June 18th, 2009.

*The Lesser Pauls and their beautiful, but very poorly lit audience.*

Waking up slowly at Ben’s place in Charlotte, NC – we’re back to climate control and grateful for it as the outside is moist and heavy – apparently the perfect atmosphere for slugs and snails, who are slowly running amok outside, presumably screaming very, very quietly “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!”

Hee! We never get to see snails out and about, strolling the world. This guy was quite industrious over the course of the night. Last night he was on the LEFT side of the door, facing LEFT… and this morning he was on the RIGHT side of the door… facing RIGHT!!! He must be a racing snail.

Last night was a hurry-up-and-wait show, more so than most, but we were definitely introduced to some cool music and a pretty cool venue. Definitely a lot more punk rock than we generally play, but frankly, that was a welcome change. Huge speakers, good stage, loud monitors and dim lighting – and a decent sound man behind the board – this is the sort of place that Artem would’ve liked seeing us. It was a dark and dingy sort of pirate ship-themed rock club in one of the artsier sections of Charlotte.

Us and five other bands performed at Snug Harbor for the Crown Town Showdown. It’s not really a contest and is generally acoustic – but last night it still was no contest because only we were acoustic. We done brung the noise as only we can, but there was no way we were competing with the sheer skull-splitting volume of full kits and amplifiers the size of refrigerators.

I mean – Ben Henry’s pretty fucking punk rock as-is, but here he’s the drummer of a power-trio behind a pretty intense guitar chick full of lank and scream and lilt and grin and an upright bass player unafraid to beat the Hell out of his instrument – that’s even MORE punk rock.

All in all, a great night even IF the bathroom was kind of iffy and my monitor didn’t work (I’m not sure what it is with rock venues, very rarely do they have multiple working monitors, but they always HAVE multiple monitors – I suspect the stage is somehow cantilevered on them – making them a neccessary part of the structure).

I’m always a little worried about freestanding venues. Anything that’s not PART of something ELSE seems too isolated. Like people who don’t know where they’re going will get lost, and no-one’s going to be just walking by, drawn in by our winsome noise. The Muddy Waters Coffee Bar in Charleston, SC, however, was easily found and filled with people. It was a great night and well worth the trip. We had a great show despite my persistant cold (I’ve had a horrible sore throat, runny nose, nose bleeds – all sorts of awful the whole time we’ve been out) and even though our guitars eventually lost their battle to the heat and humidity, the valiance of their battle was not lost on the audience.

Anywho – as soon as Heather’s out of the shower, it’s off to Charleston with stops only for gasoline and coffee. Air conditioning season means more stops for the former and general staying up till 4am season means more stops for the latter. So we’ll take it real leisurely like.

(let’s make like those snails and zoooooooom)