This was our first gig at the Hard Luck Saloon which has just been bought by a local hard rock musician. A pretty cool guy too. The Hard Luck really isn't much to look at from the outside. Ok, it's not much to look at from the inside, either -- but it was still pretty cool. You enter at the bar level and to the left and down about three steps is the stage area. This gives a kind of balcony effect, for those near the the bar and pool tables. Unfortunately the stage is angled toward the back corner which was piled with some excess furniture and a couple automated dart machines, so there really wasn't a lot of room for people directly in front of the stage. But the sight lines are still pretty good for everyone on the balcony unless they're at the far end of the bar.

One bummer was that for the third gig (out the last four), it was raining. It didn't rain the day before the gigs, or the day after...or even the days between. Just on the day of the show. When I heard the news I was like -- "F%#K, what is up with this?" Now, anyone not from California whose reading this is probably think, "JEZUS, what-a-wimp!" But have to realize that there's a real good reason they call it "SUNNY CALIFORNIA".

It's sunny here.

All the time.

Everyday.

Well, almost.

Basically, the entire state is mild desert. Sure we have tons of agriculture, but we import that water from the Sierra's via an aqueduct that is hundreds of miles long. As a result, we Californian's really aren't that use to rain, and most importantly -- we don't what to do when it rains.

Especially not how to DRIVE!

Or where.

Like your friendly neighborhood rock bar.

But in contrast to some of our last few gigs, I for one really wasn't worried about the draw - which was a relief. The Hard Luck is not only fairly small, it's fairly new - certainly too new to be massively picky about the number of people that show up like some of the places in town like the Distillery or Scratch 8.

Actually, I simply didn't want our gear to get wet because that would truly suck.

As it turned out the rain was pretty light, the heaviest portion of it only lasted for 15-20 minutes. With the gear inside, we simply concentrated on the setting up for the show. The Hard Luck has a PA of it's own (or rather HAD a PA, but I'll get to that issue later...) And once we figured out the microphone situation, we were ready to go.

We played first, and I have to say that even I was amazed by how good we sounded. In the previous few shows we've done, there's been a certain amount of shakiness here and there. But simply by asking Treno (Drums) to hit a little bit harder so that his playing becomes more consistent and fluid, our entire sound jumped a quantum leap forward. There had been moments, usually during reheasal where we hit what I like to call - The Zone - but that hadn't yet happened in public.

Well, this time it did. And how.

Our only problem was the time it took between songs to get Sammy's guitar tuned again, since it keeps going out on every song. As it was, we wound up playing one song with his guitar pretty far out, but other than that - we were on fire. I always thought we had the potential for The Zone, and we'd hit it a few times with the previous line-up, but I wasn't entirely sure that we could get there consistently. But low and behold, here we were - in the Zone (for the third time in a row, including practices) and loving it.

If things stay like this - I think there's nothing that stop us - and I really mean that.

Nothing.

All we need is new guitar for Sammy. :)

Once we finished, it was once again time for the GIRTH. They always sound good to me, and I'm really starting to like them more and more. I know some people can't handle a band as hardcare as they are, and that's too bad. While Girth played I talked to some of the guys that worked in the bar, like the doorman and asked him what he thought of us. He said that he really liked bands that were in that in Godsmack and Disturbed sort of vien. Which means that we're right in the sonic area that I've been shooting for. Not so much because we're copying those bands - because we're not - but we sound a lot more "up to date" an I think, far more original than we ever have. It's been a slow, and I believe natural progression to this point and I'm pretty happy that we've reach it. I don't think we've betrayed our roots, we've progressed and expanded them, and that's perfectly fine with me.

And then the sound went out.

Apparently, the house PA Blew - and the show was abruptly over. There had only been two bands - us and Girth - and Girth were most of the way through their set when the sound went out, but it was still a bummer.

And so, things came abruptly to a halt - but it was indeed an excellent evening - even for GIRTH.

Special thanks goes out to our long-time friend Julie Swann who came out for this performance.