This was without a doubt our most laborious video to date.
After we wrote the previous full-length comedy vid ("Birth Of RILOD") we immediately re-imagined the character of Bradley Stevenson (at that point, S*D's enemy) as a friend to the band. Brad Rohrer (who plays Bradley Stevenson) is just such a funny contrast to the band already that we knew he'd work better being able to play with that, as opposed to being an enemy, which meant we would be together rarely, and the focus of us together would really have to be anger. Not a lot of opportunity in deviation of types of comedy there.
So we all agreed that making Brad our friend was the best way to do things, so we originally had come up with an idea that revolved around us meeting his mother (who he continually wrote to in the video that had his first appearance), and ending the video with an extended dinner scene with Brad and his mother that S*D was ruining. The thing is, we came up with this in Sept '08, and we weren't ready to do another full-length video until Sept '09! During that year, we (Sousa, Brad and myself - who write the videos) came up with a TON of jokes (we come up with independant jokes all the time, and have a list of jokes on hand for videos that help us shape what we're writing) and we still hadn't found a real REASON for S*D/Brad to join forces in the first place.
So by the time we scheduled our home show (we scheduled it for Nov 13, '09), for which we would be creating the video, it was around early Sept, and we started doing the video (videos take about 5 - 6 weeks for the entire process, and they have to be up about two weeks before the show). So we sat down to write, and slowly, the surroundings of the video came to us. We came in with about 110 jokes we had written - anything from physical comedy bits to cutaways to clever one-liners to story ideas. We had about 4 solid nights of writing before we had the story pretty much done. We knew Brad needed a reason to hang out with us, and that we needed a reason to hang out with Brad, so we came up with the idea that Brad was forced to try to change us into "decent" citizens, and that we needed a letter of recommendation from a fire marshall (which he was) to play our homeshow. The loose story was that by the end he'd grow to like us, and we'd like him. To add a little more story, we gave him a love interest (Casey) that we'd help him with, to show him we're good guys.
But as we neared the end, I knew there was a lot of funny stuff here, and I knew that B Lau (our DP) and I were going to storyboard and make this (without a doubt) our most professional video yet, so it bothered me that I thought we were doing a tiny bit of set up in the beginning, a resolution at the end, and basically a very repetitive entire middle of the video.
I came to Brad and Sousa and said I thought the video was funny, had a good shape to the story, was well-rounded in terms of comedy, but that we needed to have more tension-risers; we couldn't have the video just kind of be us pissing off Brad over and over - we needed the stakes to continually raise.
So it basically had started like this:
1. Brad is forced to hang with us or he is fired
2. We are forced to deal with Brad
3. Brad likes a girl
4. We piss off Brad about 8 different times, and piss off the girl
5. We help out Brad with the girl
6. Brad explains to his boss that we are good, and we're all friends
and we changed it to this:
1. 1. Brad is forced to hang with us
2. We are forced to deal with Brad
3. Brad likes a girl
4. We piss off Brad slightly
5. Brad brings in a girl, and we really piss her off, which makes him really mad
6. Brad is mad, and we piss him off AGAIN - and he leaves us, saying he won't help us in the way he was going to, so all is lost
7. Brad talks to his boss, and his boss threatens firing him AND now he has to bring us TO his boss to prove we've changed
5. Brad comes back to us, and we help out Brad with the girl
6. Brad explains to his boss that we are good, and we're all friends
The story builds more in the second list, and we needed that. We finished writing the video around Oct 9th, when Sousa and his girlfriend Casey were going away.
Brad and I did a read-through, which put us overtime (we wanted to do 23 minutes, the read-through was about 26). We cut tiny bits here and there from the script, and started storyboarding.
B Lau and storyboarded at my house, Quizno's, the Coffee Depot, Ruby Tuesday's and somewhere else I can't remember - it was grueling. We draw out every shot (which, in turn, makes changes in the script) and I believe there was about 180 different shots in this video, and each shot was drawn out as a panel (like a comic book). It took hours upon goddamn hours, but it's worth it for the final product. We had it done around Oct 16th.
There was some preparation that went into the props (and we were getting everything ready for our huge shows coming up) so shooting started a few days later. The schedule for shooting was horrible. Sousa and Casey get their schedules on Saturdays, which means we can't plan the following Monday - Saturday until they get it, and they each work five shifts a week plus a call-in shift. A call-in shift means they PROBABLY won't work that day, but if someone calls out, they have to go in. I refuse to schedule a shooting day during one of their call-ins, because everyone is fucked if they are called in, and we all wasted our time - I have too much to do to risk wasting my time like that.
So scheduling was absolutely killing me - the thing is, the list of tasks we do in the video are as follows:
- Writing: Chuck, Brad and Sousa
- Storyboarding: Chuck and B Lau
- Directing: Chuck and B Lau
- Acting: Everyone
- Editing: Chuck
So, there was never a point in time when I wasn't working. When we wrote, Tom, Christian, etc could be doing something else. When we storyboarded, Sousa, Brad, etc could be doing something else. When I edit, EVERYONE can be doing something else. And when we shoot the scenes - everyone has different scenes they shoot, so sometimes Brad isn't there, sometimes Tom isn't there, sometimes Sousa isn't there - but I always have to be there.
It was very very difficult because at the same time, we were getting ready for our homeshow in terms of music and the show, and the same went for our sold-out House of Blues show in Boston with Girl Talk (which was a huge and important opportunity) - so practicing was extremely important. We usually practice twice a week for about 1.5 - 2 hours at a time, and we had pushed it up to three times a week at this time.
It was really running me ragged. and there were a few scheduling mishaps where people "forgot they were busy," which fucked us so much and made me so stressed out - of course, the final editing was like three days straight, during which I got between 2 and 5 hours of sleep a night.
