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Crowd shot from Amanda Palmer with Nervous Cabaret at...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:47:00 -0500

Crowd shot from Amanda Palmer with Nervous Cabaret at Philadelphia’s Theater of The Living Arts, 18 November 2009.

This one Brian took while standing on top of his drum kit at the end of the encore.

Thanks again to everyone in Philly for making us so welcome!

The New York show at Music Hall of Williamsburg was amazing. It...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:46:00 -0500

The New York show at Music Hall of Williamsburg was amazing. It is so wonderful to play to your home crowd, and walking around Brooklyn these past 2 days seeing all our friends and how psyched they were to be at this show has been truly uplifting.

Elyas had the camera on stage and snapped off this shot of Amanda Palmer auctioning off some art works in between songs. I think it shows the energy of the night… what an incredible audience to give us all so much energy!

Looking forward to seeing all the guys tomorrow morning and heading off to Philly to do a radio segment with Amanda and then of course the show at Theater of the Living Arts.

See you there!

NYC Crowd Shot part 2: Saturday, November 14, 2009. Amanda...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:17:01 -0500

NYC Crowd Shot part 2: Saturday, November 14, 2009. Amanda Palmer with Nervous Cabaret. photo by Nervous Cabaret drummer Brian Geltner.

Amanda Palmer with Nervous Cabaret at Music Hall of...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:15:40 -0500

Amanda Palmer with Nervous Cabaret at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Saturday 14 November 2009… crowd shot (part 1) shot by Nervous Cabaret drummer Brian Geltner

Friday 13th, 2009: Northampton MA Amanda Palmer singing her...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:12:10 -0500

Friday 13th, 2009: Northampton MA

Amanda Palmer singing her Ukulele acappella. Photo taken from stage by Nervous Cabaret drummer Brian Geltner.

Great show… !

(via tiresome) This is a universal truth, and something we want...

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:04:53 -0500

(via tiresome)

This is a universal truth, and something we want to work on. We ALL matter, and we all need to KNOW we matter. YOU ARE NOT INCONSEQUENTIAL! The Dignity of a Fallen Mosquito

Port City Music Hall is a gorgeous venue and it SOUNDS even...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:18:31 -0500

Port City Music Hall is a gorgeous venue and it SOUNDS even better than it looks! It was a great audience and they gave us so much energy, which is why it’s sad to tell you we had crowd-shot fail!

To make it up to you… here’s a little back-stage action as Fred, Sam and Amanda get ready to march! Photo by our own bombastic and eagle-eyed drummer Brian Geltner.

Fans giving a bit shot out to Amanda Palmer and Nervous Cabaret...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:24:00 -0500

Fans giving a bit shot out to Amanda Palmer and Nervous Cabaret at Higher Ground in Burlington last night (Nov 11th)

Great start to the tour… and looking forward to playing on the beautiful Port City Music Hall stage tonight!

Absinthe Minded ruminations on film screenings and tricky,...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:09:00 -0400

Absinthe Minded ruminations on film screenings and tricky, brittle, snapping guitar strings from Paris, France…. Oct 12-14 2009

This will largely be a rambling blog. When squeezing this much activity in the span of just one week, excited, tangental sputterings are about all I can manage. Bear with me. Or as our tour bus GPS is fond of saying: “Bear Right”.

Nick Stubbs flew in From London with his fiancee Deborah. This would be our first time playing together as a duo. Nick “The Big Stick” on Drums and yours truly doing the old guitar/bass/electronics/vocals routine.

I had played with him at Jordan’s (Three Black Eyes) wedding in Enfield, London a couple of months back and was impressed with his knowledge of our music.

I, on the other hand, was completely indecisive as to what to play for this string of gigs. I had the new material: Lowest of the Low , The River, Three Merry Boys etc… but right before leaving Berlin I had uncovered a whole portal of other new work I had been churning out in the last year, plus up to the moment fiddlelings I wanted to fiddle with some more…..

Realizing that Nick didn’t need that kind of bumble-mindedness I decided to stick with the game plan. Got into Studio Bleu in the bustling, African market vibe Chateau D’eau district and we were off. Suffice to say Nick’s a lovely boy, he really is….

