West Indian Girl

strippin it down in vegas 1.19

Fran’s Flashback
There was a big sign on the side of the art bar letting the good people of vegas know that it was voted the best “place to have a conversation”. i guess it would have been a bit more encouraging to see a sign that read “best place to see live music”. as far as little bars go, the art bar is great – its not a place made for bands with more than 4 people though. this show was essentially a dress rehearsal for our gigs at sundance. it was also the first time we played with amy white on moog satellite. this show couldnt have been a better one for her “first time”. in fact it was eerily reminiscent of q’s first show. it was a rushed, hurry up show with no soundcheck, poor sound, no monitors etc etc etc. one of those shows where you just have to go for it. amy did well. after the show i went out with a bunch of drunk people – i should have known better and instead taken a cab to a casino and rolled dice and played some cards but alas i didnt do so.

dressing room and rider wrap up:
the facilities 6 points. the art bar had a cool vibe to it. there was no dressing room or anything just for the bands. just regular bathrooms (men’s had puke in it when i went in there), there was an outside area which is probably cool in the summer. the bar did have wi-fi though!!! as far as ambiance goes it wouldnt have been vegas without the video slot machines lining the bar. points for a secure parking lot and relative ease of load in.

rider/amenities 1 point. the extent of the hospitality was 6 bottled waters and 6 beers.

stage,sound,lights 2 points. this stage had some problems. mirrored walls on 2 sides of it made it seem ideal for naked chicks but not for sound. the lights were fucking horrible. come to think of it there werent any real stage lights it was just the lights coming off the dance floor. they didnt have enough vocal mics or stands or inputs to fully mic us. it was so bad it was funny… after doing this long enough you pretty much know what kind of night its gonna be like the minute you see a stage set up like this. we didnt bitch (although this may seem like it — remember im just reporting the facts people) but made the best of it. no sound check at all. the sound man looked lost to me. i think he was overwhelmed by our set up as well as limited by the stage and gear he was in charge of.

promoter 10 points. brandy brandy brandy. she hooked us up with a show on short notice and made it happen. she bought me a shot and a high life after the show. no probs with brandy. i have no idea how well it was promoted though. i dont think we sent over posters so i really cant bltch about not seeing any in the club.

staff 10 points. the bartenders and door people were all cool to me when i had to deal with them.

intangibles 2 points. the fact that the bars stay open past 2 am deserves points. we ended up finishing our set at 3 which is officially the latest we have ever played. not having a curfew is the best thing about vegas clubs

TOTAL OVERALL SCORE = 31. Obviously with a score of 31 the art bar grades out with an F as it failed miserably in most areas. (click here for a detailed explanation of my scoring system’s categories). i think the art bar should move the pole back to the center of the room, bring in the strippers and get more slots.

Mariqueen’s Mind
The City: it’s not really my cup of tea. if i had to do vegas, i’d need tons of money so i could see every cirque du soleil show. twice.

The Venue: as far as bars go, the art bar is a great place to hang out and booze with your friends. if i felt like spending all my cash on cirque du soleil shows i’d start the evening at “the best conversation bar” for sure. as far as playing a show there ever again, i dont see that happening. the stage wasnt ready for a band that has as much equipment as we do. they didnt even have enough cables for us. their soundman seemed stressed out at our very existence and i couldnt even hear myself the whole entire show. they had mirrors everywhere which seemed more appropriate for the pole that was hanging out in the middle of the room and they had more lights on the dance floor than they did on stage which makes me think that this venue is more suited for really cool sleazy rock and roll dance nights than a show from west indian girl.

The Show: aha. well let’s see… we didnt even go on until two in the morning, we didnt have enough mics or cables set up, i couldnt hear myself, our sound man was a tool bag, we played to about 25 people, we didn’t get a sound check… how do you think the show went?

What Were You Thinking While Playing: why god why?