We really did our absolute best to schedule everything well, and we started very early (about 6 weeks before the video was to go up) but when people work full-time jobs and are trying to make something this professional and involved, it's extremely extremely difficult.
Halfway through shooting I realized we had a 40 minute-video on our hands, so we desperately cut a few short exchanges and two big scenes, as well as trimmed some stuff in the editing room.
The shoots were fun and difficult at the same time. With our new style of shooting (lighting one entire scene from one area and shooting all those lines, then doing the next shot, then the next), the comedy was difficult to judge, as there was such little rhythm during the actual filming. Not only that, sometimes it would take 15 - 20 minutes just to light a single shot. If we're doing 15 - 20 shots a night, it can get really horrible. Shoots ran long, props were forgotten, we were rained out - a specific scene even had to be rewritten because when we went to shoot it, we didn't think it was funny enough.
It was a ton of work (and oddly enough, a lot more props than normal, which really throws a wrench in the gears), and the biggest cast we've ever had - which ALWAYS makes things harder, but we really loved the outcome. The entire time, I was looking up sound effects and seeing where we'd need little bits of music, or transitional sounds, to make the video really seem dramatic and emphasize all the things we wanted to be emphasized.
The shooting basically went from Oct 19th - Nov 1st, and by around 5 or 6 AM on Nov 1st (really Nov 2nd morning at this point), the editing was done. Nov 2nd (at night) we played the House of Blues show, we shot a few live songs with Fox Providence (TV) the next morning, and I went back to getting the video HTML stuff ready and we had it up late during the night on Nov 3rd. Everyone seemed really happy with it - I think you can tell how much we stepped it up just by watching it.
We went in with about 110 jokes/ideas and used about 60. After the cuts, that went down to about 40 of the jokes we had originally brought in (plus a lot of new ones).
The video basically got unanimously positive response and is at a 95% funny rating on funnyordie.com as of this writing. I think it's the best video we've done, and I'm looking to polish it further (and maybe make a director's cut with everything we cut out) and it's going to be the main thing we sent out to people to try to get someone interested in paying us to make our comedy vids.
- Chuck Staton
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
S*D with Stealing Jane in Vermont
So, we get an email on Sunday, June 8th to see if we can play a show the following Friday, June 12th, in Vermont at Knapp's Underground. This is fairly short notice - we usually get show requests 3 - 6 weeks before a show.
We love playing new places, and we know that none of us really are booked for anything that Friday (which is rare, as Sousa is a busy bastard beaver). So I get in touch with all the Senior Discount boys and we agree to do it.
At this point, we really haven't played a show since January - we had booked up through February but had some cancellations, and March/April/May were all about getting the new website done, the new songs perfected, recorded, mixed and mastered, as well as the new video and all the promo for all of that in the right place.
This wasn't a big deal, as we basically practice two nights a week no matter, to keep us ready. No guaranteed pay for this show, but it promised to be a lot of fun, as our friends in Stealing Jane would be playing.
So on Friday we saddled up - me, Sousa, Tom, and Christian of course, but also my girlfriend Alyssa, Sousa's girlfriend Casey, and our merch girl Sierra. We're told only to bring our guitars, heads, and drums, and to leave our cabs behind. Tom insists on bringing the cabs, so I let him.
We drive the four hours up to the show (during which I get a sweet-ass Cinnamon Raisin Bagel with Strawberry Cream Cheese from Dunkin Donuts). We get there and we're told we're only allowed one guest. Unnacceptable. We were never told this - we're not driving four hours to play a show for (assumedly) no money, and paying for our girlfriends to watch us. The people there are cool and agree. They also tell us we DO need our cabs and seem very suspiscious when we tell them we were told not to bring them. Either way - we've got 'em. Who cares.
We load-in. The place is pretty nice. Very small, not too many people there. We set up our merch, and Sousa, Casey, Alyssa and myself go for a short walk, with our old friend Little John, who used to live in RI and had moved to VT. He came to the show to hang out with us.
We're walking in a very quaint downtown area, with tons of brand new brightly painted moose statues everywhere. We're walking and talking, taking pictures, seeing what restaurants might be able to fill our gullets, and we mistakenly don't notice a man, a woman with a stroller, and two children approaching.
I turn forward from my sight-seeing gaze, and see them standing to the side of the sidewalk, letting us pass, as they saw we weren't paying attention. I immediately say "Sorry". The people roll their eyes, and they walk by, and the guy says something under his breath, clearly ending the sentence with "motherfuckers."
Now let me paint you a picture - this guy is probably 38, and about 5'5''. He's wearing a wife-beater (and almost certainly is one), as well as some tattoos. He probably weighs 190, and he's not fat or jacked. He has a sort of large upper-body in a weird way. Looks (and talks) kind of Irish. The woman is a typical no-make-up 32 year old, who looks pregnant and is wearing (to the best of my knowledge) sweat pants and a zip-up hoodie. There's a baby in the stroller she's pushing, and two other kids - about 7 and 9.
So Sousa, as you may or may not know, does some martial arts - Amok to be exact - and he also has a horrible, broken temper that goes off whenever he's disrespected. Sousa says to the guy "What did you say?" and the guy turns back to us (as he's now past us) and says "I called you all 'motherfuckers'".
Sousa says "That's wonderful language to use in front of your children," and the guy starts walking back at us, saying "What the fuck did you say?"
Have you ever noticed that people only get mad at things that are true? If you called me a "bad parent" right now, I wouldn't care, as it's not true - I have no children. But if you call this guy a "bad parent", he's going to be pissed because it's going to hit him in a real place.
So this guy's very mad that we said he shouldn't say "fuck" in front of his kids (really? this is a foreign concept to him?). He says to Sousa, "You want to take this behind a building and settle it?"
Casey, Sousa's girlfriend, is trying to pull him away from the situation.
