This film, Packages, was written and directed by Mike Terrell, Auxiliary percussionist and sometimes lead singer in Rustmonster. You might recognize his voice from the song, Still A’Smilin’ on Rustmonster’s Last Voyage of the Black Betty album.
Packages Part 1
Packages Part 2
This short, comedy film, Think Like a Leader, was written and directed by Rustmonster’s drummer, Larry Nybo. It is a how-to movie that teaches what goes on in billionaires’ minds and how you can tap that inner power. It debuted at the Gangrene Film Festival.
Christus St. Joseph Villa has decided to throw a big pirate bash in the Salt Lake City, Sugarhouse area. We are thrilled that they have invited RUSTMONSTER to play. We are slated to hit the stage between 4:40 and 6:30 for a whopping 20-song set. We are looking forward to this one. We always like pirate themed parties and this one sounds like a blast.
Show date: August 21
Show time: 4:30 PM
Christus St. Joseph Villa is at 451 Bishop Federal Lane, Salt Lake City.
We have several gigs upon us. This changes our rehearsals drastically. Unfortunately, when we gig, we have to spend our time freshening up our book of songs. This means that our efforts to finish our recordings is placed on hold. Unfortunately, our new album, The Treachery of Dante’s Forgiveness, will have to wait.
I have mixed emotions. I love to gig, but I also love getting our material out there for the fans. I was hoping that the album would be done by Christmas, but with gigs on the horizon, and the Gangrene Film Festival in the offing, I’m not sure we are going to make it.
We are looking forward to playing the Utah State Fair again this year. We will be playing on Monday, September 13th at 7:30 PM.
The State Fair is a blast. This is a perfect opportunity to bring the kids to the carnival, to see the animals, to walk through the petting zoo, and to watch RUSTMONSTER, a pirate-themed band play, all in one evening.
Show date: September 13th
Show time: 7:30 PM
The Utah State Fair is located at 155 N. 1000 W. Salt Lake City, UT
This movie, Practical Encounter Avoidance, was made by members of the Rustmonster band. It is a comedy instructional video that teaches how to avoid people.
We played the Young Living convention at the Salt Palace last Tuesday for about 5,000 people. It was a lot of fun. We got them out of their seats, stomping and clapping.
We played the show under the moniker, the Chic Sheiks and Superman. We were dressed like rajas, except for our drummer: he wore a cape and tights. Our front man, for the day, was one of Young Living’s own employees and presenters.
It was a lot of fun.
I’m looking forward to rehearsal tonight. We are working on the backtracking for the read parts of the story on our 3rd album. The spoken word portions of the album are a bit longer this time, so scoring has been more work.
As of last week, we roughed in the music–1 mic room recordings–of act one. I think its sounding pretty good. Tonight we will either continue to rough in tracks or we will lay down the music for act one. Either way, I am happy.
We’re starting to get ancy to play out again. I guess I’ll have to drum up a couple of summer gigs.
 Last Voyage of the Black Betty $10.00 (free shipping) The story of Captain Stark and his nemesis, Captain Henry Ramos. |
The Flight of the Filthy Vicar $10.00 (free shipping) The memoirs of a condemned pirate, rotting in his cell, awaiting his time to hang. |
Tonight is rehearsal. We have been mopping up the music to go behind the spoken word parts of the album. It’s sounding pretty good. I always enjoy this part of the process because it is so collaborative. We all sit in a room and put up ideas. It’s like: “How about this?” and everyone jumps in. Pretty soon we have a song. Most of our songs come to the band pretty complete, at least lyrically and musically, from one musician’s standpoint. The spoken word portions of the albums are truly a melding of everyone’s ideas.
Aside from the 3 spoken word acts, there are two more songs in the offing to appear on our third album: one written by Rick Nef (sax player), the other written by Nate Peck.
We’re getting close, man; I can feel it.
If you build a big, enthusiastic audience, RUSTMONSTER will come.
Gigging, for most bands, is the coup de grace when it comes to artistic expression. There is no better feeling than getting up in front of good audience—whether it be 50 or 5,000 fans—and playing music that they respond to with smiles, applause, and (best of all) dancing.
The unfortunate truth is, most gigs, for young bands, fall on deaf ears. Most members of Rustmonster have played together for over a decade and have had their share of good and bad gigs. In an earlier venture called Funk Toast, the band was aggressive about playing for any audience, anywhere, any time. This translated into many stale gigs where audiences didn’t respond enthusiastically to the music. In some cases, the audiences were too small to even be concerned with the fact that a band was playing. A good friend once stated this rule: If there are more members of the audience than band members, we will play. While this is bleak, it also rings true.
With a history of great gigs and many pockmarks of not-so-great gigs, Rustmonster has ratcheted their gigging schedule back to about 3-4 gigs a year. They seek lively and sizeable audiences more so than big paying gigs. This has lessened the work aspect of gigs and given Rustmonster, a band centered on fun first and foremost, a more pleasurable gigging experience.
