Babe the blue ox is biting my ankle!

Ha! I kid my readers. He's actually nipping at me bum.

So. Band scramble was Saturday night. We had a few final run-throughs of our set Fridat night and Saturday afternoon, just so we all knew what the hell we were supposed to do come set time. Friday night' practice was, um, a bit shaky and maybe a tad sloppy. My end especially, I think, although maybe I'm being hard on myself. Maybe everyone else thinks that about their performance on any given night. I'll have to ask musician types if they always feel like they're messing up. But I digress. Cut to Saturday afternoon, for our final rehearsal. Whatever got into us Friday night was gone, and we had what was probably our best practice as a band (why didn't we tape it!?). All fears are gone. Once we got on stage and did our thing, I think we were almost as good as at practice. There were a few goofs, but nothing too serious. There were only five groups total, so it wasn't a terribly long affair. I thought our chance of placing high were really good. I knew we weren't going to take first, simply because the band I figured would win (and win they did) had, in the irony of all ironies, a dancer who actually danced, who then went on to play guitar on the next song, and then washboard for the final song, lovingly titles, "I Cheated on You With Your Mom." How is anyone going to compete with that? The group got a huge reception from the crowd, which, of course, is a big player in the judges' decision. Still, I figured we could take second.

No, we took fourth. Out of five. What gives? We had a good, tight set, good crowd reception, hell, we even threw ice cream in the crowd during our opener, "Ice Cream." Second place went to a band called Shit Sandwich, who, while not sucking, wasn't as good as us (and yes, I'm a bit biased). Third went to a band called Marrinol (sp?), and see the above statement.

Still, we played really well, so that's something to be proud of. I saw people grooving to our songs, including the dancer/washboardist of the winning band, and we had a number of people tell us we did well, which is nice. The drummer from S.S. told us we'd be great if we stayed togather, so I guess that counts for something. Plus, our one woman horn section got an honorary slot in first place, because she was quite quite good.

Also, our drummer was asked to contribute a song or two to a compilation CD of regular open mic'ers at Frederick's, so he asked the band to help him record the material in a couple weeks. So the Unnecessary Apostrophes live on for a bit longer.

While we were setting up our gear, our singer was introducing all of us, and when he got to himself, he said "and my name's unnecessary, so I guess these are the apostrophes." Heh.

Despite the stagelights being really freaking hot, it was loads of fun. Performing on stage is a blast, and I got a real good group for a band. I think being with the last group which, well, wasn't so hot in spots, made this band all the better. Pictures would be forthcoming, but we only got two taken before my camera battery died. I'll see about scoring some others, though.

Not much else happened this weekend. Four day weekend coming up. Huzzah!

What? Can't a guy look ahead to the end of the week?


Straight ice cream? That's so traditional!
Dave