Summer tour is over!

Wow, what a whirlwind of activity, these past two months! We at Arcattack are pleased to announce that we have touched ground once again back home in Austin and the tour was a smashing success! We did around 205 performances in the 56 days of our journey to Abu Dhabi and the Netherlands, shot lots of video footage, got some great audio (thanks Ivan!) and met many new friends. We also gained many new fans! It was really a pleasure to travel the world and see all those new faces. We hope that you all come on and join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/arcattack or Myspace http://www.myspace.com/singingtesla

Summer in Abu Dhabi was a wonderful experience. It is hard to say exactly how many folks we entertained over the course of the festival, but it was well into the tens of thousands. We got out to see some of the sights, experienced the nightlife, and ate lots of great food (Hooray for Eat n Joy!). It is hard to sum up the whole of the experience in even a few short paragraphs. We have posted some pics of the journey on our Myspace page.

The Netherlands tour was better than we could have hoped for! We played for student introduction week at three Universities and got a great private tour of the Delft campus. We played several outdoor festivals, as well, including Cultura Nova, Dynamo, Zomerparkfeest, and Zomerterras (just to name a few) and there are some great Youtube vids up of some of the shows. We played for our biggest single crowd ever at Zomerparkfeest, where roughly 20k folks saw the show! Perhaps the best part, however, were the three days off we had in Amsterdam. It was nice to catch up on some sleep and do some sightseeing. Then it was back through the airport with all our gear and back to Austin for one day before hopping in the van to Dragon*Con!

Posted on 17 September 2009 | 11:14 pm

Everybody has arrived safe and sound and we are rocking out here in Abu Dhabi! We have been nothing short of pleasantly surprised by pretty much every aspect of both the country and the venue. Our first surprise was the stage itself. We were greeted by a wondrous neon sign declaring that we are Arcattack in three foot high red letters limned with Tesla sparks.


The crowds here are quite a bit more reserved than we are used to, but it was explained to us that this is simply a cultural difference. All the reports that we have had from the organizers (Red Filo) is that people like the show, so that is encouraging. Our technical support crew is top notch and we are busy recording both audio and video files in hopes of producing a “Live at Summer in Abu Dhabi” DVD in order to share with you our experiences here.

During the time between our shows we are busy hammering out some new material as well as building robots and making friends with support staff. We are also incorporating some new coding into our old songs in order to “liven” up our current material. We performed for the Sheikh of Travel and Tourism and the report we received was that he liked the show!

The third day of performances here we were supplied with a translator. This has helped us enormously bridge the gap between languages and culture and has significantly improved audience response. We are very much enjoying our visit here in the middle East; it has been an eye-opening experience!

Posted on 8 July 2009 | 6:12 am

Summer Tour Begins

Summer is almost upon us and Arcattack is heating it up around the world! We are pleased to announce the first appearances of the summer season.

First, we will be performing Thursday June 18th in New York City for The Most Interesting Man in the World! Dos Equis has invited us out to the Big Apple to entertain as only Arcattack can.

Second, we will be at MetroCon! June 19th - 21st with our main performance Saturday night. We are very excited about this show.

Third, and perhaps the most interesting of our summer stops; Arcattack is heading to Abu Dhabi! We will be engaged in a mission of education and entertainment in perhaps the most technologically advanced infrastructure on the planet. Arcattack will be performing two to three times daily, an educational set on the background, development, and use of our musical Tesla coils. We will be engaged there from July 1st through August 16th!

Then Arcattack flies into Amsterdam to kick off a whirlwind European tour! We will be hosting various dates and locations in the Netherlands and who knows where else?! Keep track on our Myspace page for listings of shows in Europe. We will be returning to the US around the 1st of September, just in time for our final stop in our whirlwind summer tour.

Dragoncon!!!

Arcattack will be performing once again for the Mad Scientist Ball!

Posted on 14 June 2009 | 4:56 pm

Arcattack Summer Update!

We at Arcattack are really excited about the opportunities upcoming in the next few months. But, before we get into what the future holds, let's wrap up a few gigs we have done recently.

Our Texas Burning Man Regional event was a wonderful success! The guys came together and did an improv performance on Saturday night that electrified the evening and the coils produced some of the most powerful sparks we have seen. The rain kept temperatures cool, but since we were prepared (as seasoned veterans are), the show went off without a hitch. See some awesome photos on Flikr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevehopson/sets/72157605286527432/

The VEX Robotics World Championships (Dallas) afterparty turned out to be one of our favorite audience interactions to-date! The questions we fielded during our technical discussion from the crowd were some of the most technologically savvy queries we have received so far. Congratulations to all that participated in the Championships! Special thanks to Anton Olsen of Geek Dad for making it happen and to Jason Morrella of VEX Robotics for putting it together. We are already plotting some spectacularly electrifying entertainment for next year!

