AND WE'RE BACK! (A Post-Show Post)

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It is 1:58. I just arrived home from Kevala's first ever show. I'm sitting here in my room, surprisingly, not listening to music. My ears are still ringing and fragments of songs- sounds and vivid but surreal images, are coursing through my head. It's silent in my room, however, the night is playing over in my head cranked to full blast and in high definition.

I'm not even sure what to write here. I don't want to document the experience, really- partly because I'm exhausted from this day, and also partly because It's a jumbled mess of events in my mind.

The two bands who went on before us were fantastic. Thin Ice were incredible- for a drummer/keys duo with a guest trumpet player, they sounded full and tight.

The New Effector were really impressive as well. Really, really tight playing from those guys. The front man was kind enough to lend us his amp, as I required a monitor AND a guitar (I'll explain in a sec), so that was really cool of them.

Our set began at....damn it, I don't even remember...Regardless, the show began with Ice Jam. The sound was really well done and the energy was explosive. SO explosive that you could EVEN say Mark's electric guitar strings EXPLODED off his guitar. TWO of them, infact.....exploded.....off... his guitar...After the first song. Despite playing an energetic opener, the band's moral, I could sense was a little damaged. Mark was without a backup and was forced to play Jim's second Acoustic. HOWEVER, the front man from TNE was awesome enough to lend Mark his beautiful archtop, and so the night looked to be promising once again.

The set consisted of four (i think) JSB tunes and just about as many new Kevala songs- Reach For You, Summer Girl, Home, Throng Jam (ridiculous), and Jenn (also kind of ridiculous). Don't even ask about the names for the latter two. The story behind the name 'Throng Jam' is stupid beyond all sense. For the first time performing these songs live, they sounded great (from on stage). Hardcore fans seemed to really dig the new stuff and were delighted (if i'm not being too presumptuous in stating the following) to hear oldschool jsb tunes.

Anyway, the show's energy was amazing, despite a couple of akward moments fixing guitars and other technical difficulties. I played sloppily and feel really down about my performance (regardless of the fact that I didn't really have any huge blunders). I don't know why- now that I think about it, I sucked it up hardcore- I'm really friggin dissatisfied with my performance tonight. HOWEVER...

...My bandmates were out of this world. Jim was blasting out rhythms like it was his job. Solid, Solid, Solid, Solid playing. His solo in throng jam (ridiculous), was pure sex. And speaking of pure sex- Mark's solo's all over the place (when I could hear), made me want to cry. Amazing. kdlajsdasd. Cracker nailed his parts (lyrics!) ...like. he..(im not even going to finish this one). And Darren. MY GOD!

Darren deserves his own paragraph, so here it friggin is. Darren pwned his bass parts. I can speak for myself, Steve and Wimpy when I say that we're all amazed at how he's learned old jsb tunes as well as new Kevala songs in the span of 8 Days! D played incredibly and it has further affirmed our decision in adding this amazingly talented player into the band's lineup.

Tonights set (in random order) and play by play:

1. Ice Jam (BOOM! KEVALA EXPLODES BACK INTO THE MUSIC SCENE!) (Oh Shit!Mark breaks two strings!)
2. Drink Up Boy
3. Jenn
4. Winter (pretty awesome!)
5. When We're There (Oh Shit! Thanks to a rabid fan, Jim trips over the intro)
6. Reach For You (sick!)
7. Throng Jam (ridiculous) (Pure Sex)
8. Summer Girl (Roop's Gold Star Song)
9. Home (show closer! I didn't screw the ending up!)

The night's set ended with a collaboration with Thin Ice- 'There There' by Radiohead. For having never played with them before, it was apparently amazing- as audience members can testify. It was a huge blast!

The energy coursing through our hands and feet for that hour and (few?) minutes was immense. It's a feeling I've missed so dearly during the last two seasons. I mean it when I say it's the greatest feeling in the world- performing with your best friends and band mates, doing what you love most. You're really put into another world when you've got a room full of people in front of you there to enjoy your music, the bass drum blasting through their chests, and guitars, pan, and bass filling the room with music.

Wow...despite my shitty performance, I truly felt that we were a new band tonight- although, i can't explain why. Though, i'm glad things feel this way. I'm reminded now of the amazing future we have in front of us.

As an aside- I need to practice. Big time.

The audience was really great- thank you SO SO very much to everyone who made it out tonight. You're all so amazing. We really, really love you all.

We'll buy you ice cream. It's a promise. Just none of that cookie dough shit.


Anyway, if you've gotten this far, you're either really wasted and have nothing better to do..or wide awake.....and have nothing better to do.

I'm really going to stop rambling...........now.

Thank you all again so much, everyone.

byebye.