Tied For Last

Second band of a five-band night.

We were really happy to get a weekend gig at Otto’s. The last two shows that we played there were a lot of fun, and the place just has this awesome vibe to it. Best of all, it’s one of the few clubs left that has a built-in crowd, so we get to play to new people every time.

This time, the built-in crowd saved out butts, and we love ‘em for it!

For some reason, the traffic in the city was just horrendous. I came down the West Side and crossed over. Others came down the East Side, and we all hit crazy traffic. To put it in perspective, bands are supposed to arrive at a club an hour before set time. I’m usually earlier than that. This time, though, I didn’t get there until 35 minutes before. We knew a lot of our audience was gonna be late.

Geller got there about ten minutes after me, but after he unloaded his equipment, he went for a parking spot and didn’t get back until we were nearly finished setting up. Because of this, we were a little rushed and a little sloppy for the first few songs. As we looked out on the audience, we noticed that most of the people we knew were coming (virtually anyone not already in Manhattan) had yet to arrive.

Lucky for us, the room was already filled with folks who were there to see some good music, so we did our best to entertain them, while the rest of our friends filtered in throughout the set (with some even arriving two songs before we ended).

She Was Just a Girl and We’re Alright were a little rushed, but we nailed Bloody Tuesday, and I thought things would go well from there. Unfortunately, Party Dress, which came next, had to be stopped one line into the song, because Tommy’s amp, which was brand new and being used for the first time, was way to low. We didn’t notice it earlier, because I played on the first three songs.

I hate it when bands stop a song, but we stopped it really early, and it was much improved when we re-started it, so I know we made the right call. From that point on, barring small errors, we played much more solidly, and we were really having a great time.

It was Rev. Caroline’s birthday week, so we wanted to surprise her. We started by dedicating Sailor to her as our friend Mike K bought her a drink. After that was done, I started tuning up, and Tommy, as is often the case, started playing the opening chords to Jessie’s Girl (Rick Springfield). John B joined in on bass, and I started singing the first few lines. We do this intro often, so nothing was out of the norm. But by the time we got to the pre-chorus, Kisco Slim (aka Geller) joined in on drums, and our surprise full-blown cover of Jessie’s Girl was well underway.

Rev. Caroline had been after us to play this song since our very first gigs in 2002. We would often tease her from the stage with the opening chords/verse, and then go into another song. To see her shock and pleasant surprise as she realized we were doing it for real was well worth learning the song. What made it even better is that a whole bunch of people from the front bar came a-running back to see us when they heard it. Many of them stayed for the rest of the set as well.

By that point, the crowd and the band were very loose, and the rest of the set was a blast. We ended with our new favorite cover song – Viva Las Vegas. This song has gotten such a strong reaction every time we’ve played it that it’s gonna be hard to write a set-list without it at this point. Not bad for a song that was supposed to be a quickly thrown together one-off for our Lebowskifest performance.

Most of our friends were there by the end, and it felt good to end the set on such a high note. Rev. Casroline (who’s also our manager / booking agent / photographer / etc.) assured me that she didn’t think that we would have trouble getting another weekend gig at Otto’s. Who knows, maybe that one will be a CD release party!

One last note – Guru Kowalski from The Trakes’ camp was there as well, and he’s responsible for getting us our next gig – in Brooklyn. It was awesome of him to show, and we hope he had some fun. We can’t wait to play with the Trakes again, so you’re all gonna wanna come and see that one!

Set List:
SHE WAS JUST A GIRL
WE'RE ALRIGHT
BLOODY TUESDAY
PARTY DRESS
SUPERSTAR
SAILOR
JESSIE'S GIRL
STAY UP AND TALK TO ME
TAKE JANINE AWAY
ACHIEVER
WASTED
LEAD YOU ON
BAGDHAD
VIVA LAS VEGAS