(Note to anyone reading this: This isn't a 'review' or anything. I sometimes write these things for the MiNUS3 website, and are meant purely to be taken as a journal, mostly for my own use. I have the memory of a goldfish and it's good to read back on this stuff... if anyone else reads it, fair enough, just don't come hassling me about how sad I am for reviewing my own band, because this isn't a review. Thankyou.)
Setlist
101 Damnations (Intro) / 30 Second Song
Powercut Tuesday
One Step Ahead
Time After Time
BuGaLuGGs!
Wicked As (Intro)
Said & Done
Downer
Groovus Maximus (Intro) / Club International
Here's To You
I was really looking forward to this gig, regardless of how little I (or the band as a whole) had prepared for it. It was of course the second Alternative Nation.net "Forum Gig", which in itself made it a little bit more high profile than most gigs we play... for one, I figured that there'd be more people than usual there not to see any particular band, but because of what the night itself was all about (as opposed to the usual 'I'm only here to see my mate's band, the rest of you can fuck off' type of crowd), I knew I'd be able to get more feedback on our performance than usual by lurking around the forum afterwards, and that the gig gave us a chance to impress a few more of the right people... I personally felt a lot was resting on this one.
It wasn't going to plan at all before we went on, though. Having left it a little late, we hadn't sold many tickets so had to depend on trusting people to pay at the door (not something a local band should do). I had been spending too much time that day stressing out about various things... tickets/transporting gear etc. I was feeling really tired and antisocial, so for most of the time in the Cathouse I let Cuff do all the meeting & greeting while I sulked quietly in the corner. I stared getting really nervous, too... we only had one proper rehearsal in the past couple of months, all I had in my head was completely forgetting everything and looking like a bunch of idiots.
Doors opened, and I stood with Janette watching the Aforementioned, glancing nervously across the venue as I realised we might be playing to nobody. It picked up a bit, a few more familiar faces came in to see us, but by the time we had to go on the place was still disappointingly quiet... this wasn't looking good.
Then, we took our place onstage. The lights went up. A nice slow count-in and we were straight into the 'metal' intro to '101 Damnations'... then rather than play the whole song (which is actually a Misfits-esque hardcore tune, not a metal song), we went quickly into a punk-as-fuck rendition of oldie '30 Second Song' (first time since it was written that we haven't opened with 'Powercut Tuesday'). We were finished before we started, and in even that short a time I had completely forgotten all my problems from earlier on in the day. I don't know why, but from the first chord I was feeling completely hyper, and really happy to be up there. Guess maybe it was just good to get back on the Cathouse stage after some of the shiftier venues we've played recently...
I introduced us ('This is Cuff, this is Scruff, I'm... too old for this shit. We're MiNUS3!') while Cuff took his jacket off, then he told his wee story about why 'Powercut Tuesday' is called just that. Then it was straight into the song in question, which again was over in no time. It occured to me that maybe we'd get away with the lack of practice, because we were tight and professional... Cuff and Jamie in particular being completely on the ball. Which was nice...
Another change to our usual set... we had decided earlier to put 'Downer' further back in our set, so it was straight into another (but not quite so) oldie 'One Step Ahead'. I was now so relaxed up there, and I wasn't even breaking a sweat... I was loving it.
'Time After Time' (the 'pop song to get us in Smash Hits', said I... though I think I meant to say 'Kerrang!'...) was next... I think a guitar string might have been slightly out of tune for the intro, could just have sounded muddy from where I was standing, I don't know. Still, once again we blasted through it as well as we ever had, even glanced up from the monitors in front of me (I don't know why, I have a habit of staring at the monitors while I'm singing) to see a couple of people singing along... looks like people are actually listening to the CDs we're giving them, which is nice. There's one thing about this song though, in that I can't move about much during it, since I'm singing or playing lead through just about all of it... still, I guess it was good to save energy, because I started going a little nuts after this one... (which I ended with the Wildhearts 'I Wanna Go Where The People Go' riff on the spur-of-the-moment, for no apparent reason... this kind of thing started to happen a lot).
