Ahh, I love playing the part of the outcast, the outsider, the ignored! And so does the rest of my nerdy choir compatriots.
So, we played the Galaxy Theatre this past Friday. We had a phenomenal response from both local OC fans as well as LA fans who piled into a van and drove down in numbers to see us. Very grateful indeed.
But I find it absolutely amusing how a band can come into a club see that 4 other bands are playing, and we only end up hanging out with the people from those bands who’ll actually speak to us: the techs, the road managers and the merch girls.
I don’t even know enough about the bands to slam them as people! They were simply ones to ignore each other. I find that so strange because you would think that rock bands would find common ground in this dreadful industry we’ve pledged our lives. But alas, we ended up just hanging around the merch booth and yammering with the merch peeps and heck even the club staff, who were very cool to us. Note: the sound man does not shake your hand. He um, shakes your elbow. Fair enough…
We got there at 5, loaded our gear and around 7 went to Hooters (which was awful food but fun) to hang out with the Party Van go’ers.
One heckler for the whole year is not enough to bring us down
We were very fortunate to go on 3rd of 5 (bands), so I’d say we had a pretty good amount of people to play in front of. And the response was palpable.
I mean seriously. A great response.
We played:
1. Finger on the Trigger Makes a Man Feel Bigger
2. My Oh My
3. Taste of the Good Life
4. Time Travel
5. Say What You Will
6. Man on a Mission
7. Milkshake
8. Independent
Just as I was putting on Mike’s guitar for Time Travel (Mike plays acoustic and I double up on electric for that tune), I heard someone (a passive aggressive dude) say “Just hurry up and finish!”
Awesome! My first heckler of the year. Oh this stuff is fun. I don’t even know if anyone heard it because well, he was not very masculine.
So, I just said something along the lines of “wow, hahaha, am I being heckled!? Cool! But I’m afraid you’re just going to make me go slower now!”
I doubt anyone even knew what I was talking about because this heckler child was never heard from again. Which is why I now move on with the rest of my story.
I must point out something very important: the boys in the Choir played their hearts out this show. It was the tightest show I’ve heard by them in a while. It was very locked in but had a really smooth, confident flow to it. It wasn’t white knuckle tight but more along the lines of “the cool kid at high school” tight. No one tried too hard. That sort of thing.
So, I was thrilled at that.
That being said, I still went up to each and every one of them after the show and told them how awful I thought the show was. I have to keep them on their toes. (Seriously, I did. Ask them!)
Me and my two lovely merch ladies didn’t leave the club til probably 1:30. Met some great new OC fans, and thought most of the other bands were decent in spite of their either a) standoffishness or b)shyness. I’ll allow for b. I’m feeling charitable.
So, til 2008 all you Chance & the Choir fans, wait til you see and hear what we have in store next.
Recording studio updates coming soon…
