SSW, 1/19/2012, Mr. Roberts

Played another Distortion Thursday at Mr. Roberts with Futebol and Brian Maiden. The Treejasons were supposed to also make their debut, but the show started late, I'd wager that Brian Maiden ran long...and well suddenly we found ourselves at 1:30am playing our last song and the bartender shutting down the show. Whoops. Though I don't feel like the show going short was our fault. Usually we are the ones who get screwed in such a situation, so it was nice at least that it wasn't the case this time.

Futebol I THINK is a novelty act. It really isn't clear. I think you'd either love them or hate them. It was like watching two Nick Murphys perform in the middle of their worst drunk EVER. That's all I can think to compare it to. Brian Maiden was fucking great. I don't know Iron Maiden, but it seemed like they nailed it. Very well performed and the audience loved them.

It was a good crowd. I'd encouraged JG to book bands that we'd never played with...and maybe some newish bands. For your first gig every friend you have comes out to watch. It's a great way to build an audience...by catching folks while they buy their buddies a beer after their first gig. It's a theory I'm operating under at the moment anyway...and it did seem to pan out last night, though I don't know for sure who the people were there for.

We didn't take the stage until well after midnight. I was awake, but was coughing alot. Probably a combo of the zero degree air outside and the poorly filtered heated air inside. Seems to have resolved this morning. I managed to get my vocals out well between coughing fits. My playing was really good for the first several songs, but I got fatigued quickly...especially my right foot. Also, as always, the stage at Mr. Roberts is 1,000 degrees. I really felt sick by the end of the show...a little like puking. By the Suspect Device I wasn't really able to get my bass doubles out very well and switched to "two beats" (bass on 1 and 3)...which is ironically what we are studying in my Berklee class this week. I also thought about Berklee because my practice setup since Blondie is different than my show setup...so I have to reorchestrate on the fly. I think that's actually good for my brain, though it kind of defeats the purpose of learning parts a certain way.

I punked out on the 2nd drum "solo" on Everybody's Happy. Just played it straight. Unless you really know the song you'd never notice and it keeps the beat better. I'd like to get back to playing it the right way (it's simple and is just a matter of independence issues), but I also kind of let it go. I'm working on doing that more often.

Had to loan out some mics and cables as per usual, but since we were there to the end of the show it didn't really matter.

I didn't drink at all (and have only drank on two nights since early November in general) and had a large late lunch of Chinese food. Brought two of my own (disposable) water bottles up on stage (stashed them in my cymbal bag)...I think that is a good practice for the future, screw trying to get water from the bartender. Forgot to bring cough drops and that was a mistake. Thought I had them in my bag but didn't. I felt pretty well rested and alert before the show started.

Setlist:
Everybody's Happy Nowadays (R)
Hate & War (D)
I Hate Rich (J)
Mr Suit (R)
Helicopter (D)
Fable (J)
I Am a Cliché (D)
New Rose ®
You Drive Me Ape (J)
Teenaged Kicks (D)
One Track Mind ®
Too Drunk (J)
Suspect Device ®
Two Pints ®
That’s How I Escaped (J)
Warsaw (D)
We Are the Ones (R)
Fucked Up (J)