Castledoor: Residency Diary, Part Three

Residency Diaries are exactly what they sound like: the thoughts, musings, and scribbles of rock bands as they host a series of month-long shows in various Los Angeles venues. This month’s R.D. entries will be from Castledoor, whose charging, joyous indie rock can be heard at Spaceland every Monday night in June for free.

By Coury Combs (vocals, synth)

“This show is going to be hard to top!”

That was the consensus of the band after Monday night. I could even quote that straight from the mouth of twitter. Some nights everything just feels  magical. The crowd is ultra enthusiastic, the band feels together in every way, and the surprises we plan actually pan out the way we would have hoped. This was one of those nights.

It started off right with a quick practice from 3-5 to go over our little cover songs just so we could feel completely comfortable on stage. It’s always nice when you don’t have to think too much and you can just have fun. Practice went well both times this week just because the James Brown cover felt so right! It was even exciting playing it for the first time together at rehearsal when we had no idea how it would go!

After practice we all went and ate at the Viet Noodle Bar in Atwater Village. Nate and I went with the fish noodle dish. Sounds bad, but is actually too too good. Gabe and Joel went for some soup and I didn’t feel sorry for Gabe when he said he was hungry later.

“Well, all you ate for dinner was broth! I told you to get more!” -Me

Anyway, Lisa got a tofu sammy and a side of yellow rice. I have no idea what Brando got but we all got Vietnamese Iced Coffees which were very interesting for sure. Like a coffee milkshake…but..iced.

After we had our nice little dinner, we headed to soundcheck and pretty much had another band practice.

Showtime!

Agent Ribbons was the first band up. They are super cute and I have to hand it to a girl who keeps up such vivid hair color! It’s not easy!

Deep Sea Diver had the 10:00 slot and played a great show to kick off their upcoming tour! Fun!

The crowd was very nice! It has been growing every week! Nate gave us a nice lil pep talk in the back room and we did our usual “quack, quack, quack, quack, quack……Gooooooooooo  _ _ _ _ _” (some people say ducks, some say Castledoor…who knows). I can’t describe how much more fun a show is when the crowd is having fun! “How could they not have fun?”, you say. “Castledoor oozes cupcakes & rainbows”. Well, let me tell you, not everyone likes cupcakes & rainbows. But these people did! These are my kinda people! I bet they even like picnics and Peeps at Easter time.

The show was going super and it just felt even better when we started the James Brown cover, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” We could have all had our instruments unplugged and it would have gone off great on the wings of Nate’s vocals alone.

Another highlight was jumping into “Pretty Woman” by the late great Roy Orbison in the middle of “Magnetic Forces.” Again, this crowd is cool. They sang louder than us!

During “Dusty” Nate decided to kick off one of his shoes…you know, shake the dust off his feet? Well, his shoe hit Gabe right in the face. Fast forward a couple more seconds and a second shoe comes a flying right at Gabe’s face! 2 for 2! Nate is a caring person so he kissed Gabe’s booboo. Above and beyond the call of duty! Things got weird the next morning, but hey!

As if things could get any better for us, our dear pally Robert from the incredible Rooney came to play tambo with us on “Fifth Tambourine” and guitar on “Free”. Unfortunately, now he’ll have to play every single show with us from now on because I can’t go on living without hearing the guitar parts in “Free” at every show. Having Robert up with us really topped the night off. He has such a happy energy! Perfect match for the 100’s of pink Bubble Gum Cigars we gave out before “Magnetic Forces”. In case you are like Joel, and just enjoy life without over thinking things, the theme of the show was “Ladies night/girls night out/girls girls girls/etc”. The flashbacks begin!  Did you pick up on my subtle foreshadowing?

a. Female fronted bands!

b. Pretty Woman!

c. “Man’s World” (but it ain’t nothing without a lady or a girl!)

d. It’s a girl bubble gum cigars!

Ding, ding, ding!

In closing, the show was amazing and we want to sincerely thank everyone who’s been coming out. We appreciate it more than you know and we are creating life long memories together! Can’t wait for next week.

Historically & quite respectfully yours,

Coury Combs (& Gabriel Combs who assisted with my outline)…uh…what I meant to say was, I most certainly DID NOT write an outline for my residency diary…uh..yeeeah…gotta go…

June 22, 2009 | Filed Under Exclusive Features, Residency Diaries 

Comments

3 Responses to “Castledoor: Residency Diary, Part Three”

  1. Clancy on June 22nd, 2009 1:59 pm

    This was very entertaining!

  2. holly on June 22nd, 2009 6:35 pm

    coury combs! amazing. i give you an A based on the outline alone. and your kicking vintage style.

  3. Tanja Crouch on June 23rd, 2009 8:07 am

    Hi Castledoor, I read about your singing Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman”. Would love to hear it–have your manager contact me at tanja@orbison.com I would also love to send you a Orbison box set. Tanja




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