This was our last of a half dozen shows at the Tongue & Groove, and probably came off as smoothly as any of them. And by “smoothly” I mean we only had one memorable instrument meltdown (Aaron’s bass lost power early in the set), most of the mics worked, and I think no one wanted to strangle anyone else on stage during the performance. Success!

We loved the scene at this place, but the logistics of the power set-up/break-down for the 45-minute set sandwiched with two other bands never suited our style. We’d be barely warmed up, Andy’s mic would finally be on, Mike would finally manage to tell the guy running the soundboard that he couldn’t hear anyone in his monitors… and then we’d be getting the boot off-stage for the next band. Ah San Francisco.

Can’t beat Johnny Lee Hooker’s personal clubhouse for style. Red velour curtains, intelligent lights, and in-house Hammond B3 organ baybee! Kickass sound system to boot, but no dice letting us record ourselves… something about protecting the boom boom brand. Little did they know we’d be selling out arenas and lifting up anyone who’d ever associated with us within two years.*

* may not have actually come true

This was technically not our first gig at Sierra Vista - just the first one where the the power stayed on longer than 20 minutes and the roads weren’t buried in 2 feet of fresh snow. After being treated to a lakeside sunset meal from the dining room, we got a tour of resident sound guru (and Humpty’s alum) Blake’s storied vintage house audio set-up, including PA, soundboard, and monitor components from Grateful Dead and String Cheese Incident tours.

The turnout wasn’t stellar and our energy never matched the mile-high elevation, but the soundboard recording of our mediocre performance was pristine. Pristine enough that Andy–unemployed at the time–decided to sink some serious time into patching together a CD’s worth of tracks for mass-distribution at High Sierra Festival one month hence. Here’s a sampler:

• Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
• Ass Ripper (aka Ripper’s Revenge)
• Where’s Walker
• Too Many Sparks
• Hindsight