[drumming diary] Gig report, Lindsie Reitz at Beat Kitchen

Here I thought this would be a new, burgeoning section on the site. I'll have to work on that.

Anywho, last night marked Lindsie's debut at the Beat Kitchen over in Roscoe Village. The club has a lot of history, including one fire and complete ballbusters in both the booking and behind the soundboard. Nowadays, the booking is handled by one Mike G, who also plays bass for The Ripleys, who I've played with on occasion.

We were all looking forward to the bill, which included Vaughan's open mike host Tony Calderisi and former Lindsie bandmate Jayh Johnson. So we got there, got some levels, and went into "Just Don't Ask" as our sound check song. I don't know the sound guy misinterpreted a hand signal to turn my monitor down as the opposite, or what, but all of a sudden, I had to stop before the volume from my drum monitor took my head off. I mean, this was just stupid loud, and probably the first taste this band has had of me being angry.

So, anyway, off to a great start.

Then the rest of the band took off to change, leaving Mike and myself to have some grub. Now, at most clubs, the band enjoys some sort of discount on food and/or beverage. Here, you get $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon, and that's it. I know this is making me out to sound a bit diva-like, but that's bullshit.

Tony's set was great, and I recorded it to MiniDisc for him. I wound up hanging in the front room for most of Jayh's set, watching the crowd and hanging a bit with Vaughan's regulars Darren and Matt. Past that, I didn't interact with people much, but that's always been a trouble spot for me. I'm all about the game face. I did see the A&R guy who was in town for the Ivory Wire and Regal Standard shows the night before arrive, along with Matt Walker, who has played drums for Filter, Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage. No pressure there.

Our set was what it was. We're reaching a certain consistency with the current crop of songs, so this particular night didn't feel particularly good or bad. It just was. Some of that was the crowd, who seems to have a very finite limit to how much they'd cheer after a song finished, but that's fine. The funny thing for me is that, before this band, I would never have thought to actually document transitions from one song to the next. Lindsie actually marks the breaks in the set where she's going to talk to the crowd. To be honest, I don't know that I would have ever even thought of that.

Some discussion afterwards about the quality of some of the changes effected by the EP recording, but I don't know if anything will come of it. We're apparently a couple of weeks away from the first iteration of "final" mixes, which technically still makes it a rough mix, but since I haven't heard a single note of this thing since April, I'll take what I can get.