Livestream with Katie Kahpaxe

https://www.instagram.com/kahpaxe

Transcript

all right happy Tuesday happy live stream once again uh usually I tell people when they watch the show on replay this is like the first five or uh two or five minutes where we get technical stuff out of the way let people come in the chat so if you’re watching on replay you could skip ahead a little bit and yeah we’re going to play some music to kick things off

here and I’ll get things started on Instagram

[Music]

[Music] found reflected

[Music] all [Music] right hello and welcome to the live

[Music] discusses July 16 my name is Mike and I’m a guitarist in b b weather ritual hope you had a great week uh just wanted to shout out um everyone who was at the show on Friday at soals we had a husbandry from New York

City

awesome remind please like

subcribe Frid only I know our guest has a whole lot

more one quick reminder before we get into that is we are releasing an ALB tonight tonight be kind of surprise [Music] dropping so please listen to that all right tonight Our Guest is Katie K of

[Music]

[Music]

baset know what you could [Music] I that intro and then I lost her all right so what I’m going to do is I’ll intro her and

she’ll back in [Music] the I can tell I look on my [Music]

face [Music] you let’s see

here all right just want to shout out

um sand donut thank you for joining Joey thank you for joining um Angel yeah uh Katie was going to jump back in here D Perry thank you for joining we’ll get our guest on in a second here I didn’t realize she um dropped out so uh give her a second and we’ll get her right back in the same one Angel if you’re listening and you can send her a link I would appreciate that thank

you hey hey there she is are we live yep um oh okay there we go so the power of the live stream is The Show Must Go On so here we are I gave you this awesome intro and then I was like you’re not there all I heard was the music playing I’m like oh I forgot about that part okay the track I’m gonna go back through that since you’re here now and uh everyone else is too so hello and welcome to the bwea ritual live stream where we discuss music the local Lehigh Valley PA scene and Beyond band social media and More Today is July 16th my name is Mike and I forgot to turn the music off before and I’m sorry and I’m also the guitarist and vocalist of bellweather ritual I hope you had a good week it’s a reminder to like And subscribe if you like what we do here and go support local musicians beon pretzels and Rubik’s pube are playing this Friday at the fun house in Bethlehem so go check them out um both awesome bands we played with before and uh yeah great music so uh another thing I wanted to Quick get off uh out of the way here is we are surprise dropping an EP tonight kind of surprise dropping we’ve been dropping artwork here and there so that’s coming out midnight tonight uh please give that a listen we’ll blow up everyone’s spot tomorrow about it um but we would appreciate it if you would yeah give it a like if you like it or give us some feedback if you don’t and yeah okay so let’s see what else oh I wanted to thank all the bands I’m sorry one more we had a great gig on Friday a sweaty gig at the soals in Bethlehem so just want to shout out get well promotions uh nigarian husbandry out of New York City they were they were awesome uh my cousin’s girlfriend’s house we had on the stream before and us so it was a lot of fun had a decent crowd all right all that being said tonight Our Guest is Katie cap Katie is uh she works um with rat club or actually she put rap club together she is a nonprofit DIY music promoter and photographer based out of Delaware River Valley and she’s been cultivating and promoting the River Valley Music Scene uh since she founded the rat club back in 2022 we’ll talk about all that more Katie are you still there I’m still here I don’t know if I’m connected through my Instagram but can you hear me that’s okay we’ll figure that out later all right yeah byeone all right how you doing tonight good yeah we appreciate you sticking uh with us and getting through all that u tech stuff so uh I’m doing great and I know you have a lot of stuff you want to plug right off the top so yeah you want to just shout out some shows we got coming up I’m gonna see if I can pull this up oh if you want a screen share we could try it if not you could just read them off whatever works um yeah I got a bunch of shows coming up the next one is on the 20th at off-kilter skate shop in Ambler in the Amer yards um that’s actually another narian show um with narian phot sooa and death dance um that’s on the 20th $10 cover all proceeds go to the bands uh should be a good time all ages Bob B it’s a cool space Matt the owners is awesome really communal guy um and the next one after that that I have book there’s a bunch next week the 25th that John and Peters 21 and up venue uh starts at 900 PM fat day uh Conor Jay Johnson and the OTC Collective um folk pop punk band um and the 26th at Flemington DIY cold vein their debut show with purple lung and azers that’s going to be like a genre blending some psych Rock hardcore and doom going on that’s going to be a fun one that’s another all ages venue but uh dry venue they respect the space no alcohol or drugs um really awesome DIY space they’re doing great stuff for the music scene and art community and community in general um and then after that also in Flemington DIY had a new coffee shop called Alchemy coffee company um my friend Val and her fiance are doing great stuff there for the community and for music and they’ve welcomed me and to book a few shows there once a month I book um and we got a great lineup on the 28th boa bride Riot and Phil spectre’s gun and pretty excited about that $10 cover 730 start time and yeah again all ages space uh boob it’s going to be great he can you just let I’m sorry and there’s more shows coming in August some I haven’t announced yet um one on the 24th also at off kilter’s abandoned brain Serena and raid um that’s going to be a killer show lots of great shows lined up and if you didn’t catch all of that it’s too fast too much info you can go on to k a p a XE on Instagram and all the Flyers and banss are on there and you can find out what you need to know to get the shows and we’ll link to it uh yeah when we post this back out too so awesome well thank you very much for that uh let’s see here uh usually I like to start off with is questions like this are you from the area originally or did you move in at some point um how’d you end up here yeah I’m from Point Pleasant River Valley I did live in uh leehigh Valley in Easton Southside for a coule for yeah yeah the sober Club I don’t know if anyone remembers that venue in Southside by the skate park I don’t know if it’s still there but um yeah I lived in East for a few years growing up but for the most part I grew up in Point Pleasant where I live today where I have a home and it’s where rat club was located um and yeah I’ve always been in the river rally back multiple generations to lape ancestry in Point Pleasant and my dad’s family my mom’s family have always been in Point Pleasant lots of family history here very cool did you take a um what you call it I’ve been I’ve been not wanting to for some weird reason not wanting to do DNA testing but I should just do it and figure out what I am yeah yeah I had a my tongue pierced when I was in college because that’s the thing you did and I got this weird scar on it and I was like oh my God what’s wrong with this and he’s like oh are you Blackfoot I’m like what he’s like yeah I had the same thing on mine it’s just like a weird scar I’m like I don’t know but uh okay so I just taking it out but that was kind of interesting all right uh so what can you remember like like what maybe the first was there someone in your life or some on the radio or something that really kind of was the first thing to get you into music that you can remember oh

