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By Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune October 20. 2014 11:14AM Moonalice plays Applegate Lodge Left to right: Barry Sless, John Molo, road manager Steve Parish, Roger McNamee and Pete Sears are Moonalice. Photo courtesy of Karin Conn PR Media is important to musician, technology investor and venture capitalist Roger McNamee. His band, Moonalice, has built itself from a small, regional band in San Francisco to a national touring act, he says in a YouTube video. "Our page on Facebook has been the key way that we've done that," he says. The psychedelic roots-rock band played its first concert in 2007. The same year, the band stopped in for a gig at the old Mobius studio of the Railroad District in Ashland. G.E. Smith was lead guitarist with the group until 2009. Smith is known as lead guitarist for Hall & Oates and as music director of "Saturday Night Live." In 2010, he joined Roger Waters' touring band to perform in Pink Floyd's "The Wall."  Bassist Jack Casady also joined the band that year, best known as a former member of Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna. Moonalice's first studio album was released in 2009. Smith and Casady have fallen away from Moonalice's lineup since that time. With McNamee on rhythm guitar and bass, Pete Sears on keys and bass, Barry Sless on lead and pedal steel guitars and John Molo on drums, the group plays original music — along with a few covers — in the spirit of the '60s. It's music that mixes a variety of genres with long, improvisational jams that are meant to evoke a sense of adventure and exploration. Moonalice will perform at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Applegate Lodge, 15100 Highway 238, Applegate. Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased at www.liveatthegate.com. Molo has performed with Bruce Hornsby & The Range, John Fogerty, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Other Ones and the David Nelson Band. Sless also has played with Lesh & Friends and the Nelson band, along with Kingfish and Cowboy Jazz. McNamee has been a musician since he was in college, playing with Guff, The Engineers, Random Axes and Flying Other Brothers. Sears is known for his work with Rod Steward, Jefferson Starship, Jerry Garcia, Hot Tuna, John Lee Hooker, the Nelson band and Lesh & Friends. The band's road scholar, medicine man and storyteller is Big Steve Parish, who was with the Grateful Dead crew for 26 years. "There's a lot of confusion about how Facebook pages work," McNamee says in the video. "People think that they should be able to reach all their fans with every message that they put out. But that's not how it works. Facebook has spent a fortune to create a gigantic telecommunications network on which all of the people you want to reach are already present. Access to seven percent of them is free. If you want to reach more, you have to do two different things.   "You have to have engaging content, stuff that your fans will want to see and share with others. We have music, poster art and humor we find on the Web. That is the way to build an audience. The other thing is to spend a few dollars a month on sponsored stories." Since 2007, Moonalice's fans have grown from none to nearly 350,000. More importantly, there are twice that many people engaging in the band's content, McNamee says. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141020/ENTERTAINMENT/141029998 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->