TD, High Noon, 11/9/2011

We played a Rock Against Walker benefit with The Type, Barristacide, and some dude with a guitar. It was sparsely attended. I was stone cold sober.

I struggled. Things that used to be easy feel hard now. Stuff that used to come instictually are hard to pull off at all. I don't know if it is lack of practice, the fact that I only play these songs once a week, sobriety, or what. I feel out of sorts and uncoordinated. It's been like this about since about a week before the Halloween gig. I've been thinking it's been nerves, but it happened at rehearsal lately a few times too.

I suppose it went alright as far as the audience could tell. It wasn't an unmitigated disaster or anything on my end. Just not smooth. Not polished. Not good. I felt like I didn't match up to the other drummers. The stage sound was weird too...the guitars were fuzzy. Twan agreed it was hard to hear. I guess that I should have asked to adjust my monitor. I don't know. J was all over the place on starting tempos too...slow songs played fast...fast songs played slow. I struggled to adjust the tempos and was kinda inconsistent.

We play the exact same set tonight on the radio. It'll be the third time I've played it this week. I'm dreading it. I don't feel like it is gonna get better. I'm sure that I just need to go back to the woodshed. But damn.

Sidenote from the cool/weird files:
The dude with the guitar who opened played Where Is My Mind and then after his set and after spotting me and RS in the crowd yells "Crackity Jones!" in a woo-hoo kind of way at us. "We're famous" I say to RS who says back "Yes, to roughly 100 people" to which I reply "just like the real Pixies back in the day". It was kinda cool. I kind of forget about all this until about 30 minutes later the guy comes up to me. He's got that overly enthusiastic look. He's moony-eyes. He's over the moon. He's got that "I can't believe I'm actually talking to you, you're my hero" look. he starts babbling about Crackity Jones. Now it was weird.

And then there was a kind of "oh I thought maybe Crackity Jones was playing cause I saw the band here (even though only two of us were there, which makes me wonder if he would even recognize Paco and Pico) and I was all excited but I guess you guys have another band and I'm excited to hear that too." But he wasn't really. In the span of 10 minutes I had the full experience of what it is like to be Kim Deal and have someone be so excited to meet you...and how strange that is (especially since I'm not even actually her)...followed by the full Joey/David experience that no one would recognize you on the street because you aren't one of the more visible members of the band...followed by the full Frank Black experience of "I do lots of music stuff but all these fuckers care about is the Pixies". Truly, truly surreal. That people (including me) react to celebrities (who actually are just other human beings) in this way is so strange and interesting. That people then further carry over those feelings and reactions to proxy celebrities is truly fascinating. I mean this guy was playing at the same gig as me. He did a Pixies cover...that's all that Crackity Jones does. He and I aren't any different. SO WEIRD.

Setlist:
Sent It
Going Down Drain
At the Door
Gotta Tell U
It's Alright
Jack
One is for Man
HSUL
Better N Better
Bodies R Burnin
Gun in Your Grave