CJ, 9/9/2011, Mickey's

UPDATE: First 30 minutes of gig recorded by The Shabelles. It is not NEARLY as bad as I thought. It was actually Broken Face I goofed and not Isla (which is freaky) and by the third time through I'd remembered the riff. We actually sound pretty good. I think that we need to work on abrupt transitions though.

Here the recording be:

Sigh.

I was well prepared for this show and yet...really struggled. Literally forgot how Isla de Encanta went.

Regarding this...see the following clip from "Loud, Quiet, Loud." At 1:59, Kim Deal says "I'm horrified that I'm gonna spaz and forget like, like, Gouge Away. I'm gonna think it's in G...You think, there's a lot of people...it's sold out. You'd think that the bitch would have learned the song."

At least I am in good company (also, though I have no idea what key Gouge Away is in...I know that I play a G#, B, E, G#, E...though if I can forget Isla, some day I'll surely forget Gouge Away as well).

Couldn't hear my vocals for the entire first set. Felt like I was screaming and nothing was coming out. In particular this sucked for Into the White, which I was really disappointed in. Was very nervous and my legs were shaking the entire first set. I've been trying really hard not to drink, but just couldn't take it and had a beer during set break and another during second set. I know it isn't politically correct to say...but this helped emensely. RS turned up my vocals for second set, I turned the speaker towards me, and I settled down from the beer. Actually started to have fun. I know that alcohol is evil and that in an ideal world I would learn to deal with life without it...but there is no denying that it can on occasion help. That said, I couldn't sleep all night (from the beer) and felt like shit the next day. If it is a tool...it is a tool to be used sparingly. And a slippery slope for sure.

The Shabelles opened and kicked ass. Very tight and clean and sharp. It was hard to tell whether we had much of an audience for most of the show, but when we played "Hey" the entire place erupted in song and after that the place felt packed with huge numbers and energy. I probably had at least ten people come up to me and either request a song (yes honey, we'll play Gigantic...but only cause you asked), tell me how my voice sounded exactly like Kim Deal, how my bass playing was rock solid, or how, in general, we totally rocked. Given that I feel like the entire first set was pretty shakey...I take all of this with a grain of salt. That said, I really should give myself a break and enjoy the compliments. No one is paying these strangers to be nice to me.

Mickey's let us play until about 2:15am on the bar clock.

We took home $220 (which means we brought in $330 including The Shabelles share). The whole reason we played this gig was to raise money to pay for special effects for the Flaming Lips show. The goal was to bring in $200...so yay. I think this brings the bank up to about $600...which we will burn through quickly in a blaze of special effects glory.

Setlist

Set 1:
Crackity Jones
Isla
Broken Face
Sad Punk
#13
Cactus
I Bleed
Ed
La La Love
Caribou
Bone Machine
Break My Body
Dead
Monkey
Allison
Is She Weird
Into the White
Here Comes Your Man
Vamos

Set 2:
Debaser
Holiday
Mr Grieves
Something Against You
Trompe
I'm Amazed
Brick is Red
Alec Eiffel
Planet of Sound
Wave
River
Hey
Manta Ray
Gigantic
Gouge Away
Nimrod
Where Is My Mind?
Tame

Photographic evidence: I am reminded from the photos that it was, despite being September, quite hot. We were sweaty.

Paco is awesome.


I'm a head banger.




Seriously the man is gonna pop a vein someday.


We both yell a fair amount. Also...I am a lot closer to the front door than it seems here. I have to move the neck of my bass every time someone comes in the front door.