gosh um the first memory I have of feeling an impression from music was I remember I was in my mom’s truck in Southside and we’re on our way to her horse farm and Jan’s joping came on and I don’t know if I was like 10 or 11 and I was just like that I just had this feeling of like what is this like she was like you don’t know Janice CH one and I was just like obsessed and I had the same feeling when I first heard lucenda Williams just

like but I know there’s this story that a lot of people have about Janice Chopin that um actually that Thunder yeah yeah is that Thunder that’s Janice saying hello that’s awesome I forget who it was it was some musician but they said when um they were growing up and they actually thought she sang herself to death she just sang so hard that she died but you almost kind of like feel like you know maybe she there is some truth to that it’s just crazy um but yeah wonderful artist okay so there’s a whole bunch of people on Instagram I’m just gonna quick shout everybody out identical the band thank you for joining Joe Optimus thank you for joining um okay Katie you’re not live on your channel but that’s okay um Al bas7 thank you for joining Martin Amy said 78 thank you for joining if you have questions for Katie at any point you can drop them in the chat and we will get to them and do our best here uh Joseph lockart has a not hey Joseph yeah Joseph the drummer based out of Trenton he’s actually looking for a new band to play with so if you’re in the T area and you’re looking for a drummer or a band to form he’s your guy he played with Loi mil and the agent oh cool yeah he’s looking for a new band so oh very cool there he is find him on Facebook right well thank you for the comment Joseph and good luck uh finding your new band there all right um just check in okay cool um Martin Amy 78 says it’s storming here too oh I see the I’m facing the sunset um and it’s not quite rolling in over here yet so keeping my fingers crossed for a little bit but maybe we’ll hear it here too yeah hopefully don’t lose power it’s okay hi again yeah it’s part of the live stream charm you know all right so okay so what what did was the first thing like you put rat club together back in 2022 can you just maybe talk a little bit about like what yeah that decision recognize this this is actually the hand drawing of the the rat club logo by my friend David oler King he’s done all the flyers for rat club and my flyers uh today for shows I book like that lettering is d oler King style uhuh but anyways I could ramble on about his Flyers but yeah R Club I I just had an idea um there was this space for rent behind FP Colby and Point Pleasant

