overseeing the light show, technical details as well as his own show numbers, and I had a bunch of new tunes that were all in like 267/19 and I wanted the band to learn them fast. And whereas it may have taken Mike a little longer to learn the tunes, in retrospect I truly and honestly prefer the sound and the feel of Mike's playing, to this bass player. For example, the version of Warp Factor 217 on the free concert with Mike playing bass is far superior to the version we did at the Michigan Theater with the new bass player. That's how I feel about it -- now get outta here!

sorry it took this long to get it up on the website. Enjoy :)

Hugh J. Hitchcock

Just a few "tech notes"... I hope people will add to these... the concert was produced by Steve Wild of Grace and Wild, who also engineered the recording and was kind enough to go into the vault and get it out for us to enjoy again. I don't know who was doing the mixing. All in all a great job of mixing (except I wish there was just a bit more of Mumbles in the mix). Equipment was obtained from Ann Arbor Music Mart which was run by Fred and John Flis. The concert was promoted by "Dick Reed", our would-be agent and anti-hero of the Michigan Theater gig, who apparently lost a bundle on this gig, and then disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.

Where did he go? is this Dick Reed? http://www.wilsonauctionltd.com/staff.shtml I tried emailing him at the address there, and it was returned undeliverable. Oh, well!

check out the Michigan Theater -- it's awesome

Actually, to listen to the recording, I think ultimately a lot more good came of this gig than bad, despite what we have written in our thread on it.  read our thread on this gig. And it sounds like there was actually a rather large, appreciative audience, despite our recollections of feelings of emptiness in that huge theater. And the band was definitely about at the top of its game for what it was at the time. So you know I think this is a recording we can be proud of. Relatively few glitches and some quite well executed difficult original music. As I told Billy on the phone the other day, I think what we really needed was one more instrumentalist to really push us over the top, like a good keyboardist perhaps, as I was writing most of my stuff on the guitar by then. We had an incredibly solid progressive foundation.