Triana's Music Trivia (09.19.10)

Day-o! Photo by Kat.

I tend to tell stories over and over again, but it's not because of early-onset senility. Rather, I assume that new people occasionally peruse this blog, and that new people come to my shows from time to time, and I don't expect that they'll all have done a full historical perspective on me before reading the latest post. So, if you know all this stuff already, feel free to skip ahead a paragraph or two.

Back in fall 2006, my friend and former bandmate Mike Burns called and was excited about something called Second Life. My ladyfriend (who lived in Seattle at the time) and I checked it out, thought it was cool, and signed up as Kat and Zak Claxton. We both thought the creative possibilities were cool, and we started going to some live music events and so on. But really, we didn't develop any sense of community inside SL until a couple months later, when we noticed something called Triana's Music Trivia. It was (and still is) a weekly music trivia game held every Sunday evening at 7PM local time (which is the same as Second Life time). We started going and soon found that as much as we enjoyed the trivia game itself, we had even more fun amongst the crowd of looney people who would attend each week. Several of them became good pals of ours. In fact, Triana (the hostess and namesake of the game) became so close to us that twice, she's visited us in the Los Angeles area from her home in the midwest.

Hardly a week goes by that both Kat and I aren't at TMT on Sunday night. It's become a given in our schedule that we spend the last part of our weekend there, and it's always fun, without fail. Back in summer 2008, Triana was planning a special event for her rezday and the anniversary of TMT, and asked if I'd be able to perform at the festivities, which I gladly did on July 6, 2008 (and premiered a song I wrote about Triana and her trivia game that evening). Since then, I've done another five shows at TMT, and they're all terrific.

Triana, rocking her Aaron Rodgers jersey. Photo by Kat.

Which brings us back to the present. I did my sixth show at TMT on Sunday 9/19, and we really had a great time. The last few times I've played at Triana's, we separated the trivia game from the concert, which I think was better than trying to do them simultaneously, and made it a two-hour event for which I played the last hour. For last night's show (as I tend to do at TMT), I pulled out a couple of tunes I'd never done before, and overall just had a fabulous time.

TMT Set List...
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
*The Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
Help Me (Joni Mitchell)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
*Fuck You (Cee Lo Green)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Triana (Zak Claxton)
Shine (Zak Claxton)
Starman (David Bowie)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Triana's roof, a great place to rock on a Sunday evening. Photo courtesy of Triana Caldera.

Gigantic thanks to everyone who supported my show at TMT, as well as for your amazing friendship! You're all great!
wendela Beckenbauer, Nakira Tennen, Alchemy Epstein, Horizon Darkstone, Mick Majestic, Samantha Poindexter, Jordan Hazlitt, Candy Falodir, Diana Renoir, MrNoCal Honey, Xerxes Ninetails, Kat Claxton, and last but the opposite of least, TMT's founder and hostess, Triana Caldera!