Tuesday, May 3, 2011

My New Toy and the Jerks

I recently bought the Zoom Q3HD from JB Music in Park Square. I have a Zoom H4n. But the thing is bulky. So I would end up just bringing my iPod and Belkin Tune-Talk combo instead. I also found myself taking video with my Blackberry or crappy video camera. Which I would then have to splice with better sounding audio before uploading it to YouTube. Therefore, I decided to buy something that could handle recording live performances in one unit, with a form-factor that fits in my pocket. I bought the Zoom Q3HD because it has the same twin condenser mics (a little smaller) of the Zoom H4n. Other video cameras have their audio as an after-thought. So the same audio recording technology, at as high as 1080p video resolutions. This beloved gadget was really made to record live performances.


So I was excited to road test my new toy. I had two choices last Friday. Either test it out on the Jerks at Handle Bar or Julianne in Saguijo. I love both bands. But found going to Handle Bar more convenient. I met up with my good friend Roland and his brother Abe. We got to Handle Bar in time for the Jerks' second set.

My good friend Paolo Manuel was there. He apparently was the session drummer for the Jerks for the night. He's actually one of a few drummers that the band brings in to session for them. For the life of me, I'm not sure why the band doesn't just get a regular drummer.

Later that night, Millet followed along with Guy. Joseph, my good friend from the office, and his wife, Sarah, came along too. Charlene showing up was a pleasant surprise. We were just chatting through Yahoo Messenger on my Blackberry, and before I knew it she popped in Handle Bar out of nowhere. All of a sudden this loner was surrounded by a lot of kind friends.

Below is one of the videos I took of the Jerks last night. I picked this particular song to post because it was one of their original songs.



I was so happy with both the video and audio quality of the videos I took. Please do click on 720p video quality and fullscreen if you got the time and the internet speed to do so. The video and audio clarity was pretty good indeed. I have to remind myself to bring my small tripod. So I can sit my Zoom q3HD on a table and just leave it there. I obviously don't have a steady camera hand.

The band's 2nd set was loooooong. I was surprised that they can play for that long tirelessly. But it was obvious how tiring that really was given Paolo's sweat secretions. LOL!

After the Jerks played, there were quite a number of lengthy jams from other musicians that night. It was nice to see the likes of Eggpie (Jun Lupito's bassist) go up on stage to jam. What was funny was as every other musician would change up on stage, that Paolo remained the lone drummer that could jam with everybody. Paolo was such a sport. But you could tell he was getting fatigued. At some point that night, Paolo was motioning for me to replace him on the drum kit. As much of a compliment that was, I'm really more a hand percussionist than a fully fledged drummer. So unfortunately, I had to decline his offer.

The night went on with boozing and enjoying the music that a number of musicians were going on stage to share. Sarah apparently was a pool shark back in the day. So she played billiards with Joseph and then later challenged some of the other people who were playing. That was interesting to watch to say the least. Half the fun was looking at everybody else's reactions as she would sink shot after shot.

It was another fun night with real people, booze, and good music. It was Joseph's birthday party the following night and that was a whole lot of fun too surprisingly. I got to jam with his band and it seems I was well received because of my playing. Looking forward to another fun, boozeriffic, and musical weekend. Now if only I can start getting gigs of my own regularly, so I can use my new toy on my own gigs.


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