The Basement Party: Where our band starts...

Some might use the word soiled, but after having so much fun we could only call the mud on our gear "character." 12 hours after setting up I finally got home and got to get some sleep. A few hours later Matt woke me up and reminded me that we had to go get our equipment.

The night had been intense, beginning with a race against time as a storm rolled in and we packed our gear, and prayed we could get unpacked before the rain. We arrived at the same time as the beer, and began setting up in a basement that already had a wet coating from the rain the night before. We set up the rug, P.A. drum set, and guitars. We were unsure of the schedule, but no one was there yet, so while Eric dipped out to go get cleaned up, Matt and I went to the store and grabbed some red bull, and water.

The clouds were dark, and as they rolled in, so did the party. People stood outside watching the storm roll in. Clouds formed funnel shapes, but never spun. Wind howled, but never damaged. Lightning lit up the sky in the background, and finally around 11:00p.m. the night kicked off with Elliot Denning playing some acoustic solo songs such as, "I always fuck up in the 4th quarter," and "zombie." If you've never seen him, check him out!

It's at that time we found out we were going on second. I think Matt, Eric were ready to play, but I was honestly exhausted. I had been in Indianapolis all day, and been up since 8am. However as we got up to play, Matt stated, "I guess the party moved upstairs – lucky for them we're loud enough for them to still hear us," and we got to playing 'Don't tell me how to live,' a song that we tossed around many times as being a set opener that worked quite well as the party returned quickly to being downstairs. Followed by 'God only knows' we started the third song, 'Country cruising,' and quickly smelled some herb being smoked in the small dank basement.

From then on I would have thought it would be smooth sailing, but Matt broke a guitar string – as he always does in practice – and then a second guitar string on our backup guitar. As the crowd wanted more we ended up getting an electric guitar (something we are not used to, because Matt has always played with an electric acoustic) we played about 3 more songs to end the set on a high note.
Considering that the 3 of us have only worked together for less than 2 months, it was an amazing accomplishment that made every ounce of work towards it worth it in the 1 hour set that we played. We were followed by 'Methlab Explosion' who sounded pretty decent, but I was unable to actually stay downstairs and watch because we snuck out to go smoke. We returned downstairs to watch Arias' very tight rhymes, and his lead in to Metal in the Microwave.

We had a blast – it was great first show, and we have to thank Nicole, Rachel, and Stephanie, Methlab Explosion, Arias, Metal in the Microwave, Elliot Denning, Jessika, Nate, the crowd, the beer, and the weather for holding off just enough rain to not electrocute us, or the crowd. None of us got home until after 4am, it was one hell of a party.


-[Woozie] Will

The truth is that possessions and status can fill the emptiness of our dwelling and the emptiness of our ego, but do little to fill the emptiness of our soul. -Brian Austin Whitney..