The Toy Trains

Tricia Rojas playing violin for The Toy Trains

What’s up with The Toy Trains?  The band has taken a breather after 3 successful shows at the Airplay Cafe and the Kennedy School.  This summer, we’ll be performing a series of Multnomah County Library shows.  Please come and check us out!

• Wednesday, July 29th at the Hollywood Library (4040 NE Tillamook St., (503) 988-5391, Meeting Room). Two shows! 10:15AM and 11:30.
• Saturday, August 8th at the Holgate Library at 3:30PM on their back lawn. 7905 S.E. Holgate Blvd., (503) 988-5389. We’ll have the whole band for this show.
• Tuesday, August 11th at the Midland Library (805 SE 122nd Ave, (503) 988-5392, Meeting Room) at 2PM.

These shows are free and open to the public.  The Hollywood and Midland shows will be low-key and more acoustic.

Hello Friends,

On 3/28/2009, we had our second, sell-out performance at the Airplay.  Thank you to all of our fans who bought tickets in advance.  We’re so happy that all of you could make it to the gig.  If you did not get tickets in advance, you may have been turned away at the door, and we are sorry.  We plan on moving the next show to a bigger venue.

Here is our idea…we are thinking about renting out the Mississippi Ballroom (north of the Mississippi Pizza Pub) for a HUGE, indoor picnic with your family.  This will be similar to an outdoor concert at Kruger’s Farm in the summer, except we’ll all be indoors.

Your family will pay an affordable cover charge, come into the giant space of the Ballroom and setup a blanket.  Each family will be encouraged to bring a cooler with food and drinks.  This is going to be a big, indoor, family-oriented party!!!  This is true Portland-style!

Although we’re all about making music, I believe these events are just as important to building strong communities and getting parents to interact and be social with each other.  The Toy Trains are more than happy to be the catalyst that makes it all happen.

We’ll be posting more information on this future show soon.  We’re thinking it will be some time in late April.  Hope to see you then!

Hi Folks,

Our next show is Saturday, March 28th at the Airplay Cafe.  We’ll play from 5:30 to 6:30 and the cost is $5 for individuals and $10 for the whole family.  The last show we played there was a sellout and many families were turned away at the door.  I can’t believe I’m saying this (and it’s a good thing!), but if you want to see this show, we STRONGLY  suggest buying tickets in advance via Brown Paper Tickets (https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57351).  This company charges a very small service fee, and your tickets can be held at will-call at the Airplay.  This is just one way to ease the stress level of getting out with the kids.

Hope to see you there!  Here is a short clip from the Kennedy School on Thursday, February 5th - it was a HUGE success!  Thanks to everyone for coming out to support the band.

Huge crowd for a Toy Trains' show at the Kennedy School gym.

Click here to hear some live tracks from the show!

I have been playing music live (off and on) for 22 years.  On 2/5/2009, the Toy Trains played a jam-packed Kennedy School Gym, and it was probably my favorite performance of all time.  Yes, it was my 40th birthday and that was cause for celebration, but it had much more to do with our supportive fans…mainly the kids.  It was an incredible night for the Toy Trains!

We had the perfect combination with some families just hanging-out watching, while other families danced all over the place.  Some kids sat on the floor, some ran in circles, some got to sing with the band at the end of the night, etc.  It was one of those nights you always hope for when your get up on stage.

We were fortunate to have a 7-piece lineup that night, which included former (official) member Sarah Roy on accordion.  Taking over for Sarah on violin was Patricia Rojas.  “Tricia” has played off and on with our bass player Paul Prato - specifically in two outstanding bands:  Rustica and Tin Silver.

I’m sure many of you (just like us in the band) enjoyed hearing Tricia sing, and believe me, you will hear much more of that in the future.  Listening to the live recording of the show, it was pretty obvious that we have now developed a rich, layered vocal sound that we’ll continue to highlight at the shows.

