The last two shows have been delicious and it’s good to be home with sort of a nothing show on in the background, the guitars sitting and being menaced by the cats (oh, how they Love the Cheetah case), my own hunger being menaced by a late-night post-gig snack.
I’m always starving afterwards. I imagine it’s similar to a post-coital hunger. All I want is a snack and unconsciousness… sometimes I get home from gigs feeling wired, but tonight was full-satisfaction followed by a drive of just the right length – a minimal load-out that didn’t leave me too exhausted…a perfect storm of good.
Spent the day wandering through the Strip District and sniffing things. Went to my first Penzie’s Spices and bought my OWN damned Black and Red. So frakkin’ delicious. I took this picture because it was the first moment when I was overwhelmed by spices and coffees and kabobs all wafting at me at once. Thank goodness we’d just eaten, or I might’ve attacked someone with my mouth. 
Llama. Twee! I’m not really sure why – but there’s LOTS of llama art in the strip district! 
Hate the ape! I can’t be havin’ with monkeys and their kin… and yes i know that an ape is not a monkey… but BEWARE! BEWARE!!!! 
Beware the Ides of March March! This is actually the zombie who stood behind me in the coffeeshop. Smiling.
Friday night we joined up with the Weathered Road at Michos in Reisterstown. The guy who ran music at Michos had parted ways with the restaurant a couple of weeks before and so we were tasked with setting up and running our own sound. I got there early and set up alllll the toys. It’s a task that I really quite enjoy (other than hauling those speakers around). Even up a kind of shaky metal stairway, thrumming to every heavy footfall, there’s a huge satisfaction to dragging all the gear out of the car, stringing everything up, testing everything and making it work. I’m tempted to invest a little more into sound gear and do small sound gigs on the side. It’d probably be pretty lucrative if I can find the right market, but most small bands probably don’t want to pay someone else to do that kind of work for them.
Thanks to Kristy for such a dazzling shot of Heather and I performing at Club Cafe in Pittsburgh, PA
Still – if I could actually get into that niche in a nice club – At the Quarter for example, even on our best night we’ve only made about $200 for the band – the soundguy gets $400 flat… even little sound gigs though, gimme $50 and dinner for anything under 10 channels and I’ll deal with it? Maybe… I need a better board and a snake…
Heather preps herself to do battle with a kitten. We spent all night defending ourselves. 
Oh God – the offensive was never-ending. They came creeping and had nefarious plans in mind. 
But last night reaffirms the fact that I’m a musician, not a soundman. I mean – we sounded great if I do say so myself, but performing was delicious. The New Deal Cafe was packed (people were turned away at the door because they were over capacity) – standing-room only. It’s funny that I’ve been playing there SO long – and yet it’s still a great show. I think I have a bad habit of getting depressed over the fact that I’m often playing a LOT of the same shows that I played years ago – but I’ve got to remember that just because they’re the same venues, it does NOT mean it’s the same show. We pack venues where we used to struggle. We make more in a night than we used to make in a week – and the performance itself is so much more intense. We’re far more polished, strong and tight – and returning to venues that we’ve been to before allows the same audiences to see that change.
Of course, if people get turned off because those venues are too packed, that’s not to our advantage at all. I see that pattern with Java Mammas all the time. After an uberpacked night, the next week the place is empty because people don’t want to go back into that sardine press.
I just don’t understand how to take that audience some place else. There’s such venue loyalty that I don’t seem to be able to invite those people to another venue where perhaps they’d FIT. I worry about what that REALLY says about our performances. I know the New Deal’s not that packed all the time. Not by a long-shot – so it’s not like those people go every Saturday to check out the band – they’re there for US. How to I get them to be there for us someplace else?
GRAAARGH!
