Neil Halstead - The Great American Music Hall - 3/8/2009

What a great show! Thanks to Brooke, for helping out! Thanks to Neil, Adam Parfitt, Ben Hall, management, and the GAMH staff, for a wonderful night!

Brooke and I arrived 30 minutes before doors, where we were warmly greeted by Mary, GAMH's House Manager, Neil, and David, who was running merch tonight.



After taking a photo with Neil, Mary invited me to the GAMH staff meeting, where I was warmly received by the GAMH staff, and got to tell everyone what Surfrider is all about, and what we would be doing at tonight's show. It was great! Neil was also very interested, and we got to talk with him about our campaigns, before the doors opened.



It was a seated show, so before the show started, I wandered the room, approaching fans at tables, and handing out the sushi wallet-sized guide, and a few beach cleanup schedule postcards. Most people were unfamiliar with Surfrider, but were willing to talk with me about it for a second or two. I met a lot of people who were very dedicated Neil Halstead fans:)



We raffled off a t-shirt, which went to winner Nathaniel, and had a lot of people express interest in our regular beach cleanups.




Neil gave us a shout out from the stage, explained a little bit about what we were talking about that night, and encouraged his fans to stop by our table. It was amazing!

Since we were located in a back corner of the room, right next to the merch table, we received some visits after the show had ended, when fans came over to purchase t-shirts and cd's, or to talk with us. Neil's shout out really helped. It was a great set up!! Thanks again to the GAMH!

Thanks again to everyone involved in the tour, who all asked me questions about the Music Outreach Program, and our Chapter. It was great to see the members of another Brushfire band, Rogue Wave, at the show, in the audience, too.

Neil performed this song tonight - "High Hopes" - awesome.



What a beautiful show. The audience was so attentive the entire time - full house. It was perfectly quiet in the room, except for the music coming from the stage. Which I may add was supported by a fake yuletide log, and beautiful shadows in the shape of leaves, that panned on the curtain, hanging behind the musicians. If Neil comes to your town, then you should definitely check it out:)

Neil Halstead on surfing - video interview.

Matt Costa - Slim's - 2/25/2009

by Nicole Parisi-Smith

Andrea, Emma and I represented Surfrider at the Matt Costa show, which was held at Slim's, but was part of San Francisco's annual Noise Pop Festival. We really appreciated all of the support that we received from the festival organizers, the promoter, the venue, the musicians, and management. It went really smoothly.

Since several bands performed that night, before Matt's set, there was a lot of merch. We shared a table with the merch teams from Noise Pop and Matt Costa. It was a great spot, because we were able to talk with fans who we might not have otherwise met, who were looking to purchase show-related merch.



We also circulated throughout the crowd, before the show started, and between every performance, to proactively talk with fans. I think we talked with just about every single person in the venue, that night:) We handed out more of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sushi wallet-sized guides, as well as information about our chapter's beach cleanups.



Carolynn, who designed and handled the order for our 2009 Beach Clean Up Postcards, brought a box of postcards with her, to the show, for us. Carolynn was the one who first pointed out that Matt was coming into town, at the December Chapter meeting. Thanks, Carolynn!!

Here she is, holding up the postcard that she created.



We met a lot of really great people at the show, including Sean Stringfellow, of Slim's staff, who had coordinated our participation for us. Sean, with his new Save Trestles t-shirt. Sean surfs at Trestles, when he is visiting his parents, who live near San Clemente. Thanks, Sean!



We also met 2 members of the Surfrider Huntington Beach Chapter, who had flown up just for Matt's show. While in the audience, I was approached by a fan who saw my t-shirt, and really wanted information about Surfrider. We also met a very interested fan, at the very beginning of the night, who was amazed when we told her about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, one of Andrea's favorite issues. It is so rewarding, when we get to talk with interested fans about Surfrider campaigns.

Thanks to Matt, for taking the time to snap a photo with us, with his new San Francisco Chapter t-shirt. Thanks to Andrea and Emma for all of their help!!



Matt ended the show with this a capella song, "Will I Lie In Your Arms", which I absolutely LOVE. (This was not filmed at the Slim's show.)

Coming Up - Neil Halstead

San Francisco Chapter show - Sunday, March 8th, 2009
The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Show information here.

Washington, DC Chapter show - Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
The Talking Head Club (next to Sonar), Baltimore, MD
Show information here.

This photo was taken this past August, at the All Points West festival in Jersey City, NJ. Neil stopped off at APW along with Jack Johnson, with whom he was touring over the summer.