Got my breath back while Cuff introduced 'BuGaLuGGs!' as another nice little punk song, about how bad his childhood was because his Mum used to call him names. I pointed out that if you looked closely you could see his tears while he played or something, I don't know... I was making this up as I went along. Then the song itself got it's first Cathouse performance... I think it might have sounded 'punkier' than usual, mostly from the way we were signing it I think... I was completely into the show by then and jumped about like a loon during the half-time choruses. I was seriously sweating by this point...
The set was broken up a little by my impromptu call to Cuff & Jamie to play a bastardised version of the intro to new song 'Wicked As'... which we pretty much failed miserably at, but it was pretty funny (and I think we actually got away with it). Played right up to where the first verse is meant to come in and stopped, pointing out to everyone that if they want to hear the rest of the song, they'll have to come to our next gig on the 28th... giving Cuff a chance to announce the CD/free ticket offer, which actually worked quite well... we made about £50 from that alone, which was pretty cool.
'Said & Done' was next, a nice slow/heavy tune to get my breath back to. Not exactly the most obvious choice for a live tune, but I like the way it breaks up the set, and it sure beats the pants off some of our old slow shit like 'Bleed'. Dedicated this one to Timed_Out, who unfortunately couldn't play the gig, then played a fairly spirited rendition, even adding the new backing vocals that are on the CD. I got a little over-excited during the fast bit at the end, and dropped my plectrum. Usually I'd stop playing for the split second it'd take to pick it up, but no... I wasn't for missing a beat, and continued to play by battering my bare fingers off the strings. Got a nasty cut/blistered finger out of it, but it was pretty cool coming off the stage bleeding... punk as fuck, haha.
Anyway, the dreaded 'Downer' came next... dreaded because although it's not all that complex a song to play (it's just Bad Religion-inspired punk rock), it's enough to kill a man, and I was already exhausted. Still, that's life in the rock n' roll world, so we battered through it (probably twice as fast as we were meant to) anyway. For some reason this is the only song I messed up the words to, which is odd because I've heard it about a million times since we recorded it...
Finished 'Downer', I was soaked with sweat and couldn't breathe... perfect time to reach for the box of cigarettes I had left beside my amp... especially since the next song was 'Club International'. Cool. Cuff had a wee speech about how much he loves boobs and how the song was about his favourite porn mag... I interrupted him (completely by accident, sorry Cuff) with a cry of 'RAWK AND ROLL!' then went into the riff for the Electric Boy's 'Groovus Maximus' (which we play in the studio sometimes because it's funny). Which of course went straight into 'Club...', which was a fun song to play (and smoke to).
Finally reached the end of another set, and for the first time ever, I really didn't want to stop. Weird... I was buzzing so much from playing such an enjoyable gig. Cuff pointed out the CD/ticket offer again, then I dedicated 'Here's To You' to everyone as usual, as well as to a few specific folks (not usual). That felt punk-as-fuck too, and I grinned like an idiot as I hopped about Angus Young-style in the middle, before playing the comedy rock ending from the comfort of the floor. Rawk.
All in all, even though the numbers were dissapointingly low (2nd quietest gig we've ever played, I think...), this was one seriously fun show to play. Maybe I'm getting more comfortable as a frontman, I don't know... all I know is that once the lights went up, I had the time of my life. It certainly wasn't technically my best performance... a few bum notes here and there, but that was mostly from jumping around, not from not knowing what I was playing (and Cuff and Jamie were tight as hell). But still, I don't think I've came off stage before with such a stupid grin... and based on the positive feedback I've been getting, it really showed... and even though it wasn't the biggest crowd ever, we achieved even more than what we were there for, and were even asked to provide the BBC Music scout with a CD (funny story about that, actually)... excellent.
Next stop - Strawberry Fields, 28th November. Cool.
(This post will be going on
www.minusthree.com as soon as I fix my PC at home...)
