cheroticallstars.com

On LUVER.COM Saturday May 30th at 8 P.M. Pacific time

FRANK MOORE’S CHEROTIC ALL-STAR BAND will perform GLOBAL EROTIC WARMING, an hour long jam live on luver.com …  Psychedelic intimate journey into a shamanistic dreamscape.

It is a part of a 24 hour online global Marathon.

http://www.nonstopmusicplanet.com/?lang=en

It will be fun!  And if everything works, we’ll be on a big screen in Paris live!…  “All your performances will be casted in a public venue on 3 screens (mixed by several directors at Point Ephemere in Paris- on the web: http://www.pointephemere.org/- where a sound system also a final output will be displayed and available on the web (it can be used as a source for anyone who wants) every hour there are people streaming from another time zone.” But here we shall just be playing together!

What a way to end the year! Doing 2 L.A. gigs in extremely unique spaces! Jen below covers the trip in detail. I find it funny that the reading at Talking Stick in Venice Beach was much more confrontational and controversial than the jam at Echo Curio…even through there was no nudity or physical sex at Talking Stick…only words and images in the last poem could be seen as taboo if you squint! But everything was acid fingernails on the blackboard at Talking Stick. At Echo Curio everything was on the journey of going deeper into the underground community. If +DOG+ was too intense for you, you could watch from the outside through big storefront windows as huge shirtless guys went primal, wrestling one another for/to comfort. Standing outside wasn’t avoiding. They came in when we started to play, came into the communal circle of jamming, pleasure skin rubbing in sexually, oncoming headlights from the outside blended surreal with strobes, slides, and German expression movies. All in the open. All acceptable.

Mark phog masheen just wrote:
Thank you again for the opportunity to play at your shows. Your performances are powerful stuff that confronts assumptions about sexuality and handicaps and a myriad of other topics. I felt the performance was moving, beautiful and challenging all at the same time. Thank you again for the opportunity to participate.

JEN:
We were to leave early on Saturday morning.  I woke up from napping at 3:30am and had a coffee, waiting for the word that we were ready to go.  Got the word and came down.  Helped load the car with Mikee.  Then Frank got in the car and we were ready to roll.  It was a beautiful drive as the sun rose.  We listened to Christmas music but it was making us sleepy so we put on some motown and grooved down until we got to Harris Ranch for breakfast.  Linda brought food from home which we all thought was the best food to eat.  The rest of us ate a Harris Ranch breakfast which was not as satisfying as we had hoped.  Admired all the decadent Christmas decorations that were there.  Then we left and I drove the straight away for a couple of hours until we got to the grapevine, giving Mikee a chance to have a little nap.  We knew we weren’t going to get much sleep until after the gig, and Frank hadn’t slept since 5pm the previous day!!  Mikee drove us into L.A. and down the winding road to get to our hotel in West Hollywood.  Our room was huge!  Frank’s bed was there and we all laid down to get a 10 minute nap in before we had to eat and then go to the gig.  The alarm went off but Frank didn’t wake up.  He hadn’t slept now in over 24 hours and this was a sure sign that he needed to sleep.  Linda and Mikee were whispering about what to do, how could we let him sleep at least an hour and still get food and to the gig on time.  Then they asked if I was asleep but I wasn’t, had been listening to them the whole time.  I said that it sounded good to let Frank sleep.  What they were saying about ordering food in and getting to the gig after the first band sounded good. Linda got on the phone to the restaurant, Hugo’s, but then Frank woke up.  Well, she told him what she was prepared to do to give him more time to sleep, and said that she would take the heat for it. But since he woke up on his own we would just follow our original plan.  We freshened up and then went to Hugo’s for dinner.  It was busy but cozy and we all had to study the menu for a while to decide what to order.  Everything looked so good.  When we finally ordered, the food came really quickly.  All was very tasty, but we were already feeling wiped out.  Frank noticed our first celebrity siting, Sally Kellerman, sitting a few tables away.  Then when we were leaving, James Cromwell’s wife saw Frank and said hello as if she knew him, then James did the same thing!  We were all blown away as we made our way to the car to get to the gig with our delicious coffees.

