audio: "paradise." (more from reading

audio: "paradise." (more from reading '98) new order.

alright, so it was a bit mean to leave you hanging after that last bit. *snerk* here's the next...

FRIDAY NIGHT

so, i got all dressed up, Tony got all dressed up...and everyone gathered in front of Main Programming to get ready to do the show. plan was to gather there at 4:30 to be prepared the moment the Iron Guest competition was to let out so that we could immediately set up and get ready to play, as the more time we had to do so, the better.

Tony, for his part, looked absolutely amazing. he's got a ska band in Virginia, and therefore Knows How To Dress. (i have pictures to prove it, which i shall post here after i've scanned them. XD) the rest of us looked about as anyone who knows us would expect. Mike was shirtless again underneath his denim jacket, and i actually didn't realise this till much later, cos i'm incredibly observant. XD i was very tall, as the boots i was wearing (which kick arse, BTW) have very thick platformlike soles on them. so i was probably 5'7" or 5'8" or so in those boots. ^^

Iron Guest got out a bit late, so of course we ended up setting up late. and starting the show nearly on time, but late enough to where we ended up cutting songs out of the set...which was rather disappointing, as it was a GREAT AUDIENCE and we were doing quite well...and everyone was playing off of each other nicely, and all around, it was a great time. and the sound was really good this time round, too...unlike last year!

(the only real problem i had was that apparently the aux sends meant to let me hear my keyboard through my monitor weren't turned up properly. i tried to alert our sound guy to this [who, coincidentally, was our old keyboardist], but either i didn't communicate it clearly or he didn't hear me...so since i couldn't hear, i didn't play. >P )

but oh dear LORD. the crowd was HUGE. and very responsive, which was really cool. there were several songs which the audience got up and danced for, several more where arms were waved and people were singing along, and there was also a bit of a pit going up front! i saw at least three video cameras going, too...including one guy dressed as Parappa the Rapper who was right up front (excellent costume!). Ganymede later informed me that this guy apparently does an anime TV show somewhere on the west coast. (Spaz and Mariam were doing still camera duty for me with little disposable cameras, and i'll post those photos up later for your perusal. i'll also post up the set list later on, as i can't remember it completely off the top of my head! ^^;;;;)

one thing i do remember was that during "Blurry Eyes," two amusing things happened. one, i accidentally set off a drum pattern and didn't realise it until it was far too late...so there's this weird bossanova-like thing going on underneath it that confused everyone and which i tried to ignore. --;;;; argh. the other thing that amused most everyone was that my melodica kept falling to the floor (had been sitting on my keyboard) during the song. it got so that Rob (who, if you'll recall, was playing tuba for us) decided he would be Human Melodica Stand, and stood there off to my right holding it till it was time for me to play. XD

other assorted bits:

* Dale hopped down off the stage and utilised his wireless unit to its fullest advantage, chasing a few people around the room while playing for a few songs. again, there are photos and i'm sure video of this as it was going on...heh, what would we do without Dale? XD

* as had been previously planned, Tony got onstage to count us off for the Lupin OP we did (yay Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra! XD), and Alison also joined him and danced with me onstage. (only bad thing about those boots...they're very hard to dance in. =P) it was absolutely BRILLIANT. loads of fun, and the crowd again was amazing here. so happy everyone was dancing! ^-^

* someone offered to take the band out for dinner at the end, particularly Mike. XD

lots of good comments at the end, people chanting for an encore (which we couldn't give, due to time constraints)...people asking if we had CDs out, people saying they liked our version of such-and-such song better than the original (O.O;;;; now THAT, i don't believe at ALL. o.o;;;)...lots of stuff. Spaz remarked later on, "do you realise how many t-shirts you could've sold if you'd had them ready? O.O;;;" and he was right. they really liked us! ^-^)

so we started breaking down everything, and then Mme. C. hops up onstage to talk to me. now, Mme. C. has a long and sordid past with both my sister and a good friend of ours who was *also* there, called Kevin. shall not go into great detail here, but basically things between Mme. C. and my sister and also between her and Kevin aren't...good. but Mme. C either doesn't notice or doesn't care. in any case, she was there cos she was volunteering for the con. she hadn't realised i was in the band, and just *had* to talk to me after she saw us play.

Kev hopped up onstage and rescued me, which was nice. Mme. C went away, and all was good again. and of course, plans were in place for a huge group of us to go out to dinner at the fairly nearby Mongolian Stir Fry. fun, fun. exhilarated from a good performance and an excellent crowd (and hopefully a good recording!), we packed up and got ready to go to dinner.

[small update: forgot to mention that apparently my friend Marisa (dressed up as a lovely Faye Valentine in yellow vinyl) apparently was so into the show that she was bouncing around and her shirt accidentally popped open, so she ended up flashing us. Rob thinks only the horn players might have seen it, but man. poor Marisa...though i'm glad of course that someone was so excited about seeing us! ^.^]

part four soon to come...