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Joe Frank
Official site
Performance in San Francisco
November 21, 2004 at the Great American Music Hall
After the roller coaster ride we'd experienced in Chicago (encountering one obstacle after another - right up to show time) we expected everything to go fairly smoothly in San Francisco. We thought that since the Chicago show had been so well-received, Joe would make just a few minor modifications for the Great American Music Hall audiences.
However, we knew the San Francisco show would be quite different because, for the first time, Joe was to perform in a club, not a theatre, and would be working for roughly 10 hours on the day of performance.
It would be a grueling schedule:
Noon to 3:00pm - tech rehearsal at the Great American Music Hall;
4:00pm-5:30pm - first performance;
6:00pm - a KPFA-sponsored "Meet and Greet Joe Frank" cocktail hour;
8:00pm-9:30pm - second performance
We wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible. We made a checklist. We sent an "advance team" (a couple of us) to San Francisco two days ahead of the scheduled arrival of Joe and crew. We had a chance to touch base with Susan Stone of KPFA, and Bonnie Simmons who was working with us and the Great American Music Hall. We shopped for props for the show. We scouted the location of the Phoenix Hotel where everyone was staying close to the Hall so we'd know our way around town. We were minimizing any chance of mishaps.
What is that saying about "The best laid plans . . ."?
Joe was scheduled to arrive Saturday afternoon, the day before the show. Friday night, we received a message that he had significantly revised the script and emailed it to us - in fact, he'd emailed a few versions, so "be sure to download the latest script Joe sent" so that he would be able to continue working on it after he arrived. We used a San Francisco friend's internet connection downloading the files to a laptop one of us brought from Los Angeles, so that was covered.
On Saturday afternoon, we picked up Joe and Ed Valfre (Mr. flugelhorn) at the airport and went to our friend's where Joe cloistered himself in a room with a DVD player in order to study the two silent films he would be showing and narrating for the performances.
During these two hours, members of the team and friends socialized while listening to music and drinking wine. Then, we were off to check into the Phoenix. We'd read online reports that Keanu Reeves, Linda Ronstadt, Sinead O'Connor, John F. Kennedy Jr., Faye Dunaway, and David Bowie had graced their mattresses, and that it was ". . . San Francisco's world-renowned 'rock 'n roll hotel.' Funky, irreverent, and young-at-heart . . . at the edge of the gritty Tenderloin neighborhood."
[It was definitely at the edge of the Tenderloin, and indisputably gritty. While checking into the hotel, we ran into dancer Tara Hughes. She and her husband had just returned from dinner in the neighborhood and told us they had become slightly alarmed when they came across ax X-rated theatre with a marquis advertising nude girls. (The Great American Music Hall was on the next block.) Could this be where we were going to perform?]
Anyway, we arrived at the hotel very hungry. The lobby was small and eclectically decorated. Behind the desk was a lone receptionist who, after we asked for the nearest restaurant, informed us that there were a few places to choose from - but they were blocks away. So, with no other choice, we decided to drop our bags in our rooms and begin our trek in search for food.
As we walked across the courtyard we heard piped-in exotic tropical bird calls plus the distinct sound of people talking and dishes clanging and to our surprise there was a restaurant right there! Attached to the hotel! (Why didn't the receptionist tell us about it, we wondered.) We shrugged our shoulders, placed our luggage in our respective rooms, and then had a wonderful meal at the Bambuddha. (We didn't see any rock stars, however.)
Then, we settled into our rooms turned on the laptop for Joe to work on the revised script . . . but it wasn't there. We hadn't downloaded the latest version! By now, it was close to 11:00 pm. But . . . not to worry! We could access our email online and download the up-to-date script. But the hotel didn't have internet access. So . . . we could walk several blocks (through the Tenderloin) to an internet café, and download the file there. A half-hour later, we had what we thought was the latest script. It wasn't. Joe went through this and reworked it to reflect his latest changes. Another glitch creating a late work night before the show.
But that wasn't all. That night, there was a raucous party in the hotel's courtyard with loud music and people talking at the top of their lungs which continued unimpeded until about 5:30 am Sunday morning. Luckily, we all had earplugs.
The next morning, one member of our crew took a cab to Kinko's and printed out copies of the final script. The rest of us ate breakfast and compared notes about the hotel. For all its advertising, it really was just an old 1950's motel with jalousie windows and a courtyard of piped-in tropical fowl. Joe reported that his room didn't have a remote control for the television and the heater didn't work. Each one of us had tiny bathrooms with noisy ceiling fans.
The Great American Music Hall was gorgeous. We arrived at noon, met the staff and ran through tech cues without a hitch. Things were back on track. The staff at the Hall was professional, accommodating, and very friendly. We hope to work with them again.
After tech, we grabbed a bite to eat, went back to the hotel, changed clothes, and lugged our gear a few blocks to the Great American Music Hall. The dressing rooms were spacious, there was food and drinks -- we received the full-on rock star treatment. Joe even had a cool bodyguard.
Then it was time for the show. Susan Stone introduced the evening followed by Joe's signature music. And, as he took the stage, Joe was warmly received by the audience which, though drinks and dinner had been served, remained as rapt and still as any we'd seen in a theatre. That also applied to the many folks standing during the entire performance downstairs and upstairs.
Joe delivered new material, narrated his two films, Ed and Tara revised their moments onstage and it was a great show and wonderful to watch. (We took a lot of pictures from both shows which are coming soon.)
After the first show, Joe spent 10 minutes meeting with a film director and then went to the KPFA major donors' "Meet and Greet." About 60 people attended and by all accounts everyone had a good time talking with Joe and taking pictures.
Then, back to the dressing room and only 45 minutes until the 8:00pm show. Joe used that time to add some final touches, eat some soup, and then went onstage again to another full house. It wasn't standing room only - there was no standing room. Every space seemed to be taken.
After the show ended, several people waited in the hall and Joe graciously said hello and signed CDs. Then we made our way back to the hotel to sleep. (It is rumored that Ed stayed out all night at a jazz club.)
We packed up early Monday morning, checked out of the hotel and asked the person at the front desk to call us a cab. The clerk claimed that he couldn't get through to any of the major cab companies and dialed individual taxi owners with Eastern European and Middle Eastern names - one after another. Apparently no one was available. Afraid we would miss our flight, we demanded he again call a cab company-which he finally did, providing us a means of escape. We learned later that the clerk may have had an arrangement with a number of individual drivers that, in exchange for a commission, he would bring them airport customers. We left town figuring that's just how it's done at San Francisco's world-renowned rock 'n roll hotel at the edge of the gritty Tenderloin.
--The Joe Frank Team