this uh oh maybe her power did go

out we’re gonna give her a second and see if she can jump back in here uh let me see if I can talk to everyone here all right Martin Amy 78 is in York PA thank you for uh letting us know there so I think we have maybe 30 or 45 minutes I’m in Easton right now uh let’s see if we can get Katie back in here it’s G to be one of those streams so just hang in there with me here uh let’s see what else we can talk about yeah so Katie put together rack club CL um it was a great place um they had a a scene going for sure I think she books at John and Peters now like she was saying and also flemingon DIY so she’s a got a great in on the uh the river uh Valley scene down there all right let’s see she can get back in here then that Thunderclap tells me that more than likely she lost some power somewhere so we will’ll give her a second see if she can jump back on

uh let’s see what else

here so yeah she is uh she’s a musician herself and an artist and uh let’s see she’s looking to build that music scene down there of community artists musicians promoters venues sound Engineers all that good stuff and uh I think she’s really kind of grown a great connected Network down there from booking all those shows and uh I hear there’s there might be a return return of the Rat so let’s see if we can get her back in here to talk about all those things eventually um I can quickly talk a little bit more I was going to stream tomorrow night because we’re gonna surprise drop an EP um so not surprise drop but just not promote before because nobody cares until you drop it anyway because they can’t listen to it so that is called windbag and at 12 12 am tonight you can stream it on Apple music or Spotify or all the other streaming platforms that you may or may not listen to and we barrage you with uh advertising about it for the rest of the week at least and we’ll go from there all right what else am I gonna say about that I I guess I could play some for you but I don’t know if that would be um the best way to spend the time here let’s [Music] see one second so I was doing some research on Katie’s last uh or her second name here kapah and I believe that means sturgen but we’re gonna ask her I think it’s Lenape for sturgeon we’re gonna ask her in a minute Brian Wagner thank you for joining we just lost our uh guest due to thunder and lightning and we’re trying to desperately get her back um so just ask that you all hang in there I’m going to read off her uh her bio one more time because she’s got a lot going on I just want everyone to know she’s also a really good person to follow uh and you can follow her at uh it’s k a p a XE which is pronounced Kap slape and and uh yeah you can get uh in touch with her if you’re in a band and want to play down there they have a really kind of a upand cominging scene much like um York does so it’s cool that we have some peeps from York too and just a reminder that um oh is that

hering lightning cannot keep her down she’s back hey what’s

that I told everyone to get their questions ready so they can fire away maybe everyone else’s power got knocked out too nitty giant what’s up thank you for joining we always appreciate when you’re on uh yeah so you your power went out yeah power went it’s a bummer I flew your flag while you were gone don’t worry disconnected the internet what’s

that can you hear me yeah can you hear me yeah uh what’s your dog’s name birdie all right warm Cameo and you are you have like goats and stuff too right yep yep I’m a gardener and yeah that’s cool a farm and all right yeah yeah so uh you were just talking about um just maybe started again about rat club and um you know where that started or even you know what led up to that all that kind of good stuff and um yeah so in my early 20s there was this place called rat Gallery in gardenville and it was very much what um rat club was and it was a space for a DIY space for art and music and people to get together and just be expressive and be authentic and gather and it was I lived for that space I lived for the open mic that was every Friday and I made a lot of the friends I have today who are musicians and that’s when I first heard folks like Christina Ward and Yuri Goen and um back then metalon metalon metalon Bells was still together like um and it anyway so fast forward to 2022 I’m like man we need a space like that like we need I know a lot of these musicians still live in this area I don’t see them play I don’t where where is everyone Gathering and I saw there was this contractor that was moving and there’s this tiny little space like less than 700 square feet Colby in rural Pennsylvania on the Delaware Point Pleasant and I was just like I was like [ __ ] it I was like whatever I was like um I sold I think four instruments I had um sold them for less than what they were worth so I was like I don’t have any money but I’m going to I’m going to hop on this and make sure I get first dibs on the lease so I sold instruments and I I leased it the summer before we o in July um to open in September and I just started with that and I reached out to everyone I knew from rck rck Gallery uh Jesse ketchel he was the first person I partnered with to get things moving along like the pre- songwriter showcase was the open mic that we tried to have at rat club and it evolved into a songwriter showcase which is a beautiful series that Jess has continued um in the river valley at multiple um venues there’s so many connections it’s such a big net of connections so like it’s not a linear story trying to talk about the beginning of rat club but it’s very easy to go off track and somewhere else that’s that’s what we’re here for yeah yeah um yeah so that’s what it’s started with the first bands that we booked there were hot flak pcus my friend Sierra’s band oh yeah and Sierra is also she’s an incredible local music promoter she’s done really amazing stuff in the past year yep she was one of the first people on the on the boards on the board of rat club uh we were trying to become a nonprofit and she was also in the music committee um but anyways her band Basquez hot Flakes and see cicada Ru I think it was cicada rules was on that lineup but the first show the big rat Revival show was like Oak as and Thorn which is local Irish traditional Irish band they they once a year they do like five shows in a r around um St Patrick’s Day they also play the RiverFest in French town which is coming up but um and that’s one of Jesse’s bands and Scofflaw I think yeah catch on Creek snaker scoff all played but anyways we started with a few shows and then and then this thing happened where I networked with bands by having the Instagram page and it was like all of a sudden it was an endless connection like it the most beautiful thing about having social media was happening for rat club because you could connect with all these bands sort of like how why and how we’re connecting now um I probably found your band through another band a lineup you shared and then I saw when your gig was the Flying V and yeah are it’s just you even you even went the extra mile and bought a sticker and I was like oh man sock I love that yeah actually we owe you a hologram sticker because we have way better one for that so we’ll we’ll get that to you somehow but yeah thank you so much and that was yeah that was the kind of first place we met and right off the bat um I mean you I I was introduced to you as a photographer and then reached out to you which we still I still need to reach out to you about um but and then you said you also booked and did all this other kind of stuff so yeah it was really cool yeah it’s always a surprise people are always surprises especially in the music Community it’s just like you just never know who is doing what at at any time so I always love that kind of stuff and also like I love the surprises of what the musicians do outside of music you know

