Plaid Faction

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Videos...

Plaid Faction recorded a few tapes, a CD and got a few live shows caught on video.  In this section, I will upload all of the videos I can find and put it here.  Of course, if you have more recordings of us playing, please contact me via the contact page so that I can get them up on the site. 

I finally got a few of our live shows converted from VHS to DVD so that I can get them uploaded here on the site.  The process is a little more tedious than converting the audio to digital, so this page will be a work in progress.  But I'm pretty happy about the video we have because from these four performances, you get a glimpse of a big chunk of the lifecycle of Plaid Faction.  From our very first gig where we are so nervous and green that we are bumping into each other on stage, to the May Day show where we had pretty much arrived as a serious up and coming band to the later Boozer's and Trees gigs where our energy and crowd levels had dropped dramatically showing the slow demise of the band. 

Hope you dig it...

First Gig 1991...

Our first gig was on December 3, 1991 at the (then called) Rhythm Room on Dyer Street near Greenville in Dallas.  That bar was later named Stimpy's and Stone Pony and all other kinds of names later on in future when we played there, but at the time of the firsts gig it was the Rhythm Room.  The lineup then was Chris (vocals),  J.C. (guitar), Jarrett (bass) and Skip (drums).  This is the gig we had to reschedule after our first second drummer Brandon (the 1st) quit and went off to college.  Luckily for us, we found Skip and got the tunes worked up and got another gig there.  Since this was our first gig and we hadn't written a ton of original material yet, there were a lot of cover tunes in here.  Some I had actually forgotten about :)

If I remember right, this was a Tuesday and the event was called "New Music Tuesdays" or something like that where new bands were showcases.  We knew we had to bring it if we were going to break into the music scene, so we called every friend and relative we ever knew to come out.  I think there were about 80 people there which was a huge deal on a Tuesday night at this bar.  The band before us had like 5 people and the band after us had about the same 5 or so.  We coordinated somehow to have our audience come and go during our performance so the management would surely know who brought the people.  My brother Clay video taped this for us.  My cousin Kevin Helms is standing next to him and can be heard hollering through out.  Up front I can see Big Bad Bill, Jay, Brian Heflin, Candace, Kelly Morris and a ton of other friends and relatives in attendance.

Desperate People (Living Colour)

Wind Cries Mary

I Remember When

Falling for You

Passion

May Day 1993...

This gig was a year and a half later on May 1, 1993.  I can't remember if this was our tape or CD release party, I just remember it being a big gig for us.  Right around the point that we reached our peak of popularity in Dallas, as we were seen as one of the big up and coming bands in Dallas at this point.  It seems like there were 200+ people at this gig at the bar that was then called The Main Bar.  That was pretty much our home in Deep Ellum until the later half of the 90s.  By this point we had dumped Skip and picked up the guy that turned out to be Plaid Faction's main drummer for the bulk of the band's career, Matt Key.  This must have been soon after Matt joined the band because Chris announces Hummingbird as a new song and that was the first song we wrote with Matt.  Unfortunately, the tape was damaged during the Hummingbird performance, so its not on here.  Matt's incredible technique and metronome like time really changed the feel of the band.  Where we had been pretty loose rhythmically with Skip, now we had started to become tight and that gave us more opportunities and confidence on stage as you can see in these videos.  Here they are:

Back & Forth

Sweet Liberty

Crown of Thorns

Are you Gonna go my way? (Lenny Kravitz)

Scratch - (I don't remember this song at all)

Identity

Think

Boozer's 1996...

If I remember correctly, this gig was towards the end of Matt key era and definitely at a decline point in Plaid Faction history.  This was after our indie label deal fell through, our manager burned us and the local booking agency had blackballed us.  So during this time it seemed like Boozer's was the only gig we could get in Deep Ellum.  I remember Boozer's gigs being a lot bigger and higher energy than this one, so this one must be one of our early or much later gigs there.  You can tell in this video that the last five years of getting the run around in the music biz had taken its toll on us.  We look pretty tired in this video, definitely a lot less high energy than the earlier gigs but we were still trying to do our thing.  On the flipside, we are much tighter as a band at this point.

Trees 1997 ???

I'm not sure where this video came from.  It looks like we have a different drummer at this point.  The only thing I could think of is this is the first gig with interim drummer, Jerry, but you never really get a good shot at his face to tell.  Maybe someone will see it and know.  Earlier in our career when we were hot we used to headline Trees on Friday and Saturday nights, but this video looks to be like a Tuesday or Wednesday night and we are definitely one of the opening acts as our gear is setup in front of another band.  Our hair is still short or shorter and our energy is even lower :)  You can tell this is very close to the end of the Jarrett era.  I got a huge kick out of watching me hand the bass to Chris and walk off stage at the end.  You can see how into it I am at this point, hehe.