Moonalice, courtesy.

This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.

San Francisco psychedelic rock and blues jam band Moonalice can appear as a contradiction. On one hand, its members made their biggest contributions to music in the ‘60s and ’70s. On the other, the band is technologically ahead of the times by offering its music and live shows online at no cost to its fans through social networking and a combination of software innovations.

Frontman-venture capitalist Roger McNamee believes that advancing the technology of the music industry is vital, an idea that he shares with U2 frontman Bono. The two have worked together since 2003 and will share the stage Tuesday when Moonalice opens for U2 at Overstock.com Coliseum.

McNamee’s firm, Elevation Partners, is a private equity fund focused on technology. One of McNamee’s business partners is Bono, who asked how technological developments could help his own band a decade ago.

Moonalice is at the forefront once again with its use of HTML5, a technology that McNamee said will bring fans even closer to musicians by giving bands more creative control over their online content. For example, it will allow people to watch live-streaming concerts on their phones without an app.

“When the history of this era is written, we’re going to play a role,” McNamee said. “While we may not be big, we’re out in front, and we’re doing stuff that everyone’s going to be doing very soon.”

McNamee, 55, ascended to the upper echelons of T. Rowe Price and cofounded private equity firm Silver Lake Partners before Elevation Partners.

He’s also been playing in bands since college. His bands, as well as his business successes, gave him access to the music industry, where he found himself advising the Grateful Dead about technology and how it could help the band in its post-Jerry Garcia days.

Through that relationship, he met Jefferson Starship and Rod Stewart guitarist-keyboard-bass player Pete Sears, drummer John Molo – who has played with Phil Lesh and John Fogerty – and guitarist-bassist Barry Sless. All three are now members of Moonalice, as is McNamee’s wife, Ann, who sings and plays bass and keyboards.

‘No delusions’

McNamee, whose stage name is Chubby Wombat Moonalice, leads on guitar and bass.

“We have no delusions about whether it’s going to get big; we’re not trying to do that,” Sears said. “You have to be in it for the music. That’s what brings the ultimate satisfaction. If it goes well and the audience likes it; that’s great.”

Three years ago, McNamee had Moonalice stagehands broadcast concerts in near-realtime by recording video and posting it to Twitter one song at a time. An online radio station followed, then videos from live shows. Finally, the band began to stream their shows live.

“I’m amazed every band on earth doesn’t do every show this way,” McNamee said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s high quality. What matters is the immediacy.”

About 400 people watch each show live, but 3,000 to 4,000 watch it in the next few days, he said. In fact, the band gives all of its music away for free and depends on concert attendance as the main source of revenue.

“When people come to see us live, they’ve probably seen us on the computer a whole lot before that,” he said.

Sears said he was, at first, reticent with the band having such a large social network presences. Then he came to understand how, for a band without record label or radio support, it’s a lifeline.

Meeting of the minds

“We are building an audience,” he said. “I definitely see it reflected in attendance.”

Bono watches Moonalice shows online and is trying to figure out how what Moonalice does relates to U2, McNamee said.

McNamee first met Bono in 1999, while the rock star was pushing his debt relief organization DATA – Debt AIDS Trade Africa. McNamee was working with the Grateful Dead by that time, and Bono was working with the assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, who happened to know of McNamee at Silverlake.

Bono asked her to put him in touch with someone who could answer his technology investment questions, and she sent him to McNamee, the investor said.

Bono, the Edge and McNamee first met in 2001, the morning after U2 won several Grammy Awards. Nothing came from that original meeting or others that followed over the next six months. But in 2003, Bono called McNamee again. Bono had an idea for what would eventually become Elevation Partners, McNamee said.

It was Bono’s idea to add Moonalice as a second opener at the Oakland show, to showcase the vibrant hippy rock music the Bay Area is known for.

“He told us there will probably be nine guys there (in attendance) when we play,” McNamee chuckled. “The notion of Moonalice playing in a stadium is in so many ways completely preposterous.”

In other ways, it’s not preposterous at all.

Sears played stadiums for 13 years with Jefferson Starship, as did Molo with Bruce Hornsby. Sless, who has played with Phil Lesh and Friends, also has played in front of large audiences.

“U2 has a really great audience,” Sears said. “I’m sure the audience won’t know who the hell we are, but hopefully they will have some idea afterward.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.