I’m writing this post late but whatever–it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.

This was our first show without Noah and our first debuting our new power trio lineup. It was also our first show since November 30th–that’s a whole month since our last show. I was pretty nervous about it but I knew we’d pull something off. We had planned to ride to the venue with Lucas until we received some distressing news: after hiking Cowles Mountain his car keys had broken off in the ignition and he was stranded until his brother could come get him with the backup. Thankfully things worked out and we were on our way in just over an hour.

SOLV opened the show with the harshest set I’ve ever heard him play. Rather than perform any of his songs, Ariel pulled out a fuzz pedal I had built and gave to him years ago and played a Walkman (?) through it. He used his light organ with one orange Christmas light and a super bright floodlight to blind everyone in sync with the walls.

Tie.Game.Rivalry played next, opening up with some instrumentals before moving into one of the more energetic, punk-y sets I’ve seen from him. Apparently he had been sick the last few days and still wasn’t feeling too great but Bob always plays like he’s dying so it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary.

Blood Ponies were the only band on the bill with whom we hadn’t played yet but ended up giving the tightest set of the night. Their spooky, minimalist goth rock was bolstered by catchy riffs, big drums and an incredible vocal performance. They also win points for being one of the few bands we’ve played with that were good enough my wife actually bought their merch, specifically their excellent new LP Hoax.

Corrvus played next. We had previously shared the stage at The Smell back in November when he threw down an impromptu power electronics set. Tonight was my first time witnessing Corrvus in proper form and it was a real treat. Nick has a unique take on darkwave I can’t really liken to much else, drawing equally from the harsher ends of post-punk and scrap metal industrial.

This was our second show with our new drummer Alex and our first since he became an “official” member. I play with Alex in Fadrait and know him to be an incredible player who can memorize and navigate highly complex music, so naturally he’s a perfect fit for us.

Our set was hit by a few technical difficulties but thankfully we were able to rally. Before we even started playing, Russell was getting no signal during his soundcheck because the battery in his active pickups had died, but thankfully Bob from Rivalry had a spare 9v and Candace of Blood Ponies had a screwdriver. Later in the set, one of my pedals must have somehow gotten unplugged because I lost most of my signal so I gave up on the guitar and just went into self-oscillating delay wank.

Still, the set was a blast and getting to play with Alex was a real treat. Zach from Fadrait also came up to throw some vocals into the mix and at some points we almost sounded like Portal. Our good friend Ian of Cheap Windows was kind enough to film the whole set, as well as all the other videos in this post:

Driving to the show playlist:

Huey Lewis & the News – “The Power of Love”

Madonna – “Lucky Star”