like pictures shows and I have goats you know and like yeah there’s some bands that are just like like hul they have native plant nursery and Y shout out H how we had them on they talked a little bit about that too yeah yeah very cool I the intersection and the story is so much bigger than just the songs and the bands and the shows that’s the beautiful thing and that’s why we’re doing this so we can tell all the people about all those kind of interesting things that you don’t really think about all like all that work you’re talking about that goes into setting something like that up so you have this kind of epiphany about that or I don’t know what maybe I don’t know like um passion uh about it about putting it together um what what was the biggest challenge for that because we are looking for a space right now just to rehearse let alone I start a venue we actually as a so rat club was a uh like when you say that reminds me it was a clubhouse a music venue and a gallery um and as a clubhouse you could be a member and use it as a rehearsal space Oh the challenge for a space that whether it’s for rehearsing or booking shows is the number one that I’ve seen through the clubhouse and all of the seven gosh you probably had a dozen venue Partners over the course of a year is Bo complaints oh yeah if it’s not if it’s not a basement in in the city like it yep complaints are almost inevitable when you’ve got these loud psych rock bands and not or even we’ve had a noise complaint even for a songwriter showcase which is just yeah artist singing and playing a guitar you know um I think that’s the biggest challenge the next biggest challenge or equal to that is how much it cost like even though I had to hustle and sell some stuff to rent the space for rat club I lucked out I was I was friends with the the owner and and also it was just kind of like a Dy space it was like not kind of it was a it was a DIY DIY space it was a room with a barely working air conditioner and um so it was like 800 a month and that was so cheap especially for upper Bucks County where it’s like you’re lucky if you can buy if you can find an apartment it’s really sad how expensive it is up here so that’s the next biggest challenge parking is a big challenge so say you secure a spot somewhere or you have a spot but you got nowhere to park

uh what else is there there’s I mean there’s there’s a lot of challenges um the logistics about the space and bringing people to that space and the proximity to neighbors and with the noise um because you can you can even contain the noise inside and you can measure the sound levels been down that route but come on you’re gonna hang outside and smoke cigarettes or just talk to your friends like throughout the show before and after and that’s you can’t really police that it’s then you’re then you’re being a fun police yeah nobody likes that that’s such a big part of the show too person who runs a venue it’s just like Mom barking at everyone yeah oh you don’t want to be that get off my [Laughter] lawn yeah so those there’s also challenges of yeah those are the challenges I think the big on about space but and was it kind of an immediate thing or did it take did it take a little while to catch on um you said it sounds like it happened pretty quickly it happens almost immediately it was like