THE SCREENING OF ” Between The Bridges” : A documentary about NERVOUS CABARET (that’s my band in NYC) came up next; the day before the Paris gig. It was going to be screened at INTERNATIONAL, a great two floor venue in Menilmontant. The very idea of having to attend this the day before our Point FMR Paris gig was a bit much for me. Revisiting a document of the last time we played together as NERVOUS CABARET, my moving house from Brooklyn, my marriage to Melissa etc… in front of an audience was a tad emotionally daunting: I’m a sensitive fella y’all!

Accompanied by my wife Melissa and old chum Nadja, we meandered through the golden, dusky houred Rue Oberkampf in Menilmontant; past my favorite cilantro, ginger and galanga scented Korean rice shop overflowing with after work customers, past Nouveau Casino getting ready for their evening concert and straight into my worst scenario: having sit through a film where I have the most lines: embarrassingly self scripted impromptu dialogue; the things one says, appalling in retrospect.

The place was packed, another surprise because in-fact, the other worse thing would be to sit through the premiere of such a film, a film in a sense honoring the achievements of our happy enterprise, with no one in attendance. Thankfully that didn’t happen. Our director Guillaume Dero was outside the murmuring venue smoking. Devilishly handsome and shy, a Saint of a man, all the more so because he had a book of drink tickets which I eagerly clutched from his paw. He was nervous. They wanted me to make an appearance before the film. I did so but sheepishly. I just wanted to get upstairs and down some more of the house red.

There were great whoops of applause after it was all done. Many pats on the back as the audience climbed back upstairs and saw me wobbling on my stool, elbow on the bar, drink tickets at the ready for “all my friends” who were brave enough to show up.

I missed my band. Those boys had taught me so much. I missed New York. I was proud and getting a little nectar sappy with Melissa about it all. She reminded me that I’d be back in NYC soon enough and just to enjoy what was happening now.

Well, ok then, “I’m off to the Absinthe bar two doors down. Anybody care to join!” A boozy caravan organized itself clumsily on the narrow sidewalk and chugged along after me. The shattered glass from a vandalized car poured out in front of us like a starry carpet that lead to the door of the bar.

Secretly now, I was only thinking about the next day, the order of the songs and how shitty my voice was sounding. I was sick. Had been for a week and it was getting worse. Flemmy, shredded tones pushing through a snotty nose and thick head. Some people like that kind of thing I’m told and I was doing all I could, in my revery, to make sure the people, God bless ‘em, got what they wanted…..

The next evening at the sweaty, fog filled Point Ephemere, on the banks of the lovely Canal Du Saint Martin, excited and rearing to get on with this gig, my D string snapped at the very top of the show; without any provocation, before I had even uttered a raspy breath! With no back up instrument I tuned up and went for it. Nick was looking a bit worried but also mysteriously calm and pounded through the set with great aplomb. The Thermals had a nice set but we were over the moon at having pulled this one off. The intensity intact and in full force.

Next up was Reims, the birthplace of champagne; Dijon, Mustard land and Strasbourg, aah…more French food. We were ready

Elyas Khan’s Three Merry Boys, featuring Nick Stubbs on...

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:31:00 -0400

Elyas Khan’s Three Merry Boys, featuring Nick Stubbs on drums. Recorded for Dijon Campus Radio 92.2, October 2009.

Elyas Khan’s Lowest of The Low, featuring Nick Stubbs on...

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:31:00 -0400

Elyas Khan’s Lowest of The Low, featuring Nick Stubbs on drums. Recorded for Dijon Campus Radio 92.2, October 2009.

Les Enfants du Papillon, recorded for Le Cargo acoustic...

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:14:00 -0400

Les Enfants du Papillon, recorded for Le Cargo acoustic sessions.

Cat Head, recorded for Le Cargo acoustic sessions.

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:10:00 -0400

Cat Head, recorded for Le Cargo acoustic sessions.

Dead Naked, recorded for Le Cargo acoustic sessions.

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:04:00 -0400

Dead Naked, recorded for Le Cargo acoustic sessions.

