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When I left Colorado I was worried that I would be leaving the one place where I could walk down a street and have a choice of which awesome live band I wanted to see. I had spent the last 4 years of college playing bass guitar in several fraternity bands, strumming a guitar when I got the chance. With a degree in European History I decided to take my one man show on the road and headed to Europe for 3 months. I brought along a Martin Backpacker guitar and played in hostels and street corners around 13 countries, exposing my music to the Western World.

When I ran out of money I returned home to the greater Los Angeles area and witnessed my greatest fear come true. In LA, you cannot walk around a street corner and have multiple choices of local music. It was 1996 and LA was unfortunately divided and conquered by freeways laden with rap and metal, with no local rock music to be seen.

In 1997, after many soul-searching missions to the Bay Area I finally made a permanent move to San Francisco in search of a great local music scene and began playing my tunes in parks and house parties around the city. Tim Kingsbury was a friend from work who was interested in auditioning me as a singer for his band. When that didn't work out we decided to lay down some tunes together and tried to create a sound of our own.

Tim had a friend named Ed who played guitar. In San Francisco everybody has a friend named Ed who plays guitar. I asked Tim why we should include Ed as the third member of our now acoustic trio. He said, “I haven't heard him play but I know he has a lot of guitars.” Even though Ed hadn't plugged in an electric guitar in 2 years, his playing was exceptional. I was so impressed with his playing that I went home that night and practiced for two more hours. Before we knew it, our little acoustic trio had a regular gig playing at Robbie-Say's house parties on Nob Hill at 2 Kimball place.

On a July Sunday during the Union St fair I stopped in a coffee shop on Van Ness and Green to get a latte with my friend Michelle. Michelle saw a sign for open mic and asked the owner what time to show up. Before I knew it Michelle had signed me up for an open mic at the Notes From the Underground Cafe with the owner, Tulsi Ziedman who later became a life long friend.

From June 1999 to March of 2000 I played 5 gigs at the Notes from the Underground Café. Each time I played I added more musicians and more equipment. In the beginning I shouted my lyrics across the coffee shop without a microphone, towards the end we had the full band plugged in and rocking. It was here that Mario Santana, Tim's mystery friend who was “supposedly moving from Florida,” finally showed up. Something very cool was coming together.

From here on the band went through all sorts of changes. We practiced in the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, the basement of my apartment in a storage room, and finally at the 43 Fern Alley studio in the `Loin. We originally named the band Spin Cycle after a laundry mat at California & Hyde then quickly changed it to Second Set which came from the Notes from the Underground days when our second set was always more polished than our first.

I will never forget the day I was late to practice at 43 Fern Alley and when I came around the corner off Polk & Bush I saw dozens of people huddled around in group outside the studio surrounded in wet music equipment and firefighters. The hotel above the studio had caught on fire and our practice studio had seen significant water damage from the dowsing of the inferno. Fortunately Ed and Tim got there early and were practicing when the first drops of water came down. In a heroic effort they moved all of our studio equipment out into the street.

In and out of day jobs, riding the Internet start-up wave I focused most of my time booking for Second Set, taking any gig we could get. From Red Devil to Hotel Utah our live shows improved as we continued to add new musicians. In December of 2000 we recorded First In Line, officially added Jordan Feinstein on keyboards, and started what looks like a fantastic 2001. Our 3^rd show at Slim's in 2001, on September 22, was an excellent sign that Second Set is here to stay.

Second Set has grown into something really exciting. When I first moved to SF I wandered out into a new city in search of new music. Many times I went to venues like Slim's, Last Day Saloon, and the Paradise Lounge checking out local bands dreaming of one day taking those stages with my own band. My dreams came true. For five years I have been living in an awesome city where I can walk from my house to see awesome live music. For the last 3 years my band has played these venues numerous times. Whatever happens from here is just gravy.