October 18, 2002 - Harry's - Northampton, MA
BRIAN: The morning after Harry's. Perhaps it was a little too soon after the NMF--who can predict these things? To me, last night's gig had the feeling of microwaved leftovers of a fantastic meal you had 2 nights before. Or a color copy of an awesome painting. Maybe it was just me, but the gig was almost there, but didn't deliver the goods. Perhaps we've become perfectionists--not a bad thing to be. Not easily self-satisfied. Oh, fans--lest this prevent you from seeing us at the Iron Horse November 1!! That will be the greatest show on earth! Maybe it was just me. I had fun, don't get me wrong, and I think we played well. I just kept feeling the energy level in the room falling, and it was like trying to help a drunk person up a flight of stairs. Thus, I did a couple very quick segues from song to song, plus the planned "I Got You"/"Thug" medly. I'm sorry if I started "I Got You" (Split Enz!!) too slow. I hear the sound wasn't up to snuff from the audience. And that guy who kept comparing Henning to Russ--I guess that's how Nesmith felt when his early solo audiences would call for "Last Train to Clarksville". Speaking of which, before the show, Dennis and Lauren asked me, innocently enough, a very simple Monkees question--10 minutes later, they walked away with way too much information. Dennis was looking very hip, very Quadrophenia. It was good to see all the folks. The Fawns did a wonderful job as always--their songs run through my head all the time. Isn't that a great compliment to receive? I've always thought it one of the best. Right now, it's that bridge, "you talk too much...." And Don Lennon--the more you hear his songs, the happier you are when you hear them again. I wanted to talk to him but the opportunity didn't present itself. He played some video games. Tonight, I've been asked to do the door at Harry's--I guess I'm in no financial position to say no. Anyway, a good old friend of mine is playing. Come by and cheer me up--working that back door (the bridge to City Cafe) can break a man's spirit. I declined offers to go to Thane and Ed's to party and to Jake's to eat pre-bed breakfast. I got home and was happy home. So, home I stayed. Homebody, I'm a home buddy. Or maybe it was just me. Today, I gotta buy some gloves! PS--Max called before the show to ask for fashion advice. I was honored. I just told him to use the force. Part 2: MAYBE an explanation (everyone has less than perfect shows, so perhaps speculation is out of line, BUT) just going on past experience: I've never been able to play 2 sets with 2 bands consecutively and not had the latter be slightly less effective. It happened for me with the Lo Fine/SFTD show, and it's happened many times in the past. I've had to break up the sets by either changing a shirt or downing a double shot, taking a brisk walk (from one club to another, at a couple NMFs) or something, so I feel like a different person for the second band. So it's not like "same stage, same drumsticks, some of the same people, different singer and songs, slightly more tired" Even if a band plays between the two bands it's better. So, perhaps after work day, a practice, and a full set, (and Tony and Ken getting sick! Take care, T+K) there's no way SFTD's collective energy could have been up to snuff. I may be wrong. KEN: brian, you have hit the nail on the head with your description of how last night's show felt (for me, anyway). it wasn't bad, but it wasn't too good, either. nothing felt right to me. the "flow" wasn't there, not even on the usual sure-shots, like "ayla" and "pick a gripe." i started feeling anti-social somewhere around "overs," and i screwed up the transposed synth solo for "i got you," and i didn't have the energy for "one lady" and "wichita"...i just felt lost. part of the problem was probably that i was/am coming down with a cold (brian: i tried the garlic thing this morning...how long did it take before you could tell it had worked for you?). a few times i tried to let go, punch through my weird stupor and just fuck-it SING loudly, like near the end of "ayla," and the new-wave bellow section of "v66," and the bridge of "omnivore," which sounded pretty good, our three-part harmony, now that i think of it. but i realize there's "how the show felt to me," and "how the show actually was for the audience." it was probably a very good show, i just didn't feel good about my part in it. like the harpsichord break for "martha," right before we got to it, i remembered that you guys are always saying you're pointing to me, but i've never looked up to see that. so last night i did look up, and i felt so stupid being pointed at, like it's a shtick, and i