6/13/09 CA Plaza Concert Highlights
A big thanks to all the fans who turned up at the California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles, last Saturday! The evening was a complete success. BrEndAn’s Band opened first, finishing their set with Brendan McCreary’s original song “When Will the Work Be Done,” that was featured in the “Battlestar Galactica” finale. As the sun set, the Battlestar Galactica Orchestra took the stage…
For the last song, Kara Thrace herself, Katee Sackhoff, joined me on stage at the grand piano to play “Kara Remembers” (from the forthcoming Season 4 Soundtrack Album). I played the left hand part, and she plucked out the Final Four Theme, just as she did in the climax of Someone to Watch Over Me. Once we had the Final Four Theme going on the piano, the band snuck in, building to “Heeding the Call” and finally “All Along the Watchtower.” The writers and director of Someone To Watch Over Me were in the audience, so this was a very special moment for Katee and me.
This is apparently what I look like when I’m conducting.
The lovely Raya Yarbrough joined us for “A Distant Sadness” and “Lords of Kobol.”
Katee at the piano
Brendan McCreary performing “All Along the Watchtower.”
Violin virtuouso Paul Cartwright
Woodwind specialist Chris Bleth brought his entire arsenal of bansuris, duduks, flutes and zurnas for the show.
Bassist Mike Valerio solos during “Dirty Hands.”
Cellist Tina Guo brought the rock.
Brendan McCreary in the opening act, BrEndAn’s Band. Nice jacket!
This concert was the world premiere performance of “Dreilide Thrace Sonata No. 1,” that will be featured on the forthcoming Season 4 Soundtrack Album. As I told the audience that night, the compositions Slick plays during that episode were my sketches, composed on set during the filming. Just as the character Slick searched for the soul of his music, so I toiled and searched, sketching various musical themes and motives. At the end of the episode, Kara plays the recording of her father performing his “Sonata,” but we only hear about a minute of it. The audience at California Plaza last Saturday became the first in the world to hear the complete “Sonata.”
Ira Ingber (L), whose slide guitar has graced countless film scores including Midnight Run, played an intense solo during “Dirty Hands.” Steve Bartek (R) has played on all my projects since the beginning and, of course, was the lead guitarist of Oingo Boingo for nearly 20 years.
Speaking of Boingo, drummer Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez held down the line of percussion in the back.
CA PLAZA 6/13/09
SET LIST:
A Distant Sadness
Precipice
Fight Night
Gina Escapes
Caprica
Gaeta’s Lament
Roslin and Adama
Wander My Friends
Dreilide Thrace Sonata No. 1
Baltar’s Dream
Dirty Hands
Lords of Kobol
Prelude to War
Kara Remembers / Heeding the Call
All Along the Watchtower
Encore:
Black Market
Taiko maestro M.B. Gordy in action.
Remember Nigel Tufnel’s solo in Spinal Tap, when he made THIS EXACT FACE? Pretty awesome.
Brendan sang the lead vocal on “Gaeta’s Lament,” a unique arrangement of it I made specifically for the concert.
The front line of guitars, Paul in the background.
I’m playing a particularly brutal keyboard part in “Prelude to War.”
Steve Bartek solos on “Black Market.”
Percussionist Jonathan Ortega plays Nagado Daiko.
Violinist Robbie Anderson
Vatos
Richard Cook played with us for the first time, lending his Irish Whistles and Uilleann Pipes to “Wander My Friends.”
Percussionist Bruce Carver brought his entire array of gongs, visible behind him.
Violist Tom “Dirty Brahms” Lea makes his Metal Face.
(Thanks to PopCultureGeek for the pic!)
After the concert, the entire band and I signed Battlestar Galactica and Caprica CDs, as well as limited edition “Music of Battlestar Galactica” posters that are only available at our live events. I’m hopeful that we’ll sell these online soon as well, so those of you who can’t make it out have a chance to get these two beautiful designs by artist Andrew Craig (who also took all these amazing photographs!).
During the signing, I met fans from all over the country who had flown or driven in to see this event, including a girl from NEW ZEALAND, who was here just to see us!
A thunderous performance beneath the stormy skies.
Even though the venue said it wasn’t allowed, many fans got video footage (thanks!) :) Here’s the ENTIRE concert, courtesy of Erik at FilmsInFocus. If you guys have more, post links either in the comments below or in this entry.