I before the buil like the the momentum of Instagram as far as connecting with other uh musicians F and promoters um it built at the same the same Pace I needed the same pace of the shows that were being booked if that makes sense so and then and then it got really I think we started getting slammed

by by the time we’re coming up on one year and right before closing it we were slammed with um booking requests and whatnot yeah it’s always the hard part it’s like you start something because you’re passionate about it and it’s just like the things that usually are the good ideas happen really fast like that and it’s really difficult to kind of um yeah grow that fast along with it so yeah but you have plans to potentially maybe do little yeah sorry you’re

good bunch of logistical uh shenanigans

plug my phone in it working yeah think going to try to get that goat cameo in there um I’m sorry what was your question

again damn I don’t remember oh oh am I gonna try and get a space again yeah oh yeah yeah plan I mean I backed away from it at the one year there was enough challenges for me uh personally financially to keep the the clubhouse running um to keep running the space and keep funding funding what needed to be funded you know like paying bands and whatnot um and the landlord was selling the property um so there was a burnout and I didn’t I thought I was going to be done I was like I can’t I was so heartbroken because I such big goals and such big plans for that space and uh had worked so hard to keep it going against a lot of challenges and so I closed it in September the oneye anniversary and I just kind of laid low for a little bit and when about the time that we met I was like I just missed the music and so I got my camera out and I’m totally rambling sorry um no that’s what this whole thing is for please ramble on um I was like I’m just going to go out the shows and take pictures and I’m like well now that I don’t have the booking curse of I have all my own shows booked so I never get to anyone else’s now I can finally get out to Lehigh Valley to all these shows I’ve been hearing about and so oh yeah that’s been popping up national soals for the first time and oh man it just lit a fire under my ass I was like I I can’t believe I even thought I was going to put this down forever this is this is where my heart is this is my heart fire like I yeah with this and um so then I started booking again at venue Partners like dags bar and pipersville I’m like I’ll just book one show a month that’s all and know just the momentum builds with the passion you wake that pass and it just you got the nice bed of coals and it just you know keeps going um and then I was like I’ll just book independently you know I’m not gonna open the club that and that’s where Kap came up um and I just started just taking pictures at first getting your shows taking pictures promoting I started booking at at more spaces I started booking at John and Peters um I’m basically doing the same thing I was dealing with rat club except independently without without um my team um that were always a team like the whole scene is a team Community we’re nothing without each other that’s one that’s the the best part about it is how supportive we are can you talk a little bit about that because I slept on this for a long time and I feel like a lot of musicians do because they get rightfully so wrapped up in the Musical part of it and they’re super excited about that but and this is speaking from personal personal experience here I just never understood until um you know way way later than I should have of the power of really getting out there and it sounds like work but really networking or or some kind of like when yeah go ahead I think it’s work when I think there’s a difference between you know like yeah I hate to put it this way but like whose ass can I kiss to get on a bill with this other band like oh okay between that and genuin genuinely being like Oh yeah these guys always come out to my show I’m gonna show up to their shows it’s like being authentic and like you’re genuinely wanting to be like show reciprocity instead of like I’m going to I’m gonna do all this stuff so I can get ahead I think I think that’s just like not a communal healthy way part of scene and way to get ahead as a band and I think a lot of musicians and bands will burn out like within their own band or just in general when they when they’re when that’s how they play their cards like no we’re like a network you know we’re like a mycelium Network like yeah it’s a web the more we support each other it’s it’s like love you know like the more you give and support and show like when you receive respect and appreciation and you give it back everyone thrives like a h hundredfold it’s that’s what’s happening in that’s why we had this vibrant River Valley Music Scene because that’s how people show up for each other and all these little river and these different things that we’re doing with music and local bands and bands coming through like um bands who aren’t from this area are noticing it and they’re like this is really special this thing and I I see in the Lehigh Valley Music Scene too you’ve got a great crowd that shows up the shows I’m like I would agree yeah I would agree um so the Le um I grew up in leh High Valley and then moved to Philadelphia for seven or so years and then had to come back um for family issues but anyway there’s this it’s been interesting to watch it over the years because I I mean I grew up uh loving music and keeping tabs on it but around here back in the day like we we’d have bands come through but we’re kind of like I would say maybe almost a CA Market really if if you’re talking about touring bands and where they’re going to hit like they have to be really either huge or small that you know they’re just trying to get their starts so yeah we were a little we would get on the Philly for shows and that kind of stuff but it’s been interesting and right now we’ve had this huge influx of people and musicians and just great stuff so it’s been really exciting recently yeah what’s that there there’s some great venues e Bethlehem and Allentown yeah that too we lost a few so there’s kind of like thing that’s happening that like everything’s kind of turning over but I do think there’s some at least some really great bands coming up yeah yeah that’s happening around here too there’s there’s a high turnover of DIY spaces and I don’t know someone that told me over and over again for the past year when I would be pulling my hair out or totally just devastated like oh we lost this we lost this bace like punk rock’s always on the move like it just you just got to keep finding the next space but yeah just move with it part of it there’s all spaces are going to come and they’re going to go yep it’s it’s more than the space for sure uh just quick shout out some Instagram people uh Angel says uh yeah and you took and shared our photos with us that was so cool about talking about the flying be so yeah thank you for that skywards we fly thank you for joining BR Rex thank you for joining he um always jumps on here when he can so we appreciate that and uh those looks NJ thank you for joining going in hi if you have questions for Katie at any point you can pop them into the old chat there is amazing we’ll read them off they’re amazing all right um how about some advice like you’ve booked a lot of shows you’ve had a lot of bands pitch for spots and this that and the other thing I think you hit on pretty much the number one thing right than those but I don’t know any advice you would give for bands coming up that they could save a lot of time if they would do this Saturday other thing h i mean I feel like the way I promote music goes against the grain so I don’t I feel like I should give advice to how bands should book themselves or um because I’m always

