A Surprising New Dawn @ The Hogshead

During the months since our last show with the Okra Pickles, we had begun recording a new demo with all nearly all new songs, as well as conducted a search for replacement members. It took quite a long time to find them and then to literally train them on how we wanted them to play - but we did it.

At long last, we had our roster filled again - with local scene newcomers Mike Feusi on bass and Treno Herrera on drums. We had scheduled our official unvieling gig with the new lineup on Feb 2nd, with our old pals in Oil Kan at the Roadhouse - but at the last minute we we're offered a gig at the Hogshead Pub in Old Sacramento with Kattywompus playing cleanup at midnight on a Saturday.

We needed a chance to get the bugs out before our big debut with the new group --- so we took it.

Kattywompus played two sets, including some of their own songs like "Bleed me", "Mustang", "We want the funk" and "Mama Don't smoke crack" with covers such as "Immigrant Song" done in their own unique techno-funk-metal style.

We had plenty of time before our show, and I was able to pop over to Scratch 8 and see a bit of the set by our buddies in Shallow.

Eventually came our turn to play, and compared to many of the gigs we've done in the past, this one went surprisingly smoothly. Even though Mike and Treno we're pretty nervous they performed very well, and I think the audience was suitably impressed. They even said so, as I heard quite a few positive comments afterward. In total, we performed nine songs, most of whom are very new and are in the process of being recorded for our new demo.

The setlist was as follows:

For this show I played rythm guitar on most of the songs, and handled all the vocals. Eventually we plan to bring in a full time rythm guitarist who should be ready by the show at the Roadhouse on the 2nd, and add some backing vocals to fill out the songs - but even without those elements, this may have been one of our best shows ever. Kattywompus's singer Chris even noted that we were a lot tighter and smoother than we used to be, since we weren't having a musical argument on stage anymore. The crowd response was great and the bartender Tim, liked us so much that he said he'd make us one of their regulars in their friday night slot.

Guaranteed return gigs after an unpublicized surprise warm-up show?

That's a nice change a pace - I could even get used to it.

Things are already looking up, and we haven't even truly begun yet.

Pritty keul, heh?

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