The Kind of Show that Pisses Off Bar Owners

Today's Freeform Shuffle didn't go right, even though it didn't feel wrong. All the bands failed to promote, the door girl didn't collect any money and the DJ sets were...weird. It felt like something feels right before it ends, when most of the people who love it have left it alone to die, so they wouldn't have to see it happen themselvers, but it might just look that way in retrospect.

The night was supposed to end in an all-star noise jam, which the show's two hosts would be remiss not to participate in, so instead of bookending the show with DJ sets, Demchuk and Fuckhead lumped into the beginning. Downstairs, Mark Bose played his brand of Nick Cave-y goth folk and C. Tomorrow and Cool D. played some hip hop for their cameraman. Upstairs, two sets of DJs did two sets of tributes. First, the members of Eavil did a VJ/DJ set of Siouxsie Sue and her bands the Banshees and the Creatures; then DJ Lolliboo did a full set of 'Weird' Al Yankovich songs. This may have been too much for any bar; if you needed to get away from 'Weird' Al, your best two options were to go downstairs for the noise jam, or go down the street for Whiskey Wednesdays at Twisted Spoke.

As noise jams go, this one was pretty good. Sounds Happy, Mister Fuckhead, The Machinist, Death Factory, Sir Vixx, Billy Sides and Allison Lake twiddled knobs, smashed things and made a racket. I tried to see if I could create noise photography by attaching a mini strobe light to my camera and aiming it at random. The owners were displeased. Apparently they were ready for the noise to end , which became a problem as both of the night's hosts were deaf in the middle of it, and they had no one to tell to knock it off.

It felt like the end, but the writing isn't on the wall. Afterwards we took some rum to the beach, stripped to our skivvies and had our first genuine summer experience. It was an echo of the night a year ago when a lot of us first met each other in the middle of the night, on the beach, after a show. I've been wondering for a while, whether it is better to be making inroads in your art, not necessarily respected but known, and making progress, if all that dedication means you have to lose a lot of friends cuz you don't have the time that friendships require, for people outside of your field. I don't know the answer but, whatever happens, it will be hard to think of Wednesday night as anything other than good thing.