Who even pays attention to this shit anymore? Or did we ever?!?!?! I wonder.

Saturday 6 July 2002
Midgard Comics
DEVILCAKE and somebody will have to tell me the names of the other bands because I never knew

The last two scheduled appearances at Midgard were summarily blown off by us due to a lack of paying attendees. And that's not to imply that I think we're rockstars ever since we played Polaris the other week on the sidestage before Poison. Far from it.

It's just that - if there's no audience then there's no point. And we all have too much going on to squander an evening at an empty comic store if ya know what I mean.

We rehearsed a special Summer Set last Wednesday, comprised of all fast, uptempo songs. Nothing too heavy, nothing too ghouly, just the fast shit. As in, let's play fast and then go eat. Although there are times when it's nice to lay down a solid doom groove, this wasn't meant to be one of them.

And I'm so glad we did that. Afterwards everyone said "wow, what a great set that was." Hmmm.

It was old school. Why in my day we had thirteen people onstage and we always played like that! It was a shambolic, fast mess and that's how we liked it!

Darrin broke his drums several times. First the bass drum kept slipping away. Then the pedal came off from the drum. And then what? It seemed like a lot more at the time.

Todd's finding his groove, equipment-wise. At least until the next gig! But he was happy and that's all that matters. Because he's the only one who ever knows with that stuff.

The boys in the audience amused themselves with a thoroughly un-ironic mosh pit while the girls in the audience (okay, Rachel) shouted the lyrics and had a great time. Even if the audience consists of adolescent boys running at each other and one female who's engaged to the guitar player that's still a damn sight better than playing for nobody. Or not playing at all. And it does make one hell of a difference to see one person in front of the stage having as much fun as I do!

There was one point where I went to the back of the stage to rock by Darrin and Todd. When I turned around I saw Steve and MCB strumming each others' guitars a la Cinderella. HELL YEAH. Hell yeah.

Nancy still managed to find bits and pieces to add even though we weren't doing anything dramatic or operatic in the slightest! And that rules because it would be very easy for her to say "we're not playing Marshmallow therefore I'm going to stay home tonight fuckaaaaaaahhhhhs." It is a complete waste to have a voice as great as hers yelling "guacamole damn it leave it alone"! But like I said I prefer that to the alternative.

Steve The Former Video Guy (it's been a long time since I did a Gig Diary!) is a quiet but solid presence onstage. He and MCB make a great guitar team, they're both from the same planet on all of that shit.

And Gourley. That dude never stops!

Space on the stage goes quickly when you have seven people in the band. It's sometimes hard to rock like a boulder without kicking people, unplugging their guitars, blowing sweat on them, headbutting them, stabbing them in the face with the headstock of my bass, elbowing them in the neck etc. It's hard but not impossible.

I always forget to drink water before we play at Midgard and I wind up drinking water onstage, which causes my old man belly to seize up like I'm going to puke. I'm not a casual vomitter, so that wouldn't be good. And I forgot a towel and a fresh t-shirt for afterwards. Basically I was soaked with sweat. And blood from my damn right index finger being the wrong shape for the overly-aggressive style of bass-slaying I fall into.

It sounds like Keith at Midgard is getting pretty stressed out about the whole deal with having bands there, so that'll probably be our last time playing there. Now we can concentrate on getting the box set finished and figuring out what we're going to do for the release party!

Who can write in the setlist here?