So, i went. as per usual Mac’s style, it’s 1 good band + 3 local bands. Altho tonight Horde was SUPPOSED to play, I know John (bass) from around. Dunno what happened to them. Doors were at 9, i got there at nearly 10 and USSA was just soundchecking. If you were there, I was sporting a Domino’s pizza hat and a hoodie.
I caught Paul for a minute and chatted with him - mentioned Afra’d put up the clip and I’d seen the Flowering Blight page, and that I was excited about it. He said ‘yeah that stuff should all be up soon’. He asked me about USSA - I told him, I had the CD but “everyone says you gotta see them live”. He laughed. His extremely nice and easy going reputation is certainly truth. (No I didn’t ask about the lawsuit, it wasn’t the right time. I wasn’t there to interview.)
Chatted with Duane Denison for a while as well, about various stuff: Jesus Lizard, Touch & Go, Tomahawk.
After that I got a few minutes with Gary pre-set, and he mentioned them playing with Jesu a while back.
So enough chatter, how was it?
Considering there was about 18 people there to watch the set and about another 6-8 people in the building total - Extremely solid. Full Energy. Even the shitty monitors at Mac’s didn’t seem to phase them once they started in. Gary sounded excellent live, and parts of the album that I thought were ‘overdubbed’ vocals simply were sung without missing a beat. Johnny on drums seemed hyper-active the whole set. Paul & Duane clearly are seasoned pros, no frills but tight and clean. They didn’t play anything new or non-LP but a slightly different version of ‘Cab Ride’. All in all, very good show. I’m glad I made the trip, and yeah “go see them live”.
oh, one more thing - to the whirling dervish long-haired cutie that was ripping thru the crowd - Thanks. =)
-E