Sousa and the man yell back and forth a little more (curiously, the 30 year olds with the children are the ones using all the "fuck"s). Finally I say "You know, we were just looking at all the shops and stuff around here because we're not from Vermont. It was really an accident and I said 'Sorry' as soon as we noticed you." This falls on deaf ears (surprise surprise).
As it seems the yelling has finished (and now the woman has begun yelling at us as well), my girlfriend Alyssa, being the spitfire that she is, returns some yelling to the mother, in the form of the phrase, "Go have another kid."
The woman stops dead in her tracks, and does the turn around. She says "What the fuck did you say?"
Alyssa responds, "Go...have...another...kid."
The woman starts walking quickly and sternly to us. I'm positive that this is horrible step.
The woman is very serious and pissed. Maybe because she's not pregnant, she's just fat? I don't know.
She comes right up to Alyssa's face, and I, of course, have already stepped in between them to stop a physical fight from starting. Unfortunately, the guy is also walking up. He stares down Sousa as he passes him, but Casey is still pulling Sousa back. So now I have Alyssa behind me, the woman in front of me, staring down Alyssa, and the guy behind the woman, staring down ME.
The woman says "I only have one kid" and stands there for a second before walking away.
The family is leaving, and the woman is saying things to Alyssa like, "Go home to your mom." Not such a great insult. They keep saying stuff and muttering things - why do people do that? Does it help them think they won?
We're still standing there - specifically Sousa, staring down the guy - and this guy cannot take it. He says to Sousa, again, "Do you want to take this behind that building and settle this?" and Sousa says "Yes! I guess it will be me versus you and your kids!" and I shrug and say "They're all the same size," and we walk away. The family continues on their way (muttering, still) and the fight is over.
Sousa and Casey get into a lover's quarrel - Sousa is a hot-head and Casey is a lover (and subsequently, not a fighter). So Alyssa, Little John and I walk around some more before heading back to the venue.
Sousa eventually gets there. We all hang out for a while and about a half hour, Alyssa, Little John and I go across the street to get her some pizza (I don't like to eat before I play). As we're ordering the pizza, the woman from our altercation walks in. I see her walking in before she sees us, and I turn away. She sees us and I overhear her say, "You've got to be kidding me."
She comes up to the counter next to us and stands there with us for a good three minutes. The tension is in the air, but it's not affecting me. We walk away when Alyssa gets her slices, and the woman says "Fucking bitch..." to Alyssa as we walk away.
We ignore this, and I'm really proud of Alyssa, as she is a hothead. I think about how the woman was RIGHT next to us, and if she really wanted to tell us we were wrong, she would address us civilly, and we could have discussed it like adults, calmly.
But no. The 30+ woman calls a 20 year old a "fucking bitch" (and not even to her face).
I tell Alyssa, that woman was over 30, hanging out and swearing horribly in front of three children (at least two were not hers, according to her) and has a boyfriend who would try to fight a group of much younger guys in the middle of the street (in front of those kids) for walking in his way even when those kids apologize.
I say, "Let the woman call you a bitch all she wants. You are clearly - CLEARLY - walking away the winner."
We sit down and I talk to Bunce from Stealing Jane about playing a show with them soon in RI. I then tell him about the altercation we had, and it sounds outlandish, but then the whole family walks by the window (after the woman got her pizza) glaring at us, in a hilarious coincidence. I apologize to a man sitting near us, in case he heard any "spicy" language. He assures us I didn't say anything too "spicy" at all, and that he's going to come over to the show. He's from Georgia, recently moved to VT, and around 35 - 40 years old. I'm not sure he's going to enjoy us, but I tell him that's great, and I'll see him there.
We go back to the venue, we play to about 12 - 15 people standing up to watch us, and a total of about 30 people in the room. None of our amps are mic'd, and neither are our drums. And you know what? We played incredibly well. Great harmonies, very tight, very energetic, fast, fun (despite a long pause between our first and second song for the people there to fix the microphones). I saw the Georgian man from the pizza place at the beginning of the set, but by the end he seemed to have left - which is fine, I didn't think he was a typical Discount fan.
Everyone gives us positive response. Bunce from Stealing Jane tells us we sound 100 times better than when Kevin was in the band, Little John tells us we were very very tight, the owner enjoyed us - we felt very good about the show.
Then - we ran into the Georgian man from the pizza place. He tells us we were incredible. He told us he is not easily impressed by live bands today, and that we blew him away. He told us we were wasting our time playing small places (which is not true, but very sweet of him) and that we needed to get hooked up with a label - quickly.
He continued to talk to us all night, and every time he'd compliment us and we'd say "Thanks", he'd respond with "No, I'm serious." Very nice guy, complimented us up and down all night long - and that really meant a lot, especially from coming from someone who is so obviously not our normal demographic.
We really think that if you can play well in a place with lots of people, fans that know your stuff, in a large place with great sound - that's great. But if you can perform really well (and energetically) in a place with not a lot of people, not alot of people who know your stuff (which means much much less crowd energy), and a place with not so great sound - THAT'S when you're doing well.
If you can pull out a great performance in not-so-great circumstances, then you've really got something, and that's overcoming a challenge.
We talked to a lot of other bands. Spread around the word of our DVD and new free EP as usual. Sell a few older CD's - when the show is over, we give all the people flyers about our EP, and that's that.
The owner tells us they pay later on, sending us a check, if there's enough money - which means we will not getting paid. But we really appreciate getting asked to play, and had a great time. Sousa, Casey, Tom, Alyssa and I go back to the pizza place and we all get some pizza and talk about how great we are.
We say goodbye to any new friends we made and head home. We get home at 5:00 AM, and simply talked for four hours all the way home. To me, a great, great night for the band in a weird, weird way.