It has been a wonderful Spring, but its still not over! Arcattack has a couple of performances left this month before we get into July.

http://metroconventions.com/ has inspired Arcattack to reach beyond our norm and to create an entirely new stage show. Not only will we be featuring the songs you know and love, but we will be incorporating performance art in telling a tale of love and woe. Metrocon takes place in Tampa Florida June 19-21st and is Florida's largest Anime convention. Many thanks to Roy and Shadowfax for giving us the opportunity and inspiration to keep raising the bar!

Posted on 4 June 2009 | 12:13 pm

Spring Break Wrap-up!

Wow, what a whirlwind of activity! Texas Rock Fest was a wonderful success for Arcattack and friends and we would like to send out a special thanks to both Open Labs and Adam from TRF for the support in pulling off three days of non-stop entertainment on the corner of 7th and Trinity. Also a special round of thanks to the local Austin entertainers that joined us on the HML stage; DJ Polyhymnia, Panjoma, DJ Josh Meredith, and our newest adoption, One-Eyed Doll! We are very pleased to have been able to participate in TRF's 10 year tradition of bringing free quality entertainment to Austin during SXSW. We can't wait to see all of your photos and videos!

Wedsday, Thursday, and Friday, Arcattack lit up the night in downtown Austin, doing what we can to "Keep it Weird" in our electrifying fashion. We began doing sets in between bands around 9 pm every night and culminated in a 1-2 am performance featuring our live music set. We even did a special feature performance with the Faraday suit that made its way into the Austin American Statesman XL "special SXSW coverage" insert, without even being an official part of SXSW itself!

Then on Saturday, we headed out to Dallas to play a super event called Flux Capacitor at Afterlife. We were hosted by Purple Monkey productions and let me tell you that they know how to take care of business! They really made us feel like rock stars with a steady supply of drinks and helpers, making this show perhaps one of the most seamless venue setups we have experienced so far. Furthermore, the venue operators at Afterlife are some of the coolest folks we have had the chance to hang out and talk to. They genuinely care about the kids that frequent their venue and I really got a sense of family out of the staff there. We at Arcattack for sure have Afterlife on the short list of venues we would love to return to!

Youtube playlist for Flux Capacitor:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AF43DF7E82F7879B

Playlist for Texas Rock Fest:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=96573FBCAE7C3AC1

We are going to take a short break from performances to work on music development (and I will be working on Faraday suit prototype 3 and 4), though I have a feeling we may be doing one or two sneak shows to try out some new material... If you have a local Austin venue that may want to host us once or twice before June, please contact us and we can work something out!

Posted on 24 March 2009 | 1:08 pm

ArcAttack Electrifies Austin!

ArcAttack is pleased to announce that we will be doing our part to entertain Austin during Spring Break! We have a series of outdoor shows scheduled during the next couple weeks in conjunction with SXSW Interactive and Texas Rock Fest.

Our first installation is with the SXSW Interactive. We are very pleased to be a part of Dorkbot once again this year!
SxSW @ Brush Sq. Park
dorkbot13 @ SXSW - March 8, 6:00 pm, Brush Square Park, across from Austin Convention Center
Co-sponsored by Make Magazine, SXSW Interactive, Amaze Entertainment and the International Game Developers Association of Austin

http://www.dorkbotaustin.org/meetings/dorkbot13

In addition, we have an extended engagement with Texas Rock Fest. Mark your calendars for this series of FREE shows. We will be lighting up the night Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tell everybody you know because we have a special surprise in store!!!!



Stay tuned for an update for our upcoming European tour!

Posted on 12 March 2009 | 9:53 am

Grotto

Come check us out this Friday at Grotto. We'll be playing short sets throughout the night starting at sunset, until they make us stop, or we get too sleepy.

You can buy tickets at:

http://www.sdcproductions.net/

Posted on 23 February 2009 | 3:15 pm

Many Thanks to Chattacon

This is Parsec with our latest concert update.

We at Arcattack would like to thank everybody at Chattacon; friendly hotel staff (Thanks for recovering my lab coat from the room, Beth!), gracious con staff for making us so welcome, the vendors in the dealer room (especially the leather bondage guys and the steam-punk wear), and even the volunteer citizen security!

A special shout-out to the Chattanooga Choo Choo electrical staff, who handled a novel situation thoughtfully and professionally. Finally, we would like to thank Cyndi for inviting us out. We really appreciate the opportunity to entertain and we hope that our paths will cross again in the future.

I must say that the morning after our show was a delight. Never before at a convention have I been hailed by so many people! Everybody was so appreciative and gracious with their compliments and stories about the time they had the night before during our performance. To everybody that came and saw and participated: You are awesome!! It was really gratifying, as well, to hear so many folks in the registration line tell us that either they saw us at Dragon*Con or that they tried to see us but the room was full/lines too long, etc. I was passing out fliers and many the con-goer told me “thanks” for the flier, but also that they knew exactly when/where we were playing.

Special thanks as well to those Dragon*Con staffers in attendance. Do you guys ever NOT work? Ha ha.