like I want the bands who have no followers or have never my favorite thing is I find someone who’s posting music online and they’ve never played a show and I’m like what the hell like I got that feeling from their music on a show and then I just I might make a show just so that they can play or I have one going and I I put them on it and that’s the magic for me it’s not like which band’s big and you know I don’t know I I’m so DIY like like just um I don’t know just put yourself out there and and don’t be afraid to ask ask don’t be afraid to reach out to promoters and venues and um you know just like individuals go through like don’t let that self-doubt prevent you from opportunity like the best advice I ever got for anything is the worst they can say is no um and and don’t be afraid of like you know that genre blending thing I love doing that sometimes you like what the heck I’m like what great we were just talking about that um feel day yeah we we we tend to have people on both sides of discussions so yeah working through that stuff yeah it’s always an interesting thing like you said yeah um purple L on a show um we caught them at the ice house we love them they were on the the stream a couple weeks ago so um I’m so excited to to see them yeah and uh it is super cool when you can um like there are a couple bands out there for us specifically that like ah this is really good genre wise like you know if you’re coming to see this band and you like them you’re probably gonna like us and vice versa that’s always a great kind of thing to look out for yeah there’s always dream lineup where it’s like Yep this is like someone’s playlist like of here’s the band they really love and everything else on it is right like that’s the the dream lineup but I really like the experimental stuff too and the like sure they kind of like I don’t give a [ __ ] just listen to this listen um just give it a shot yeah um yeah how about uh this is this something comes up within our band all the time and I always like to ask people when they come on and you youve booked a lot of shows you’ve seen a lot of bands put on a lot of performances that sort of stuff have you seen anything people doing anything like interesting visually we’re trying to kind of still figure our our thing out yeah you mean your like style anything it could be the way you dress the projector swing videos whatever you know all that stuff what was that I’m sorry Rubik’s pube straight up oh great that’s true I mean there’s live painting my friend Chris Brink he did this wild uh Sierra actually booked Chris Brink to do live painting and it was like glow-in-the-dark of that was behind the bands playing at rat club and that was one of the coolest coolest most amazing shows um yeah that was really fun when you have live painting paired with bands yeah um and also good lighting like uh interesting good lighting Nomad just had like this it looked like a lightning storm oh cool lighting effect for the show that they just had um with friend membranes and uh spirit week their their lighting was really cool um I guess you are you talking about the band specifically what were we gonna go with that yeah just talk about anything it’s yeah I think I think appearance is like yeah definitely it can make it more interesting like I said life painting the Ambiance of the space uh rat club was always really cool space for just being this DIY Ecentric whatever um but at one point I think it before Halloween I had all this grape vine from gardening that I had taken down and I just hung it to the ceiling it was a little Like A Rat’s Nest with these lights on it and it it made the room feel so much cooler it it was really fun to be in a under that in that space um I think the charm of a space is really important like there are some venues that I’ve had shows at or been to where you know they check off all these boxes as far as accessibility and their sound engineer and um that are fantastic but the space will just kind of feel like I don’t really like being in this space even if everything else lined up right but and you go to a place like this is for me and personally the kind of space I enjoy but I think it’s pretty Universal in the music scene go to National soals and like ah it just feels like Unitarian Church in Philly like yeah uh that’s the it reminds me of listening to bands in high school like has this old um DIY punk rock Spirit but when you go in a place that’s too polished it’s super hip you they’re trying too hard to push like a themed aesthetic uh it it doesn’t always I don’t know just like just send it DIY yeah we’re always trying you mentioned experiential to um we’re always trying to think at least I am like think of ways like how can we make that kind of more memorable or we always like to have some kind of thing that people can take like just freebie or something that people can take home with them at the end of the night yes like like having something that happens at your show but like no other is is memorable like um the destroy Zen boys like they’re a counterculture Magazine from uh Maryland and when they put on shows and tours it is ridiculous fun like they they’ll just be inflatable pool things and I don’t even just random stuff floating flying around the crowd in the bands on the guitars on people and it just it spirals into a mosh pit and it’s so much fun and that’s like you know it’s GNA happen when you go to a destroy Zen show um so I don’t know like and you know there’s going to be uh Bob and baby dolls at Rubik yeah always a different costume and it’s like yeah they’re so much fun I want to shout them and beer impr prels out one more time they are playing at the fun house this Friday uh in Bethlehem PA that starts around I believe 10 o’clock so that’s a great V too and a good lineup too very good an awesome lineup so um yeah that’s like the John and Peters of Bethlehem yeah yeah you’re right and been such a staple for so also has that been kind of weirdly Rubik’s PE of funh house I feel like is ween of John and Peters oh wow that’s good I’m sure they would appreciate that too love them yeah uh let’s see here yeah goad a shout out to loud Scout my friend Sierra she’s got a couple her last shows for 2024 coming up that are going to be uh amazing but I go to her Instagram and look up loud Scout and find out more about the she’s got one coming up at Flemington DIY with the destroy Zen guys and trunk and NEC filc Yacht Club oh I did see that yeah that’s G wild show yeah um should uh we we did try to reach out to her before about coming on the show but maybe we should try it uh again before yeah go off so uh we’ll reach back out to her but yeah she’s always been awesome too um let’s see what