- Chuck Staton
SET LIST:
Smile/Pixies
(eight minutes of stage banter while all the microphones are fixed)
Tom's Not
And Thats Goodbye
Girls
I'm Crazy
Nothing's Left
Ataxia
P.S. The woman from the pizza place was a dumpy bitch. True.
We love playing new places, and we know that none of us really are booked for anything that Friday (which is rare, as Sousa is a busy bastard beaver). So I get in touch with all the Senior Discount boys and we agree to do it.
At this point, we really haven't played a show since January - we had booked up through February but had some cancellations, and March/April/May were all about getting the new website done, the new songs perfected, recorded, mixed and mastered, as well as the new video and all the promo for all of that in the right place.
This wasn't a big deal, as we basically practice two nights a week no matter, to keep us ready. No guaranteed pay for this show, but it promised to be a lot of fun, as our friends in Stealing Jane would be playing.
So on Friday we saddled up - me, Sousa, Tom, and Christian of course, but also my girlfriend Alyssa, Sousa's girlfriend Casey, and our merch girl Sierra. We're told only to bring our guitars, heads, and drums, and to leave our cabs behind. Tom insists on bringing the cabs, so I let him.
We drive the four hours up to the show (during which I get a sweet-ass Cinnamon Raisin Bagel with Strawberry Cream Cheese from Dunkin Donuts). We get there and we're told we're only allowed one guest. Unnacceptable. We were never told this - we're not driving four hours to play a show for (assumedly) no money, and paying for our girlfriends to watch us. The people there are cool and agree. They also tell us we DO need our cabs and seem very suspiscious when we tell them we were told not to bring them. Either way - we've got 'em. Who cares.
We load-in. The place is pretty nice. Very small, not too many people there. We set up our merch, and Sousa, Casey, Alyssa and myself go for a short walk, with our old friend Little John, who used to live in RI and had moved to VT. He came to the show to hang out with us.
We're walking in a very quaint downtown area, with tons of brand new brightly painted moose statues everywhere. We're walking and talking, taking pictures, seeing what restaurants might be able to fill our gullets, and we mistakenly don't notice a man, a woman with a stroller, and two children approaching.
I turn forward from my sight-seeing gaze, and see them standing to the side of the sidewalk, letting us pass, as they saw we weren't paying attention. I immediately say "Sorry". The people roll their eyes, and they walk by, and the guy says something under his breath, clearly ending the sentence with "motherfuckers."
Now let me paint you a picture - this guy is probably 38, and about 5'5''. He's wearing a wife-beater (and almost certainly is one), as well as some tattoos. He probably weighs 190, and he's not fat or jacked. He has a sort of large upper-body in a weird way. Looks (and talks) kind of Irish. The woman is a typical no-make-up 32 year old, who looks pregnant and is wearing (to the best of my knowledge) sweat pants and a zip-up hoodie. There's a baby in the stroller she's pushing, and two other kids - about 7 and 9.
So Sousa, as you may or may not know, does some martial arts - Amok to be exact - and he also has a horrible, broken temper that goes off whenever he's disrespected. Sousa says to the guy "What did you say?" and the guy turns back to us (as he's now past us) and says "I called you all 'motherfuckers'".
Sousa says "That's wonderful language to use in front of your children," and the guy starts walking back at us, saying "What the fuck did you say?"
Have you ever noticed that people only get mad at things that are true? If you called me a "bad parent" right now, I wouldn't care, as it's not true - I have no children. But if you call this guy a "bad parent", he's going to be pissed because it's going to hit him in a real place.
So this guy's very mad that we said he shouldn't say "fuck" in front of his kids (really? this is a foreign concept to him?). He says to Sousa, "You want to take this behind a building and settle it?"
Casey, Sousa's girlfriend, is trying to pull him away from the situation.
Sousa and the man yell back and forth a little more (curiously, the 30 year olds with the children are the ones using all the "fuck"s). Finally I say "You know, we were just looking at all the shops and stuff around here because we're not from Vermont. It was really an accident and I said 'Sorry' as soon as we noticed you." This falls on deaf ears (surprise surprise).
As it seems the yelling has finished (and now the woman has begun yelling at us as well), my girlfriend Alyssa, being the spitfire that she is, returns some yelling to the mother, in the form of the phrase, "Go have another kid."
The woman stops dead in her tracks, and does the turn around. She says "What the fuck did you say?"
Alyssa responds, "Go...have...another...kid."
The woman starts walking quickly and sternly to us. I'm positive that this is horrible step.
The woman is very serious and pissed. Maybe because she's not pregnant, she's just fat? I don't know.
She comes right up to Alyssa's face, and I, of course, have already stepped in between them to stop a physical fight from starting. Unfortunately, the guy is also walking up. He stares down Sousa as he passes him, but Casey is still pulling Sousa back. So now I have Alyssa behind me, the woman in front of me, staring down Alyssa, and the guy behind the woman, staring down ME.
The woman says "I only have one kid" and stands there for a second before walking away.
The family is leaving, and the woman is saying things to Alyssa like, "Go home to your mom." Not such a great insult. They keep saying stuff and muttering things - why do people do that? Does it help them think they won?
We're still standing there - specifically Sousa, staring down the guy - and this guy cannot take it. He says to Sousa, again, "Do you want to take this behind that building and settle this?" and Sousa says "Yes! I guess it will be me versus you and your kids!" and I shrug and say "They're all the same size," and we walk away. The family continues on their way (muttering, still) and the fight is over.
Sousa and Casey get into a lover's quarrel - Sousa is a hot-head and Casey is a lover (and subsequently, not a fighter). So Alyssa, Little John and I walk around some more before heading back to the venue.
Sousa eventually gets there. We all hang out for a while and about a half hour, Alyssa, Little John and I go across the street to get her some pizza (I don't like to eat before I play). As we're ordering the pizza, the woman from our altercation walks in. I see her walking in before she sees us, and I turn away. She sees us and I overhear her say, "You've got to be kidding me."
