Tied For Last

First band of a 3-band night.

Ever since the Orange Bear closed down, we've been looking for interesting new places to play. I had heard about Otto's Shrunken Head, and I've been a fan of tiki culture for awhile, so it seemed like a natural. I e-mailed 'em, and they got back to me with a date. Booking should always be this easy.

We all got there early, and the place just seemed really cool. Very long and thin, with a back room for bands and the like. There was a comedy show before us, so we hung out by the bar with all of our friends who had come down for the gig.

The vibe of the place is very laid-back, so when the comedy was done, we ambled back to set up. Setup was quick, and before long, we were ready to go and nearly every table in the back room was filled with our friends. SWEET!

We started our set, and the energy of the crowd was fantastic. I don't know if it's because a smaller room seems more filled, or because of the way the tables are fanned out around the stage, but we were getting a lot of crowd energy, and it made us a lot more energetic onstage.

As we were playing our first song, something really cool happened, and it lasted the whole set. People from the crowd at the bar (those who were not there to see us) started making their way to the back room to check us out, and they each ended up staying for a bunch of songs and were clearly enjoying themselves. We're normally pretty good at winning over crowds, but, on this night at least, we hit our target audience with a bull's eye.

The only problem was that there was some sort of short in the equipment, because every time my mouth touched the mic while I was holding my guitar, I'd get an electric shock. That part was no fun at all, but I took it like a man and soldiered on (after I swiped Tom's mic screen, of course).

At one point, between songs, I heard a dog bark, and it was clearly from inside the bar. Shortly after, a couple of girls made their way back to catch the band, and with them was a pug dog, who, while he dug the music, was a little scared when I came off the stage and tried to serenade him.

Also, hanging out at the back of the music room, was a lanky gent in a cool cowboy hat who seemed to like us. We later found out that his name is "Toothless George," and he was the band following us. That's right - he wasn't IN the band following us - he WAS the band following us. Toothless George was a countrified punk ONE-MAN BAND, and he was friggin' AWESOME!!!

Our set flew by with no screw-ups (that I can recall), and we just had a blast.

One last thing… When we were done, I approached the lady with the pug about signing up on the e-mail list (the dog's name is Georgio, I believe the lady's was Tara, but I'm just the kind of a spazz to remember the dog's name and forget the girl's). Her friend, who was not there for the set, asked what we sounded like and Tara replied ,"You'd like 'em. They're like NOFX with a little bit of Tom Petty."

We couldn't ask for higher praise.

Set List:
STAY UP AND TALK TO ME
SHE WAS JUST A GIRL
BLOODY TUESDAY
AMERICAN GIRL
SAILOR
SUPERSTAR
PARTY DRESS
LEAD YOU ON
BEAUTIFUL IN BLACK
ACHIEVER
LESBIAN CIRCUS
BURNING LOVE
GOT NO LIFE
TAKE JANINE AWAY