hollaween

what a halloweekend!

my saturday show at bubba's got a lot of press. it was at least mentioned in all the major local newspapers, one radio station, & two tv stations. this show was an all-ages benefit for the families of two police officers who recently died in the line of duty. i was scheduled to play in between all the other acts, for a total of six 10-minute sets.

for some reason, people didn't come out en masse. we probably had at most 30 people in there at once (& that was early on), with maybe 60 people showing up total over the course of the night. but it was a good time nonetheless. the people were all cool, & the music was undeniably diverse, from the roots music of jethro easyfields to the '80s-style showmanship of niswander rock theater to the dark psychedelic rock of pharmakon to the harsh experiments of TEC & noiseman433.

and i sold one cd: to someone who i later learned was a "venture capitalist [...] who was particularly impressed with il Troubadore, Pharmakon and stAllio and [...] is interested in helping develop these acts and the Indianapolis music scene." at one point this venture capitalist brought in three pizzas from next door to share. i'm not sure if he bought them, simply carried them, or what. they were tasty, but they were all "meat-lover's" or the equivalent, so the vegetarians (like bobby vomit & his crew) didn't get to eat any...

bubba's is an unusual venue, with mini bowling (where the pins are small & there is no machine to reset them; you had to walk down the lane & put them back manually) & pool tables. il troubadore decided to eschew the PA & play their set acoustic, so naturally right after they started a new group of kids arrived & started bowling, loudly stomping down the lanes after each throw. boom crash opera.

anyway, we apparently earned $151 for the families of the fallen officers, played a good show, & hung out in good company. not the kind of turnout i'd hoped for, but not a waste of time either.

sunday night was the asobi sexsu show hosted by the free zone. quite a contrast from the night before. the place was packed! we had 100 people through the door & probably half or more of them were already there when i kicked off the show at 9pm. when i was onstage performing i could very clearly hear the din of all the bar conversation. it was almost as loud as my monitors. i was tempted to turn my sound way up. but when i finished my set, i got a loud round of applause, so maybe that was just an acoustical problem & the audience could hear me just fine... the other bands sounded quite loud in front of the speakers, & i performed at the same sound level i'd sound-checked at, so right now i'm going with the idea that my monitors just should've been louder, since the sound from the real speakers doesn't reach the stage.

lunar event played a great set (i thought they sounded tighter than when i heard them at the red room during mms, but maybe my mms opinion was tainted by my uneasiness with the crowd there), & asobi sexsu sounded pretty good as well. not something i'd want to buy & listen to often, but an enjoyable live set. after they finished, everyone rushed to the merch table to buy their stuff. nobody bought any stAllio! swag, but i did trade t-shirts with derek from lunar event.

i got to meet (however briefly) a couple people i'd only communicated with online, & i handed a free cd to steve hammer (if you aren't local, hammer is the main music reporter & columnist at nuvo, a tabloid weekly akin to the village voice, cleveland scene, etc (it was the only paper in that market for years until intake came onto the scene recently).

and chandler paid me $50! i don't think i've been paid that much for a show since the very first bt show in muncie back in january 2001!