After the show, 29 Aug 2005

By Jon T.

The adrenaline was wearing off as thirst and fatigue were setting in. I didn’t feel like

paying $2 for a 16oz soda knowing it would only momentarily satisfy me, that coupled

with the discord and screaming that was coming from the loudspeaker in front of me led

my friends and I to vacate the premises. Thank goodness for those loyal friends who left

their comfort zones, who left suburbia behind for a night to enter this underground haven

of teenage punk rock all in the name of supporting us (Lancaster) at our first show.

Moments earlier it had been my job to entertain them and I had to justify the $7 they paid

at the door, a steep price considering they only came to see 1 band out of the 6 and our

set was hardly more than 30 minutes long.

In my mind I asked myself “What are we doing here?” as I recognized that Lancaster

stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of the evenings events. But we are a band after

all and for now we take to the stage where we can find one, even if the band following us

has a very different sound than ours. To Neckbeard’s credit, the stage was rather

accommodating and the audience was interested, owing partly to the fact that we were a

curiosity. I didn’t intend on being a curiosity but it just happens when you have 2 guys

trying to sound like 4, I think people just wanted to see if we could pull it off. As I

chugged a 44oz soda at the corner store I pondered the question “did we pull it off?”

Well, if you put aside the equipment glitches, the sound level tweaking, and me faking

my way through verse 2 of Stampkids, there definitely were times when we delivered

“the sound”.

This project has been an experiment. The electronic programming, the keyboard, it’s a

different beast than that of our previous endeavors and we’ve got to prove ourselves. We

don’t expect to do that with the novelty of electronic blips and beeps alone; we know

we’ve got to do it the same way all good bands do it: by having great songs and

performing them well. I think we were successful but next time it will be better. It was

our first time mixing all the components together on stage so there are inevitably a few

adjustments to be made but I went to bed feeling pretty good about it (considering I had

to be up at 4am for work the next day). Before drifting off to sleep I had this thought: we

don’t always have to be 2 guys trying to sound like 4, we can just be 2 guys who sound

like 2 guys.