um you also I mean you’re kind of a bit of a Renaissance woman yes you paint play uh um teaching yourself drums or guitar or something like teaching myself whatever I feel like all the things yeah I’ve Been guitar oh okay yeah all right is it something you like you just you like the novelty of things or you just naturally curious about a whole bunch of different things I just do a bunch of things to for enjoyment and um expression do you find your naturally good at a lot of different things I feel like I’m naturally things are very difficult for me to learn if they’re technical like instruments but um singing as expression feels natural yeah um it’s like a release valve for emotions very true I’m always amazed um it’s the only instrument we all have almost all of us have you know innately and we don’t even know how to use it or um use it well to express yourself yeah it’s pretty interesting you know a lot of musicians are Renaissance men and women and the more to know the nor I’m like what you’re like really like you’re an amazing watercolor painter you’re this and you’re that and you make clothes and you yeah you play these other like when I find out that um someone who plays drums in this band I’m like a such a good drummer in that band and then I see them play bass really well in another band I’m like okay all I was a just a fan of you as B player too and yeah especially drums it feels like a whole different world um I pound around an electronic kit just enough to record beats and I let the drummers play the drums but uh that’s always been one just a coordination of all those yeah not easy uh shoot I had another question for you it just went out of my brain um and just so everyone knows the word cap is the Lenape word for sturgeon and yes was right the original is part of the original logo of rat club rat club stands for River radical art team and the original logo designed by my friend um David Nicholas who’s a tattoo artist in Lehigh Valley he’s amazing um he actually I actually had him make it into a tattoo I don’t know if you can see it it’s a rat riding a sturgeon oh nice yeah oh the logo yeah I’ve seen River yeah yeah cool so when I wanted to become go take it more seriously again as an in independent music promoter I just thought I kept thinking about the sturgeon and the same image that I love so much that I feel like was representative of the River Valley Music Scene what we had cultivated with rat club so that’s when I decided to use the word K as like um a sign a respect for my family ancestry and my sense of place of being here and you know it’s the original language here um and I look at the sturgeon as this symbol of you know it’s this endangered species in the Delaware River it’s got all these challenges and oftentimes it just feels like a ticking Time Bomb like this is gonna be dead soon and I feel like punk rock and DIY culture and Community is very much the same thing where it can feel like well it’s got all these challenges it’s G to die eventually but really like going back to what we talked to before like when you act like a community and you show up and you support and you take care of that thing that needs you to take care of it it can Thrive it can survive and it can Thrive and you know that can happen with an endangered species as well when you value something um it can be on the brink of an Extinction and um if you just show up for it if enough people show up for it it’ll be okay and um that’s why I have it as a symbol of I’ve adopted it as a symbol for M promoting music in the Delaware River Valley very cool I love that story um I feel like a lot of things you just got like like you said when you got that the rat club um initially U you took on the the payments for all that kind of stuff um you just said you just you kind of have to have faith that it’s going to work out and you just have to put the steps you know put be courageous enough to take the steps and trust that the the process kind of works itself out and it does it’s a beautiful thing and yeah like have the trust and the faith take I think risk taking is required for everything that you that’s beyond your nine-to-five job where you’re working for someone else to profit like you got to have a take a little bit of risk but also be careful like I I [Music] um it it