She comes up to the counter next to us and stands there with us for a good three minutes. The tension is in the air, but it's not affecting me. We walk away when Alyssa gets her slices, and the woman says "Fucking bitch..." to Alyssa as we walk away.
We ignore this, and I'm really proud of Alyssa, as she is a hothead. I think about how the woman was RIGHT next to us, and if she really wanted to tell us we were wrong, she would address us civilly, and we could have discussed it like adults, calmly.
But no. The 30+ woman calls a 20 year old a "fucking bitch" (and not even to her face).
I tell Alyssa, that woman was over 30, hanging out and swearing horribly in front of three children (at least two were not hers, according to her) and has a boyfriend who would try to fight a group of much younger guys in the middle of the street (in front of those kids) for walking in his way even when those kids apologize.
I say, "Let the woman call you a bitch all she wants. You are clearly - CLEARLY - walking away the winner."
We sit down and I talk to Bunce from Stealing Jane about playing a show with them soon in RI. I then tell him about the altercation we had, and it sounds outlandish, but then the whole family walks by the window (after the woman got her pizza) glaring at us, in a hilarious coincidence. I apologize to a man sitting near us, in case he heard any "spicy" language. He assures us I didn't say anything too "spicy" at all, and that he's going to come over to the show. He's from Georgia, recently moved to VT, and around 35 - 40 years old. I'm not sure he's going to enjoy us, but I tell him that's great, and I'll see him there.
We go back to the venue, we play to about 12 - 15 people standing up to watch us, and a total of about 30 people in the room. None of our amps are mic'd, and neither are our drums. And you know what? We played incredibly well. Great harmonies, very tight, very energetic, fast, fun (despite a long pause between our first and second song for the people there to fix the microphones). I saw the Georgian man from the pizza place at the beginning of the set, but by the end he seemed to have left - which is fine, I didn't think he was a typical Discount fan.
Everyone gives us positive response. Bunce from Stealing Jane tells us we sound 100 times better than when Kevin was in the band, Little John tells us we were very very tight, the owner enjoyed us - we felt very good about the show.
Then - we ran into the Georgian man from the pizza place. He tells us we were incredible. He told us he is not easily impressed by live bands today, and that we blew him away. He told us we were wasting our time playing small places (which is not true, but very sweet of him) and that we needed to get hooked up with a label - quickly.
He continued to talk to us all night, and every time he'd compliment us and we'd say "Thanks", he'd respond with "No, I'm serious." Very nice guy, complimented us up and down all night long - and that really meant a lot, especially from coming from someone who is so obviously not our normal demographic.
We really think that if you can play well in a place with lots of people, fans that know your stuff, in a large place with great sound - that's great. But if you can perform really well (and energetically) in a place with not a lot of people, not alot of people who know your stuff (which means much much less crowd energy), and a place with not so great sound - THAT'S when you're doing well.
If you can pull out a great performance in not-so-great circumstances, then you've really got something, and that's overcoming a challenge.
We talked to a lot of other bands. Spread around the word of our DVD and new free EP as usual. Sell a few older CD's - when the show is over, we give all the people flyers about our EP, and that's that.
The owner tells us they pay later on, sending us a check, if there's enough money - which means we will not getting paid. But we really appreciate getting asked to play, and had a great time. Sousa, Casey, Tom, Alyssa and I go back to the pizza place and we all get some pizza and talk about how great we are.
We say goodbye to any new friends we made and head home. We get home at 5:00 AM, and simply talked for four hours all the way home. To me, a great, great night for the band in a weird, weird way.
- Chuck Staton
SET LIST:
Smile/Pixies
(eight minutes of stage banter while all the microphones are fixed)
Tom's Not
And Thats Goodbye
Girls
I'm Crazy
Nothing's Left
Ataxia
P.S. The woman from the pizza place was a dumpy bitch. True.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
S*D With Jimmy's Chicken Shack in Connecticut
In mid-June, we got an email from the Webster Theatre (a mass email to local bands) and it said that the Jimmie's Chicken Shack show had opening spots on it. So we asked to be on and they added us. Two weeks later we got about 40 presale tickets in the mail to sell, along with a letter that said if we sell less than 20, we might not be able to play.
This bummed us out, as we didn't know the show had this stipulation on it when we signed up. The summer was increasingly crazy, and we couldn't really sell the tickets. Truthfully, we emailed a little over 300 people around the CT area on myspace about the show (starting with people on our friends' list) but we really haven't played in CT in a few years (and never anywhere close to the Webster). We got a smattering of responses, but no one likes to buy presale tickets to a show unless it's going to sell out.
Jimmie's Chicken Shack is a band who had a huge huge single in 1999 with their song "Do Right". The album sold over 100,000 copies. We thought the show would be big.
So we decided to go to CT early on the day of the show and try to meet people in the mall and sell tickets. We met one girl who loved Jimmie's Chicken Shack and she bought two. We had sold tickets like this four year previous (and we sold 50!) over the course of about three visits to CT. Today, no one was buying. Alot of people were interested, and we got alot of Friend Adds on myspace after, but by the time the show rolled around, we had sold only the 2 tickets. The Webster was really cool about it, and didn't mind.
We showed up at 5 (when we were supposed to) along with Jimmie's Chicken Shack. The next band showed up at 6 when the doors opened, and then one band showed up about 10 minutes before we played.
We found out on the day of the show that Jimmie's Chicken Shack was actually playing the Webster Underground (The Webster is a venue that holds - I'm guessing - about 1200 people, the Webster Underground is in the same building - and holds around 200 people). This is great for when a bigger band like Reel Big Fish comes to the Webster, and a smaller local ska band (like our pals in Tip The Van) can play the Webster Underground during the night, so ska kids who are bored while the main bands are doing set up can wander into the next room and check out some local stuff.
