The Pee Wee Herman Show

I woke up this morning - a day when most of America is attending Super Bowl parties and watching the game, the commercials, and the half-time - and I decided to do something different. Today was the last day of a four week run at Club Nokia for The Pee Wee Herman show. I hadn't yet seen the show and knew I'd have a great shot at rush tickets being that the Super Bowl was on. I was right. The drawing occurred at 3pm and my ticket was drawn first. Yes! I was on my way to see Pee Wee Herman in person.

This stage show was incredible. The entire set from Pee Wee's Playhouse was represented, all the characters and all the FUN *screams*. Oh yes, today's secret word was FUN *screams*. Updated jokes, even some poking fun at Paul Reuben's himself. We even got cartoons and educational films!

Lets step back into the 80s, I was a little girl sitting on the floor in the living room glued to Pee Wee's Playhouse. My favorite part? Jambi. Man, all I wanted was to have my own wish granted by Jambi. Mekka lekka hi, mekka hiney ho. I wanted to be the luckiest girl in all the world and share my luck with everyone.

Fast forward back to present day, here I am able to chant those magic words in front of Jambi himself. I started to think about what a childhood dream come true this was and then realized that Pee Wee was right from the beginning. How come? Because all my childhood wishes from back in the day have come true. To semi-quote Pee Wee, I am the luckiest girl in the world.

So to Pee Wee Herman & Paul Reubens I would like to say, THANK YOU. Thank you for the laughter, the faith, the luck, and an amazing Sunday afternoon.

100 Monkeys, Road Update #1

Well hello there boys and girls. Finally had a moment to type up an update of the road haps thus far. Tour has been going great! We're 12 shows in (if you don't count the in-stores) and it's come to my attention how awesome 100 Monkeys fans are. When I was on the road with Jonas Brothers & Hannah Montana we got the screamers by the miles. Following Hanson most of my life I got to understand the hardcore dedicated fans who have no limits in what they will do to see & meet their favorite band. With 100 Monkeys, their fans lay somewhere in the middle. They scream every word to every song and come from all stretches of the world for their shows, but are quite respectful, happy and content to just watch the show.

Las Palmas Event Center, McAllen, TX
They also love to support their boys by bringing various gifts that are actually useful. Jerad lost his orange bandanna and the next thing you know several girls are bringing orange bandanna's to the show. One girl in Houston gave them a bag full of drum sticks, guitar picks, shakers and other musical goods. We also get a lot of monkeys, my fave is a puppet gorilla/monkey. He keeps me entertained on long drives when everyone else is asleep... hehe.

Waterloo Records, Austin, TX
But I'm sure all of you already knew this because if you're reading this blog update, you are probably a fan of 100 Monkeys already. Am I right?

So, lets talk about the adventures on the road. There's a lot of long drives on this tour - we're doing at least 500+ miles a day usually. What's more impressive is that we end up seeing a lot of the same faces each night even with that mileage between shows. SO COOL! We kill a lot of time by watching music DVDs in the van of all sorts of artists (Jimi Hendrix, Festival Express, Kings of Leon, The Who, Michael Jackson, etc.). Let us know if you have a recommendation of a DVD we should watch! We also have gotten a couple mix CDs of new and old artists to discover/rediscover while driving.

In terms of the shows, Houston was probably my favorite. Alright - so I'm from Houston - but this show was extra special because my dad's band, Guy Schwartz & The New Jack Hippies, got to open for the boys. Then after 100 Monkeys set both bands jammed together for a hour.

The Hippies & The Monkeys jam
We spent New Years Eve at a random truckstop between Phoenix and Las Vegas. We jumped out of the van with 5 minutes to spare, popped open a bottle of champagne and counted down with all the good people there. Afterwards we piled in the van to try to make it to the Nevada border in time to do it again (as Nevada is a hour behind, time zone wise). We missed the mark by a matter of minutes though.

Tulsa had an amazing vibe. The in-store at Ida Red Boutique was the best turnout we've had yet. And then at Cain's Ballroom that night we were surprised by Zac Hanson coming out to our show.

Ida Red Boutique, Tulsa, OK
Well, we have to get back on the road to Denver - more to come soon.

Chelsea

Guess what?!

Alright everyone - you can breathe again. After 45 days down, High Voltage is finally back! And the relaunch couldn't have come at a better time... Christmas! Which means it will be time for the High Voltage staff TOP 5 lists very soon.

You may notice that some images are missing on the site. That's because we lost all of our graphics when our old hosting company decided to go MIA. We recovered what we could and are at least happy to have a year's worth of reviews.

Besides that, I've got big news. I'll be heading out on tour with 100 Monkeys starting December 26th. We'll be out for a month and I'll be updating daily with the latest local band discoveries, stories from the road, travel mix tapes, etc.

So update your bookmarks and keep checking back. High Voltage is back and better than ever! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The Day The World Stood Still... for me!

There haven't been very many moments in my life where a celebrity death really stopped me dead in my tracks. I watched my father pause when Kurt Cobain & Jerry Garcia died. In fact, I think Jerry's death might have been the first time I can recall seeing my father cry. Guess now it's my turn to have someone's iconic lifetime effect me. Yes, I am talking about Michael Jackson.

On June 25th, 2009 Michael Jackson drew his last breathe. MJ has been a huge part of my life and I never gave up on the musical genius. No matter how "weird" people claimed him to be I continued to support his every move. Lets start in my childhood...

Some of my first memories involve a birthday party for Clifford Blieden where we went to, I believe, a Chili's Restaurant and found ourselves in front of our first Michael Jackson impersonator. Of course, I was young enough to believe it was actually MJ at that time. Not far after that I'd spend many afternoons after school watching Moonwalker. I'm pretty sure the VHS is still at my father's house in Houston. Soon CDs would become the new format and my brother would give me my first compact disc. What was it? Michael Jackson - Dangerous.

Then just a couple years back I had a conversation with my friend, Ashleigh, about how we don't understand how people can disregard his musical credibility for some of his personal actions. To me Michael Jackson's personal life was as important to me as Bill Clinton's. It's not my business and I still think they are both great individuals who did a lot for this country we live in. I was very happy that day to discover I wasn't alone in my support of the King of Pop.

Anyway, I could go on about this all day, but the point is how much Michael Jackson's impact on music will be missed. What artists do we have today that we will still be talking about and blasting loudly from our cars in 30 years?

Please take a moment to honor the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, in your own way today. And if you're in LA, join me for the Viper Room's Michael Jackson memorial on July 1st. It's free.

Welcome To My Head

Welcome to the new and improved High Voltage Magazine, thanks for bearing with us this past month while behind-the-scenes we were getting prepared to revamp. I think everyone will really enjoy all the new content on the site now. Definitely give us feedback, we love hearing from all of you.

This "column" is my personal space. I titled it "On The Road with Chelsea" because I'm constantly traveling. Road trips, flights, festivals, etc. Always on the move to find good music. So keep checking back to hear my latest band discoveries, a list of CDs I currently can't take out of my stereo, random vents, and much more.

And with that said, I leave you with this...

Hot Leg's music video for "I've Met Jesus"


Hot Leg Official Site