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Saturday, 24 February 2007
Battle of the Bands week 4 WINNAH
Saturday, 24 February 2007 23:51You know, I'm still exhausted from the whole thing, and it's almost a full 24 hours later.
Load time was 7, and we arranged to load around 7:15. The show was not scheduled to begin until 9. It did not start until 10. The cafe did not serve food but was happy to serve beer and liquor. Lucky for us there were plenty of places to eat nearby. Too bad I didn't take advantage of any of them.
( Read more... )
I dressed up for this gig. My hair was a fresh SE Blood Red, my makeup took half an hour to apply, and I was wearing a red retro June Cleaver faux-wrap dress I found at Lame Giant. I styled my hair in the only way it would go, which looked very 1940's. Everyone else wore black. Would we have made the same impact without the costume? I'm not sure. You'd have to ask someone who was there.
We opened with Cloudkicker and blew everyone away. I got all hardcore rockstar with the mic stand and milked every bit of rockin' out of the crowd. More applause from the crowd than I expected. Through the lights I noticed that we were starting to attract people into the cafe from the street. We nailed endings that we'd been struggling with in rehearsals. What banter we did end up doing between songs was entertaining and nobody broke a string.
The set went well. Later Laurel told us that the monitor behind her was pretty much dead. She didn't hear much of what the rest of us were doing at all, and relied almost completely on Ethan's signals and residual noise for sound cues. That, my friends, is skill. We are T-I-G-H-T tight.
I was exhausted at the end. So was everyone who came specifically to see us. They all left right after telling us "good show" and paying their tabs. By this time it was already almost 1:30 a.m. and last call so I don't blame them one bit. While we were tearing down we got all kinds of great reviews from the staff and audience. Did I mention it was a great show? It was a great show.
I learned from one of the audience members that came to shake my hand that cover songs are an automatic 6 point deduction in scoring for this competition. This was good to know. We did one cover song at the end and our song "Everything" borrows a verse from The Vapors' "Turning Japanese." I wonder if that counted as two covers or one and a half. This information explains why UCA didn't win their battle. Half their set were covers! The Freetown played two covers that I recognized. This week I will call BotB's organizers and get a copy of the rules.
Needless to say, we won the battle. Before he announced the winner the EmCee asked the crowd for applause to rate each band. Not that it mattered, but applause was clearly in our favor without any Freetown supporters there. Immediately after that he announced us as the winners! Yayayayayayayyyyyy!
I thanked Glenn the sound guy profusely for putting up with me and my diva-like sound demands (PSM, mic stand, microphone) and he was a sweetheart about it. This is a man who knows his craft. I also thanked the label's co-founders and chatted a little bit about what to expect next. Overall we came across as a Rockabilly band, a description I didn't think fit all our songs. Oh well. If we're Rockabilly or Pop, that's just a reflection of all of us.
There was video footage taken of us before the set (an interview!) and during the set. I have no idea when we'll see any of it, but the cameraman thought we were hilarious. It's good to make friends with the cameraman. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos of the night. I am KICKING THE SHIT OUT OF MYSELF FOR THIS. Except for Ed's girlfriend Melody's camera we have no personal footage of this show. Hopefully her photos will be framed well enough I can edit them into shape.
Ed & Ethan had to be up early on Saturday, so Laurel and I went to Denny's for food. I didn't get to bed until about 4. I did a little shopping today when I should have been napping. Tomorrow I shall spa. Life is good.
Load time was 7, and we arranged to load around 7:15. The show was not scheduled to begin until 9. It did not start until 10. The cafe did not serve food but was happy to serve beer and liquor. Lucky for us there were plenty of places to eat nearby. Too bad I didn't take advantage of any of them.
( Read more... )
I dressed up for this gig. My hair was a fresh SE Blood Red, my makeup took half an hour to apply, and I was wearing a red retro June Cleaver faux-wrap dress I found at Lame Giant. I styled my hair in the only way it would go, which looked very 1940's. Everyone else wore black. Would we have made the same impact without the costume? I'm not sure. You'd have to ask someone who was there.
We opened with Cloudkicker and blew everyone away. I got all hardcore rockstar with the mic stand and milked every bit of rockin' out of the crowd. More applause from the crowd than I expected. Through the lights I noticed that we were starting to attract people into the cafe from the street. We nailed endings that we'd been struggling with in rehearsals. What banter we did end up doing between songs was entertaining and nobody broke a string.
The set went well. Later Laurel told us that the monitor behind her was pretty much dead. She didn't hear much of what the rest of us were doing at all, and relied almost completely on Ethan's signals and residual noise for sound cues. That, my friends, is skill. We are T-I-G-H-T tight.
I was exhausted at the end. So was everyone who came specifically to see us. They all left right after telling us "good show" and paying their tabs. By this time it was already almost 1:30 a.m. and last call so I don't blame them one bit. While we were tearing down we got all kinds of great reviews from the staff and audience. Did I mention it was a great show? It was a great show.
I learned from one of the audience members that came to shake my hand that cover songs are an automatic 6 point deduction in scoring for this competition. This was good to know. We did one cover song at the end and our song "Everything" borrows a verse from The Vapors' "Turning Japanese." I wonder if that counted as two covers or one and a half. This information explains why UCA didn't win their battle. Half their set were covers! The Freetown played two covers that I recognized. This week I will call BotB's organizers and get a copy of the rules.
Needless to say, we won the battle. Before he announced the winner the EmCee asked the crowd for applause to rate each band. Not that it mattered, but applause was clearly in our favor without any Freetown supporters there. Immediately after that he announced us as the winners! Yayayayayayayyyyyy!
I thanked Glenn the sound guy profusely for putting up with me and my diva-like sound demands (PSM, mic stand, microphone) and he was a sweetheart about it. This is a man who knows his craft. I also thanked the label's co-founders and chatted a little bit about what to expect next. Overall we came across as a Rockabilly band, a description I didn't think fit all our songs. Oh well. If we're Rockabilly or Pop, that's just a reflection of all of us.
There was video footage taken of us before the set (an interview!) and during the set. I have no idea when we'll see any of it, but the cameraman thought we were hilarious. It's good to make friends with the cameraman. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos of the night. I am KICKING THE SHIT OUT OF MYSELF FOR THIS. Except for Ed's girlfriend Melody's camera we have no personal footage of this show. Hopefully her photos will be framed well enough I can edit them into shape.
Ed & Ethan had to be up early on Saturday, so Laurel and I went to Denny's for food. I didn't get to bed until about 4. I did a little shopping today when I should have been napping. Tomorrow I shall spa. Life is good.