West Indian Girl

test driving the intersection 4.19.06

i highly recommend never playing the intersection again. why you ask, well, the main reason is that the sound guy at the intersection cared more about getting high than giving the bands a sound check. when a band is on time for load in and is waiting around for a club’s crew to get it together you have to wonder what sort of an operation the intersection is running. let me state that i am in no way shape or form against people getting high but getting so rocked out of you gord so that you cant perform your job (a job that involves helping my band to sound good) then yeah i’m against it. normally i could brush something like this off but not tonight. sadly enough this was the first time my parents have ever seen my band and all the while i’m at the mercy of a lazy dope telling me “that’s just how we do it here….festival style”…even though this wasnt a festival – it was a show in a club on a wednesday night. frustrating. in retrospect i spent way too long standing around waiting for the fog inside this idiot’s brain to clear up when i could have been visiting with old friends and family. way to go intersection. you should be embarrassed.

as it turns out i couldnt really relax much at all just because this wasnt how i envisioned the first time my parents seeing a west indian girl show would be. deep down inside it made me feel like a failure. of all the great places and venues we have played momma and pappa 10 had to witness the grand rapids show. at least i got to see them for a minute before i played – they were at a table with a few friends teddy (pictured), weas, and eric. my brother chris and his friends were there too. chris saw the kalamazoo show as well as this show…after these 2 he must be wondering what the hell im doing.

how was the show you ask? well, it was good for what it was. i remember liking the stage. i like big stages in general and the stage was pretty nice. just like in kalamazoo, the wonderful paucity opened the show but i didnt get to see them cos i had to rush and go eat before we played. im sorry paucity but at least we got to hang out afterwards and shoot pool. kertis, mike, and mandy that was the best part of my evening. oh yeah, the other surprise of the evening was q sitting in with bump during their cover of “send me an angel”. after seeing her from the crowd’s perspective i now understand why she is so special.

and thus ends our stretch of michigan impossible shows. we are now entering the final week of the tour and i must say it seems like it is taking a bit of a toll on some of us. im sure the band is happy to leave this state – i’m just sad i didnt get enough quality time in with my mom, dad and bro. it was great seeing them and long over due. final score on the michigan impossible tour is west indian girl 4 – michigan 2. We win.

THE ONE MUSICAL BRIGHT SPOT OF GRAND RAPIDS was doing an interview that afternoon with craig and sandy (above) from grand rapids internet television. they had us over to the offices for a real chill interview. good times, great job and thanx again craig and sandy. next time we are in town we will do it again. you can watch the interview right here….GRIT Interview

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: i’ve already written about grand rapids. please check the drive out to michigan blog. right before we arrived at the venue we did a fun little interview with GRIT tv. we got to sit around in the sun, eat apples [they read our blog ♥] and the boys drank beer. they even came and recorded our set. i heard a rumor that it’s up on the internet but i haven’t found it yet…

The Venue: the intersection. thanks for the soundcheck, you incompetent fools… im really pleased that we had two disrespectful potheads doing our monitors for us and refusing to give us a soundcheck because they did things “festival” style. yeah ok… i don’t see a festival kind of gig ever happening at the intersection. EVER. other than that the intersection is like a huge hall… huge… but from the stage it almost looked like a barn. i wasn’t too impressed. of course there were no throat coat and apples. michigan, i’ve completely given up on you as far as my rider needs [amongst others] are concerned. utterly hopeless.

The Show: despite our lack for a soundcheck and our incredibly short set i thought it was great. i knew fran’s parents were in the crowd and from their feed back they loved our performance. that makes me very happy.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i just kept envisioning a grand rapids county fair taking place inside the building. you know, arts & crafts, scary carnies, cows…

Interesting Things After The Show: well, after our set, joey c. [the kid was everywhere on our michigan impossible tour] convinced me to go up on stage and surprise the bump guys by singing with them on their cover of “send me an angel”. after two shots of jager and two grey goose and tonics i happily agreed. happy times. then me and mark explored the hip hop room or whatever and we danced while all five of the club goers stared at us. bah. so i went back to the main area & hung out with paucity [another great band & great new friends]… we drank a lot to celebrate the end of michigan impossible and i accidently lifted kertis’ bracelet [sorry, lovee…]. back at mom and dad’s house, fran and i finished off the rest of the baked ziti and then some. fran and i both slept on the floor in sleeping bags as ian was tucked away on his couch bed and mourned our last night at his parent’s house. sigh. i miss them already.

THE JAMES REPORT

Dave Burns could have been a rock god…at least that’s what his sister tells me. Thanks for coming out buddy. Grand Rapids didn’t know what hit them that night

NATHAN’S NONSENSE

first off, there’s a free podcast available for download on itunes of us being interviewed for GRIT (grand rapids internet television). they did a pretty good job cutting up the interview with segments from the live show as well. so, like, go download it and stuff. well, i’m not going to waste time griping about our inexcusable lack of a proper soundcheck, or the lack of promotion, or the ridiculous enormity of the venue as compared to the meager crowd that showed up. no, that stuff is boring, and this is my nonsense so i can do and say what i want. instead i will again take a moment to plug the brilliance of paucity, and how cool it was to actually hang out with the band this time, especially with kertis, jared, and of course anna. anna is a certifiable genius, and is as charming as her talent is inspiring. she’s also very modest and would probably object to all this attention. too bad, girl. thanks for the pile of books you lent us… i snagged one for myself. until next time… adieu.

crash course in “festival” style performingjoey c and mq version 2.0me and the weaspaucity minus 1

-F10