was financially challenging to keep rat club going I bet I took on too much of it and there was little too much if I just a little bit longer you know it’ll itself so don’t don’t lose your house for something you you dream of like you the dream is still important it’s still your dream but definitely take care of yourself your your own well-being first um it it’s very easy when you’re passionate and you’re a Visionary to um forget about your own needs um for the dream the faith well put especially since you’re used to putting those things to decide to achieve those you know you just kind of get used to it yeah yeah so uh really quickly do you are you do you ever go to um uh there’s a good networking event at the Ice House in Bethlehem do you ever come up for that I that no I I would highly recommend that there’s another one on I think it’s the 28th of July I found out about it because of fuzzy cat oh very cool uh posted it a bunch yeah yeah I would definitely recommend that we’ve been to the last two and just the amount of that’s your audience right there people just like you so um I’ll do push do you know is is the next one next one what is the next um networking event scheduled I think it’s the 28th yeah of this month yeah I think it’s July 28th maybe someone could correct me on that if I’m mistaken but I think it’s like real soon um but yeah it was a great maybe they had between like I don’t know between one time might have been between 75 and 100 people and the last time maybe between 50 and 75 but it’s all you know everyone’s a musician or really into music somehow and wanting to meet other people who are as well so it’s always a cool opportunity and this time instead of a panel they’re gonna talk about like what how the Ice House works and how they book and all that kind of stuff so that would be oh cool I’ve been I’ve wondering about how yes so I made it to the ice house not for a show yet but for the Punk Rock Flea Market oh yeah cool yeah the shows are cool too yeah it’s it’s it’s a very cool venue yeah all right so that takes us to about an hour um why don’t you go back through and just give challenges what’s that sorry in spite of all the challenges oh yeah that’s the way it goes this is this is quite a normal live stream we just kind of plow ahead and keep it moving but yeah uh so thank you for bearing through all that and yeah why you just give everyone um uh an idea again where they can reach you but then also what shows you have coming up and where they can come see you in person uh you can find out about all the shows and see all of my live music photography and um all the information for the bands I book and promote on Instagram and Facebook at Kap k a p a XE you’ll see the picture of the river at riding the sturgeon um and yeah I tag everything you’ll get all the dates and locations and information about the bands upcoming shows the 20th this week we’ve got the narian show with a great lineup of triap bands and also a band from Detroit that’s going to be off kilter um and then the 25th is the next one after that at John and Peters uh 26th that Flemington DIY is the cold Vin purple lung um azors show and then the 28th is also in Flemington but at Alchemy coffee company which is uh on stangle road as well that’s the booah bride Riot full spectre’s gun show and then there’s some shows on August abandoned brain will be playing at off-kilter the 24th with raid and Serena and I will have more to announce soon for August and the fall all right awesome what’s that and also loud Scout’s got a couple of shows coming up this month yeah plug those too um yeah check her check her out on Instagram the details very cool yeah all right so just real quick wanted to shout out uh Josh Burke thank you for jumping in on Instagram and Angel says yes it is July 28th 1: to 4: PM for the networking event so people of the Lehigh Valley especially if you’re a musician definitely get to that uh yeah all right that is going to do it for this week we appreciate uh everyone in the chat for jumping in there and saying hello and of course Katie for jumping on here and talking with us and for sitting getting through those Tech issues we really appreciate so go check out all her stuff and yeah I hope to see you again soon playing a show and yeah we will talk very soon yeah