Rocked the Rockit Room

Friday night's gig at the Rockit room kicked major ass. Every band in the lineup had the crowd enthralled, and we fed off of that energy when it was our time to play. It was super hot that evening, and after a long day at work I was a bit drained. We arrived at the club at around a quarter to eight and loaded in. We were using the house amps that night, and we had to help haul the half stacks on stage and set them up. That littel bit of manual labor helped us get our soundcheck done first.

After that, Sack (oh yeah, did I mention he is back? No more Star Searching for a bass player) went back home and Pmastre, OP, and I went to the Thai restaurant across the street. I chowed down on some pad thai while we talked about how good this show is going to be. I asked the guys if I should wear a shirt over my tank, or change to a t-shirt. Pmastre looked at me and said "You're asking ME for fashion advice??" He had a good point, so I turned to OP, who said I should just go with the black wifebeater. We headed out onto the street where masses of summer-clad people were wandering about. After making final wardrobe decisions, we dispersed only to meet again at the club.

Rayzed started the night off strong by getting the house jumping to their eclectic blues-rock set. They had a pretty good draw, and most of their fans stayed for the duration. Hey Young Believer was next, and they gained a bunch of new fans with their female-led pop-rock style. We were next, followed by Solcraft, a foursome that rocked heavy on the bass and guitar a la Rage Against the Machine.

I felt that our set was pretty entertaining. "F**king rockin'!!" as one spectator put it. Behind the scenes was another story! Just before the set began, OP gets the crowd going by chanting "When I say Mother, you say Bucker!" and everyone was playing along. In the meantime, I was fumbling in the corner, getting no sound whatsoever from my amp, doing my best not to freak out. As OP starts getting ready to play the "prelude song", I discover that my cable was not plugged in to the amp input! And I am an IT professional?? Duh'r. All systems were go, but the amp was still a little bit unfamiliar to me. [note to self: Bring my own Mesa rig next time!]

As the set went on, my stupid (but good-looking) guitar kept going out of tune [note to self: Play the PRS next time!], and I think someone else was going out of tune too, so my confidence was waning, and it showed on a couple of solos. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sack looking at Pmastre for assistance with something, and Pmastre just looked back at him like "what do you want, I'm trying' to keep time, dammit!". In between songs I was playing the oh-so-amateurish "tu-ning" song, since I didn't have a tuner in my chain. [note to self: Get an inline tuner!]

It was hot to begin with, but being upstairs, under the stage lights, and jumping around like a maniac really pushed my thermostat to it's limit. I was sweating like I was running a 10k in the desert, and the Red Bull knockoff I was drinking was not putting it back. I had a track workout the night before, and my quads started to remind me of that. I was starting to fade, but the set was almost over.

At some point, OP called out the wrong song, and we all argued with him for a second, doing our best Abbott and Costello. It entertained the crowd, so maybe we'll keep it in the act.

We clunked our way through our 2 new songs, as we always do when introducing our latest hits ;-)! In "Devolver" I have a guitar solo that goes through 8 measures and then cuts into the chorus, but the fellas inadvertently cut to the chorus after only 4 and I was stuck on the front of the stage doing my best Nerdie Van Hagar to the crowd and I had to slyly walk backwards to my mike and jump into singing the chorus without anyone being the wiser. The funniest part about that was that the guys were giving me the stank-eye even though we agreed not to look at each other during flubs!

We ended the set with the big bang of "The Lesson", and we were all sweaty and spent! Despite the technical difficulties, we laid it on the line and shot our wad with conviction. All our friends/family/fans came up to pat us on the back and tell us how great the show was, but I was just glad to be done! OP's stong vocals, Sack's much-improved basslines, and Pmastre's relentless pounding reminded the crowd what the MHB is all about.

A big thanks to everyone that came out and filled up the Rockit Room even during what Marco calls the "slow season"!

As goofy as the set was at times, I loved every minute of it! Our next big show will be our CD release party some time this summer. Our CD has been mastered and now just needs to be duplicated and packaged! Sample songs are already up on the MotherHumbuckers MySpace page! Stay tuned!