The Eastside Taven

This was the scene while we were setting up for our how at the
Eastside Tavern. It does not look like much from this angle as far as
crowd is concerned but once the music began, everyone came over and
could not stop dancing till we stopped playing. It was such an awesome
night for Picoso. Our first adventure in Olympia was a big success.

THANKS OLYMPIA!!!!

Olympia

The view of the back alley at the Eastside tavern in Olympia. Reminded
me a little of our last tour hanging out at the mission district in
San Francisco. There's those two models again. Unpaid of course!

The van

A quick pic of the wheels the band Reptet so graciously share with us.
The two models in the front were not paid for their poses. Just comes
naturally I guess!

BBQ

Being lucky with time is not one of Pocoso's attributes. So we were
surprised to get a little timely luck on our way to the gig at
Eastside Tavern and managed to stop at our friend Christy's house for
a BBQ. She is sitting next to Lalo in the picture with her lovely
little daughter whose name (I'm very ashamed to say) escapes me right
now.

Part of the experience of being on the road is that we get to meet a
whole bunch of new people in a very short amount of time. Olympia was
no exception and at Christy's house we met a few friends of the family
which were very kind and welcoming. We met a nice Greek lady who kept
talking to us about Greece and the lifestyle there. She talked
longingly about how relaxed and different everything is back in
Europe. Reminded me of my recent visit to Spain. It goes somethin
like this... Eat, drink, siesta... Wake up, eat. Eat some more and
drink some more.

If anyone out there has any good suggestions of people we could talk
to about doing some shows in Europe, please come forward now!!! :)

A mini tour!!!

Wow! It's been so long...

So here we are with a new guitar player who replaced Eli after the
last tour. A new van (used but new to the band) which we share with a
band called Reptet. If you don't know about them go check them out at www.reptet.com
. (There should be a much cooler picture than the one here of Samantha
in a fish suit somewhere in the site)

And of course, running real late (what else is new?) to our first gig
of this fast and furious tour to promotoe our upcoming cd Mas Picao.
There will be plenty of details in the next few days so stay tuned.
Tell your friends about the blog and feel free to become a follower.
The only way to make it good is to get everyoe involved. It's good to
be back!

We love you all...

Picoso!!!

A GOOD NIGHT

One of the perks of being a musician as well as a restaurant owner is that you get to meet a lot of famous people. Sometimes by chance, others by circumstance, and yet other times according to plan. The chance ones are usually the best because of the spontaneity of it all. When there is no plan, sometimes things happen that you would never even had dreamed of in the first place.

A week and a half ago I was at the restaurant getting ready to go back home. This was a Saturday night in which I had no plans except to spend some time with the family at home. As I am walking out of the restaurant I am surprised to see my friend Joe Santiago parking outside the restaurant and helping his friend Jerry Gonzalez (of all people) out of the car. If you are not familiar with Jerry Gonzalez and his band "For Apache Band" you should look it up online to see what I am talking about. Jerry has been an innovator in the genre of Latin Jazz for decades. Having played with some of the biggest names in the scene, including, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Ray Barreto and Tito Rodriguez among many others. Check out his myspace page to get a sense of what he is all about.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=27367577

As I see them I decide I needed to make some time to get to know Jerry seeing as I am a big fan and all. Over dinner both he and Joe (through a lot of arm twisting) finally convinced me that I needed to join them at the Triple Door to catch Jerry's show. It was a thrill to get to experience all that and meet the rest of the band as well. Went from the restaurant to the hotel to the show and my only regret is that everything seemed to go by so fast. What a thrill it was. The pictures above are of us at the restaurant, another from a backstage view, and the last from the side of the stage. I am at a loss for words in trying to explain the feeling of getting to meet and hang out with a living legend (in my view at least) I'd like to thank my family for letting me take the time to do all this... As I said, some of the best times in life are the ones that come by chance. This was one of them.

Go check out the link, and enjoy

Alfonso

SO IT ENDS

After finishing our gig at Placerville we decided to make a final push to Portland Oregon so that we could get there by Saturday. We wanted to get home as soon as possible and also return the van on time which meant getting to Portland by 1 pm at the latest. We did make it in the morning after traveling all night. I believe the pictures on this post reflect the mood of everyone after this initial tour of Picoso. (By the way, Izaak is not dead, that's just what happens when you drink as much rum as he did) : )

Exhausted from so much traveling and playing, we could only wait to make sure that everything went well with returning the van (it did not but I am tired of writing about those incompetent and unorganized bastards) Went to get our cars and loaded up to begin the final journey home to Seattle.

The final tally?
-5 bottles of rum $100
-1 bottle of tequila $45
-10 cases of beer $200
-1 broken cajon $???
-1 broken and fixed bass $179
-over 4,000 miles $3,000
-lots of dancing $0
-very little sleep $0

-Getting closer as a band and as a family..... PRICELESS!!!

I'd like to thank everyone who made this possible. Credit! to Credit who filled in marvelously (as usual you rocked!) at the Portland show for Izaak.

Natali (our new manager in training from Portland) who effortlessly tried to fix Keith's bass in between sets as well as find us some other gigs in the Portland area.

Keith's sister for putting us up in Eugene (sorry to your roommate for the loudness)

And all of those who put up with us throughout this tour. We hope we made a good enough impression and behaved well enough to come back knocking once again in the very near future.

And of course, Ferípula, Tati, and Liquid Love (ahem, Borat) for being awesome and following us through the blog. As well as the wifey and the in laws. We'd love to hear from more of you and feel free to post comments on any of the posts.

GRACIAS!!!!

I will try and keep this blog updated on a regular basis with our local shows and what ever else might be happening with the band.

By the way, our next show is on October 25th at Nectar and it promises to be a good one. We will have an opening band called grupo ASHE.

Also, as we speak, Miami Grill called to find out if we would play down in San Diego for their New Year's party so we could be back down there before you know it.

Stay tuned