Fun In Towns Big And Small

It's not very often I come home from a GS show feeling unhappy about how it went, and last night was no exception. It was a long, epic show with many bands. We were there for about 7 of them, and there were more before and after. The venue was a hall that held about 500 people. At most, there were a little over a hundred kids there, but the size of the audience ebbed and flowed considerably. I think a lot of people were mainly there to see their friends' bands, which is understandable. With so much happening there's a tendency to pick and choose.

We were hampered early on by drumstick issues and some sound problems. We had to communicate visually more than we're used to. By the end I think we'd smoothed out the kinks. A lot of people left before we played, but not many during the set. They enjoyed the freakshow, if nothing else.

People were generally very nice to us, but I think we'll always be a tough sell in a really small place. Scream-metal was the lingua franca in this town of 3 295 (Wikipedia). It was also a pretty young crowd who have not likely been exposed to more "underground" forms of punk rock, and haven't yet had the chance for their tastes to evolve anyway. Amused curiosity is the most a band like us can ask for under the circumstances. I think we got that.

We probably didn't give them the show we could have. Uber's mic cable was shorter than usual, and that has an effect on things. I took off with the floor tom at the end of the set, mounted it on a riser where some parents were sitting, and finished out the song. The parents didn't even make eye contact with me. We must be doing something right.