Blue Label @ Mantitoba's
OK, today is the least sick I've felt in days, I'm not sure why because I got too drunk/dark last night, yet couldn't manage to sleep. I feel somewhat rested although I woke at least 5 times and still feel pretty groggy now. I am only barely prepared to return to work tomorrow. I have some rehearsal space booked this afternoon to practice drums, which is exciting. Which means I have 3 hours to sit around being lazy and maybe playing some video games and thinking about what I'm going to bring to work with me tomorrow.
I totally forgot to bring my camera to the gig last night.
It went like this:
I showed up to Mantitoba's around 6:30 and met the bartender and dropped my amp off. People were so friendly there! There was this amazing atmosphere of comraderie and friendliness between everyone, the punks in the bands (we played with Black Vein, a hardcore-ish band, and JewDriver, which is a parody of the neo-nazi racist music of Screwdriver), the bartender, whose name was Joe (he had this adorable John Waters moustache, he was really nice and totally hooked me up with free PBRs). I walked outside and met up with Ben and his brother Dan, and we walked down Ave. B to the Croxely Alehouse to get 10 cent wings. There, we met up with Ben's friends in Black Vein and we had wings with them. It was this perfect summer night in the East Village, really pleasant. Again, I was floored by how not only nice, but professional everyone was. We were all sharing equipment. Ben brought his Marshall and I my bass amp, the the guys in Black Vein brought another guitar amp and the drumset. Everyone was cool with sharing and there was just a lot of friendliness and trust and not too much uptightness about the gear.
Soon, we headed back to Mantitoba's, admired the "Live Music!!! Appearing Tonight: 8:30 Blue Label" sign in the window, and waited to set up while drinking some PBRs. Eventually the drummer showed up with the kit, which needed to go up first. It was incredibly cramped, we were so close, it was really kind of cool, actually. I helped the Black Vein drummer set up the kit, and it ended up being perfect for me to use. I didn't even have to adjust the stool. It was this oldish looking brown wooden Ludwig kit, just a 4 piece. The floor tom was huge, the size of a jazz kick, pretty much. It sounded cool. He only had a hi-hat, one ride, one crash. So it was just like being at the rehearsal studio practicing in a lot of ways, at the least the one Jessie, Ben, and I go to.
We were set up by 8:15 and went on right at 8:30. I think the set was:
Blue Label
Lobster
The Dwarf
Fuck Up
Nasty
Lucifer Sam
Winged Victory
Smoke n Choke
Panic Attack
(Blue Label reprise!)
The small bar was packed, even for our set. I didn't know anyone there. The few friends of mine that came were too late to see us play, but that's cool. I think there were a lot of friends of Jessie's and Ben's. It's such a small place. There was a lot of positive energy. I think the show went really well, and there were some nice segues. A few of the songs in the front end of the set were too fast, The Dwarf totally cooked but it was still cool. Some of the songs later on were on the verge of being too slow but they still grooved, and I made this decision when I felt like I had kicked off a song slightly undertempo, to just stick it out and make it sound deliberate and groovin' instead of speeding up noticeably and hoping everyone hangs on. There were a couple of errors, but not bad. I felt pretty good about my own performance. I had a great time on that kid's drumset, the floor tom was monsterous, and his ride was also HUGE and sounded really good despite a small crack in it. Ben and Jessie were both surprised about how well they could hear their vocals compared to the rehearsal studio! There was a funny moment when the bass drum started scooting away from me. I noticed it at the beginning of Nasty, and as that song progressed it got harder and harder to play! My foot was totally extended and the drum had managed to go at a funny angle so I was having to play the kick at this bizarre angle with the tip of my toe, hahahaha. I managed to stay on top of that for the rest of the set. Ben had a beautiful psychedelic solo in Lucifer Sam, he has this great vintage tremelo pedal as well as a delay he uses to great atmospheric effect in this band even amid all the expected crunchy power chords and distorted riffs. The Lucifer Sam thing was just great. There is a longish soloish section near the end where Jessie and I just kind of groove out on really simple shit, heavy and loud but kind of lower midtempo, dirty. Ben just created these undulating bubbles of sound, with little bits of melody peeking out of all this thick craziness. It was really effective and cool.
We were all exhilarated by the end of the set, feeling good not only about the gig being technically pretty good for a first show, but that in the context of an audience and their energy, our songs seemed even cooler. We're so excited to write more stuff. We toasted shots of Johnny Black and PBRs and eventually I was really drunk and took the subway home, where I overindulged in drunken dark moodiness and finally tried to sleep with a headache. But I seem to have woke snapped out of it.
Ha, at one point in the show, someone in the audience (a guy) shouted, "girls rock!" which was funny, because I don't think either Jessie or I think of Blue Label as being a girl band, there's never much of a gender thing, only music. But she was psyched. She said into the microphone, "yes. we do."
The only other feedback I got was from the Black Vein guys, Ben's friends, who all thought it was really cool. As I was thanking the drummer for using his kit, he was laughing and said, "Hahahahaha, that was really cool. I enjoyed that a lot. Hahahahaha."
Some guy came up to me a remarked that I looked "really comfortable doing what you were doing", in reference to the drums. That's weird because I felt like I was hanging on for dear life but I suppose if I managed to project some kind of confidence and energy that's a good thing. Jessie's friend Rachel said I seemed like I was releasing a lot of rage.
Hahaha, my favorite lyrical moments from last night - Jessie actually wrote a hook-ish chorous to the Fuck Up song. It's funny:
I'm fucking up today
Just like yesterday
I'm fucking up right now
I'm fucking up this song
Hahahaha.
Argh, must get off my ass and get some shit together. My room is a mess, littered with kleenex and 24 oz. corona bottles and small pieces of luggage.
I touched a dark place last night, I hope it will fuel me to play well tonight.