First band of a 2 - band night.

This was to be our last show of the year, and was billed as our special holiday extravaganza, so we were planning on having a blast. We were not disappointed.

It may have been the cold weather, or post-Christmas shopping exhaustion, but when we got there, the place was empty but for three people – Brian (the bartender/sound guy), Victor (the club’s owner/manager) and one guy onstage finishing up his open mic set. Though it may have been cooler if there was a built-in crowd, we knew that we had a good bunch of people coming, so we weren’t concerned. Also, the open stage meant that we could set up early, do a real sound check, and actually start the set on time – a true first for us at the Orange Bear.

Audience members filtered in as we leisurely set up our equipment. I was especially psyched because I had just purchased a brand new blue hollow-body Ibanez guitar, and I was gonna get the chance to break it in.

We did a sloppy version of “American Girl” for our sound check (we hadn’t practiced that one), and it apparently helped us a bit because all later reports were that this night was the first time that the vocals were completely discernable. Of course, since my mom, and John B’s parents were in attendance, they could hear all the offensive lyrics with pristine clarity.

As part of the “holiday” part of our show, we had brought a bunch of holiday packaged mini chocolate bars and Hershey’s kisses. I’ve come to find that, except for Tommy (“no way dude, I saw “Supersize Me”), people REALLY dig chocolate.

As we were setting up, we heard that the band scheduled after us had to cancel at the last minute, and so we might be able to stretch out our set a bit. We have enough material to easily cover two sets, but we figured that we’d start the regular planned set and see how things progressed before changing anything.

By the time we took the stage, all the tables were filled, and I had noticed that some folks who had only recently become TFL fans themselves had brought their friends to the show as well. Damn, that’s flattering.

For some reason, we decided to skip the normal opening songs and go with She Was Just a Girl right into a cover of Ziggy Stardust. This combo went over quite well and set the tone for most of the night.

We had intended to record the show in case any of the songs were web-worthy, but we had forgotten to let Brian know this, so our recording of the gig didn’t start until about halfway through “I’m Not Fine.” Damn shame, because the “Ziggy Stardust” truly kicked ass.

As a special Christmas gift to those in attendance, we had home-recorded and self-pressed a single of the song “Sailor,” and this was handed out during our performance of the song. Though we may go in and remix it slightly, the version sounds good enough that we’re probably going to record our next album like this.

We tore through a version of our new song “Baghdad,” and it sounded much tighter than when we debuted it at the last show.

In keeping with our holiday theme, we learned a special Christmas song. No “Jingle Bell Rock” for us – we decided to cover the Everclear gem “Hating You For Christmas.” It came out surprisingly well for a song that we only had two practices to get down. We may post it on the website for the season.

Maintaining the Christmas spirit, Tommy then introduced “Bloody Tuesday” as “the story of Santa and Mrs. Claus’ first date.” When he took over lead vocals for “Wasted,” he referred to it as “the story of Santa and Mrs. Claus’ second date.”

The rest of the set sounded strong. Although about 2/3 of the way through, John B started to feel woozy. TFL web designer/CD and t-shirt sales girl “Sweet” Jane brought him some water and he stumbled through the rest of the set without incident.

As we neared the end of our set, we decided to stretch it out a bit, and as per an earlier request that night, we played “Eve of Destruction.” Later, requests were shouted for “Party Dress” and “Burning Love” which we played, and then we finished out our planned set, with Tom stepping in on a couple of choruses when my voice started to give out.

While playing, I thought we were a little sloppy, but pretty good. Listening back to the recording of the gig, we actually were a lot tighter than I had thought, which is pretty refreshing. This gig was a helluva close to a great year for Tied For Last..

Set List:
SHE WAS JUST A GIRL
ZIGGY STARDUST
STAY UP AND TALK TO ME
I’M NOT FINE
SAILOR
BAGHDAD
WE’RE ALRIGHT
SUPERSTAR
HATING YOU FOR CHRISTMAS
BLOODY TUESDAY
WASTED
BEAUTIFUL IN BLACK
LESBIAN CIRCUS
ACHIEVER
EVE OF DESTRUCTION
GOT NO LIFE
PARTY DRESS
BURNING LOVE
RAVE ON
TAKE JANINE AWAY