Last night we played a half hour acoustic set at a venue called El Cid near Silver Lake.  It was for an SPCALA benefit event – we were invited to perform after our show at Saint Rocke some weeks back.  Excited for the opportunity, we revamped some songs for an acoustic setting and hit the stage.  Steve was kind enough to video tape, and here is “Interview” from The Sad Thing Is, We Like It Here.

Thanks Alisha and SPCALA for the opportunity!

People often ask us how to pronounce our band name.

Is it SHAY-mus? SHY-mus? Shay-moose? Shy-moose?

The last one is my favorite. If that was how to say our name, we could have a very bashful-looking moose as our mascot. Alas, it is incorrect.

The correct pronunciation is the first one: shay-mus, said identical to the Irish name spelled Seamus. That’s usually how people say our name, but I don’t blame anyone for being a little unsure. We did choose to spell it in a slightly odd way.

But I decided to give you all a little help in case you forget. I’ve drawn up a cartoon to illustrate what we are not:

There. That should settle it once and for all!

This doesn’t really have anything to do with Shaimus.  Like, at all.

I opened up my iPhoto for the first time in a year and decided to pick some of the greatest hits from the past couple years.

This is my buddy Jake.  He’s pretty rad.  As you can tell from this picture.

If you’ve never partied with a headlamp and a drawn on mustache, you’ve never really partied.

I’m a sucker for (Hawaiian) sunsets.

My friend Ben got pooped on by a bird.  What an idiot.

You best believe these shoes don’t look like this anymore.

Here’s a sweet picture of Jason.  Not exactly sure why this is in my iPhoto, but hey.

Manager Steve.  Halloween?  Or just a regular Tuesday night?  You decide.

Scott Baio and Eli Roth chatting before a Hollywood screening of Baio’s 80’s classic ZAPPED.

Phil in Nashville.  Happy for no reason.

Found this in a urinal in New Orleans.

Johannes, are you having fun in Vegas?

And here’s a bear eating a marshmallow out of my mouth.  Big finale.

Well…that was fun.

This weekend we played a 4th of July pool party at a creative camp called uCamps.  It was in Big Bear, CA and at 7500 feet altitude, lifting an amp required similar effort to benching 350.  Luckily they provided us a hearty thanksgiving style dinner.

The gig was sweet – our audience was about 100 dancing and/or swimming kids, and playing outdoors in the sunset is always killer.

After the gig we hiked up to a cliff and watched the fireworks over Big Bear lake.  It’s been years since I saw a night sky like with this many stars – the milky way and all constellations were clearly visible, along with satellites and shooting stars.  I highly recommend it!

The next day we sat in on their rock band workshop.  I taught a few private lessons on bass, can’t say I’ve ever done that before.  Cam is actually staff and he will stay there teaching drums until Friday – his nickname is “Suds” (umm, because he’s a very clean person.)

uCamps is awesome – we had fun and we highly recommend it.