stopped playing. i think i figured you guys would look at me to see why i stopped, which would erase the "shtick" and make it another unpredictable fun thing in the show. but no one really turned around, and i immediately felt even stupider, like i'd simply screwed up my solo. in a nutshell, that's how the whole night felt for me. wack wack wack. the fawns were, as always, shimmery and twang-gorgeous. "why don't'cha just stop?" (that's the riff swinging around my head today) and i love rob's drum fill on the pre-chorus to "boycrazy" -- dig'uhdunk-dig'a-digga. now i'm going to gargle some salt water and take a gray sky nap. MAX: Just back from a weekend in New Jersey. I went to bed around 2 a.m. on Saturday, then woke up at 6:45 for the trip. Needless to say, I'm sleepy. My impression of the Harry's show was mixed as well. I thought we played well, but it took me until mid-set to feel like things were clicking. By the end I thought the band was sounding excellent, I was enjoying the much more animated SFTD, and didn't really mind that the crowd had thinned. Then, as I was packing up, an aquaintence whose musical opinions I trust approached me. This person has always given me his brutally honest opinion on the shows I've played. I've always appreciated the fact that he doesn't just dole out the standard "nice show" comment. Unfortunately, he did not like our set on Friday. We didn't rock. The enthusiasm was lacking, and the sound was too similar throughout the set. I don't agree with him in general, and the other folks I spoke with all liked the set, but it's interesting all the same. Kind of a bummer, since I thought our Fawns' set was one of the better ones we've played. But we may get some people at shows who have only seen the brief 4 song set at the last Steamtrain show, and who think our entire set should be as rocking. Whatever. We were good. TONY: Well, Ken, I think you and I contracted the Merenda virus. The way you described it (hard-to-swallow sore throat and sore legs) is the way Michael described it and it is the way I felt all this weekend, including Friday night, which is when it was at its worst for me. So it is hard for me to judge our show objectively at all because I was miserable. But here's some phenomena- when I laid down for a few minutes on the stage while we played "Camper" and then stood back up again, I felt temporarily better, enough so that I could rock out in Omnivore and even good enough to go out to a late-night meal with the gang at Jake's afterwards. The sickness and the familiarity of Harry's- (haven't we played there every other weekend now for 2 months in a row or something?) put me in a mood to screw around onstage. Most of that showed up in my playing, which was extremely loose, most often not for the better. I made dubious choices. For instance, when Brian started "V-66" immediately after "Thug," I didn't have a chance to set my tremolo pedal to the correct speed but I clicked it on for the intro anyway and the rhythm was way, way the hell off. And when my guitar strap snapped in "Sitcom Theme," I could've easily re-attached it and not played for a few bars but instead I played over half the song with my guitar sliding down off my hip. Bruce Tull seemed to be chuckling at how I kept playing like that and that I was doing a reasonably good job playing that I challenged myself to keep soldiering on. It was OK but I sure am not looking forward to hearing a recording of it. Without the visuals to explain, it must just sound like ass. I also just tested out the wah-wah while we played "Ayla," proving to myself why rehearsing things beforehand is a good idea. The sore throat affected my voice as well, for good and bad. It kept cracking at the same spots in "Overs," which must sound hideous on the recording but somehow my throat felt free and easy for those super-high harmonies in "I Got You." So that was my own sobstory. I guess I could tell that the band wasn't super. Mistakes coming from Ken's corner is a rare thing indeed. I sheepishly wonder if the placement of my amp so close to his ears (it's usually on the other side of the stage) was responsible for some of his gaffes. But overall, I bet things weren't awful. I think we should chalk some of it up to having played at Harry's so often these last few months with not a significantly different set of songs (I omitted Omnivore and The New You from the set list for a change but the former got added at the last minute anyway) to a significantly smaller audience that it felt a few notches below our standard. We'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen at The Iron Horse, which will also feel very familiar. Speaking of familiar, all of Lesa's songs