Tied For Last

First band of a five-band night.

We'd been having a run of shows with mediocre to bad sound lately, and it had been driving us nuts. We were thrilled to see that Noel, the Continental's main sound guy, behind the board when we showed up. He was training a new sound girl (didn't catch her name), so he was being extra careful to get everything just right, so that was even cooler.

In the good and bad news dept., the 7:30 band had cancelled. This meant that we could set up our equipment early, but that we'd be playing to our audience alone, since there'd be no leftovers from the band before us. The bad was tempered by the attendance of many regulars, and some surprises (Thomas - who's becoming a regular as well, Stephanie, who met us at the Wild Spirits show last May, and close friend and awesome dancer, Tabitha, who, though dedicated, hasn't yet been able to catch a full TFL show).

I had been tired all week, and Tommy told me that he had been inexplicably angry all day, so we were planning for a weird, if aggressive, night.

We blazed through the first three songs and were getting a really good audience response. We were then about to go into our rarely-played cover of Jessie's Girl, but when I jokingly announced it as a song that Tommy and I wrote, Kisco Slim (Geller) was thrown and thought that we had changed the set on him.

Once that was straightened out, Tommy started the song, but played it a little slower than we usually do. Even then, it was faster than the original, so it went over pretty well.

Since the last time we played the Continental, we had to cut two songs because the ineptitude of the (other) sound guy, we were almost rushing through these songs. We wanted to get as many of them in as we could. With very little stage banter, though, we played very solidly, and it ended up being a lot of fun.

Listening back to the recording of the show, I'd have to say that it was among our best. Now, to get some sleep…

Set List:
SAILOR
SHE WAS JUST A GIRL
LEAD YOU ON
JESSIE’S GIRL
PARTY DRESS
SUPERSTAR
ATOMIC PICNIC
GOT NO LIFE
ACHIEVER
TAKE JANINE AWAY
EVE OF DESTRUCTION
BAGHDAD