SVFD, at LRC, 4/21/2013

Gig #2 of the crazy weekend.

SVFD blew the faces off the gals at Ladies Rock Camp. We sounded really, really good. I brain farted in "Wallet" and "Sergio" and fucked them up a little bit, but otherwise played really well and I'm sure no one noticed. Considering I was sick and exhausted I was pretty happy with how I did. It was nice to have plenty of room and a pretty good PA finally. People danced and cheered. Gig offers streamed in after we finished. All the musicians that I respect who teach at camp told me we were really good.

Plans to record our demo are in the works for early May.

Setlist to follow.

CJ, 4/20/2013 Busking for Books

This weekend was ridiculous. I mean truly.  I was head roadie for LRC, which meant loading in and out and back and forth ad nas for 30 first time rockers. Since that just wasn't hard enough...I played two shows. And I had a very serious cold.

Saturday 11a-1p CJ played our first ever acoustic show on State Street for the Literacy Network's Busking for Books event. We brought down $100 in tips plus the $75 sponsorship...all to help folks read. I was worried about this show...about playing with a pick....about playing loud enough...about singing loud enough and/or my voice giving out. All my concerns were for naught. My only probably is that all the roadie stuff had aggravated my carpel tunnel and so my right hand kept falling asleep. I kept thinking..."Am I still holding the pick?" ..."Am I still playing?" Today my hands are still pretty numb...though oddly at gig #2 my hands were fine.

I can't provide the setlist because we played in random order (though I'll try to dig the song list we prepared up). Umass, Tame, Bone Machine, fast Wave and Broken Face were all requested. On that list the only ones we'd practiced were Umass and Bone Machine...but the others came off ok. It is kind of funny to try to breath in a sexy way with no mic though (Tame). RS and I sounded like we were having elderly hot COPD/asmatic sex in public.

Some people stopped and listened. RS had to whisper "mother-fucker" because a small child happened by at an inopertune moment. "La La Love You" was fun on the street...to yell "I love you" to strangers walking by and whistle at them.  A handful of our friends/fans came just to see us. A few Pixies fans who didn't know about us stopped by too and were pretty fricking happy.

Overall it was fun and went well. And I kinda think our band just rocks.

SSW, The Wisco, 4/13/2013

Played with ye olde Madison band El Donk.

The lights were weird...one blazing white light pointed at the audience or near total darkness were the choices. We played great. Really it is shocking how well we are playing with nearly no rehearsals. It is like we are fucking professionals or something. An assortment of our usual suspects stopped by. The WORT crowd sure are good fans to have.  Even Educational Davis graced us with his presence. I noticed him there during "Helicopter" and it made me try harder.

I drank. All afternoon. It was unfortunate. It was not a factor in my performance as I'd sobered up by then but did give me a hell of a headache during the gig (thought that could have also been the lights). And well, it was, once again, just dumb. I think I am actually making progress even though sometimes it doesn't seem that way.

We did "I've Been So Mad Lately" and turned the reverb up on the PA so there was this ridiculous delay that had the effect of adding a couple of "fucks" for each one I said. It was ridiculous. Also, I think Justin's mic cable is on its way out (memo to self).

Had a nice moment with my bass player when JG counted off a song on the off-beats instead of on the beats like he's supposed to. We both noticed. We looked at each other. We made it work. We rock.

I sure do like using my shitty kit for gigs. So light. So easy to carry. And I don't worry about it getting banged around or whatever. I even let people help me carry it. The Sonor is great...but so heavy and so nice looking and...well I just prefer gigging the shitty black Pulse. Really does it matter?  If TD is gonna play at a nice place with a PA and stage and all that...I'll go the extra mile and bring the nice one. But for your average shitty bar gig...give me care-free ease.

Setlist to come.

SVFD, 4/6/2013, Badger Bowl

We played a Big Lebowski themed Mad Rollin' Dolls after party at Badger Bowl with The Type and Damidol.

There was (surprise, surprise) a misunderstanding about the PA which resolved in Damidol bringing theirs. They set up a bunch of mics for us (and I mean A BUNCH) but it is unclear if they turned them on and certainly they didn't balance the levels. Soundcheck ran kind of like a theatrical performance of what someone who has never seen or done a sound check might put on (sort of like the way that I wrote about alcohol treatment/recovery in my novel back many years ago when I had no idea what such things actually involved). I'm not faulting the sound "crew" because they were trying to help and without them we'd have been SOL completely. But it reminds me that becoming more proficient at running live sound is a good priority to have. I'd like to be able to make more helpful suggestions rather than just stand around mildly irritated.

Anyway we played and did pretty well. A small flub here or there for all involved but overall it sounded like we'd been playing together much longer than we have...and certainly like we've had more than the, what is it now, (perhaps ten?) rehearsals that we've actually had.  I had my required brain farts, particularly on Sergio, but I'm getting better at covering them by playing the root notes of the chord when I lose my brain function to play whatever ridiculous line I'm supposed to be playing. I'm not sure how I'm managing that, but somewhere under all this effort maybe I'm actually developing subconscious instinct. I know...I'm as shocked as anyone.

I consumed no alcohol on the night of the show nor in the preceeding 19 days. Proper food and sleep was had. I was a little tired from yard work, but less so than I'd expected. I used the Ampeg amp and it performed well...not rattling and not cutting out. I tested it by running the set at 70% of full volume earlier in the day. At the show I ran at about 33% of full volume.

Setlist was the same as at Mickey's.

Setlist:

Freedom
Came Out of a Lady
Metro
Sergio
Hope I Never Lose My Wallet
Mr Smiley
Dandelions
Rascal King
Superman
Rudy
Thigh High Nylons
Lost Again
Red Rubber Ball