So we played to about 18 people, half being bands. Unfortunately, the night before, I had gotten about 45 minutes of sleep, and was pretty retardedly dead. So Sousa and I drove back early. Tom stayed and assured us that Jimmie's Chicken Shack played really well, but that no one else really showed up, and we didn't get any money. It cost us about $40 to drive there and back.
But you know what? Jimmie's Chicken Shack were super nice to us, and they are a great, talented band. "Do Right" is such a great single, and I still listen to it all the time.
They asked Tom and Christian to go to the strip club with them afterwards. Tom told them he was uninterested, but I don't think he told them that he was gay.
- Chuck Staton
SET LIST:
Smile
Nothing's Left
I'm Crazy
Tom's Not
Explode RI
VBW Song
Ataxia
This bummed us out, as we didn't know the show had this stipulation on it when we signed up. The summer was increasingly crazy, and we couldn't really sell the tickets. Truthfully, we emailed a little over 300 people around the CT area on myspace about the show (starting with people on our friends' list) but we really haven't played in CT in a few years (and never anywhere close to the Webster). We got a smattering of responses, but no one likes to buy presale tickets to a show unless it's going to sell out.
Jimmie's Chicken Shack is a band who had a huge huge single in 1999 with their song "Do Right". The album sold over 100,000 copies. We thought the show would be big.
So we decided to go to CT early on the day of the show and try to meet people in the mall and sell tickets. We met one girl who loved Jimmie's Chicken Shack and she bought two. We had sold tickets like this four year previous (and we sold 50!) over the course of about three visits to CT. Today, no one was buying. Alot of people were interested, and we got alot of Friend Adds on myspace after, but by the time the show rolled around, we had sold only the 2 tickets. The Webster was really cool about it, and didn't mind.
We showed up at 5 (when we were supposed to) along with Jimmie's Chicken Shack. The next band showed up at 6 when the doors opened, and then one band showed up about 10 minutes before we played.
We found out on the day of the show that Jimmie's Chicken Shack was actually playing the Webster Underground (The Webster is a venue that holds - I'm guessing - about 1200 people, the Webster Underground is in the same building - and holds around 200 people). This is great for when a bigger band like Reel Big Fish comes to the Webster, and a smaller local ska band (like our pals in Tip The Van) can play the Webster Underground during the night, so ska kids who are bored while the main bands are doing set up can wander into the next room and check out some local stuff.
So we played to about 18 people, half being bands. Unfortunately, the night before, I had gotten about 45 minutes of sleep, and was pretty retardedly dead. So Sousa and I drove back early. Tom stayed and assured us that Jimmie's Chicken Shack played really well, but that no one else really showed up, and we didn't get any money. It cost us about $40 to drive there and back.
But you know what? Jimmie's Chicken Shack were super nice to us, and they are a great, talented band. "Do Right" is such a great single, and I still listen to it all the time.
They asked Tom and Christian to go to the strip club with them afterwards. Tom told them he was uninterested, but I don't think he told them that he was gay.
- Chuck Staton
SET LIST:
Smile
Nothing's Left
I'm Crazy
Tom's Not
Explode RI
VBW Song
Ataxia
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
S*D with Leftover Crack in Providence
This show was not as fun as we had hoped. Originally, we found out Leftover Crack was playing Club Hell, about two months before the date. We wrote John (the owner of Club Hell), who is a great guy. He has liked us for a few years, and we had come within 50 people of selling out Club Hell when we previously headlined there in November '07 (attendance was around 300).
So he said yes, and gave us the co-headlining spot (which means we played right before Leftover Crack). We were really happy and it was awesome for him to do. So about a month later we got an email from someone we had never talked to before (I believe his name was Chris), who had apparently booked the show under Degenerate Booking (we had no idea it was someone other than Club Hell). The flyer had our name on the bottom, really small. We're not egomaniacs, but it was misleading for kids who were attending, so we asked Chris why the flyer was set up in that way. Apparently we were on second or third out of five bands.
Simply because we were told otherwise, we asked John (Club Hell owner) what the deal was. We never really got a response back, but eventually another band emailed us and asked if they could use our equipment to play for ten minutes after we got offstage. This show seemed increasingly unorganized so we called Chris, who we had just found out was the booker.
He assured us this band was not on the show, and that we were actually back on as co-headliners, which was great. We filmed the video "The Birth Of RILOD" specifically to promote this show, released it, pushed the hell out of it. So the night of the show, we arrived, told we not co-headlining again. Asked the people there to double-check, they were super nice about it and found out we were headlining. Leftover Crack showed up, we talked to Alec and Brad Logan and they asked to use our equipment to play their set, to which we said "Of course!" All of them were super incredibly nice (Leftover Crack is one of our favorite bands - but we weren't sure to what to expect from a band who has actually said in a song that they want to cook police officers in a stew!*) and their merch girl was also really really nice - we shared a piece of cake with her. Two of our superfans, Cat and Nicole, had brought a cake there for Cat's brother's birthday, as well as penis-shaped cookies and a "Tom Wells" doll.
The first three bands played. The audience was cold for the first band (Agony), but the second band had a lot of people there for them (Eddie and the Louvers), and the third band (Mouth Sewn Shut) was well-known by some of the crowd. By the time we went on about 280 people were there. We got a fairly cold reaction from the audience. No one seemed to hate us or anything, but they didn't know us, and people don't dance to stuff they don't know. After we played, many many (new) people told me they thought we were really good, so I hope that was an indicator. During "Ataxia", another one of our fans, Mike Bowers, came up and finished our set on the drums while Christian stayed in the front and sang with us (and about 10 fans who came up onstage).
