LITTLE BROTHERS

POOR ORIGINALS | DEVILCAKE | LOS PEPES
Little Brothers
Friday, July 8, 2005

Gourley got a call on Wednesday asking if we could fill in for another band at Little Brothers. We had an emergency rehearsal on Thursday, which we did instrumentally. Gourley suggested a few uptempo songs via email. The sequence of titles wasn't intended to be a setlist but we made it into one anyway. Hence the weirdest setlist we've ever played, I think. Marvelous.

As always, we got to Little Brothers way too fucking early before the show. The doors weren't open, so we walked to White Castle & back. Then it rained and we all sat in our cars until one of the other bands showed up - Poor Originals. They got a call three hours beforehand to fill in.

Organization! Professionalism! Ha. Whatever, so the administrative end was a little mushy, but, rock & roll and administration have very little to do with each other, right? Right.

Poor Originals soundchecked and then lingered for 45 minutes or so. There was a small clutch of people at the tables in front of the stage. Poor Originals, no shit, every song was the exact same tempo, with the same thrash beat. The guitarist on the right was annoying onstage and made me question my own motivations for wanting to do the rock & roll thing again. Y'know? It's late, it's Friday, we should be having fun, not being subjected to this over-loud, monotonous scree. They sucked the life out of me. The other guitarist literally strummed the same for every song, a technique I'd love to learn, I'm obviously doing it wrong & moving waaaaay too much. After 10-12 iterations of the one sonic blueprint, they vacated the stage. Who's on next? Is it us? Is it the peepees? No, it's us. Phew.

I wouldn't even say we had a handfull of peeps, I'd call it a clenched fist of peeps. The important thing is that they didn't lose patience and they even seemed to enjoy our turn on the stage. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We took our time setting up. It was relaxed, laid back, jovial, comfortable. Usually 'being comfortable' isn't the kind of thing you'd take notice of, but for us...two years (almost to the day) since we last played at Little Brothers, the vibe was important.

Steve gave Tera the new intro CD, which promptly failed to work. He made the intro on his PC, it includes hellish sound effects and the harmonized guitar solo from "Fribble." It reminds me of Slayer "Hell Awaits." I gave a verbal approximation of the intro CD into the mic and then we were off & running. Opening with "Fribble." Unprecedented.

Gourley & I were both kind of rusty. Our voices gave out pretty quickly & we were both winded. I struggled with the backing vocals, not sure if I should just hover over the mic & sing everything or stand back by the drums & just concentrate on playing the bass. In the end, I did a lot of both and eventually loosened up enough to not notice or care.

"Salad Bar Man" was second. Darrin's new "Peaches & Cream" was in there somewhere. And we closed with his other new one - my favorite of his newest batch of songs - "Pilot Light." I waited all day to sing "turn on the pilot light, let's get it on tonight" and finally got my chance. Party! I hope it didn't ruin the song. That's the first time I've ever sung on it. "Hands Off My Oreos" was nice, that's when I finally caught my stride, I think. As usual, I was too busy trying not to kick anybody or otherwise cause catastrophe to notice anything else. Which is a good sign. I think the band is getting stronger, more mature, more fuckin' metal, and hopefully even more entertaining as we go. We've always been good at amusing ourselves but hopefully now we can include everyone else. And:

It's always nice when people clap and respond positively to us onstage and I don't take that for granted. You guys fucking rock! I'd rather have a clutched fist of true peeps than 1,000 hostile GWAR fanatics anyday.

I forget the order but I'm pretty sure we played

Fribble
Salad Bar Man
Pizza Party
Wienermobile
Marshmallow
Hands Off My Oreos
Peaches & Cream
Red Pop
Cereal & Beer
Pilot Light