We found Echo Curio which was a cute art space storefront with people hanging around outside.  Took a while to find parking but then decided to just unload at the front and then repark the car.  Jeff (cosmic starfish), Mark (phog masheen) and Steve from Dog, along with other Dog members, helped us carry the gear inside.  The place was cozy, filled with visual art on the walls and ceiling.  There were two small rooms and a bathroom.  Mikee got the camera set up to videotape the first band as Frank, Linda and I parked in the middle of the front room.  Linda told the story of wanting to let Frank sleep to Jeff, Mark and Steve and Steve’s girlfriend Jen.  It was all very surreal at that point because we had been up for so long.  The first band, On Holiday, started and they were really fun.  There were black and white movie clips playing on the walls while they played their herdy gerdy organ synthesized dream-like sound.  When they were done, Frank asked if they would play in his band and they said yes!  Then the second band, Fantastic Sleep, started.  They played one long dreamy intricate electronic sound scape adding to our surreal state.  We drifted off with the music.  They also agreed to be a part of Frank’s band.  Next band was Dog and they were intense screaming thumping shaking.  At one point Steve jumped on the lead singer, Robbie, and then Robbie left to go lie in the other room as the band played on.  Steve and some of the other Dog members would be in Frank’s band too.  Soon it was time for us.  Linda and I got into our costumes which consisted of just bracelets, beads, rings, boas and fun hair elastics.  We then got Frank ready by taking off all his clothes.  We were on!  Everyone stuck around for our performance and the first thing we did was get them all into a big circle with the band.  The circle bordered the whole circumference of the room.  Toy instruments were laid out in front of the audience members.  Then Frank started to vocalize as the band played and Linda and I erotically danced, also vocalizing into mics.  Everyone was so open to what we were doing, soaking it up, giving in to it.  It felt really great.  We danced into melting trance, rubbing and rocking to the music that came in intense waves.  Then we got the band and everyone else there.  They welcomed us, melted with us and the room vibrated with pure simple joy of being.  This feeling lasted well after we finished as Linda and Frank talked to everyone and Mikee and I packed up.  It is a bit of a blur but it all felt really good and we were amazed we actually made it.  Everything was packed up in no time and we were on our way back to the hotel.

We showered and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out.  I remember waking up at one point and saying to Mikee that I think I passed out and he said “yeah, a while ago.”   After a good sleep we all woke up to get ready for a Hugo’s breakfast!  Amazing hot cereals, fruit, eggs fuerte, chipotle scramble and pumpkin pancakes.  We shared and loved every bite.  It was an amazing restaurant, amazing food, 10 across the board.  After breakfast we took a short walk up Santa Monica Blvd.  We saw a thrift store and went in.  Linda has always wanted to go to a thrift store in Hollywood.  Mikee went around the racks finding really neat items that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.  Frank saw a woman who picked a very low cut top from the rack and he told her she should put that on.  She laughed and said that he should put it on.  We got talking to her and found out her kids live in Berkeley.  Told her all about Frank’s performances and other work.  We gave her a flyer and some of the painting postcards, and a Chapped Lap poetry book.  She started to read the first poem I Came To Play and said she was going to cry.  Really thanked us for what we do.  Said we were saints and we said Frank was the saint!  Was amazing how she saw us and how deeply this affected her.  Linda got a couple of really cool items like a red poncho and a yellow smock/vest.  Both comfortable and unique.  We headed back to the hotel after that to sleep.  We napped for a couple of hours and then got up to order food from Hugo’s that we would pick up and eat in the room by the cozy fire.  Mikee and I left Linda and Frank sleeping, but when we got to the restaurant we had forgotten to bring money!!!  Went back and the room key didn’t work so Linda let Mikee in to get the wallet.  Then we were back before the restaurant closed and picked everything up.  Back at the hotel we set a table and chairs up beside the fire.  Then we served up the food and stuffed ourselves with sheperd’s pie, mac and cheese, salad, hummus wrap and a tuna salad sandwich.  Then we hit the bed again and slept until morning.  We were already planning what we would eat for breakfast at Hugo’s.  When we got there we had to boot somebody’s driver out of our vip parking spot.  When we walked in the restaurant we saw James Cromwell again sitting with a couple of guys and figured it must have been his driver.  We sat down and got comfortable and then all of a sudden he was at our table saying hi to Frank!  When he read Frank’s card that says Shaman and Performance Artist he looked deeply into Frank’s eyes and smiled.  You guys said it reminded you of when Timothy Leary did the same thing many years ago.  They both had the same twinkle in their eye too.  Maybe they’re from the same planet.  We ate a good breakfast and then went back to the hotel to nap before having to go to the poetry reading that night.  Thought we would go to Hugo’s again but realized that wouldn’t work for time, so we decided to go to this Mexican restaurant that was 5 minutes from the performance space.  While driving there we became unsure of where we were going but realized we were on the right track after consulting the maps.  Took more time than we thought in rush hour traffic.  When we finally got to the restaurant the only thing we could do was order take-out.  Mikee and I sat to wait and they served us really good chips and salsa which we inhaled.  Linda was lucky to get there when she did because there was just enough left for her.  We hustled back to the car and found the space, The Talking Stick.  We ate in the car without a minute to spare.  Delicious chicken and tortillas, but low on the veggies, so it was good Linda got the tasty veggie plate.

