I'm late in chiming in on this show...

7/03/03
Little Brothers
w/Tom Foolery and the Mistakes|Everlasting Godstopper

About a week before this show (alright a day), I took the opportunity to rid myself of some musical instrumentation that I didn't consider that I was getting much use out of. I took them into Guitar Center and magically (2 hours later) walked out with a shiny new keyboard amp (oooooooooh shiny). The result was the realization that now that my amp problems were solved (which, I think, had long been a source of my other on-stage mishaps) I got all crazy and thought about all the gear I could now safely play without thought of mishap.

A reality check from Ian "B.A." Stewart brought me back to the realization that "less quite possibly is more" on this night of nights. So...armed with only my shiny new amp and the keys-o (and a spare casio in the trunk as backup). I set out. Our car was packed full of non-instrumentation as well (the cross-which didn't get used, fog machine, tape deck for soundboard recording-which sounds freakin' awesome!, tapes, water...and of course our kick-ass new t-shirts), Nancy and I showed up at Little Brothers about 6:50...way the hell early.

The young'uns, Everlasting Godstopper, showed up (or were dropped off) about 8:30. I was seriously worried that some of them would have to be snuck into the venue (a la Gabe from the Newport show of forever ago). Nancy and I left the amassed posse (of MCB and his friend) and left in search of food. The search turned up fruitless and Nancy wound up with 1/2 of Maryann's sub and I would up with a bottle of water. Good thing...eating would have only led to bm's and there's no need for that before the show, trust me.

I can't say much more than what's already been said about the rest of the evening. I loved the way the keys-o sounded through the new amp...I hated the fact that we didn't have a set list...loved the fake blood from Ian's skull, but hated the dildo on Everlasting Godstopper's Mic (ok...hate is strong...but I just didn't understand what it was supposed to be...other than a dick that he sang into....in front of their parents (who I'm sure were in the audience) and I didn't know what that was all about).
And I hated that I felt like I was going to lose my voice at any second....I think it resulted in me holding back on some stellar backups (which thankfully, Ian jumped in on).

Some other positive things....Darrin's drums didn't move away from him (gotta love the power of a CinderBlock)....the sound mix was awesome. Ian's mohawk was fucking rad!

The T-shirts kicked ass...and I think we even sold one.

Tom Foolery et al continue to blow me away each time I see them. Their set was short and sweet, although they left out one of my favorites, "Oh No You Di'n't," they did play "Lab Partner" (or whatever it's real name is), which makes me laugh my ass off everytime because it makes me think of my lab partners in high school chemistry (Rich Damiano and Andy Mitry...yeah, lucky me).

We took the stage....Gourley and I started Marshmallow sans my significant other...and to be honest, the rest of the boys had me sweating a bit with their "delayed entrance" bit. But it worked out very cool...and felt very, very rock and roll to me.

The rest of the night was a blur of sweat, fake blood, headbanging and the like. At one point during Frankenstein's French Fries, I think Steve was trying to show me the chords (since it was quite apparent that I had forgotten them) and I thought to myself "well, it's not going to do much good....if I knew guitar chords, I wouldn't have traded my electric guitar for a keyboard amp...but such is the case when you're living life on the road).

I'm not going to put the list of songs....Darrin and Ian did a pretty good job...(but Ian did the Skull/Blood act during Chicken Nuggets...).

All in all, it was a great show...I think it was one of our best.