Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The gig at Stasiu's went swimmingly. At first, we weren't sure when we were going on stage, only that we had to load in between 8:30 and 9:30, and were playing sometime before midnight. This did make it difficult to invite people to the show. Colin and I arrived to hear country versions of Aerosmith and AC-DC songs, I believe the band is called "AC Dixie" but don't quote me on that. Colin asked if I knew how to play "Rawhide".

Stasiu's is a cross between country and punk, which means they are pretty open-minded. The bar itself is fairly small, and the men's bathroom looks like a set from the movie Alien. In other words, it was a perfect place for us to play. We loaded in the gear, and the next band (32nd day) showed up. We chatted with them for a bit, and of course the only person who knew what the hell was going on was Christy, who wasn't there. Josh arrived, fresh from a performance exam at school, and slowly others arrived, James, Jess, Xtina, Sarah, Kerri, "The Bri", and Reid.

The bartender drew a Cock (er, sorry, I meant to say Penis) on the back of all the band member's hands, which allowed them $2 off their drinks. I thought of it this way: If someone came up to you and wanted to draw a cock on the back of your hand in black Sharpie, how much would you charge them? I don't know about the other guys, but mine was worth $10 by the end of the night. (I also pointed out repeatedly that it was larger than theirs.)

So we sat and chatted with 32nd day, nice folks, and we even talked about playing together at future shows. Rumors of the third band (Sirens of Titan) cancelling proved to be true, as a band called Aquafox arrived, quickly set up and played a short set to start the evening off. Christy informed us that Jagged Spiral would go on at 11, and 32nd Day would start at midnight.

Although I haven't played a real gig in years, I remember only getting really nervous during the equipment setup, and tonight was no different. I informed the audience that since we couldn't be better than Aquafox, we would be louder, and we launched in to "Bad Kitty".

The set list played well, as well as our better-than-average practice sessions. That is to say, there were mistakes, and outright flubs, but we quickly recovered and never stopped. Nor did I forget any words. I like to think that any lacking performance was made up for with a shitload of energy and passion.

Since time didn't seem to be such an issue, we left out the optional songs "Forced Entry" and "Hallowed Ground" since in practice sessions they sounded a little rough. (On the setlist I put questions marks near the songs which could be dumped if we were running long on time.) We knocked the cover "Temple of Love" off the set list on the fly, since it seemed we had plenty of time. I still don't know how long we actually played, none of us thought to bring a watch, and there wasn't a clock visible from the stage.

For the Stasiu's gig, Josh had changed to a new and untested configuration of the click track, and it turned out that he couldn't hear it, so that got ditched about halfway through the set. I couldn't even tell. Since that happened, we've been discussing ditching the click for live shows, but Colin and I can recall in great detail what happened at the 2007 Halloween party when we 'let the dog off the leash'. Let's put it this way - Josh Plus Beer Minus Click Equals Warp Factor Nine, if you know what I mean.

Pictures of the gig are loaded in the player on the band page, or you can poke around here.

Thanks much to those of you who braved the freezing cold on a ridiculously late Tuesday night in December to come see our first show. It was a blast, and we're looking forward to more...

-Zero

Labels: Concert