The Talking Stick was a neat place tucked in the middle of fast food joints on a corner in Venice Beach.  The space was a comfy  cafe set up with a stage in the corner.  Mikee set up the equipment and I set up a table of swag.  Jeff (cosmic starfish) was there and Mark (phog masheen) showed up too!  The first band with Tim O played quiet beautiful folk songs.  Frank and Linda came in and we sat together listening.  When they were done Frank asked if they would be in his band but they said they had to go.  Next up was Jeff playing his whimsical songs on his accoustic.  He dedicated a song to Frank saying that Frank was the most sensuous person he knew other than his wife.  Frank asked him if he would play the  “dirty” song that he played on the Shaman’s Den.  Jeff couldn’t remember what song that was, but came up with something anyway.  It was a song about always being nice but not wanting to and he broke his pick as he performed it.  Then we were up.  I quickly got changed into a sexy outfit and handed out toy instruments to the people in the audience.  Then we were all on stage, me Frank Linda Mark and Jeff.  Linda read Frank’s poem I Came To Play as I vocalized, and Jeff and Mark played their instruments.  It is a very powerful poem that talks deeply about the power of play, which is what we were doing there!  After that Frank noticed that the two musicians who had first played and said they were leaving were firmly planted on the couch in the back.  He said that if they aren’t leaving they should come up and play, and they did!  The next poem was A Rant On An Open Mike and this poem talked about the dangers of niceness and the passing of the modern talking stick.  It was an ode to places like this cafe, although there was very little reaction from the audience.  We just kept on, having fun.  Next came Tortures and Mutation Is Evolution.  Every poem speaking directly to everyone, to what was going on right now.  It seemed crude at times because it may not have been what the people wanted to hear, but it was what they needed to hear.  Next, Jeff read Their Cuddling Cocoon which is a very sensuous poem.  A couple of middle-aged middle-class guys, Jim and Jim, who arrived just before Frank started, played their toy instruments.  They were having fun!  Everyone else was quiet and their applause dwindled as the poems went on.  We finished after everyone introduced themselves, and Frank asked Jim and Jim what they thought.  They loved it!  One of them said they were glad they didn’t bring their daughter though due to the last poem Jeff read.  I showed them what we had on the swag table and they bought 2 Chapped Laps.  Everyone was out of there fast while we got our stuff together.  We talked in the car about how difficult it was to do that, like roter-rooter cutting through all the resistance.  Very effective.  We talked about how different it was from Saturday’s performance at Echo Curio, but really they were the same.  Both performances fulfilled a need.

