Show report by Vyan

This was a blowout to be remembered.

A party, held out among the orchards north of Yuba City, CA. Peaches to the North. Kiwis and the glow of downtown Yuba City & Marysville to the south. A beautifully clear star-filled sky above. A three tiered plywood stage held up by hay bails with eight sets of HUGE speakers cabinets for the sound system, 5 racks of lights, 7 kegs of beer (Coors Light and MGD), 6 Bands and somewhere between 150 and 200 people - below.

And don't forget the costumes.

This close to Halloween, there were plenty of people in costume. I saw the devil - twice. An Angel. A Dark Angel (black wings and halo), a priest, a vampiric temptress, a gun shot victim (ala Mudvayne), Silent Bob, a Pumpkin (with fully inflated and quite round outfit), a pair of convicts (who were serving the beer, obviously in the hope of getting some time off for good behavior) and an assortment of others.

The party was being thrown by our friends Adam & Dave (the gunshot victim & a guy in drag respectively - both from the band Zero Ground), as well as their roommate Lisa and their neighbors Andrea (Dark Angel) and Luke (Devil #1) who lived next door. The stage was set in the 150 square ft. lot between their two homes just a half mile east of Hwy 99.

Despite more than a fair share of chaos and confusion - the band Dead Letter called up to cancel just a few hours before the show, then just an hour after that changed their minds again and called to state they would show up but that they were now known as Less Unsaid, the band Fishface was also supposed to perform but they canceled and stayed that way, setting up the sound system and lights ran at least two hours late, a lot of people needed last minute directions and got lost even though there was a big "PARTY THIS WAY --->" sign posted just off the highway - but other than all that, things went pretty well.

Nobody started a fight. Nobody started a fire. Lots of people got drunk. Nobody got arrested. Not a bad evening I would say.

And oh yeah, there was music too.

Knotwhole and Dead Letter - oh, excuse me - LESS UNSAID, were the first two groups to perform. I'd never heard Knotwhole before. Kinduva new rock sounding group who put on a strong performance as the daylight began to fade. I do recall them saying something about some of their members being missing - and that's why they were - uh - "KNOT - WHOLE".

Uh - yeah... I didn't tell the joke, I'm just reporting it.

Less Unsaid, were very strong - as good as when I'd seen them when they used to be Dead Letter just a few weeks previously. Imagine that. Still their strong instrumental work on bass and guitar really stood out. Nice job.

Dave (Walsh) and Adam the duo who are Zero Ground were up next with an acoustic performance (which I video taped for them). I have to say though, that Dave is one of the funniest guys I know, plus he loses none of that when he's on stage. He's quick witted and quick quipped. He even managed to admonish the crowd about smoking (because the grass was completely dry and could easily turn into a brush fire) and make it hilarious. I forget exactly what he said, but it was something like - "If you don't watch your (cigarette) butts - and you burn down my house, I'll find you and kick yours...!" - but a lot funnier. It's all in the delivery and timing.

It's clear that many of their songs are actually intended to be electric, with a full band (bass and drums), they simply haven't found the right additional members - so it's not fair to really try and appreciate their original material with those pieces missing. They've always shown promise and potential, but when they broke out of version of Tool's "Sober" they answered that promise and then some, even managing to get the crowd whooping and hollering. Not an easy feet for a two guys with acoustics in front of a rapidly drinking crowd who expected to get ROCKED. Good work.

And Rocked they soon were - particularly when VOID took the stage. This was maybe the third time I've seen Void, and I have to say they are a helluva band. Tight. Mean and Heavy. I can see why they've inspired so many other musicians in the area - including Glitched's own guitarist Jason Pate - who has frequently said he wouldn't be playing music if not for Void. They were the spark that got him started, so it's especially cool that they've embraced us as a band, comparatively young though we are... They definitely kicked out the jams.

Void was followed quite closely by Blatant Disregard, and their new/old drummer Brian Pedersen. Brian had been the original drummer for Blatant, but had quit to join another local Yuba City band. That band was called SHALLOW, and featured our favorite son - Jason Pate (and later Dave Thornhill) on guitar. Just last year Shallow broke up, and eventually turned into GliTCHeD - meanwhile Brian looked for a new gig, and after working with some friends for awhile was now back in his previous band Blatant. It was pretty amazing watching him jump right into the middle of this group with only a couple weeks rehearsal and pull off everything with ease - but then, Brian is just that good. With his steady rhythms Blatant pulled of yet another crushing live performance. I've never seen a bad show by them - and this was no exception. Plus, they cooked up some mighty fine bar-b-que during the party and that's always a welcome treat.

