Tied For Last

First band of the night.

I was horribly sick and had been for most of the week. I barely had a voice...

...So of course, we had a really big turnout - with quite a few people there to see us for the first time.

Both Johns showed up very late, so not only did we not get a chance to soundcheck, we had our set cut by a few songs (and a few minutes). The lack of a soundcheck caused us to have really bad sound onstage (niether of the guitars was audible onstage), though we were later assured that the sound in the room was very good - which is usually the case at Acme, so I'm inclined to believe it.

The bad sound onstage, along with the rush from being late, combined with my weak voice to result in a set that was far sloppier than usual for us. If it wasn't for an awesome audience response, all would have been lost.

But the audience was truly awesome! We got a really big and really energetic crowd, and that makes all the difference. We got enthusiastic responses for every single song, and we couldn't have needed the support more.

From the onset, things weren't too good when my voice started to give out by the third song ("Wasted"). Tom ended up co-singing on many of the songs, which helped me a great deal. On top of the voice problems, the guys just weren't very tight, so the tight starts and stops that are usually our trademark ended up being sketchy at best. I also started to feel dizzy at certain ponts and thought I was gonna black out. I didn't.

Most of the songs from the middle of our set are pretty easy for me to sing, so by the time we got past "Beautiful in Black," I was okay for a bit. Tom went into the crowd a few times to gauge the sound, and apparently got groped by Janine (at least that's how it looked from the stage). Ah, the perils of being a musician.

Speaking of Janine, she joined us onstage for her outstanding turn at "Take Janine Away" which was quite well received by the audeince (and the band alike). She spent more time with Tom than with me, but I was damn near dying, so I'm glad it worked out that way. Unfortunately, she claimed that it was to be her farewell performance. All of us in the band hope that she'll reconsider at some point, but for the time being, we still have the lovely memories (and some kickass pictures)!

From a performance standpoint, we weren't too hot, but from a fun standpoint, we had a great show.

Set List:
Party Dress
Lead You On
Wasted
Beautiful in Black
Live In
Superstar
We're Alright
Eve of Destruction
Song for the Ladies
Stay Up and Talk to Me
P&L
Take Janine Away