When we got back to the hotel, we picked up the laptop at the front desk and the woman working their who Frank had been talking too during our trip asked Frank if he would sign her copy of Chapped Lap.  We told her about the poetry reading and it was amazing how she got us.  She asked what day we would be performing in January so she could get the day off to come.  Frank then asked her if she would be a plant, along with her co-worker who also got a signed copy of Chapped Lap.  Linda described what she would do as a plant and she was very enthusiastically into it!  Even getting nude!  Really amazing.  We got back to our cozy room with the fire going and got ready for bed, already planning what to have for our last meal at Hugo’s in the morning.  It’s always fun to share good food, but really everything was fun on the trip.  I wanted to melt into everyone and I did that by focusing on what needed to be done, focusing on you and what your needs were.  I did what you did even if it wasn’t familiar to me because I just wanted to be with you all fully.  And all of it was so much fun!  Driving early, waking up for piss breaks, eating, farting, walking around the room, stretching, putting Frank’s wheelchair in the back of the car, making sure Frank was comfortable in his chair.  I loved it all because it was with you.  It wouldn’t have mattered where we stayed or ate.  It didn’t matter what music we listened to or when we went to bed or got up.  I loved every minute of it, just focusing on you, being with you.  Could feel that this is what we all are together and it made my heart sing.  We got up early and packed, then hit Hugo’s for one last mega breakfast with cereals and egg dishes, and then dessert!  Topped it all off with some coffees and then got in the car for the long ride home.  Mikee did the driving, after a brief check of the dashboard lights, and we grooved to some Hot Wax cds.  We stopped at Harris Ranch and sat by the fire in the hotel lobby.  Then we went to the restaurant to get a cup of hot water for Linda’s tea.  I drove out of there and into the night while Mikee caught some zzzzz’s.  It was challenging but the music and the traffic kept me going, as well as knowing that I was being depended on.  After a couple of hours we stopped at Starbucks and Linda said I did real good.  Mikee and I got some black tea and then Mikee drove the rest of the way. We got home and unloaded everything with the boyz.  It felt good to be back, even though there was still a level of weirdness with Erika.  After unloading, me and the boyz went to the bh to finish your dinner.  I told them all about the neat things that happened on the trip, the wonderful food we ate, and the amazing performances.

Can’t wait for the January trip!  Love you!!!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore

The world-known San Francisco-based performance [r]evolutionary
Frank Moore will do 2 live L. A. shows in December!

The Molten Core
backed up by
THE CHEROTIC ALL-STAR BAND

Saturday, Dec. 13th, 2008

At Echo Curio
1519 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, CA 90026
8pm

A FIVE BUCK DONATION IS
ASKED TO SUPPORT THE SPACE AND ARTISTS.

http://www.echocurio.com/
echocurio@gmail.com
213-977-1279

The Molten Core poster by LaBash

Watch th full video of the performance, plus a performance by Warm Streams here:

http://www.eroplay.com/Cave/horsecow1-2008/index.html

A very fun day/gig…even if we were in pain the day after! We have recovered. LARRY RODRIGUEZ a.k.a. THE FLOWER VATO invited THE CHEROTIC ALL-STARS to perform at HORSE COW, the artists’ co-op community he lives in. Below Erika gives the details. So I will just ramble.

We pulled off in Davis before going to West Sacramento. We had discovered an all-organic restaurant, THE FARMERS’ KITCHEN. The night before we found ourselves in a strange ritual over the phone with the owner. It actually took 6 phone calls! Not only did she require reservations, but we had to order our food right then over the phone…then she required us to call on the road 20 minutes before we arrived so she could start cooking our food! IT WAS IN OUR TOP 5 MOST PLEASUREFUL DINING EXPERIENCES EVER!

HORSE COW reminded me of the communes in northern New Mexico in the early 70s…also of MAD MAX! Raw creativity! And the event turned out to be a major art/cultural happening attracting several hundred people with way more than three rings of artistic chaos. The singer of the band before us was Damien from The OMEN. THE CHEROTC ALL-STARS had NIGHT NURSE as its backbone. So we had a lot of vets from past cherotic jams. And of course I pulled other musicians in…including Steve, the Neil Cassedy figure of HORSE COW.

I hear that “a lot of people were freaked out. There were some college-aged girls that were making a big deal about it. Nobody ever sees anything like this.” And Larry says “I got a lot of comments & compliments about you guys the last few days. You left quite an impression on the folks who saw the show.” POWERFUL STUFF!

And now here is Erika:

