Date: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Venue: Club Spontaneous, Harker Heights, TX
Bands: A.I.J., Hexlust, The Shfux, Sober Daze, The El Paso Heist
Setlist:
-Intro
-Troops
-Toxic
-ED
-Tombs
-Baphomet
-HH
-Sodomy
PRE-SHOW
The evening started off pretty well, just hanging out at my house with Keith, his friends Lacey and Kristen, JT, and Zach, chatting and watching videos. Very relaxed and relatively stress-free. I got my drums and stuff packed up at a reasonable time, so by the time Tony, Jade, Glen, and Ralph showed up, there was still time to B.S. before it was time to head out.
Ever met somebody and you could just tell right off the bat you're not gonna like them? That was my reaction to the door crew at Club Spontaneous. I said absolutely nothing getting carded and stamped and didn't even offer a smile as I loaded our stuff in. Speaking of which, I think I had the most drum stuff out of any band there, something which at the time was funny but would later prove to be a lumpy pain in the tits.
Now, my first impression of the club wasn't as immediate, but it did happen pretty damn quickly, as in my first ten steps inside: that it was HOT. And not like "Yo, dawg, dis club is HAWT, it's off tha cheesy!" I mean like "Am I back in Houston? I just stepped into this atmosphere and already my shirt's sticking to my back, my balls are sticking to my thighs, and I wouldn't be surprised to get attacked by mosquitoes at any moment!" Climate aside, the club wasn't that bad, aesthetically speaking. It was definitely roomier than Area 51, the bar was long enough to where I wouldn't be elbow-to-elbow with assholes just so I can get a Dr Pepper, and the center-catwalk-platform-thingy was a nice touch that proved handy for my dad in taping our performance. Plus, depending on which direction you were facing and how much gear you had, the rectangular stage was quite roomy.
The only thing that could have been improved on is space for gear. We piled (in some cases literally) our shit behind the stage with everyone else's stuff in this cramped little back hallway. Of course, it beats being off to the side of the dance floor where it can get moshed on, so I'm definitely not complaining. Much.
Well, by now it comes as no surprise to me that we must now hurry up and wait; now that all our crap's unloaded it's time to do nothing until it's time for us to do something. To pass the time I figured I'd get some fuel to burn so I follow JT and Zach next door to this really awesome pizza place. We spent the next I-dunno-how-long munching really good pizza and swapping manly sex stories. And by that I mean I listened to Zach tell really funny sex stories and wished I had something to contribute.
A.I.J.
After pizza, I greeted my parents, went back in the club, and chit-chatted with Danielle, who was kind enough to show up. Any time not spent yakking I spent warmed up on bar stools until it was time for A.I.J. to go on. They plugged in and took off… and already we're running into a problem. Not with the band, but the audience. Turns out the good people at Club Spontaneous, putting about as much research into the bands on the bill as a fly puts into a pile of dogshit, decided to not allow moshing. Sure as the day is long, a pit starts up in the first twenty seconds, and here comes Bubba McCornfed, marching into the pit to break things up. The second time that happened, with a different bouncer, I think the kids were threatened with being thrown out.
Anywho! A.I.J. put on an awesome show; I wasn't too familiar with the songs at that point so there wasn't a lot I was doing as far as singing along, but one thing I'm able to get into no matter what though is the endless energetic vibe Kwame puts off.
Of course, it's not even like I was there for a lot of it; I mentioned earlier how my having the most drum stuff there would prove to be a pain, and to lessen it as much as possible I took the liberty of going over and setting up my cymbal and tom stands about halfway through A.I.J.'s set. No sooner had I had my last stand set up than they got off and it was time for us to go on.
HEXLUST
Setting up my kit was nerve-wracking; even though I had my stands set up I was still pretty much working by myself, since my helpful roadies from last time weren't able to show up this time. The last thing I wanted to be was the dick whose huge amount of stuff was going to eat up valuable playing time, so I was trying to work at double the pace but ended up just having a lot of brain farts. Looking back I shouldn't have worried so much; after I had my kit comfortably configured I had some leftover time to warm up while my band mates continued checking their guitar sounds.