Leftover Crack went on and, of course, they were amazing and the energy was insane in the place. They were just ridiculous.
Sousa had thrown up after we played so he had left a little early, and I had left in a seperate car after we loaded up our stuff when the show was done. When Tom went to get our money at the end of the night, Chris (or maybe it was Peter?) the booker, told us we'd get no money, and that our spot was our payment, because we were expected to bring in 150 - 200 people.
The limit in Club Hell is 350, so that means that a band that WASN'T headling was expected to bring in more than half the crowd? The truth is that we were never told of an expectation to bring a certain amount of people there. Yes, we brought 300 last time we played - but it was our headlining homeshow, where we picked (and could vouch for) all the opening acts. This was different - if someone asks us to bring a certain amount of people to a show, and we say we will - we always will. End of story. If we promise to do a certain amount of presale tickets - then we will. End of story.
But the truth is, if we're opening for a national band, I'm there for the new audience. I'm not there to tell our existing fans, "Hey, isn't it cool that we're playing with this big band?"
We're there to get fresh people to see us, and that's our concern. If you ask us to bring a certain amount in and we agree -then that's a different story.
But on this night, no one had asked us anything. We thought we were getting a great opportunity because we had done so well for Club Hell in the past. We were wrong.
We were also told by the booker that we didn't fit the bill. I disagree, as Leftover Crack is a direct influence on us, and if you listen to LOC's songs "Nazi White Trash", "Gay Rude Boys Unite", "Gang Control", "One Dead Cop", and their older songs*, "Infested", "Born To Die", "500 Channels", and "Crack Rock Steady", and then you listen to our songs, "Nothing's Left, "VBW Song", "I'm Crazy, and "Ataxia", then you will be able to see that a show with these two bands makes a lot of sense.
After asking for at least gas money for our van and trailer, he gave us $80. The show charged $12 at the door, with a final headcount of 280 - meaning we got about 1/42nd of the door.
We're not usually too into money. But we have to pay to rent our practice space now, and we had to buy a new van when our old one died. Right now we are in debt about $7,000. It's not a ton, but we do need to pay it off, and we constantly get stiffed at shows. So that sucked. I hope we work with Degenerate Booking again, and if they want us to bring a certain amount of people, to let us know beforehand. We had no idea anyone besides Club Hell was running the show, and we were switched twice on what placement we had on the bill. It's a mistake that we weren't really told everything, but people make mistakes. It happens.
We also hope we can play with Leftover Crack again sometime soon. They are an awesome band, and ridiculously, ridiculously nice guys.
Bradley Stevenson of the Rhode Island League Of Decency was also in attendance, handing out anti-Senior Discount flyers. I dedicated "Ataxia" to him.
- Chuck Staton
*Yes, I know that the line I used is from "Crack Rock Steady", which is a Choking Victim song, and that some of the songs I listed were Choking Victim songs, but Leftover Crack is really just a newer version of Choking Victim.
SET LIST:
Nothing's Left
Smile
I'm Crazy
Tom's Not A Virgin Anymore
VBW Song
Ataxia
So he said yes, and gave us the co-headlining spot (which means we played right before Leftover Crack). We were really happy and it was awesome for him to do. So about a month later we got an email from someone we had never talked to before (I believe his name was Chris), who had apparently booked the show under Degenerate Booking (we had no idea it was someone other than Club Hell). The flyer had our name on the bottom, really small. We're not egomaniacs, but it was misleading for kids who were attending, so we asked Chris why the flyer was set up in that way. Apparently we were on second or third out of five bands.
Simply because we were told otherwise, we asked John (Club Hell owner) what the deal was. We never really got a response back, but eventually another band emailed us and asked if they could use our equipment to play for ten minutes after we got offstage. This show seemed increasingly unorganized so we called Chris, who we had just found out was the booker.
He assured us this band was not on the show, and that we were actually back on as co-headliners, which was great. We filmed the video "The Birth Of RILOD" specifically to promote this show, released it, pushed the hell out of it. So the night of the show, we arrived, told we not co-headlining again. Asked the people there to double-check, they were super nice about it and found out we were headlining. Leftover Crack showed up, we talked to Alec and Brad Logan and they asked to use our equipment to play their set, to which we said "Of course!" All of them were super incredibly nice (Leftover Crack is one of our favorite bands - but we weren't sure to what to expect from a band who has actually said in a song that they want to cook police officers in a stew!*) and their merch girl was also really really nice - we shared a piece of cake with her. Two of our superfans, Cat and Nicole, had brought a cake there for Cat's brother's birthday, as well as penis-shaped cookies and a "Tom Wells" doll.
The first three bands played. The audience was cold for the first band (Agony), but the second band had a lot of people there for them (Eddie and the Louvers), and the third band (Mouth Sewn Shut) was well-known by some of the crowd. By the time we went on about 280 people were there. We got a fairly cold reaction from the audience. No one seemed to hate us or anything, but they didn't know us, and people don't dance to stuff they don't know. After we played, many many (new) people told me they thought we were really good, so I hope that was an indicator. During "Ataxia", another one of our fans, Mike Bowers, came up and finished our set on the drums while Christian stayed in the front and sang with us (and about 10 fans who came up onstage).
Leftover Crack went on and, of course, they were amazing and the energy was insane in the place. They were just ridiculous.
Sousa had thrown up after we played so he had left a little early, and I had left in a seperate car after we loaded up our stuff when the show was done. When Tom went to get our money at the end of the night, Chris (or maybe it was Peter?) the booker, told us we'd get no money, and that our spot was our payment, because we were expected to bring in 150 - 200 people.
The limit in Club Hell is 350, so that means that a band that WASN'T headling was expected to bring in more than half the crowd? The truth is that we were never told of an expectation to bring a certain amount of people there. Yes, we brought 300 last time we played - but it was our headlining homeshow, where we picked (and could vouch for) all the opening acts. This was different - if someone asks us to bring a certain amount of people to a show, and we say we will - we always will. End of story. If we promise to do a certain amount of presale tickets - then we will. End of story.
