11.1.11

Played a show at a local bar last night and for being the only band that showed up I don't think we did half bad. It was packed when we got there and unfortunately, since the guy who had booked us was out of town we were asked to play an hour later than we'd agreed to. That being said, we still had a lot of ears listening as the next hour rolled around. Turned out not only was the guy who booked us not there, but none of the other bands had shown up either.. so it was us, and the sound guy (who ended up playing for another 45 minutes or so after us.) We were under the impression that the gig was sort of an audition of sorts to land further gigs but who knows at this point. Was a great venue, and the sound was alright (of course every venue has different standards, and sound deficiencies.. luckily this was on the nicer side of the spectrum.) Just a shame there weren't more acts, and people there to actually hear some music rather than be distracted by it. Not the greatest to feel like you're impeding someone's dinner/conversation etc. Wah, wah wah.. Of course if this gig was a sign of the future we should be in good shape. Only had 1 practice with the new line up a few days prior and with the handful of tunes we learned we were able to play all but one. Special thanks goes out to Pat for filling in on such short notice! First week of editing/mixing with Ken also started yesterday. Given the time crunches, (time) difference, and last minute re-recording we're off to a decent start. Got to hear a rough mix of one of the tracks late last night - actually around 2am this morning - and it sounded fantastic.. Sort of like Bowie meets The James Gang. Very intense, very cool. Surprised at what Ken was able to come up with considering we're giving him more constraints than anything. 'Here's a bunch of tracks, half of them already bounced, recorded at fairly low levels that we were planning on finishing ourselves... but can you mix/edit them in between your 3 tours and everything else you got going on?' Just happy he hasn't thrown in the towel yet. Okay, blog's gotten too long for one day of Velvet Ants goings on (for now at least.) So here are some pictures from the gig last night. Thanks again to Dave (the sound guy) and everyone else who came out last night, it meant a lot to us and we hope to see you at the next shows!