If you missed this show, we hope to see you next time at the Airplay Cafe on Saturday, March 28th.  Please stay tuned, because it looks like we’ll have to sell tickets to avoid having to turn people away (the last show was sold out!).  Finally, check back on the site in a few days - I’m planning on posting the Kennedy School live tracks soon!

Next up…we’ll be playing at the Kennedy School Gym (5736 NE 33rd Ave., Portland) on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY, 5TH (6 - 7PM).  For those of you concerned about space, don’t worry…this place is HUGE with a great dance floor.  Plus, there is NO cover…free concert!!!  There will be pizza and beer available. This is our biggest show of the year, and it also happens to be Vince’s 40th birthday!  Please joing us for the festivities starting at 6PM.  Around 7PM, Paul Prato’s (bass player in Toy Trains) band “Factory Girl” will play until 9PM.  Hope you can make it with the kids!

Also, we are sad to say, but we’ve canceled the February 14th show at the Airplay Cafe.  We all thought it was a bit too close to the Kennedy School gig.  Our next show at the Airplay will be Saturday, March 28th from 5:30 - 6:30.  There will be a cover ($10 for families, $5 for individuals).  Please mark that on your calendars!  Since the last gig sold out, we are planning on selling tickets for the show, which will guarantee you and your family a spot.  Stay tune for more information about tickets.

Geeeezzzzz!  Thank you everyone for coming out to see the band - it was a sellout at the Airplay Cafe.  I heard from 5-10 families were turned away at the door, and I’m very sorry that happened.  It was obviously for safety reasons, but still I know how difficult it can be to round up everyone for an event.  We hope to make it up to you at our next gig, which is Thursday, February 5th (6PM - 7PM) at the Kennedy School Gym.  There is plenty of space there, and it will be far more comfortable for everyone.  We hope you’ll still come to see us, even if you were turned away.

Also, I know some people were surprised by the cover charge of $10/family.  I know that might seem a bit steep, but where else can you take the whole family these days for $10?  Most of that money went straight to the band.  We appreciate being compensated fairly for the work we put into the shows.  It won’t make any of us rich, but it’s nice to help cover our gas, practice and prep time, setup, and tear-down.  It’s a lot of work, but we love to do it for your family.

It’s obvious that we’re starting to outgrow smaller venues, and we’re considering getting booked at larger venues, but it’s risky for us.  If we book a larger venue and no one shows up, we might end up paying out of our own pockets.  We have to be strategic about when to make the move.  Stay tuned…I know it would be much better for everyone in a larger venue with readily available food like pizza.

We also got a few complaints about our volume.  We don’t control the volume at the Airplay, but we did make a concerted effort to tone it down a bit.  We are a 6 piece band with drums…plus, we play rock music for the most part.  It’s certainly not going to be very quiet.  If you’re concerned about the volume, I recommend sitting as far away from the main overhead speakers as possible.  You may want to consider bringing some ear plugs, but we try our best to keep it at a reasonable volume.  Please know that we do care, and we’re trying our best to make it more manageable for everyone.

We did record the show, and we should have some mp3 available very soon on this website.  I may also put some up on our Facebook fan page.  I’m currently looking for a music player that will play tracks continuously, but I haven’t had much luck yet.  So, for the time being, you’ll have to play individual tracks.

Again, thank you very much for making the gig such a success!  We hope your kids enjoyed the show, and we hope to see you again soon.

Wow…pretty sureal gig tonight!  We did a private party (aka: “Family Night”) at the Bethany Athletic Club out near Beaverton.  It was in a gymnasium, and there was this MASSIVE sounding vocal/reverb thing going on.  I felt like I was playing in a stadium.  Kids were playing in two, inflatable, bouncing-structures, and most parents were milling about enjoying the show.  I hope the gig went well…personally, I thought it was a very fun show where kids really got involved near the end.  A couple kids even got on the mic to help us out with Twinkle, Twinkle and the Alphabet song!  They were so great!  Several kids came up after to play the drum kit…lots of fun.  The parents and staff members treated us very well.  If you were at the gig, thank you for coming and supporting the band.  We enjoyed playing for your children.

