False Start, Real Show

A little earlier before the show I went up to kinko's and made some small hand fliers for the next show that's coming up in June (the one where I went through three iterations of the flyer before I could settle on something trying to balance looking cool and being readable and then at the end I just couldn't even tell if it looked any good or not!). Then Mary Beth and I went up to the Lamplighter. I did the most amazing parallel parking job and I now can't even believe I pulled it off. Where I'm like, hm, I don't think there's enough room in that space and starting to drive past but then being, oh I think there is, and then starting to park and being like, oh no actually I don't think so. But I somehow managed to maneuver just perfectly and fit in. But then I'm noticing this giant truck behind me and for over an hour I really can't focus on anything other than the truck trying to get out later and not having enough room and hitting the car. Finally I realized it was Andrew (the touring musician) parked in front of me and he was in the front of the curb and had a little room so asked him to move up so I could move up a little and give the truck some more room so I didn't have to keep worrying about it.

Okay, now about the actual show. Drop Ceiling had brought their own pa and recording setup and they were getting all ready and set up and everything. It was a while before the first two artists showed up. I mean like, down to the wire (okay, past it really). So I'm getting all nervous about half the lineup not even being there. Also, like nobody at all crowd-wise is there yet. It's after the door-time (which no one shows up then anyway) and fifteen minutes until start time and they still aren't here yet. So I first message Asmik who's up first and then they message back that they'd forgotten about the show (this is a first for me), since no one was here yet I said we have some wiggle room if they could get here quickly. Finally both Asmik and Aster show up right at the same time (just before Aster's posted start time, but at little late as he still had to set up and stuff). Anyway, so I let them both start setting up and we'll see who can start first. Then Asmik was having a problem getting sound out of their ipad. I found an adapter in the Lamplighter's stuff for them but then the ipad would not recognize the usb output and only would play sound out of the internal speakers. Eventually Schaeffer (of Drop Ceiling) who was running the sound grabbed a clip-on microphone to mic the ipad to get the sound. Sound quality was a bit funny (and fighting feedback, mostly winning really, but it crept in occasionally) but at least it worked! They played a short set though it was good. At least by this time things were moving and people were magically then showing up. Aster was next and played an awesome set. Then it was Ironing and his stuff was insane. So he does a lot with turntables and has this slim portable one he can carry in his hands and put on his head and jerk around (and even bite the records as they're spinning). Also tape and radio and piling crap on turntables and tossing stuff around. It was a fun performance art thing going on with crazy chopped up popular music going all crazy. Really good stuff! Drop Ceiling was last and they were great. Bennett isn't on vocals anymore but the three piece was still incredible. All in all it ended up being a great show in spite its mind bogglingly stressful beginning. But there was a decent turnout and things went pretty well and everyone seemed happy and in good spirits. Mary Beth hit the merch table first and got all of Ironing's cds. I picked up a couple of t-shirts. My brain's probably still reeling from it all, but a good time.