have settled into my head. They are all extremely catchy. I love being able to look at a set list for another band and be able to sing the hooks to all of the songs, not having had an album to listen to at home. That's really impressive. Here's my own recommendation for what it's worth- both The Fawns and SFTD should stop playing shows for the rest of 2002 (not counting what's already booked) and concentrate on recording as well as learning scads of new originals. It seems The Fawns' sets are the same 10 originals with a different cover everytime I see them and from the standpoint of the guy who makes the set lists, SFTD could use some new blood, too. But recording is key also to make sure we get our current crop of hits on tape while we're so good at playing them (that goes for The Fawns, too). I'll make all the decisions, Henning, you do all the work. How does that sound? HENNING: Well well well. I'm at home today because my back is thrown out and I can't stay upright for more than a few minutes at a time. I spent all day yesterday lying on my back on the floor. It was a strange weekend that way, just spent lying around, and it seemed kind of wasted. "Atleast we played a really fun, good show." I would say to myself off and on, to make up for lack of doing anything constructive. Now that I read the Rockumentary, I see that I am the only one who felt that way. I thought our show was great. Sure I heard a few mistakes here and there, but I thought the energy was really good and sort of more intense than usual. When I looked out over the crowd, most of the people were smiling, a bunch of them were singing along, and some of them really looked like they wanted to dance. I also felt, proudly, that the people that were there were actually listening and enjoying the music. They weren't there because they felt obligated to support their friends, they weren't there because it was funny to see us up on a stage, smashing our instruments, they weren't there because they were wondering what crazy thing one of us was going to do next, and they weren't there because it was the "in" place to be. They seem to really like the songs and the way we play them, and that's pretty rare in this town. I suppose the interpretation of a show has a lot to do with the frame of mind that the individual is in while playing. I know there have been a number of Steamtrain shows where I felt like we were awful and everyone else thought we were great. Ken and Tony were both sick and I can certainly relate to that, shows never feel good when you are sick. Also, the crowd did thin out a bit as we played which always instills a self-conscious feeling. I think the crowd thinned out because three bands in one night is just too much for anyone to really enjoy. But, the people that did stay were great and we made a few new fans, one guy even bought a T-Shirt. I definately agree with Tony about getting more recording done, but I don't think that that means playing less shows (although, we only have two shows booked right now anyway.) I also know that it is more fun to play new songs.. but we have only had 12 gigs total. If the songs are already seeming old then maybe there is something wrong with the songs. What happens when we go on tour and play for four or five nights in a row? It's different for me, I guess, since I wrote the songs. Our set list doesn't seem redundant to me yet, not even close. And you have to remember that the audience has only heard those songs a maximum of 12 times by this band, and that is if they went to every show we have played, which nobody has. Maybe because we practice weekly, it seems like we just keep playing the same ones over and over. The funny thing is, the songs that do get requested are lots of times the oldest or most frequently played in the bunch. Saturday, Screen Door was requested, V-66 is a favorite, as are the Sitcom Theme, Soup, Omnivore, and 1,000 Times. Those are the ones that people most often ask for. When I go to see a band, I always hope that they are going to play the songs that I know the best. I love to hear Thane's new songs but when the Figements start playing "Up" I love it. I start singing along, I anticipate Brian's drum fills, I can't wait for the instrumental bridge. So sure, I have new songs and old songs, we have plenty of material to choose from but I feel like it is a little early to be sick of playing the songs we are playing. Do you really not want to play any shows until 2003? Is that how everyone feels?	Soup Of The Moment Everybody loves Martha Uncomfortable Pick A Gripe Overs Ayla I Got You (Split Enz) Thug V-66 Sitcom Theme One Lady Dancing Like To Be There Rock & Roll Camper Wichita Train Whistle Sings Omnivore