Lowest of The Low (Lyrics)

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:50:11 -0400

Lowest of The Low (Lyrics)
Written by Elyas Khan

I was happy x4
I was the lowest of the low
They had my future x4
They had my ready made soul
Don’t Let this happen x4
When you kiss them let them go
Don’t let this happen x4
Use your body and run
They got your future x4
They got your ready made soul
Oooh yeah I was happy, was the lowest of the low x2

THE ISOLATION OF TOTAL FREEDOMTHE MUCK, THE GOLD
I HAVE NO-ONE
POWER IS GOOD, BAD IS WEAKNESS
THE FIRST DECENT HUMAN BEING
HE CAME HE SAW HE WENT MAD

I was happy x4
Too bored by fantasy
Too smart for TV
Tear up your CV
No God Not you Not me
I was happy x4
I was happy was the lowest of the low
They had my future x4
They had my ready made soul
Oh yeah I was happy was the lowest of the low x2
Of the low x16

I AM THE OPTIMIST ABOUT NOTHING AT ALL
I AM THE SENSATIONALIST ABOUT NOTHING AT ALL
I AM THE HEDONIST WITHOUT NOTHING AT ALL
I AM PREPARATIONALIST FOR NOTHING AS ALL
I AM THE REPARATIONALIST FOR NOTHING AT ALL

Three Merry Boys (Lyrics)

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:43:48 -0400

Three Merry Boys (Lyrics)
Written by Elyas Khan

Three merry boys
Make their own toys
Your mamas gone with Hep C
Girls sing in Church with HIV

They Smile at you
They’re lonely, they’re lonely

Slums and Poets
They sleep deeper
Nobodies child no-one to keep you

Nothing simple about the simple life
Took our final first steps
The day your mama died

Are you lonely?
Three Merry Boys x3

Three merry boysMake their own toys
Your mamas gone with Hep C
Girls sing in Church with HIV
They Smile at you
They’re lonely, they’re lonely

Slums and Poets
They sleep deeper
Nobodies childno-one to keep you
Nothing simple about the simple life

Took our final first steps
The day your mama died
Are you lonely?

“Death take me easy, the living was hard”

The River (Lyrics)

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:32:11 -0400

The River (Lyrics)
Written by Elyas Khan

Saw a new heaven
Lived a new earth

Possessed by the Gods
We dig through the dirt

To the river

Swinging from the bells
Nothing can save you now

Friends turn in to foes
Like arrows through the clouds

To the river x2

Hoping that we’ll walk someday
In I go and in I go

Searching for the everglades
In we go and in we go and x4

The River

Everything Matters (Lyrics)

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:27:05 -0400

Everything Matters (Lyrics)
Written by Elyas Khan

It’s us again
Losing a friend

It’s us again
There is no end
Everything matters
Everything matters
Everything

Pocket Full of Gold (Lyrics)

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:25:04 -0400

Pocket Full of Gold (Lyrics)
Written by Elyas Khan

Dedicated to the Lost Boys of the Sudan.

We were born with a pocket full of gold
We were told would never going to grow
Though when you did, I saw you
I saw you
No no one else will

I know you, you
You don’t want to hear this
But I seen you
I decree you
To leave here
Cause no one else will
No, none won, no none, no no-one
Nobody else will

So when you come back to visit
Show me what you got
With that pocket full of gold
Will it be pretty?
Will it be tasty?
Will it keep us warm?
Make me look good
Make me feel so tall
We’ll all be waiting for you

Just don’t ask us who won
No none won
No none
Not One

Flame Girl (Lyrics)

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:20:46 -0400

Flame Girl (Lyrics)
Lyrics Written by Sarah Provost

She’ll paint your hot
She’ll read your dreams
I’m not sure how she does this
But I know that she knows things

She’ll lift your spirits high
She’s an angel with flaming wings
She’ll get you topsy-turvy boy
She’ll make your innards sing

She’s no angel
She’s got, she’s got, she’s got
Flames for wings

So don’t be a bore
Come and get your thrill to the core
She’ll singe your heart
She’ll throw her flamed like they’re darts

She’ll paint your hot
She’ll read your dreams
I’m not sure how she does this
But I know that she knows things

She’s no angel
She’s got, she’s got, she’s got
Flames for wings (x4)