On February 27th, the day before Scion, we (Alex, Dave, and myself) were pretty excited about the trip. We also had a show to play this night. We were leaving to ATL right after. The day consisted of getting together with MS and jamming here, then heading to the Hideaway (where we were playing).
Me, Dave, and Alex get there early for the day show there. We had to wait on Dody and Drew to get there, and also Doug.
MS goes on first and we had some tuning problems. It ruined an otherwise good set. We played tight, but the tuning screwed it all up. The tuning situation didn't improve with the DRM set, either. We also played well, but again, the tuning was off. Our tuner wasn't working.
We had a show with Energy and 2 other bands from around Boston, Mass. We opened and right when we kicked in I had a bad feeling. It turned out to be our worst set, in my opinion. A guy told us it sounded like we weren't even playing the same song together at first. It was shitty because it was the biggest turnout to a show we had played thus far.
Second Show: Me and Alex were at The Hideaway for the Lewd Acts show on January 25th. A band had dropped, so we asked Wes (the promoter) if DRM could get on it. He said that was cool, so we quickly called Drew and Dody. They were down. After Lewd Acts had played, we waited around for Dody and Drew to arrive. We were anxious to play, so it seemed like forever. Finally, we see the van coming down the road. Drew stops and we all get the equipment unloaded and inside in no time. We were pretty sloppy during this set. Crowd reaction consisted of people standing and watching. A mostly forgettable show.
Third Show: This was our 3rd show and probably the best show I had played since my Mental Shock's Halloween show. This was the tightest we had played up until this point. There weren't many mistakes and it was just a good show overall. Good crowd reaction and we played well. I even learned two new songs two hours before the show and pulled it off well, all things considered.
January 18th, 2009 - DRM played our first show. The turnout wasn't great, but we did have a good reception from the people that did show. I'm always critical of my performance, and this was no different.
"Mental Shock was killer. it reminded me of the roots of death/grind from the 80's, and i was waaaay into it. also, the cross made of pizza boxes that almost got maynard's ass kicked by a middle aged woman at mid city after the show ruled." - Scott (Guitarist of now deceased The Siren Sky in reference to Mental Shock on Halloween).
This show was more enjoyable to me than the first. It was my second show ever and it was with Mental Shock on Halloween.
I was more assured now that I had my first show out of the way, and I think Dave felt the same way (Sept. 28th was his very first show, as well). So, there were less mistakes and overall I think we just did a kickass job this night. We were maybe a little out of tune during the closer "Haunt of Fear," but otherwise, one of my favorite shows that I've played.
Alex got shoved by a woman later on that night in Midcity Grill due to his huge inverted cross made of pizza boxes. I'm sure his face paint and talking to a guy dressed like Jesus didn't help.
So, Doug (drums) and Alex (guitar) got to my place around 3-4 in the afternoon so we could jam a little beforehand. Dave (vocals) stayed in Johnson City. The kick pedal didn't hold up for very long, so after a short jam, we got everything loaded into the van. We waited for a bit, then headed out and picked up Doug's gf, as well as our friend Dustin. We were running a little late already, but they stopped by McDonald's in Gray to get some food. The trip consisted of us singing songs, replacing certain words with "puppet." Odd, I know, but hilarious. We got there and the first band, Fighting Haysi, had already started playing and we were told they were 2-3 songs into their set. We were up next, so we got everything unloaded and put it on the sidewalk near the door. I walked in and caught a little bit of them playing, but I was mostly thinking about us being next. Fighting Haysi ended their set and people started coming outside. We get everything in on the stage and set up. After a few minutes, we were ready to go. Up until this point, I was slightly nervous, but nothing bad. It really set in once we kicked into our intro. It was a simple, slow intro, though, so no big mistakes. The intro fades out and the four-count kicks us into "Wormfood." Lots of mistakes from me at first, but I calm down a little bit and we finish it. The music had a ton of energy and you could tell people were getting into it. We had a nice crowd reaction/applause after that song ended. We played through 6 more songs (2 really short ones) and although we all made our mistakes, you could tell people enjoyed it. Afterwards, we got quite a few compliments on our performance. Killbot even wants us on the next issue of his Infolepsy 'zine. Most of these people I'd seen before, but one random guy we'd never seen before complimented us while me and Alex were walking by. There was an older, train-hopping metalhead in there trying to start pits. He went by "Satan." He thought we kicked ass, haha. This was filmed:
This is an ongoing record of all the shows I've played. Some accounts are just small details while others are more descriptive. As two of my bands are still pretty active playing shows, this will be updated often. It chronicles my live shows with Mental Shock, Dissociative Rhythm Madness, and Mind Sludge. Maybe others down the road.
