living rockumentary | your rockumentary | Intro | tour | sounds | pictures | store | chain cd | lyrics | gig diary | press | the boys | press kit | contact
November 15, 2003 - The Larkin - Albany, NY
Brian says: Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?
It would be SO FINE to see your face at my door.
C'mon, Ning. It's King!There's nothing like combating the oncoming winter by getting in the car and driving real far and playing the guitar or in my case the drums, make 'em shake those Albany bums.
I drove to and from the show, with Tony as my co-pilot. Talk centered around music (yawn) and weddings. So, it was only natural that by the end it was about music at weddings. No chicken dance (I still have yet to hear that at a wedding, so I think it's a hoax--and I've been to a dozen weddings) at my wedding. But the "Ox and Penguin Jump", now I can do that any day of the week.First thought on our mind was food. We were all very hungry and looking forward to our Larkin meal. 90 minutes after ordering, we were still looking forward to it. Finally our chicken sandwiches and burgers came and our first song was "Music to Digest By (Screen Door Mix)".
I was feeling a bit funky from the flu shot earlier in the day--or maybe it was being so hungry then suddenly not hungry, plus 2 pints of stout.
But still, YAR!! It was the first time I was able to rock in so long. It's been a long lonely lonely time since a gig. And I wasn't sure how rusty we'd be. Occasionally when too much time passes, the hands don't do what the precognitive brain instructs it to do. The conscious me stays out of it, while I smile at the crowd or at Max or at my knee. I let the brain and limbs communicate on their own and I just listen and say "hmm, not bad." "aww, why'd you fuck that up?" "nice. Four stars".
Plus now I have a more active role in the backing vocals. It was sloppy at points but still rocked.Before the show, Henning said some sentence to me in which "what" sounded like "foot". I said "you should always substitute "foot" for "what". This became the theme of the night. Right now you're thinking "Foot are these guys on?"
We introduced 2 new songs: "Back to School" which I can already see Tara Reid dancing to, with a hologram of Rodney Dangerfield (is he dead? I can't remember) .
The Ning Open Mic classic "Disgruntled Lover". That was fun and effective. It will be a highlight of shows. And we rescued "Roger O'Malley........." from the pirates. He'd been lost at sea for over 2 years.
Openers Pocket Protector proved themselves to be sylistically versatile and adept, and with a sense of humor. Pop to spacejazz to dancey stuff to screaming angst. All with a distinctive fashion flair.
Henning says: On Saturday, we returned to The Larkin in Albany for our second show there. The last time that we played, the turn-out was pretty poor so we decided to do a free show this time. Pocket Protector was opening and the majority of the crowd was there to see them, I think. They were good, as nerdy as their name suggests, and as quirky and smart as you would think. But their songs were passionate, too, despite the fact that one of the singers was wearing his K-Mart vest. It was agood paring us and them, and there is talk about trading some shows in this area and out in Ithica. We'll see.
Everything was timed out perfectly for this Larkin show. We arrived at exactly the right time, got everything set up and figured out, the only problem, as Brian already mentioned, was the food. Unfortunately, since we were all counting on that food, none of us had eaten much and when you are that hungry, the food takes on an all important role in your evening. If I had known that the musicians don't get served until they feed all of the other customers than I would have just ordered the food and paid for it, or just eaten at the corner pizza shop. It's not worth saving ten bucks to sit around for two hours starving and missing some of the other band's set.
Oh well, all those food thoughts faded when we took the stage. We put on a good show I think. We started with "Screen Door" which is a bizarre first song and we should probably never do again. It was great to debut "Back To School". It sounded excellent at real band volume, was a treat to hear Tiny's guitar hook. It was also really fun to bring back "Roger and Mary O'Malley and the Invisible Pirates" although, I forgot that I wasn't going to play on the verses. We also played "Disgruntled Lover" for the first time and I agree with Brian that it is quickly going to become a live show fave.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love when Max and Brian kick into Omnivore together? Well, I do.
I'm still substituting "Foot" for "What".
