Thursday, March 15, 2018

Pocket FishRmen, The Lost Well, 3/14/2018

Last night was the SX 2018 debut of Pocket FishRmen (for the record, I have three gigs with both bands, totalling six), at the Lost Well, a familiar dive for a lot of us. We were on a Saustex-created bill including We Are The Asteroid, Dinola, Sabbath Crow (who almost live at the Lost Well!), and Cannibal Bitch.  The show got under way at 9:00 and somehow ended before 2:00. Professionalism! Actually, Cannibal Bitch, a two-piece sludgefest, only played about 15-20 minutes. The Lost Well was debuting a new sound system, and fortuitously, we had the same sound man from the White Horse the night before!

Pocket FishRmen had drawn the 11:30 slot; I think we were on by 11:45 or so. Our set was pretty okay, at least by reaction it was. I played fine, but it was a real bitch setting everything up by myself. Brant is always a great help moving gear (Jason helps as well if he's free of his own setup), but getting everything up and running for PF is becoming more and more impossible, if I'm using everything for the show. By everything, I mean the drums, the sampler, the lights, a costume, etc. As a lot of drummers do, I set up offstage beforehand, so I can just put the pieces together on the stage. But the sampler, lights, etc. all need to be done after THAT is done. It takes a crazy amount of time. I need an assistant. Where can I find one?? Aaaahhh!!!

One major distraction last night was these new stage lights that were very bright, one being placed on each side of the stage on the drummer's sightline. So, yes, I was regularly blinded while playing. The sound man realized that; maybe some adjustments to those will be made for future folks. With all these issues, I didn't have a great time but like I said earlier, played okay. All the bands did well, but there was not a huge turnout for the show. I wonder if the whole SX thing isn't a bit watered down; even for "our" shows.

Until tomorrow!

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