Harmony Bar, 2/14/2010

Show on Sunday was kind of weird. 6:30pm (really closer to 7pm) on a Sunday evening. A benefit for an elementary school (Lowellpalooza). At the Harmony Bar.

We headlined after The Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Sextet and the Yid Vicious Power Quartet.

Set up was chaotic. The show was running behind and I didn't have a chance to load all of my stuff in ahead of time because of space issues. Basically I had exactly enough time to set everything up and no time at all to check anything. There was no sound check. The sound guy kept turning off my vocal mic so that it wasn't on when I needed to sing. I noticed after the show that half of my hardware wasn't even properly tightened. I'm lucky things didn't fall (crash did fall during We Are the Ones, but unrelated to set up time crunch). The sweetie was at the show and helped me with set up, which was a life saver.

Despite the rush things felt good heading into the set. Strong and steady and able to play fast. Somewhere about 3/4 through I got a little sloppy and dropped a few beats, but nothing too noticeable. My bass foot and ride cymbal were spot on. I stumbled with timing on the very end of "Sun" (which bummed me out because we nearly nailed the whole tune after very little practice) and on "The Way I Love You" (I can never decide if I want to play all the high hat 8th notes on that or not...depends on speed...screws me up...I should just settle...or practice). JG rushed the entry after the guitar solo on "Michael Jackson". The very end of "Suspect Device" was slightly hairy too. We ran over time and had to cut the last few songs.

It was about a thousand degrees on stage and I was sweating up a storm. I had half a walnut burger about an hour before the show and one Spotted Cow pint of beer. I drank one pint of water through the show. I also ate something an hour or so before we even arrived. My stomach was feeling weird and I had a headache. We had walked a bit that morning, but not through snow. I did stand around for about two hours right before playing, but that didn't seem to hurt my feet. There were kids running around everywhere and a low level vocal noise that was unnerving.

We played the show for free, but got free drinks.

I had a good time playing, but it was a little bit of a nerve wracking situation. I was pretty much exhausted afterwards, prehaps more than ever before. The next day I felt like I'd been hit with a shovel.

RS had a good turnout of friends. Dr. K from Pants del Fwego happened to be there by accident and caught most of our set for the first time. The Nugget came by for the end of the set too. And The Moth was there.

Set list (as played, we were calling lots of audibles):
1. PART TIME PUNKS
2. HELICOPTER (switched with Teenaged Kicks)
3. BOSCOBEL BREAKOUT
4. DANCE (4X) TO THE RADIO
5. WHY DOES THE SUN SHINE?
6. TEENAGE KICKS (switched with Helicopter)
7. NEW ROSE
8. STARMAN
9. WE ARE THE ONE
10. POLITICAL SONG FOR MICHAEL JACKSON TO SING
11. EVERYBODY'S HAPPY NOWADAYS
12. THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
13. THE WAY I LOVE YOU
14. SUSPECT DEVICE
15. WARSAW (switched with Suspect Device and then cut for time)
16. FABLE (switched with Starman and then cut for time)