The Show!

Well the show has finally come and gone and it was quite a success. It was fairly well attended but we are still trying to figure out the total attendance. Someone was throwing around the number 178 last night but it definitely seemed like there were more people than that. Plus, doing the math based on how much we each got paid, it would seem that there were about 232 which still seems a bit low based on how the club looked but it's not really that important.

My brother Garrett and I got there at 6:00 and started loading in equipment while also helping the sound guy re-setup the stage monitors. This ended up taking a while as other band members slowly streamed in. Sound check didn't start until 7:30 and went on until about 9:00. Sound check was pretty disorganized and I hoped that it wouldn't be a reflection of the show. I finally got my Pro Tools system set up by 9:15 and was able to run out to pick up my friend Chris from Dallas who was in town with his family visiting his grandparents.

We got back to Grant Street Dancehall in time to see quite a few old friends from Lafayette before Manchild started playing at around 10:15. They were a very entertaining two piece band consisting of an electronic sampler run by a guitar player and a drummer. I have been warming up to electronic music recently and found Manchild to be quite original. They played until about 10:45 and then left the stage for Thunderpants to get ready for their set.

Thunderpants went on around 11:00 and played a pretty powerful set as they did last year. Among their many rock and roll originals, they also played their always enjoyable "Nintendo Medley" and their crowd pleasing cover of Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher." They finished around 12:00 and left the stage for the Smites to get ready for their set.

The Smites went on around 12:15 and played their fast punk rock for a full forty-five minutes to a raucous crowd. As I expected, the crowd peaked during the Smites set but it was good for them since both Thunderpants and the Hek-Atomic Cherries had the big crowds last year. The Smites finished at 1:00 and left the stage for a quick turnaround for the Hek-Atomic Cherries.

Our show got going at 1:15 leaving us only forty-five minutes for our set. We had practiced for about an hour so I felt that we might have to cut a few songs on the fly but at the rate we sometimes play live, I thought we might squeeze them all in. Before taking the stage, we had the song "Oh Yeah!" by German electronic group Yellow playing on the PA. The song is better known as "the Ferris Bueller's Day Off song." You know it: Chick-a-Chick-ahhh! We came out of the backstage room as the song was playing dressed as characters from the movie. Charles was portraying Ferris, I was Cameron Fry and Stephen was Ed Rooney. The crowed certainly appreciated the theme and we got right into the set because of the limited time.

Our full set list was as follows:

Hey You Wild Animals, Put Down That Meat
Thanks For the Pizza Rome [pronounced Rome-a]
Pig Latin Song
Edward Abell III
Crazy Bus
Stairs
Bunkie Lip
TLC
The Sofa That Ate My Brother
My Evaporated Girl [a new song!]
Bimbo Gumbo
Jimmy Chonga and the Chimmy Chonga
I Don't Wanna Be Hit On The Head With No Lead Pipe
Stationary [featuring Jay Burton on lead vocals]
I'm A Tree [featuring Jay Burton on lead vocals]
Attack of the Killer T-Cups [featuring Jay Burton on lead vocals]
Plain Brown Wrapper [featuring Jay Burton on lead vocals]
Bowl of Crap
Crackster
Ninja Gorilla Killa
Dodgin' Flak
Different Beans
Hippy Cheese

As it turned out, we did have to cut a few songs on the fly so I made a few executive decisions for time constraints. Of the eight songs that we cut, none were songs that we hadn't played last year save for a new song that Charles wrote that we had practiced. However, he wasn't too terribly upset by its exclusion.

All in all, our set went extremely well and was very well received. There were a few mistakes however, but that always happens in live shows. My biggest mistake was somehow getting lost on the first verse of "Dodgin' Flak" but we recovered pretty well. I can't speak for Stephen or Charles, but I think that was pretty much the only major issue but Stephen said that he too got lost after I started singing the wrong lyrics for "Dodgin' Flak" and he couldn't remember where we were either. No big deal though. No one in the crowd seemed to mind too much.

I recorded all the shows with my Pro Tools setup and spent a fair amount of the time during the first three band's sets to get levels set properly for recording. There were definitely some instances of clipping the audio but I won't know for sure how it sounds until I listen to the recordings today.

After the show, I talked to several people who thought the entire night was great and many people told me that the Hek-Atomic Cherries set was very tight. It was a really fun night. I only wish that we could do this more than once a year. Perhaps we will be able to organize a show before next Christmas but if all else fails, we will certainly plan on doing it again this time next year!