:: Music As Social Agitation Records::

:: Friday, January 21, 2005 ::

Friday Jan 21st (DC & Sterling, VA)

So last night was supposed to be our show with Herbie in Philadelphia, but it turns out (I guess from what Tony says) that Herbie arrived back from tour to find that his housemates didn’t want to do the show. We found this early on the night of the 20th. So, I arrived back from my adventures out at the inauguration to Brandons house and soon began trying to find a show we could get on somewhere within bussing distance of DC. Instead of trying to email bands and find shows at thousands of venues, I got the idea to do a myspace show search for the 21st for shows within 100 miles of DC. about 200 shows were listed and I begin messaging the bands with shows listed. by the end of the night, about 3-4am, I had messaged about 120 bands or so. and by the end of the night we had already gotten 4 phone calls (all after one am) of people willing to help us. that was amazing. I would like to thank all those bands, if any of them are reading this. so by morning time, we had to decide between 5-7 shows that we were all 95% confirmed to be able to play. some shows were in Philly, others in PA. we decided that a show in Sterling, VA would be a good bet because it was close enough that Brandon could go to it and we were gonna try and do an impromptu Jimes set. both the bands whom we chatted with on myspace (one of which called us), Off Transmission and The Manual Hand, were very interesting, moody, often ambient rock bands and they were very nice enough to offer us an opening slot on the bill. So after eating dinner with Brandon and Katherine at a deli/convenient store in the heart of glorious Silver Springs (with all its new tall buildings and bright white lights), the three of us (sans Katherine) headed out to VA. The drive was quicker than we thought it would be and tony proved his title as the trip navigator by maneuvering us through mis-listed streets on our yahoo map directions into the strip mall that the Barefoot Pelican Grill and Pub was at. The place was a typical strip mall bar, with the prerequisite pool tables and sloppy joes and dozen or so TV screens. turns out that there was a third band on the bill, Pelesara, which we were told was a “bar band� and a “cover band.� we decided I should play first since it seemed that tonys guitar style fit better with the two bands we had heard and plus I was acoustic. after about a half hour of the bands loading in and setting up, I took the small stage and played a short set (eulogy, the leash, olive, november, blue-purple failure). some of the band members paid attention nicely and perhaps a few others out there were trying to listen. though the pa was big, there were no monitors and I could barely hear myself over the crowd. rarely has it happened, but even when I was belting at the top of my lungs (and off the mic a bit) on olive, I was drowned out and it felt like nothing was coming from my mouth. what a weird feeling. anyways, the guitarist for Off Transmission, who was a nice guy and who went on to play some amazing guitar during their set, complimented me about my tunes and asked me if I had heard much granddaddy. I told him I was a fan of software slump and we talked about some indie bands that we both liked. he gave me one of there cd’s and then later I forgot to give him one of ours and didn’t see him the rest of the night. and yeah, Off Transmission really impressed me overall. the rhythm section was really tight and stood out and the guitar leads were ambient and chaotic and driving all at once. the one thing thart stuck out was the lead singers voice, which bellowed a lot and was a bit off key, but for some reason it worked fairly well with the music. the leader singer/guitarist also happened to be the back-up vocalist and bassist for The Manual Hand and the band seemed to share the same gear. I didn’t like The Manual Hand as much, but they were still very interesting often mixing some DC punk vocal styles with some hot retro rock riffs and that cool indie keyboard sound that everyone seems to be going for these days. me and tony had a few drinks before realizing that there was no discount or deal for bands on drinks, which was perfectly okay, but tony was a little upset at the end of the night that he had spent 20 bucks on whiskey sours. we continued to butt heads at the show, and I was trying to postpone discussing any issues we had until we were both sober. Our head butting was not the main attraction, though, as two ladies got in a shoving match during The Manual Hand. one of the ladies was kicked out but returned ten minutes later to muscle herself around the nicely dressed bouncer and pursue her opponent, tackling like 6 people in the course of a minute and breaking at least 5 or six glasses. all of this happened in front of the owner, an older nicely dressed dude who was sitting with a similar couple, who was there for the show that night. turns out that pretty much everyone in the bar, whether muscle jock playing pool, overweight hesher wearing flannel, or indie rock kid with black-rimmed glasses, pretty much went to high school together. the average age seemed about 27. the owner, right before we left while our waitress was sitting for a second chatting with tony while he signed his bill, decided to ream her right in front of us for sitting down which pissed all three of us off. I hate that shit. that is the single most disrespectful thing a manager can do, to discipline an employee in front of their customers. douche. anyways, we decided, after I was convinced to leave my punk principles behind, to leave a song into to the last band, as it was getting late and we had to be to the bus station at 5am. I tried to say goodbye to as much of the band dudes as possible, and my last goodbye was to the really nice bassist of OT. he, obviously, was surprised we were leaving and said that the bands hadn’t gotten paid yet (we weren’t expecting to get any money) and then he tried successfully to give me 30 bucks out of his own pocket. I felt like such a fucking asshole. I decided to share the conversation I had had with him with a drunk tony and brandon as we were walking out the door and that became a heated discussion between me and tony halfway home, until he passed out in the backseat. oh, I forgot. when leaving the house earlier in the day we discovered what appeared to be a bag of mary jane sitting on the stone ledge outside the apartment complex main entrance. we discussed picking it up and bringing it to Patrick Elkins, who was dealing with a bad back injury, several times as we passed it through out the day. but it wasn’t until that night, as it STILL sat there in plain view, that we, well Brandon, decided to snag it. it came to the show with us and back to brandons house. and there we left her this morning as we ran out the door, late again. enjoy the reef, Brandon, but watch out for the sharp corrals, man…

oh, and before i forget, i would like to give a shout out to Wheeling, VA. which, on the morning we bussed into DC as the sun was rising bright int he misty fogs and on the snowy madness, looked absolutely stunning and classic and beautiful with its big river and its bridges and its older stone highrises... wow.

:: brs 9:24 AM [+] ::
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