3/1: Last night was our best show yet by far. Little that could happen tonight will not seem like a letdown after last night. We played at the Velvet Elvis (now renamed the Velvet Lounge, due to a recent "cease and desist" order from Graceland, making two Velvet Lounges we've played on this tour). The band we played with, Mira Flores, feat. the busboy from the local pizza shop, brought lots of folks as predicted. The band was quite good, if not exactly party music. Excellent use of rock cello, anyway. Seriously. We took the stage around 1 am to about 100 fans. Okay, maybe not 100, but enough to where i'm tempted to use the figure 100. 70? Anyway, a lot more than the previous night, and by that point in the evening, they were all quite drunk and ready to cut loose. We blazed through a 10 song set that had all the local girls dancing all night. We sold quite a few CDs (finally) and felt like the rock stars we know we are deep down inside. I just wish i could've been a little more diligent about taking pictures. Mine and Jeff's cameras are almost out of batteries and/or disk space. I wanted to get a photo of Tammy, the bartender/booker at the Velvet Elvis Lounge, and our new patron saint of rock. She loved us so much she let Jeff drink straight out of the beer tap. Didn't get a photo of that either. She also paid us both nights, ignored our bar tabs, and invited us back down for St. Patrick's Day weekend, which apparently is like Mardi Gras around here. Come to think of it, i did see an Irish souvenir store while i was up there. Also, shouts to Rachel and her girlfriend Stac(e)y for putting us up, and Greg nicely adds, "putting up with us." They had us over again last night, and while we were getting ready, we watched their DVD of the "Elvis Comeback Special", which was equally inspiring and depressing, and listened to a CD of our first Savannah show. This turned out much better than we thought. We're a pretty good band! Very together sounding.
What strikes me most about the south is how stumped people are by my sense of humor, and our collective sense of humor. Maybe everyone is. I wish i could exemplify it. Very un-ironic in these parts. The quote of the day, and maybe the tour, courtesy of Igor, the soundguy at the Velvet Elvis: "Everyone in New York is trying to do something, or be something, and i'm not really into that ..."
Last night, Mimi and i, both drunk, were quite happy to find a bag of Ritz Bits in the van, which we enjoyed. So, today, at the Tiger Mart we were getting gas and James asked if there were still any snacks in the car. Mimi replied "no, we freaked that bag of cookies."
I'm just now remembering a really drunk, quite popular local kid who was celebrating his birthday last night by playing Greg's drumset, by himself, about an hour after we finished last night. That was pretty annoying.
I live for pictures like this
Outside Common Grounds
where the local punx don't really go
for us suit-wearin' types
At this point, i decided to start taking pictures from the stage, rather than of it. Why i picked the worst show to do it, i don't know. If this had been the night before, there would've been people screaming and drinking beer. I swear.
Anyway, they seem to be enjoying themselves.
