I take for granted the fact that if you are reading this post, (either by way of I Heart SFBands, Sf Intercom, or social networking links) you are familiar with Bay Area Balanced Breakfast…
…turns out that assumption might not be true. How can other people know what it is when there are times when I’m baffled as to how to explain what Balanced Breakfast is. (and I’ve been going for some time now.) I’ve heard nice polished pitches of “Balanced Breakfast is a meet up of local community-based music industry professionals who get together at 8 am on Thursday mornings because you’re serious!!! We talk about how to make a music community thrive in the San Francisco/Bay Area.” (Tonight we mingle at 6 to eat breakfast for dinner at 7 to prepare for a full night of 8 talented Singer-Songwriters/Performers event details here.)
I suppose in theory I can’t deny that’s what Balanced Breakfast can be and is, in a way, for we do meet at 8 am. (If I can get my ass up and to a coffee shop to work a job I’m not passionate about at 5:30am, why then can’t I wake up to go shoot the shit with people who are passionate about music at 8?) There are ‘music industry professionals” technically who are apart of this group. What a music industry professional is, is debatable. I don’t know what that means for anyone else but me. Someone who gets by performing, recording, producing, mixing, mastering, negotiating, promoting, booking, buying, selling, and in general uses music as a means to have a better time going through this strange world in which we are all a part of is a ‘professional’ to me. (Whether or not you do it in the music industry, do it together with your group of friends or just do it your self, as long as you are doing it and making it become your vision of world, you are a pro to me.)
This, then, is inherently open to any and all genres of music, sound, noise, spoken word, recordings, and performances. Doesn’t matter what the size or number of people who appreciate it is, IF YOU ARE DOING IT, doing it in the way that feels right to YOU, making it work for YOU, then YOU ARE INCLUDED! This is what Balanced Breakfast is to me and why tonight I believe we are all fortunate enough to have an opportunity to see 8 different ‘professionals’ with eight different approaches, eight different voices, more than eight stories to tell and ways to tell said stories.
Telling them their way and its the only way they know how. Tonight, if you enjoy music, there is a place where people from all different backgrounds in music, with different styles ranging from funk to new classical, classical singer-songwriter to classical country western, western minded soul to soul refreshing , easy to understand 3 chord you know you’ve heard the song but you’ve never heard it quite like this pop songs, gather around one thing we all share in common with all human beings near and far… that is a love and passion for music. Indeed tonight if you love music then Balanced Breakfast has not one or two but eight treats for you at Neck of the Woods …and pancakes…yeah we have fucking pancakes too!