“We did our final packing up, with our bag full of Frank Moore for President buttons, platforms and post cards for swag. We had several final pisses and good-bye to the kittens and off we went. The coffee we got from Leila’s hit the spot and we were soon zipping along. The weather was super and there wasn’t much traffic so we really moved along. A really fun and easy drive to Davis where we would eat at the Farmer’s Kitchen Café. We called the woman at the café about 10 miles up the road to let her know that we would be arriving soon and to check over what we had ordered over the phone the night before so that they would have it all ready when we got there, the whole feeling more like home than a restaurant. When we got there the restaurant looked great, really cozy and we knew that we had picked a great place. They serve organic food from local farms and they have a CSA program where people can pick up deliciously home cooked meals to take home as often as they want. They even offered up a couple of their young guys to come out and help Frank up the curb but we decided to take the ramp. They had our table all ready for us and we looked around a bit, part restaurant part store with many of their food items in the freezer that looked yummy and fresh, including mini pizzas. Our food started arriving right away and throughout the meal we were making sounds of delight as everything was so amazingly good!!! It was incredible just like eating at home. The salads were packed with all kinds of veggies with yummy dressing, then we tried all the soups, potato leek soup, asparagus soup and green garlic group made from the greens of the garlic, wow! Next were several veggie dishes including winter veggies with a mustard sauce and bock Choy, and then squash and sage ravioli that they make, wowed! Next Frank had a chicken veggie pot pie and Mikee had a chicken dish and Erika some fish and to top it off we tried the apple pie that had just come out of the oven and cheese cake. The food felt so nourishing and everyone who worked there really cared deeply about what they were doing. They were really happy that we had come and later when we came back to the car after a walk the place had really filled up. We made our way down to the park to the teen center and found their bathroom. We really liked Davis and couldn’t wait to come back to the restaurant! Erika’s birthday was coming up soon! They had a covered area for the farmers market. We got our coffees at Peet’s and then into the Car and got back on the road to Larry’s Arts Collective, “The Horse Cow“! We got there in no time and it was such a fun place, in the middle of nowhere down a road along the river in west Sacramento, rows on each side of industrial buildings that had been covered into fun art living spaces, very fun and cozy! There was art and big sculptures all over the place. The event had been going on all day, people checking out everyone’s art and then the performances, movies, and fashion shows were soon starting. We pulled the car right up to the performance space, the Rec Room, a space with couches and a pool table and a small stage for bands. Steve who is part of the art collective got the heaters out and blasted the heat for us and that‘s pretty much where we stayed in front of the heater cozied up as it was really cold and getting colder. Right away people who would be in our band started showing up and we hung out by the heater while everyone set up in the first band. Various characters wondered in and out in costumes since it was a Net themed party. We brought our bag of net costumes to pass out to people in our band. It was quite a scene. Larry showed up after a shower and got the sound hooked up and the first band had an Egyptian theme to it with a toilet paper mummy and a cardboard camel in it. A loud rocken band with toilet paper rolls flying through the air, and then we were up! So we stripped down in the cold and got our costumes on (jewelry). Then the jam started, with band members from Night Nurse and Larry and Dan from Art Lessing and the Flower Vato. It took off from the moment it started, wailed and pulsed, warm and cozy and never letting up the entire time, ripping through isolation and melting into the audience our sexy, juicy dance. Frank Linda and Erika in an erotic swimming electric dance. The room was full when we started and then at the end down to a handful. Linda and Erika went out to the audience and got a couple of guys to come up and they hugged Frank and grabbed toy instruments and then another guy just came up and hugged frank. Linda and Erika got the band and then we passed out presidential platforms and buttons and everyone really liked getting them. Later we heard that the performance had really affected people, that people were still talking about it days later and had never seen anything like it and we had freaked out some college girls into ripples of change! Then it was time to get dressed, piss and pack up and it was quite a scene going at this place, packed full of people in costumes, different art/music/fashion show events going on at the same time out in the middle of no where in the arts collective on the river in Sacramento! It was such a fun day, a great new restaurant, fun to walk around Davis and an amazing jam and we got 100 bucks!! On the drive home we talked about the jam and then stopped at a rest stop for a quick nap. When we got home the kittens greeted us and we unpacked and got ready for nap time and pizza and the yummy salad. What an amazing day!!!!”

In The Cherotic All-Stars:

Frank, Linda, Erika: vocals and erotics
Nurse Toothtar: sh-101 & pro one synthesizer
Art Lessing: guitar, spooky effects & various strings
Flower Vato: space bass, drums
Chad Stockdale: saxophone & spooky vocal loops
Andrew Surber: theremin, noises

With special guests:
Steve Vanoni: tuba & saxophone
Blake Hartshorn and Ana White on toy instruments

Frank recenmtly performed with the Womentors at the Batttle of the Sexists at Annie’s Social Club in San Francisco. Read more about it here:

http://www.eroplay.com/Cave/battle_of_the_sexists/index.html

Part 1

Part 2

For booking information email Frank Moore!

Here’s the new web site for Frank Moore’s Cherotic All-Star Band. Stay tuned for the latest news on upcoming gigs!