I’m sitting at work right now, with about 3 hours of sleep under my belt. But there’s a smile on my face.
I suppose I could figure out a way to put it better, but I keep running into the same thing:
Wow.
Seriously, that’s how our San Diego show went.
Cane’s reminds me of one of those big ol’ Spring Break clubs on the east coast (like the Ocean Pier in Daytona Beach). We got there oh about 4 ish, and walked along the boardwalk where we found some pretty damn good mushroom cheesesteak sandwiches. After that, it was over to a video arcade, where I found this really fun first person shooter game where you had to stand on this pad because it monitored your movement (you could duck if you were being shot at.) It was a BLAST.
Sun went down (beautiful), and the club opened up so we could load in. We were the last band on that night, so we just headed over to a pizza place.
As we were walking out the door, one of the security guards looked over at a girl who looks to be the office manager or something, and sleepily said to her: “Ready for an uneventful night?”
Hmmm, I pondered; is this the makings of a “challenge??” Oh, for those of you, dear readers, who don’t know me well…you. have. no. idea. 😉
This amped me up. People started to come in, and we actually had a pretty nice draw for our first show ever in San Diego. Met some myspacers for the first time, but we also had a couple of people drive down from LA, FLY down from LA!!, and one person heckled “I drove drunk to get here.” I neither endorse nor suggest this of course.
And then the show. I was very pleased with how we performed. The set had this really nice kinetic flow to it, and it seemed the crowd responded well. Best thing was this response grew seemed to grow after each song.
And the best part, was we actually got a bonafide encore. Now, I’ve never really enjoyed encores much when they seemed strained or faked. But when a decent crowd of 50 or 60 people are forcefully chanting encore, and you know it’s late, and you know it’s a school night, and you know the lengths–and distances– they went to see you, well, you can only humbly oblige.
And I almost forgot to mention (thanks Leslie!) about two big things that happened this night:
The first thing was certainly a first for me and I’m sure a first for us. A member of the audience (who’s name shall go unmentioned for the purpose of mysteriousness), kept throwing tortillas at us. Full on: Tortillas. On these tortillas were some unmentional phrases directed at Flanders, and some directed at me. Now, you might initially go, uh oh that’s bad. Not at all, it was FRICKING HILARIOUS. I wish I had my camera; I certainly would have taken pictures of them. Did anyone else get a photo? Lemeno…
I kept picking them up and showing them (and reading them to the boys in the Choir. This same person then chucked a pair of underwear at us (men’s, but gotta start somewhere!) with Flanders’ name written all over it. At one point during Man on a Mission I tried to put them on Adam’s head, but he would have none of that.
The other hilarious thing of note was this guy I named Harmonica Man. Pretty simple really: first, he was a man; 2nd he brought his harmonica and kept trying to play it in between songs. He also keep shouting: “UN.BELIEVABLE. UN FRICKING BELIEVABLE.
He never heckled. Not once. It’s simply the case that his enthusiasm was unbridled. I hope Harmonica Man comes to our next San Diego show, that is for sure.
Afterwards, the club was very matter of factly in their high opinion. I was really happy with this and pretty honored. The people who work at Cains were very kind and extremely professional. To any band seeking to play there: the soundman Adrian is fantastic. He knows his shit.
So, to everyone in San Diego who came to the show:
All I can say is thank you for your warm welcome and enthusiastic response. We can’t wait to come back and soon; hopefully next time on a Saturday.
Wow.
Next up: Morongo Casino (Saturday Jan 27)
