West Side Rundown.

It went well. It was the first time the band was out of the basement, so it was fun and scary. We were the first in a string of bands I already mentioned, all of whom we hadn't heard, so we were all nervous and giddy and excited. I was pretty tired all that day, but the nerves woke me up on stage.

The sound was incredible, moniters, speakers, all this stuff we wern't used to. No more combo amps in basements, this felt like we were in a freaking colliseum. I looked around at the crowd and got pretty nervous... it was mostly teeny bopper girls, and barely coming of age guys, mixed in with band guys and friend-of-band-guys. None of them would proabably have an open mind about our songs. Heck, not even I really get our songs... do they suck? are they interesting enough to be considered "good"? Do I like them? Do I not like them when im in a room full of critics?

I was hella nervous during our sound check, but after opening up my mouth I realized that I sounded good coming out of this sounds system thing and loosened up. So then we all got down and tried to calm down before we started in half an hour.

Seven thirty rolls around, my family shows up which made me really happy, Sue and Mikey had never heard us play so that was great. Then all of the sudden everyone starts showing up. Suprisingly, John, JJ, Phil, (Alethies Metanoia) the esteemed Paul Ganguly, and Andrew Russo, and even Joanna and Joy Hagan. What the flip? Where did these people some from? I said Hi to them on the microphone. Then we started playing. I felt real weird talking about the "story" in front of a bunch of people who were just terribly confused, but stuttered a few words about it, and then played some more. All of the songs turned out really good. At least on our end. And I talked the sound guy into playing a telletubbies video on the big screen behind us while we played "Gerald's Daydream" which was great. I had a good time. But I think I was scarred a little by the audiences general confusion. All my friends really thought it was great and all that which was good to hear. And my bandmates just thought it was great that the audience was confused. "Thats what its all about." "Who cares! you gotta be ready for that!" they said. I guess their right. Its just not as easy as playing in a basement full of friends and family. Now thats a good time. I do want to get this playing in front of strangers thing down too, but its tricky.

The other bands were good too. Pelican't served some alt rock, with a great cover of "Yellow" among other kind of weezerish rock songs. Then Save Us DESTROYED the stage with some power emo screamo speed punk. All of the members of that band are just really talented. And while emo punk aint my cup of tea any more, I really had a good time watching them and would have bought a t-shirt had they had some available. They tore it up. Hopefully we will do a show with them sometime soon.
Undeveloped story had arguably the most fun on stage, just completely rocking out and pumping some three chord, punk songs like it was their job, and they were 16. Because they were 16, and it was their job. It was fun to see, because man, when I was 16, that is EXACTLY what I wanted to do. And here these kids are doing it, in front of throngs of screaming girls at that. They also were the ones who set up the show, so big ups to them for throwing us a bone and letting us play.

So it was a good time, now the remainder of my time will not be spent on memorizing lyrics or stressing out. now I can write some more songs, Ju-jajuba it up, and go buy a Synth drum machine on thursday... or friday. Life is good.