After load in, we headed to the backstage area in the basement. Christ - backstage was bigger than most of the clubs I've played. The big room in back, which we grabbed, was stocked with beer, water, and..uh...Worcestershire sauce?
I left to have dinner across the street at La Puerta, enjoying a savory plate of pollo a la crema. Upon returning, I noticed a lot of friendly faces taking up residence at the outer bar. I also found out a bunch more had left, and were returning closer to our start time. Between all this eating, chatting, and final preparation for our headlining set I mostly missed the other bands. I totally missed the first band, and caught only bits and pieces of Dateless and Pris, both of whom were pretty high energy.
As we were all ( but Dan ) still battling the tenacious crud we'd caught up in Stanwood, we pounded fluids relentlessly leading up to our set. Hoagie was feeling particularly ill, trying to bring his ever heightening fever down. We set up a fan in our dressing room, and I wrapped some ice in napkins for him to rub on his head and neck. Meanwhile, a photographer from the UW was shooting us for an upcoming review (stay tuned). Showtime arrived, and we were ready. We did our pre show huddle, and stepped onstage to a cadre of rabid Ramones fans waiting to either love us or hate us. From the first strains of "Psychotherapy," we won them over. Once again, the mad fuckers in front were right with us for every word, often punctuating lines with a cooling shower of beer directed at the stage. On a night where I was having trouble speaking, let alone singing, this worked to my advantage, as I often put the mic in front of these guys and let them belt out a few choruses, giving them release and my poor lungs relief.
We closed as usual with "Glad To See You Go" and left the stage. From downstairs, we heard a rising chant of "Hey Ho Let's Go." We were drained, and really didn't know if we physically could pull off any more songs without collapsing. When it became clear we didn't have a choice, we returned and blasted through "Outsider" and "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" to a throng of diehard fans.
Upon leaving the stage for good, I was so woozy that I almost fell down the stairs. Thankfully Hoagie noticed this, and made sure I was OK before I splattered my skull all over the place. We were all spent, yet wired from the excess adrenaline still coursing through us. We had just given all we had and then some to the crowd, and it felt great. We realized we had accomplished something really cool in a short period of time, and that this was only the beginning.
Much thanks to Adrian for the kick ass sound mix, Mark and Jonathan for their assistance, Matt (Nada Mucho) for hooking this up, Neumos for bringing the rock back to Capitol Hill, Justin Parks for shooting us again, the UW guys for their interest, Marci Smith, Ken Hahn and everyone else who helped promote, and most of all everyone who came out and helped us rock the bejeebers out of Neumos on a school night.