Saturday, August 9, 2008

what is going on?

i think we've entered a parallel universe now. seriously.
the skinny on the two shows we just played is basically that the 'two with water' didn't really work so well because of a lack of volume- it was held at the catalyst and the p.a. didn't have a lot of power, so we had to be kind of quiet. we were also a bit shaky since we haven't played a show since may. we opened with 'down to sleep' too and it was too quiet and stefanie said that we lost a lot of people because it's so long and doesn't really change much, which is true. we played 'fade to white' for the first time and it was very very shaky. even songs that are normally easy for us were a bit strange. since we were so bumbly and people seemed so bored we closed with 'sloba' and that actually worked really well. people seemed to like that one- so therefore it was the right way to end it. weird fact- the guy who set up the bands told me we were the most notable band playing at that thing. us? notable? i was truly baffled. flattered to be honest, but 100% baffled.
the show at the record bar was a very different story- we started out really strong and threw in 'petals in a rainstorm'- which went very well and then we decided to try 'fade to white' again since we unexpectedly had to play longer than we expected and it went much better this time. i felt like we kind of petered out at the end, but everyone i talked to didn't seem to agree with me- which is a good thing in this case. i was able to get enough volume to get the sounds i wanted- which was very nice for a change. kudos to the sound guy at the record bar- he is the tops! i think we were ready to play in about five minutes and it sounded really good- he seemed to know what we were after without us having to even hint at it. i could hear my vocals really well- so it was really easy to sing. the 'angels...' loop was blaring in the monitors, which threw me off a bit, but i still think that we did a good job with that song. people always like that one. i broke a string onstage for the first time in a really long time. it was a string i usually only strum open for texture and i discovered the value inherent in the open strings that i use for texture during 'sloba.' i'm sure no one else noticed, but i would've been a bit happier if the texture had really been there, but whatever...
ghosty were really awesome- the lead singer/guitarist guy was so nice too. i was a bit bummed when we got home because i had seem them listed on a bill here in chicago and i thought that it was going to be after we played kansas city, but unfortunately it already happened. bummer in the summer. kudos to them!
as if that weren't enough the staff at the record bar were all very nice, gave us guestlist spots, free pizza and other food and six free drinks. at the end of the night we got a very decent cut of the door too- enough to pay for the two day rental fee for the igo car (though not the mileage- that's going to hurt like hell).
on that note i doubt that we're going to do any more of these one-off things unless they are much closer- the mileage is a killer in that department. it wasn't too terrible after the ft. wayne show, but for a 1000 mile roundtrip it's just not worth it. fun fact- if we still had our van it would have cost more than the rental fee and the mileage charges. i don't think we could've done this trip in the van for under $500. seriously. the only reason we were able to do the new york trip in it was because gas was at a low- as in you could still find gas for around $2 a gallon. we lucked out.
we sold a few cds too- which is always good.
frightening news reached me today as well about the empty bottle show- they have us down as the headliners. why the fuck are we the headliners? that doesn't make any fucking sense at all. i feel like everyone might be taking us a bit too seriously at this point and it is a bit of a point of worry for me. i guess i shouldn't get too upset about it, but still i am very worried now about how in the world we are going to get anyone out to that show, let alone enough people to justify us headlining the damn thing! i was considering emailing pete and being like 'are you sure it's a good idea to have us headline? shouldn't you try and get someone who can pull in a significant draw.' even with the promotion we're doing i am still very skeptical that we can draw enough people to justify something like that and it would really suck to ruin our chances of ever playing at the empty bottle again.





































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