This was an excellent tune-up for tomorrow night (Saturday, January 24th, 5:30PM) at the Airplay Cafe.  I’m psyched to get back there, because they do such a great job with our sound.  It’s a pleasure playing the Airplay.  We hope you can come and see us there!  We’re still a bit shaky with the new set - we’ve only played it out a couple of times, so it needs quite a bit of work still.  I’m digging the new songs, especially our Toy Trains’ originals!  We have around 4-5 of our own tunes in this set, but like I said, we’re still working them out.  Better sign off…again, hope to see you at a gig!

Hello Folks,

Vince here…our delightful and talented fiddler/accordion player Sarah Roy will be playing her last public-show with us on Saturday, January 24th at the Airplay Cafe.  Sarah wants to focus more on her background of traditional fiddling.  For those of you who have interacted with Sarah, you’ll know that we will sorely miss her.  As far as I’m concerned, she is a permanent member and a great friend to all of us.  She has promised me that she will be available to sit-in with us, if we need her.  Before or after the next show, go up to her, introduce yourself, and tell her thanks for all of her contributions to the Toy Trains.

Good endings bring good beginnings…stepping in for Sarah will be the talented violin player from the bands Rustica and Tin Silver - Patricia Rojas.  For those of you who may not know, our bass player, Paul Prato, was in both Rustica and Tin Silver with Patricia.  Therefore, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Patricia play on several occasions.  She has been playing the violin since she was a child and brings some impressive chops in several genres of music.  In addition, Patricia will lend some of her killer vocal skills to the band, which will definitely add to our vocal dynamic.  Please welcome her at our show on February 5th at the Kennedy School Gym.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Hello and welcome to the Toy Trains’ official website!  Vince here…passing on the latest news about the band.  In November, we managed to scrape together a brand new (almost) set!  This took an unprecedented, 6 hour practice to pull together.  It features some of the usual suspects like: Dan Zanes, Lisa Loeb, and Jack Johnson.  However, this set has 3 ORIGINAL songs!

Since I started writing this, the number of original songs has continued to grow!  We will, most likely, debut 2 more new songs at the upcoming show on January 24th at the Airplay Cafe.  That will bring our total of originals to at least 6!  We’ll continue with all the great covers that all your kids enjoy so much.

Some other happenings…

1.  Many of you have probably not witnessed the violin/accordion shredding-machine “Sarah Roy.”  She has actually been in the band since early fall, but we’ve apparently kept her a secret.  We’re so happy to have her in the band - she has two young children herself, and she’s great with kids who wander up on stage. 

2.  Joe Howton is our new banjo player!  I haven’t played with a banjo player since the mid-nineties, and I’m thrilled to hear that unmistakable twang once again.  Joe is a very skilled player and already he has helped us unlock the door to more Bluegrass-ish music.  We’re psyched to have him in the band.  We’ve been thinking of adding a new instrument for sometime and the banjo fits the bill.

3.  We have brand new t-shirts in some awesome new colors!  Also, we have some women’s/mommy t-shirts that are very cute!  These are not your typical concert t-shirt, so please stop by the merch-table when you see the band.  We appreciate your financial support!  Hopefully, we’ll have these available online soon.

4.  Daren, our guitar/harmonica/back-up vocalist guy, suggested we start compiling all of our live recordings, demos, and practice sessions into a CD for release.  Isn’t that a great idea?  Kids’ music is so overproduced these days.  We think that kids might like to hear how a song starts with an acoustic scratch track and from there develops into a live track.  I believe kids are just as interested in the process of music as the products.  We’ll be able to reveal some of that process when we put together our CD.  Please stay tuned…AND keep bugging us about it when you see us!  That will put the pressure on us to get something out soon.

Okay…I think that’s it for now!  I did put up a lot more music today (practically the entire Christmas show at the Airplay Cafe).  Take a listen!

Hope to see you soon at a show.

Vince