“When Will the Work Be Done”
BrEndAn’s Band, Opening Act
“A Distant Sadness”
“Precipice”
“Fight Night”
“Gina Escapes”
“Caprica”
“Gaeta’s Lament”
“Roslin and Adama”
“Wander My Friends”
“Dreilide Thrace Sonata No. 1″
“Baltar’s Dream”
“Dirty Hands”
“Lords of Kobol”
“Prelude to War”
“Kara Remembers,” “Heeding the Call” and “All Along the Watchtower”
“Black Market”
If you missed this incredible show, you can still catch us at the House of Blues in San Diego on July 23, 24 or 25th! Tickets are now available, but they will sell quickly. The July concerts will feature surprise guests as well as an expanded set list with even more new material from Season 4. And the HOB shows will be your first chance to pick up the highly-anticipated Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 soundtrack album! I will make more announcements about the July concerts in the coming weeks because there are exciting developments that are just a bit too early to share with you yet. So keep checking back here frequently.
So Say We All!
-Bear
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125 Responses to “6/13/09 CA Plaza Concert Highlights”
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Shoot I was comment #99.
Erik :)
Wow, that concert must have been a blat. Wait… thanks to Erik, I KNOW it was a blast. Thanks a bunch Erik for sharing your vids! That’s so cool! Awesome quality.
Bear, this was a terrific concert and I wished I would have had the chance to see it live! You totally rock and now that I’ve seen the footage, I can’t wait any minute longer for the S4 CD!!!
All my best
Dee
Exactly one week after it began, Erik has gotten the entire set uploaded. Good job man.
Next up Dirty Hands!
http://www.filmsinfocus.com/films.htm
Erik
It’s amazing how long it takes to color correct, compress, and upload 16 songs! To everyone on the blog, thank you for all your nice comments. It kept me going those late nights.
Bear, you are a true talent and I’m glad I could help you share your live music with your fans! I wanted to end my journey posting these videos with “Wander My Friends”. It was an amazing live performance and really captures how magical your music is live!
BSG would not have been as great a show if it weren’t for you and the talent around you. You took us on a musical journey from the first cue to the last!
I look forward to S4 CD hopefuly, with your signature on it.
Just one fan who loves film score music,
Erik C. Andersen
Erik, thanks for your videos. They mean a lot to us who are too far away to attend BSG concerts in person.
Btw, Tina Guo is hot
You shouldn’t have hidden her behind Paul Cartwright :)
Thank you so much for linking all of these videos!
Adster…
Great pictures, thanks!
EJKDreamer…
3-D? Awesome! I’d love to be able to get copies of all of these.
kiddo235…
Great pic of you and Esai. I didn’t even know he made it to the show, but there he was!
SVRaven… ” I’m moving out to Seattle next weekend-ish and will be “poor recent college grad” probably for the rest of this year, so too bad I won’t be able to make any of the upcoming events.”
I grew up near there. Just lovely, especially in July and August. I certainly hope we can get up to the Pacific NW with the band sometime, but nothing’s on the calendar just yet.
t3techcom18… “2). When you played “Gina’s Escape”, you did an extended version of it with what you had or was it a compilation of ideas you had afterwards?”
Almost all of the songs were extended somehow, especially “Gina’s Escape,” “Dirty Hands,” and “Baltar’s Dream.” Typically, I’d have the soloist who played in the actual cue state the melody, then open up the form for some solos from the band, then re-state the melody one final time. So, cues on the album that were 2 minutes might be 4 or 5 now. It also really lets you have time to sit with the groove and feel it. Many of those pieces were painfully short on the album anyway. But, longer pieces like “Prelude to War,” (or last year we did “Something Dark is Coming”) are generally the same length in concert.
“3) “When Will the Work Be Done” is an infectious and great song! When you said it was a song by Brendan in your original “Daybreak” blog entry, I thought you meant it was a song that he already did, but when I saw the video with the full song, I heard a lot of references to Caprica and to the character’s long journey. In a nutshell: How did you create the song with your brother? Any thought of it possibly going into a future CD release, either on your part or through his band?”
Brendan entirely wrote it on his own. You should find him on MySpace and ask him directly, because its a great story and I wouldn’t really do it justice.
js1182… “I did have a question for you, after listening to all your CDs and now having compared it to the live version… what do you prefer, studio or live?”