On a more personal note, everybody in Arcattack would like to especially thank Steve Jackson for taking time out of his busy schedule to come and see us. I actually got all choked up when I finally got to meet him and personally thank him for all the joy he has brought to me and my friends over the years. What was even cooler was autographing a t-shirt for him. What a strange ride, this life!?

Anyways, hopefully next year we will get to see you all again at Chattacon 35!

Posted on 5 February 2009 | 9:18 am

Chattacon 09!

This is Parsec with our latest concert update. ArcAttack is pleased to announce that our next experiment will be performed at Chattacon 34 in the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The convention is held January 23-25 and the keynote speaker is none other than Steve Jackson(http://www.sjgames.com/)!. Hotel, ticket, and entertainment information can be found on the Chattacon website.

http://www.chattacon.org/Joomla/

We are super excited to be bringing our electrifying style of entertainment to the Grand Central Station Saturday evening from 10 pm till Midnight. Our Weird Science Ball will be sure to keep the crowd on their feet with two hours of non-stop musical entertainment powered not only by Arcattack, but also featuring Polyhymnia.

http://www.myspace.com/djpolyhymnia/

It is our sole intent to help you get your groove on. What a better place to meet up with friends to prepare for the infamous room crawl? Guaranteed to give you ample fodder for conversation for the rest of the evening, if you have any energy left at all!

We are excited, as well, to be featuring our new Arcattack! Sticker in addition to our insanely popular Arcattack! T-Shirts








Still more to come! Stay tuned till next week when we unveil our latest performance venue!

Posted on 14 January 2009 | 12:03 am

First Night Wrap Up

Happy New Year from Arcattack! This is Parsec with our wrap-up report. This past First Night was one of the best New Year celebrations that I have ever been to! The weather was perfect, there was interactive art, music, performance art, fireworks, digital media, art cars... and the Resolution Clock was one of the finest burn spectacles I have had the pleasure of attending. Auditorium Shores was a fine backdrop for a wonderful evening of lights and sound and friends as we ushered in yet another year of opportunity.



It was made better by the fact that we had friends in from out of town to share the New Year with! Steve Ward came down from Chicago and assisted us with some hardware and software upgrades. Pretty much as soon as he got off the plane, he and Joe went to work and kept going right up until the performance. Tesla coils take lots of love. Even though he worked most of the visit, we managed to take him out for one good night on the town Friday. We showed him around 6th street for awhile, then to some other clubs around town. We painted the town red and closed down the bars and I think I heard him mumbling about moving down here sometime before I went home.



As for the show for First Night, all I can say is WOW! It was an awesome experience all around. There was little wind, we had a wonderful new centerpiece crafted by Patrick Sullivan from Iron Lion Metalworks (special thanks to Austin Green Art for letting us use their warehouse space!), and the crowd was festive. The HGMB stage provided wonderful entertainment while we set up and we got to hear not only a 15 minute version of Hamlet, but a 3 minute and a 10 second one, as well! I brought the BBQ pit and we had a lunch of hot dogs and flavor-aid and then I put on a brisket for dinner. Good food, good fun, comfortable chairs, and we even brought a propane heater for when it started to get a bit nippy. With all the essentials covered, all that was left was to have a great time!



The performance was wonderful! There were people as far as the eye could see; not even sure how many there were. All we know is they were such a wonderful crowd, and so LOUD! Wow, Austin can really bring the noise! The coils were looking awesome and everything was going smoothly, but then we had a few technical difficulties. First, we started having some flash-over (when the secondary coil arcs to the primary coil and strike ring) on the right coil, so we had to turn it down a little bit. Then, during the oh so popular Zelda/Justin Timberlake mix-up, there was a huge POP from the left coil and it went dead. I could sense the crowd tense; there was no mistaking that sound.



Well, it turned out that one of the transistors had exploded! We had spent the last few weeks doing some hardware upgrades to the machine, and when it was put back together, a screw on the transistor didn't get tightened well enough. Woops. So, here is a picture of the blown up transistor, right next to one that isn't blown up for reference. You can see in the picture the arcing to the bolt terminal that caused the failure! Special thanks to the guy in the audience that donated $5 to me directly after the show to pitch in on repair cost. It really meant a lot to us.



Thanks once again for a wonderful New Year's Eve, Austin!

Posted on 5 January 2009 | 7:33 pm

Arcattack Brings In the New Year

We at Arcattack are very excited about this upcoming First Night celebration! We are going to be doing our part to keep New Year's Eve weird, including keeping thing flowings throughout the day at the First Street bridge. We have been offered the opportunity to act as entertainment when the acts are transitioning on the main stage throughout the evening, starting around dusk thirty.

Always happy to be of service!

A full schedule of entertainment will be released shortly on the First Night website for your viewing pleasure. Please be sure and stop by sometime during the day to say hey and then join us for the Clocktower burn and then for our feature performance around 10ish.

It is going to be an experience!

Posted on 22 December 2008 | 3:59 pm

Tony's new guitar rig take 2

Posted on 14 December 2008 | 4:09 pm