End of an ERA: the band dis-bands!

Our saddest blog post here ever.
Steve has a new  (and exciting) job in Washington D.C.
We are wishing him well and are sure he'll go on to do great things.

It's kind of hard to maintain a band when the lead singer/guitarist and life of the party wanders off to the capitol. So after seven years M.A.S. is no more, or at the very least is on infinitely extended hiatus ...never say never...

Come on down to LesCaves http://www.biercaves.com/ for our grand going away show. Wed. 08/28 from 8-10. See you there!

4th Wed. at LesCaves

We're playing every 4th Wed. of the month at LesCaves
Real consistent like. http://lescavesmusic.blogspot.com/
...at least so far.  As a result not much gets posted here.
More later

About the Band

M.A.S.@ Block 15, St.Paddys Day 2011:  Kirsten W., Steve Wojcikicwicz, Michael Everett, Laureen Urey.

Originally formed by Steve and Michael after they met at the Corvallis Celtic Session not long after Steve moved to town in mid 2007 to play "Songs of Ireland, Beer and the Sea" at various local venues. Practice sessions were frequently out at the Saturday Market, where several months later they met up with local punk drummer and band front-man Dustin Herron. The band took on an up tempo punkish edge and played several local gigs over the next two years, culminating as the headline performers at Blocktoberfest fall 2009 in front of 500 yelling dancing (and somewhat drunk) fans. That really was fun, but we decided to take it back to slightly quieter roots and Dustin moved on to his new punk band "Abolishionist."
In 2011 the band was fortunate to add Kirsten W. on accordion and vocals and Laureen Urey on Bodhran and vocals. Laureen has other commitments now and can only play occasionally, but it's great when she does. The new sound is working really well and has resulted in a marked increase in bookings across the central Willamette valley and central Oregon coast.

MAS rides again

Tonight (Wed) at Les Caves! 8:PM

Paddy's Revenge!

Since M.A.S was unavailable to play their yearly gig at Block15 for St.Paddy's Day, we put together an alternate band at kind of the last minute to fill that slot.

We went to the best Celtic session in the area and recurited some of the hottest young celtic players and well;
It's Gonna Be Great!

Block15, 3rd and Jefferson Corvallis 7:30-10:30 17thMar.

Events! but no St.Paddys

Bummer:
The big news is we WON'T be headlining St.Paddy's day at Block 15 this year. We made it for what I think is like 4 years in a row. Not to worry, another fine Celtic band has been booked for that slot so you'll still have a good time.
Imagine Coffee and Arts has asked us back: March 8th. Figure 7:30 to a little after 9:
And, we'll be continuing to play the 4th Wednesday of every month (except Dec.) at LesCaves 8-10.
We promise to have a good time and it's pretty good odds that you will too.

Going Dark! at Hop&Barrel

We return to the new(ish) Hops&Barrel House in Downtown Independence for the Going Dark! experience: 4 venues in the greater Independence metropolitan area Dark beers (and other things) -AND- a shuttle bus. Good times. Saturday Feb.2nd 4-6PM

12-14-12 Independence OR

OK so I might have conveyed the incorrect details regarding the Dec. gig.
It's in Independence, not Monmouth, and It's on Friday, not Saturday.
...and it's just possible I had the name of the place wrong.
Oh, and it's 7:PM, not 6.  Other than that it's completely right I assure you.
There's a Whiskey Tastng from the Rogue Distillery folks going on at the
same time so I'm betting you'll forget all that error stuff.
DO come.
EDIT: 12/15/12: The Hop & Barrel is a really nice venue and the folks there were GREAT!
We would do that again for sure.

Alas Not

MAS won't be at Bloktoberfest this year. Family issues. Hopefully next year.
Gumbo will be filling in: 4-6:45
We will be at LesCaves on the 24th and possibly at the LesCaves 1 yr. Party on the 28th.
Details to come.

2Townz Rulez!

M.A.S.Rocks the 2Towns Cider Grand Opening
Saturday Sept.29th 5:30-7ish. That's in like 2 DAYS!
A little under two miles east of Corvallis on 34. 'EastGate Center' See the Site

Caves was way fun tonight. The place was packed. We even had requests.  We tried out the new mostly-up-tempo "pound the glass on the table" set-list and it seemed to go over really well.
The new set-list is prep for the 2Towns and Bloktoberfest shows and if tonight was any indication they should be a blast!

Arrr! MAS2TheMax!

THE biggest MAS month ever!   ----------------------  >
See the schedule.
TLAPD,  2TownesCider Grand Opening. Les Caves AND BLOKTOBERFEST.
We're not completely sure of the start times on any of these (except Caves)
so keep an eye on the schedule which will get updates once we know more.