But the truth is, if we're opening for a national band, I'm there for the new audience. I'm not there to tell our existing fans, "Hey, isn't it cool that we're playing with this big band?"
We're there to get fresh people to see us, and that's our concern. If you ask us to bring a certain amount in and we agree -then that's a different story.
But on this night, no one had asked us anything. We thought we were getting a great opportunity because we had done so well for Club Hell in the past. We were wrong.
We were also told by the booker that we didn't fit the bill. I disagree, as Leftover Crack is a direct influence on us, and if you listen to LOC's songs "Nazi White Trash", "Gay Rude Boys Unite", "Gang Control", "One Dead Cop", and their older songs*, "Infested", "Born To Die", "500 Channels", and "Crack Rock Steady", and then you listen to our songs, "Nothing's Left, "VBW Song", "I'm Crazy, and "Ataxia", then you will be able to see that a show with these two bands makes a lot of sense.
After asking for at least gas money for our van and trailer, he gave us $80. The show charged $12 at the door, with a final headcount of 280 - meaning we got about 1/42nd of the door.
We're not usually too into money. But we have to pay to rent our practice space now, and we had to buy a new van when our old one died. Right now we are in debt about $7,000. It's not a ton, but we do need to pay it off, and we constantly get stiffed at shows. So that sucked. I hope we work with Degenerate Booking again, and if they want us to bring a certain amount of people, to let us know beforehand. We had no idea anyone besides Club Hell was running the show, and we were switched twice on what placement we had on the bill. It's a mistake that we weren't really told everything, but people make mistakes. It happens.
We also hope we can play with Leftover Crack again sometime soon. They are an awesome band, and ridiculously, ridiculously nice guys.
Bradley Stevenson of the Rhode Island League Of Decency was also in attendance, handing out anti-Senior Discount flyers. I dedicated "Ataxia" to him.
- Chuck Staton
*Yes, I know that the line I used is from "Crack Rock Steady", which is a Choking Victim song, and that some of the songs I listed were Choking Victim songs, but Leftover Crack is really just a newer version of Choking Victim.
SET LIST:
Nothing's Left
Smile
I'm Crazy
Tom's Not A Virgin Anymore
VBW Song
Ataxia
Monday, July 7, 2008
S*D with Whole Wheat Bread in Boston
We asked to play this show through our friend and booker, Mike Delehanty. He's a great guy who has his fingers in the honey pots of all parts of the RI music scene, as well as booking Harpers Ferry in Boston. We've opened for Whole Wheat Bread 4 or 5 times in the past. They are super nice guys, put on a great show, and their music definitely goes with ours. Mike said yes because he's a sweetheart.
So we go, show ends up with probably 80 kids there, but we open, and its still daylight, and about 20 people get to watch us. Everyone there was excessively cool and nice to us. Harpers Ferry is a great venue, and the people that work there are super cool. Christian got kicked out for bringing his own beer in, and the bouncer was still nice about it. Awesome guys, awesome place.
As we tend to do with national acts, we hounded Whole Wheat Bread the entire time about booking and playing with them and stuff. They were also wicked nice about it and talked to us all night. If you haven't heard/seen them, go do it. They are nice, talented guys who put on a great show.
The people at the show seemed to enjoy us (they obviously didn't know us, in Boston) and we got a lot of positive feedback after we played. Sousa and I spent the rest of the night sitting and writing the next video.
We had driven two vehicles to the show - we just got our new van and had gotten a trailer hitch attached to it yet, so we couldn't use it. After the show, I locked my keys in my car and Sousa and I had to get a ride home from AAA, in a two-passenger truck, holding all three of us (Sousa, the driver, and I). It was over an hour. The driver was very nice and talkative, and told us he didn't know if Ecstasy was illegal, and that the most beautiful prostitutes on Cape Verde only cost $5 (and were extremely young). Good to know.
Tom had AAA Gold so I didn't have to pay for the towing. I gave the tow-guy a DVD. He seemed like a good man.
- Chuck Staton
SET LIST:
Smile
Nothing's Left
I'm Crazy
VBW Song
Tom's Not
Explode RI
Ataxia
So we go, show ends up with probably 80 kids there, but we open, and its still daylight, and about 20 people get to watch us. Everyone there was excessively cool and nice to us. Harpers Ferry is a great venue, and the people that work there are super cool. Christian got kicked out for bringing his own beer in, and the bouncer was still nice about it. Awesome guys, awesome place.
As we tend to do with national acts, we hounded Whole Wheat Bread the entire time about booking and playing with them and stuff. They were also wicked nice about it and talked to us all night. If you haven't heard/seen them, go do it. They are nice, talented guys who put on a great show.
The people at the show seemed to enjoy us (they obviously didn't know us, in Boston) and we got a lot of positive feedback after we played. Sousa and I spent the rest of the night sitting and writing the next video.
We had driven two vehicles to the show - we just got our new van and had gotten a trailer hitch attached to it yet, so we couldn't use it. After the show, I locked my keys in my car and Sousa and I had to get a ride home from AAA, in a two-passenger truck, holding all three of us (Sousa, the driver, and I). It was over an hour. The driver was very nice and talkative, and told us he didn't know if Ecstasy was illegal, and that the most beautiful prostitutes on Cape Verde only cost $5 (and were extremely young). Good to know.
Tom had AAA Gold so I didn't have to pay for the towing. I gave the tow-guy a DVD. He seemed like a good man.
- Chuck Staton
SET LIST:
Smile
Nothing's Left
I'm Crazy
VBW Song
Tom's Not
Explode RI
Ataxia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)