It’s very hard to say. I’m a perfectionist, and will probably always prefer the studio versions. But, the energy and chaos of the live versions are a real visceral thrill, for sure.
Erik…
You deserve and extra special thanks, man! The footage looks awesome. Thank you for sharing it with all of us!
-Bear
One thing I really want to hear in concert is “Baltar Panics”, from season 1. It’s so short but I love it! Anyone else with me?
It was a great night. When I told my friends that it was Katee playing they doubted me. Foolish humans! Keeping my fingers crossed for an Emmy nom and win. You deserve it!
You know, it just hit me… no Eric Rigler for this concert?
This is very cool! Click on the Battlestar Galactica link below. Then select “Play All Videos”. Sit back and enjoy all 16 videos. It’s like being there live again!
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4285EAA2C9015483
Erik C. Andersen
Erik, did you happen to get any more of BrEndAn’s Band?
Wow what a show! I wish I could have been there (were it not for my internship I would seriously have driven from Texas for it). Thanks so much to Erik for video-taping this for all of us to see. I love the arrangements of some of the songs (Prelude to War – Guitar Style!), and Gaeta’s Lament sends chills down my spine. Makes me more anxious then ever for the season 4 CD.
I’m really excited you are planning a CD of this music – it deserves to be heard in its full glory! I’ll buy the CD, DVD and if you ever come anywhere in Texas (Dallas perhaps?) I will be there! I’ll buy the posters if you get them online as well, they can join my assorted collection of Galactica ones already cluttering my wall!
Cory… “One thing I really want to hear in concert is “Baltar Panics”, from season 1. It’s so short but I love it! Anyone else with me?”
Wow, I had completely forgotten about that track! It would actually work very well. It just never struck me as a track that anyone really loved, you know? I’ll think about it, since I’m looking for other tracks we could perform live.
musicpaladin2007… “You know, it just hit me… no Eric Rigler for this concert?”
Regrettably, no. He was on tour with the Young Dubliners (check them out if you get a chance, amazing!). So, Richard Cook filled in for him. But, Rigler is back with us in San Diego.
-Bear
Erik, did you happen to get any more of BrEndAn’s Band?
Yes, I did Cory. I got the hole thing on video! I tried to contact him but no response.
Erik :)
Bear, if you’re looking for a good live track, I think “Destiny” from season one would be really kick ass…
GungaDin… “Bear, if you’re looking for a good live track, I think “Destiny” from season one would be really kick ass…”
That’s not a bad idea. I hadn’t really considered it. Someone else mentioned “Baltar Panics” from Season 1 as well. I hadn’t really thought about Season 1 tracks for the concert, but there are definitely a few possibilities.
-Bear
[...] – actually you should – watch almost the entire concert and view lots of great pictures here at McCreary’s [...]
Katee is amazing *sigh* its really cool how she got up there with you and played “Kara Remembers”. Just amazing and so would have loved to be there for it, see her play it live with you. Anyways, the video will have to do and it does do wonders. Really adore her, so was amazed when I saw the video
Sarah ;)
Talkative Sarah… “Katee is amazing *sigh* its really cool how she got up there with you and played “Kara Remembers”. Just amazing and so would have loved to be there for it, see her play it live with you.”
It was amazing for me too, because the last time Katee and I sat at a piano together, we were on the set with cameras around us, shooting the episode. And before you know it, we’re on stage in front of thousands of fans, re-creating that very scene! It was quite powerful…
-Bear
“And before you know it, we’re on stage in front of thousands of fans, re-creating that very scene! It was quite powerful…”
I can imagine how powerful that must have been. Too bad I wasn’t there because that would have been amazing. Really hope its not a once in a life time thing cause I would LOVE to see Katee perform that live with you. So hope you get the chance to do that again with Katee
Sarah :D
[...] da und haben die Bude gerockt… Davon gibts aber (noch?) keine Footage, daher hier Clips vom Konzert vom 13. Juni (feat. Katee [...]
Talkative One… “Really hope its not a once in a life time thing cause I would LOVE to see Katee perform that live with you.”
It wasn’t. I think you’ll have an opportunity to see Katee and I performing it again in the near future! :) Keep your eyes out here on the blog in the coming weeks.
-Bear