The question was raised about miking my drums. The obvious answer was yes, but out of a combination of irritability, restlessness, and the desire to waste no more time fucking around with cables and stuff, we opted not to and went right to business with the hopes they'd hear me anyway.
The intro went off like a dream. This was the first time playing it, live or in practice, where I didn't screw something up rhythm-wise. Yay me! "Troops" was a blast as well, near-impeccably played, although already there was something up. JT was having guitar trouble, and ended up switching guitars with the very benevolent Walter towards the end of the song.
"Toxic" was utterly fantastic, watching the video I got an adrenaline rush when we all came into that main riff and the pit went KER-SMACKY! My only gripe had to do with my un-miked drums, resulting in us getting off-time during the pre-chorus. Extra praise goes to JT, who totally FLEW on a guitar that wasn't even his during his solo.
"Evil Dead," once again, was the song where things started to go to poop time-keeping-wise. We'd lose it during the initial chorus run, re-gain it during the verse, and it'd be right back to poop for the chorus. Not the way I envisioned our last time regularly playing it*, but we made do. This time the extra credit is awarded to Tony, for his blistering solo on this song.
Things went smooth for the most part in "Tombs," although I knew then and still know now what our lone problem was: Me. I came in on a massive adrenaline rush, going way too fast and for some reason could do nothing but stay that way through the whole song (Even the slow part at the end!). Even when we were blessed enough to be on time there was still this very "rushed" feeling to it. In the future I'll have to try and slow myself down just a wee bit so the song can breathe a little more. Another thing I'm going to do in all future shows is end the song with a stinger like I did in our show a week prior; the whole fade-out thing is cool on a recording, but live it's kind of a downer.
"Baphomet Dawn" was a trouble spot for us. Not from a technical standpoint, we nailed every riff and fill, but just for the fact that it's a mid-tempo "chugger" in the midst of this epitomized sugar high. Sometimes it's good to have a break in the speed to give everyone time to build their energy back up, but in this case we had too much of that good thing. We all came down in energy as a result, both audience and band, and after that we never fully recovered.
By the time we got around to "Hellhammer" we were in a pickle. The decline in energy from "Baphomet" combined with frustration at JT's continuing guitar problems** resulted in a debilitating onset of fatigue. Plus, in this song, my hi-hat came undone. A very minor problem, I mean the damn cymbals still worked, but just the fact that I wouldn't have any more control over how swishy my hats sounded made me a sad panda. Suddenly it felt like a chore to be playing these songs, which after this we still had one more to plow through.
I somehow made it through "HH" nailing every fill and roll, but after that I was finished. Going into "Sodomy" my energy and finesse were shot to hell and I turned into the Ringo Starr of thrash metal; I wasn't going to be throwing in any fills I didn't absolutely have to. Straight time-keeping the whole way through, which in a way helped me conserve enough energy to help us end the song, and the set, with a high-speed bang and a decent enough stinger.
POST-PERFORMANCE
Of course, the fact that we were finished playing didn't mean I was out of the pickle park. Now I faced the dilemma of breaking down my gear. The polite thing to do would be to take my stands and bass drum off stage and break it down there so as not to be in anybody's way. The cruel irony was that, considering the amount of room there was offstage, I would just be in somebody's way anyway. So I did the first thing that made sense: Break down my stuff on stage really fucking quickly and set it off to the side. Luckily I had my dad to help start loading things into my car, which I eventually took over, standing out by my car and loading things in as they were brought to me.
Tony opted to leave early, since he still had to drop Glen and Jade off at their respective residences. I was placed in charge of loading the P.A. in somebody's car (it was brought in to be used as a monitor system but ended up just sitting there on stage doing nothing) and telling Walter to hold on to our money until a later date since we would all be leaving before the (strictly proverbial) curtain went down on the last band. There was no rush; neither of these could be accomplished until Walter was finished performing.
