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9.22.2006 Returning to where it all began Our first show, the kick off for us in L.A., was a show at the Joint in May of 2003. I had just started at a job right up Robertson working for some millionaire auctioning off used construction equipment, and one day while walking to my bus stop I noticed the club. I'd never played a club before and didn't know the first thing about booking. So the next day I wrote my contact info on a piece of paper, and along with a demo CD, dropped it down a slot near the front door. I think this was April some time.Alec Ziegler, who now runs Club Good Hurt, was the booking manager for the Joint at the time, and he called me back immediately, I think the very next day. He loved our music so much (this was the "1420" CD, for those who've stuck around) that he wanted to book us immediately for a Saturday slot in May. Gigging clubs in L.A. usually works like this, especially if you actually sound like you don't know what the hell you're doing - they book you on a Tuesday night at 11:30pm, and if you prove yourself by drawing enough of a crowd (call your aunts and uncles and their friends), they'll move you over to the more primo slots, like a Saturday one. So Alec was taking a bit of a chance on us, but something in the music had connected. In fact he even pushed the CD on a band he was managing at the time called Jabudah, insisting that they sounded more like us. Which.. I'm sure pissed them off, because to be honest they were way better than us at the time. Anyways.. so we landed our first real show, and livin' the dream had started.. playing L.A. clubs. I was pretty nervous, even though I had some incredible guys in the band to share the experience with. I wore a puffy leather jacket and a hat and I'm told that throughout the show I looked like I was trying to avoid attention. And worse, from my perspective it felt as bad as I'm told it looked. But in the middle of it, I couldn't figure out how to get out of it, so I did my thing. And we did our thing. I think we have video footage from the evening, which some day shall air on VH1. I was let go from that job up Robertson some months after all this. It almost feels like I was given that job just to walk by the Joint where the booking manager happened to love our music, to play that show to start things off. And since then we've played pretty much every worthwhile club in town, and we're older and wiser for it. Through it all, you've supported us and made everything possible so far. So.. we're going back to where it all began. We're playing a show at The Joint on October 24, and it starts at 9pm. Now I don't want to pretend it's 2003 or anything kinky like that. I just haven't been back and I'm curious if the room will treat us any different this time. I hope you can join us again. -Steven |
