Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Love Garden/The Jackpot (Lawrence, KS) Oct. 6

o.k.
so it's going to be hard to write about the whole lawrence experience we had yesterday. i'm afraid that either: a> i'll get way to gushy and sentimental or b>i won't be able to accurately describe how honestly encouraging it was.

to be honest, when i first heard that we were going to do the record store show i didn't know what to think. we'd crawled up ethan's friend adam's ass about trying to get a show and even though nothing was available he went out of the way to set it up. still, i was worried that without locals we'd never get a draw in lawrence.

upon showing up and meeting everyone in the store i honestly couldn't give a flying fuck what happened that night. some of the most wonderful people i've met in a long time live in lawrence, KS and they tend to all hover somewhere near love garden records. adam was a total sweetheart but not in the ass-kisser kind of way which is impressive. i immediately felt at ease and they were straight up hyping everyone that came in the store about the show. they even made cheeseburger flyers (custom colored by amanda) and brad bought us some beer and made sure the P.A. was working during the show. they were like a little record store family, it was just great.

even aside from the great vibes, the store was incredible. if you are ever in lawrence and don't go to love garden you are missing a chromosome. great 45s and reasonable prices, great set-up, and it's meticulously organized to boot. i spent a little more of my fun money than anticipated.

before we knew it, it was time to play and we had quite a neat little crowd of people to play to. if there's one thing that you notice right away in lawrence, it's that there are pretty people pretty much everywhere. so it was nice. people even knew the clean song was a cover. intense.
we played a pretty o.k. set but were a little looser than normal and it went off pretty well with some kids shaking it off up front and lots of smiles around. we were stoked afterward and really happy to have played but it wasn't until we were done that things really got fun. even pfanzler and sara were there and it just made things even better.

some girls offered to have us play at their house for a party and we were totally into the idea, turns out we couldn't do it but that set the guerilla wheels in motion. before we knew it, adam and brad were trying to get us into the clubs in the area to play a free show for some kids after the shows other billed shows were over. we got an answer that there was a 50/50 chance we'd be able to hook it up.

brad, adam, and us decided to drink the rest of the beer, listen to 'over the edge' and play some super kixx (which is bubble soccer, and it fucking rules, congratulations adam for kicking all of our asses) up in the record store and wait for word. eventually, we headed down to the corner bar, replay, and got even more beer and hung out with everyone. finally, we had word. we were going to go on at the jackpot after saves the day finished their acoustic set at one. nice.

it seemed like the second that we found out, adam and amanda were hyping again and this time we were lucky enough to have the people from the instore earlier hyping too. it was weird. i was meeting people who were like: "oh yeah, you're in mannequin men, we're coming to your show later". i can't tell you enough how nice it was for these kids to go out of their way for no reason other than to help out and have a good time. that for me was the kicker: they just wanted to have fun too, it wasn't so they could get something, it was just cos they're into smiling and having a riot.

jackpot was incredible. while we were waiting to load in a crowd starting gathering. made up of kids that were at the show earlier and kids who had gone because some hot girl/guy who worked at the record store told them to go. it was fucking great. it was how things are supposed to work, and for once it worked.

we set up on the floor to save time and in close to five minutes had a pretty large crowd and most of the gear checked. i was fucking plowed and the thing i remember most about the night is frantically trying to get enough water in me to play the set. we opened with 'lil' red riding hood' and the place went absolutely nuts. people dancing, people yelling, people spilling beers on us, breaking glass, and there was even some crowd hugging during the first few verses.
we tore through a decent twenty five minute set, and to be honest, the euphoria of playing for kids who actually wanted to hear music blurred most of what happened out of my memory.
all i know is that there are fantastic kids in that city and i will be back.

sure, we went to a party afterward (thanks, megan) but we'll keep that to ourselves.

in fact, i feel like i shouldn't even post this.

last night was like a really good secret.

told you i would get all fucking sentimental.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

cool, you got pork soda, right?

patrick said...

I know your secret

Anonymous said...

i miss lawrence. it's awesome when things work like they're supposed to. midwestern hospitality + beer +rock = awesome.
--lauren kruuuum

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.