THE SHFUX
I don't know if they did it to oppose our overly-long octathalon of a set or because they wanted to be finished before midnight, but the Shfux came flying in and went flying out with a very shortened set. I think it was like five songs max, but who the hell cared? As long as it included my favorite song, the one that's a tribute to black metal, I was a happy camper.
After their reduced display of awesomeness, I delivered my message to Walter, packed up the P.A., and went outside to bear witness to a very interesting spectacle.
THE STANDOFF
Sober Daze were playing onstage, which was a fine mess for their under-eighteen fan base, who were all catching an involuntary breath of fresh air. It seems that in addition to their no-moshing rule, which was lifted just after A.I.J. provided that nobody got slammed into anything, the folks at Club Spontaneous also neglected to mention their adherence to the whole "patrons-under-eighteen-go-home-at-midnight" policy (God I love hyphens) What they ended up with was a group of mildly annoyed young punkers standing in the parking lot demanding some form of justice, be it admittance or a refund.
Well, some words were spoken, some arguments were had with their ooh-tough-guy management, and basically two plus two ended up equaling four cop cars showing up. Now, my mom works for the KPD, but these were Heights cops. If I got into any kind of stew, there would be no way for my mom to take advantage of the bubba system to get me off easy. Therefore, it was time to exit, and exit we did, leaving Club Spontaneous, and one wacky evening, behind us.
AFTERTHOUGHT
I'm very torn in how to consider this outing; on one hand, with the audience participation level and our on-stage energy level, this was probably our best show ever. On the other hand, with the on-stage tension arising from technical difficulties in addition to my near-inaudible drums, this was also one of the worst. It's not bad enough to beat our second journey to Denim and Diamonds, but it's down there alright.
Overall I'll chalk this one up as a success. The commentary I've received says that sure there were some problems with the equipment, but dammit we put on a good show. And when it comes to live playing, that's what really matters when ya get right down to it.
For this, our fifth foray into the world of live music, I would of course like to thank every band on the roster that evening. Sorry we didn't get to see Sober Daze or El Paso Heist, hopefully next time dudes!
Big fat loving thanks also goes… to our audience at this show! The past four shows of our existence were spent mostly playing to a crowd of Stationary Stanleys. Very generous with the cheers and applause, but not quite up to the task of doing much more than looking. Not that I want a pit at every show, but some head-banging would be nice, maybe even a little fist-pumping. There were notable exceptions in the past; there was an awesome pit going on during "Troops" at our first show, and James, out of the lineup but far from out of the fan club, provided a healthy dose of head-banging at our April 19th show. But this show tops them all! Looking at the footage of the performance I see everything, from moshing to head-banging to fist-pumping to stage-jumping to yes, even piggy-backing! Thank you all very much, we may have been playing the instruments but you guys were the ones who really made the show happen! So once again, thank you.
Special thanks also goes to my dad, for his excellent videocamera-weilding skills; Zack and Ralph, for their support in the audience and their help as our impromptu road crew; Glen, for his support and spiritual advisory…ness; Jade, still making it to damn near every show, you either have a lot of support in your system or nothing better to do with your Saturday nights, ha-ha; Oh, and that cool pizza place next door to Club Spontaneous! And last but definitely not least Walter; he put this show together, took all the flack when things went less-than-desirably, and helped JT out when he needed it onstage.
*We're deleting it from the permanent roster in favor of a different cover or two, but it shall be back in future shows if the audience has a hankerin' for "one more song"
**He ended up switching everything with Walter, chord, guitar, amp, everything. To say we didn't really blame him would be a lie; I know at the time both Tony and I wanted to reach over and strangle him, but that was a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing. Looking back and looking at the footage, I give JT a hella buncha kudos for keeping a smile on his face and continuing to stomp and head-bang in the face of his technical difficulties.