Interesting Things After The Show: amy and i did that whole girly band bonding thing over shots of patron. my insane friend mary kept telling random people who would never think twice to come up and talk to me to mozy over and introduce themselves. we brought together a crew to search for some much needed fun. our band of misfits consisted of me, mark, nathan, mary, fabby and kevin with fran, slightly intrigued, asking us to come along. he was pretty sorry he did — after about a billion drinks at the art bar we spent twenty agonizing minutes sitting in fabby’s bmw trying to figure out why the locals we were with, didnt know where to go at 4:30 in the morning. mark wanted to go to the golden nugget but was too drunk and tired to say anything, fabiola mentioned some club named pure which pretty much had all of us booing and hissing, and i think mary, in a drunken slut moment, might’ve suggested spearmint rhinos but we’re not sure if she was talking to us or flirting with kevin [or if it was a figment of my incredible imagination]. we couldnt take listening to the heinous vegas radio stations so we stopped at caesars palace [i think] and walked around wondering what the hell we were doing there in the first place. i exclaimed starvation so we went to a liquor store and i argued with the attendant on duty that they had no organic food for me to buy and preached about the cons of having fried chicken with cheese dip as a midnight snack. mark bought more heinekens to shut up everyone’s bitching and we decided to go back to the humongous house my mom hooked us up with to have a cartwheel party. i made a bee line for the sketchy leftover mediterranean fries from dinner. after inhaling them i was overwhelmed by euphoria and fatigue or maybe it was food poisoning — im not sure but whatever it was, i became impassioned over the lack of ketchup in the house. i verbalized the importance of condiments at times like this as mary rallied behind me demanding that people find me ketchup. yyyyyyyeah.
the next morning i woke up in the fetal position with mary to my left mirroring me. great minds — they drink, think and sleep alike. wohorrd.

Nathan’s Nonsense
as a general rule i tend to avoid spending any significant amount of time in sin city. it’s all kinda snoozy to me. that, and it happens to be where i once got impetuously hitched years ago in what turned out to be an arduous and lengthy entanglement. that was a blast, i tells ya. but i’m afraid that’s another story. as far as the show goes, i thought it went quite well, considering the sound guy was completely disinterested, didn’t really do his job, and not that many people showed up. oh, and we didn’t end up going on until almost 2 am. it was the first official show for our newest member, amy white, who has stepped in to play moog satellite and backing vocals. welcome to the family, amy. it’s nice not having to be the new guy anymore. this show may also go down in history as the last time i was able to get away with using the sustain pedal on my rhodes piano. you see, fran and i have this thing where he doesn’t really approve of my use of sustain while playing. while, in my humble opinion, it flies in the face of all musical reason, i have reluctantly agreed to give it a go and adjust my playing style somewhat. but on this night, it was the sustain pedal’s last hoorah. the pedal has since mysteriously disappeared. there was an unconfirmed sighting of the pedal rod sticking out of a snowdrift somewhere outside salt lake city, but so far nothing else to go on. if anyone has any information as to it’s whereabouts, please contact me right away. i’ll be sure to update everyone on the situation as details become available. so that’s my vegas blurb. the rest is just a flurry of darting about the city in the back of fabiola’s fab mercedes and finishing up the night at the makeshift, unfurnished band house. after not nearly enough sleep, it was off to utah and the high country.

Tony’s Take
i am so fucking happy that fran didnt leave me in that kennel he took me to the other day. it was cool in the fact i would have been next to a bunch of other boxers but sleeping outside in this cold would not have been kosh. instead he packed me a goose down puffy jacket and i was on the A team. first time in vegas…not much to report…never even went in the bar. before the show they took me to a safe-house that Q’s mom had set up for us. it was rad – all shag carpet and an enclosed yard. i took 3 shits there and got to run around til my heart’s content. at night i slept next to fran in his sleeping bag. it was a fantastic stay for me. so far the only bad thing about the trip is my spot in the van – on the floor between the 2 front seats. lewscious is in my usual bench and he doesnt really like to share. i love the guy anyway.