We were up last for this show, and considering everyone that had played before us - we had no choice but to pull out all the stops. We worked the stage the hard, dialed in the lights and even - if you can believe this - surprised everyone with a bit of PYRO!

Yes, that's right - even after the events in Rhode Island - we dare to set stuff on fire. But we weren't stupid. We have a set of "throwers" which can shoot flame straight up in the air as high as 20 feet or more. We'd tested them before the show, and realized having them on the stage with the amount of wind that was blowing would probably cook us, not to mention the plywood - and the Hay - and all the dry grass. So we placed the throwers behind the stage about 8 feet high up on top of Jason's trailer, which we usually use to move our gear - so that the flames wouldn't be able to touch anything.

But we didn't tell anyone.

Certainly not the ten or twelve people who had decided to hang out and watch the show from behind the stage - right near the trailer. I'm told (because I wasn't looking that way at the time) that the first time they went off - sending four plumes of flame straight up during our opening song - people went scattering in all directions away from the trailer. Ah, there's nothing like scaring the crap out of semi-drunk people with some fire out in the middle of an orchard to make an evening exciting.

Oh yeah!!!

Ok, maybe only I think it was funny. But it did get everyone's attention. So much so that when I invited people to jump up on stage during "Thunderkiss 1965" - I'll be damned if one highly energetic gal didn't do exactly that. Then she proceeded to jump on ME! Somehow I managed to hang on to her, and keep from dropping her on her head as well as hold the microphone as she straddle me like a cocked-eyed piggy back ride and still get all the words of the song out. Don't ask me how.

Inspite of the threat of spontaneous combustion - or a busted head from excited fans - our performance went great even though we still really hadn't been able to rehearse lately. Really all we've done lately is play shows - and it only showed when we began our last song "Ponder" and Jason couldn't keep up during the intro, so we had to stop and start it over. Now - sure - it could have been that he'd had a lot to drink, and he HAD - it could have been that he was tired and stressed after having to basically stage manage the entire show, and he was - but while on-stage I decided to blame Devin (our good friend and drummer for the local band After the Silence) who apparently felt it was a good idea to walk up to the stage and have a conversation with Jason just as we were starting the song.

If not for that one moment of weakness, we would've had a near perfect set. PERFECT I say. PER-FECT-TO.

Bad Devin - Bad. Bad!

Oh all right, whom am I kidding there's no such thing as a perfect show.

Stuff happens and sometimes the mess-ups are more memorable than playing everything note-perfect all the time. (Besides, if something went wrong and I just posted on here that "everything was fine" - all the people who actualy saw the show would know I'm full-of-it, so I have to admit the little mistakes when they happen, that way you'll know when I say we had a "fucking killer show" - I mean it.) This just gave me a chance to give Devin and his perfectly manicured flame-orange goatee - a hard time - which is always fun and always funny. I mean, c'mon - if you saw a guy with a flame-orange goatee and matching pointy sideburns, could you resist giving him a hard time whenever you could?

I didn't think so. (Oh, and by the way - After the Silence is a pretty great band - catch 'em anytime you can, I plan too. And say "hi" to Devin and his goatee when you do).

But right now I'm going to say thanks to Adam, Dave, Lisa, Luke, Andrea, Ron (who ran the pyro), Scoobie (who worked on the sound), Donna, Josh (from the band - Imperial Youth), Nicky and all the guys who helped put together this show, enjoyed the party and made it a success. Particularly the "convicts" who worked those kegs all night long - all so that everybody could have a time to remember, and judging by the used condoms that were found in the orchard the next morning - and all the passed-out people sleeping on coaches who got up the next day to enjoy some of the "World Greatest Waffles" in downtown Yuba for breakfast, then watched The Matrix:Reloaded and 28 Days Later on DVD the next day at Luke & Andrea's through a post hangover glaze (including myself) - a lot of fun was had.

And lastly, it was also really great to finally do an all-ages show in the Yuba area because all our friends from the band Kill Devil Hill who are all under 21 and who've come out and seen us rehearse at least a dozen times were finally able to attend their first real performance of our band.

Thanks to everybody for the opportunity, for inviting us to your party, into your homes, welcoming us all, and for having a great time. Cya next year, when we'll have to figure out some way to top this show - which won't be easy.

Vyan