MAS Comes Back HARD

OK enough with the layoff time (not that it wasn't good...)
MAS is coming back in big way late July:
Great show at Les Caves  http://lescavesmusic.blogspot.com/

around 8:PM on the 25th. We'll be at the back there whooping it up.

--AND-- we're doing the early afternoon show (1:PM) at the Block 15 sponsored Craft Brew Picnic. July 28th. Keep an eye on the Block 15 site for details: http://block15.com/news/craft-beer-picnic-july-28th

One small additional teaser: We may be the headline act at this year's Bloktoberfest. Stay tuned for details. Should be a hoot. It was last time. 2000 screaming fans can't be wrong...

Dem were fun so we doin'it again

M.A.S. at the last LesCaves outing.

Mmmm, hard to tell we aren't in the 1930's

Well, the last two shows were a hoot, so we're giving it one last blast at LesCaves before the summer baby hiatus. Wednesday 8-10:PM

  ~~Ask for a seat near the band~~

Newsflash!: We may have all four of us there for this Wed.    Darn good news!

LesCaves Wed. Beanery on Fri.

M.A.S. is cookin'in April:

Exciting new Venue: We're the second band ever to play Les Caves in Corvallis. 8-10PM Wed. 18th.
It's a really nice place, the beer, the food and the people (and of course the music) are all worth the trip.






We're at the Beanery on Friday the 20th from 8-10:PM
This is our third outing there and the previous ones went really well. It's a great venue if you want to really hear the music.

SeeYa There!

March was M.A.S. Month!

Darn, we didn't get any good pictures of St.Paddys day this year.
Rest assured it was no sillier than usual. If you got any good shots, send'em!
Many thanks to Josie at Block 15 and George at Imagine Coffee &Arts for helping us get'er'done.

Original post below:

Prep is ongoing for the big March shows! A few new tunes, a little fiddling-about and we're getting excited. If you expect to sit AND see the band on St.Paddys you'll be arriving early and having a chat with the hostess. These is gonna be fun.

We'll be at our usual St.Paddy's Day hangout, Block 15 March 17th from 8:30-11:30  I think this is the fourth year in a row and it's always a great time. Come down and hoist a pint'er two. In our opinion, the best beer in the valley.

Drift Inn

MAS at Yachats Drift Inn (Celtic Music Festival11/12/11)

While M.A.S.wasn't on the YachatsCelticMusicFestival.com schedule per se, we did play at one of the primary sponsors (The Drift Inn) in the prime Saturday night slot. Who knows, maybe we'll be famous and on the main schedule next year.  It went really well, the people (and the tips!) and the playing environment were great.  Hopefully they'll ask us back sometime in the not too distant future.




Other than that, not too much happening between TDay and New Years. Everyone has a pile of things to get through and maybe a few new ideas to work on. Maybe even actual practice... who knows, stranger things have happened.  We're talking to several venues about playing sometime(s) in the first quarter 2012.
See you then!

MAS at Imagine Coffee

We had a great time at Imagine Coffee Co. Friday night.
Thanks a bunch to George and the whole crew there.

 OK so we're not smiling ALL the time

Second set was at least as good as the first. MORE people actually showed up. Yea crowd!

 Yes it's true. Steve told a joke. We don't remember what it was or we'd use it again next time.

  George and Michael checking out the enormous height of the stage.

Hope we get asked back. Nice place, nice folks,  appreciative crowd.
Thanks (as usual) to our Rock Photographers, Mina and Shannon.

M.A.S. Rulez Bloktoberfest 2011

Dancing in the isles, 500 people yelling (er, singing) along until hoarse and falling over.

The usual.                           ...Just another day at the office...  ;-)
...OK so maybe not quite 500 singing and only a few fell over, but you get the idea...  

Many thanks to Nick for having us and Ted (of the amazing BonTon Roulet) for doing sound

Rogue Hopyards 2011

M.A.S. Rocks the Rogue Brewery Hopyard and Farm during their Anniversary and Salmon Bake. Sept 2011
We had a great time, the owners and the crowd seemed to like it a lot.

Press Photo and History

Press Photo: Current, sorry there's nothing better with the current members in it.

History Below: Please do NOT use the shots below for press or posters. Not the current members.

Obviously in the beginning we were oh-so-serious   and well, rather younger.

  

Adding Dustin to the band fixed much of the seriousness problem.

 It also caused Steve to spend a lot of time with his head hanging, wondering what was going on.
...or worse yet, knowing what was going on.