West Indian Girl

really, it’s nothing personal tempe 8.2

Note From F10 – writing a blog is about being honest. with that simple fact stated , i dont believe in always having to, or trying to put a postive spin on our lives or what we do. read it and weep

Fran’s Flashback

we played in tempe at a bar called the sets last night. i had a hunch this gig was going to suck for a few reasons…the main one being that it was booked way too late. the odds are going to be against any band playing a midweek show in a market they’ve never played before with very little time to promote. sure it can be good for the money and the rehearsal but psychologically it exacts a somewhat bigger toll from a band that is not only struggling to make ends meet but at the same time trying to keep morale up. in an ideal world shows get booked with 6 weeks lead time in order to properly promote. i mean its not really the promoters fault because he was at least cool enough to get us in the market for the first time and pay us well but the club was just wrong. i wish our agent cared a bit more because this shouldnt be happening. our show and our effort and our collective life is too good to be taken for granted of like this. but hey, if you arent a big band you arent a big priority and thus you end up getting shitty gigs that sometimes dont make any sense. these are the times when i find myself questioning what im doing.

dressing room and rider wrap up: im giving the sets a score of 2. this now “sets” my all time low (since i have been scoring). unfortunately for this bar it reminded me of the bars i used to avoid when i was in college. the place was basically a sports bar with a big generic lifeless room attached to it for bands to play in. the dressing room was a closet…as far as the rider goes – the promoter bought us out which was cool. dont get me wrong, the people at the club were cordial but they were all very detached. the house sound guy steve was nice enough. the lights were stagnant…just the same few spots on the whole time thus adding the empty feeling i had in my stomach. the promoter’s employee was nice too but it was again it was all very business like and detached. it was just a fucking weird place for us to play. not a weird place to watch sports at though. it probably would have been better if the main room where the sports were on was actually the room we were playing in. that would have at least added to the life in the room and the feeling that we were actually engaging people. depressing depressing depressing.

100 degree thanx to: the 5 people that were actual fans in the crowd, 3 of whom saw us at the high sierra a little while ago. thanx for showing up guys.

Tony’s Take
i woke up in tucson, had breakfast and checked out of the room around noon. fran took me over to a parking lot where i took another shit and ran around off leash. i spent the next hour staring at a pigeon while the band was having lunch at the outside cafe. i really wanted to get at that fucking bird but fran kept pulling that cesar milan stuff on me. after lunch we went back into the club where i pissed on a pole just to mess with fran’s head. anyway, tempe….so damn hot it was killin me. i couldnt even put my paws on the pavement without them getting burned. i got to hang out in the club while the band sound checked. i mostly sat next to my girl q while she played this videogame thing she has been playing all tour. i also got to hang out on stage during the sound check. i liked the bar more than everyone else just cos the ac was crankin and i wasnt always on a leash. after fran ate dinner we went back to the van and he made me dinner and then we both took a nap. fran woke up right before his show and left me in the van with water and the windows rolled half way down but it was still hot as a mofo up in that bitch. i sat in the drivers seat and stared out the window for a while and finally decided to lay down and take a nap and wait for fran to come back. once he came back i took a piss and went back into the club and hung out with q while the band loaded up. when she wasnt looking i wondered off for a bit and got pet by some strangers. now its back in the van for a 6 hour drive and i have to share a seat with fran. im sick of sharing my seat with him.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: tempe reminds me of yorba linda, CA circa 1998. take it how you want.

The Venue: if you like going to big sports bars that let underage kids walk everywhere which in turn, restricts you from moving around with a drink in your hand, which in turn confines you to an area that is sectioned off with caution tape, then i guess the sets is right up your alley.

The Show: it was depressing. i was pretending i was having a nightmare the whole entire time…

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i was counting down the end of our set by each song, hoping that mark would miraculously up the tempos to every one of them so we could get out of there.

Interesting Things After The Show: well at the end of our last song, the bartender, who was a really cool guy, stood on the back of the bar and blew fire. after wallowing our depression in drink, the boys packed up the van as i got lost in my nintendo ds.

seeing the best parts of the countryif only he could really drive