A Mr. Yuck event was scheduled at the "Fiesta Bar" today, attendance being mandatory for Sr. Rhythm Developer / Guitar Applications Specialist Andrew S. D. (your humble narrator). I leveraged the existing City Bus systems to provide physical transit to the staging area, the group housing and band rehearsal facility known as "King Zoo". Once I was on site, equipment necessary for the project was undeployed and encapsulated in a pickup truck-type material logistics unit.

Well, the truck was all full of our band junk, so most of us would have to find another way of getting to the gig. Brian and Brandon went with King Zoo roommate ROY in the ROYmobile. Kris was to accompany Julie and the truck. I was told that a coworker of Kris' would give me a ride (in a car). Well, Michelle (the co-worker) arrived, and her car was a four-seat type, with one empty seat that I decided would be mine. Lucky me, I get to ride with the three goth chicks. Well, Two of them had a decidedly dark 'n spooky look going, at least. I think that this was the group of girls that Brian had gone out ("Gone out" in the sense that they all went somewhere at the same time) with earlier in the week. This was corroborated by Michelle accidentally calling me "Brian" at one point during the drive. Mostly I was silent and stared out my window, enjoying their collective unsurity about what I was about. I don't hang out at Kris' workplace too often, and I am mostly in motion when in the reception area (where they stick all the goth chicks) (kidding), so we really don't know each other.

I think when they hang out with Brian, it's easy to know where he's coming from. He's the smooth talking, self-abasing one who exudes guilt trips and subtle desperation without really knowing it. Being around someone you're sure of is comfortable, I suppose, even when all he wants is lap hugs (Bri: I am funny, huh?).

Anyhow, at one point in the ride, they all suddenly began talking in the third person about their boyfriends (I think. Proper male nouns, in any case.). It was as if they had switched into a meta-mode wherein they were conduits for their boyfriends to talk to each other, in the "Hi, how are you - what are you doing these days" vein.

We arrived at the "Fiesta Mexican Family Restaurant & Lounge". I was very surprised that I would be playing at a mexican restaurant. We went in, I got my band-member hand-stamp ("DRAFT") and we sat down at a restaurant table to eat, more by default than anything. I ordered a Quesadilla (actually an appetizer), since it was all I could afford (I have -$300, but for some reason I can still withdraw money). The non-gothiest of the girls ordered a burrito of some sort, and the other two ordered vegetarian tacos, which turned out to be flour tortillas lying flat on a plate with a salad on top of them. The burrito arrived, and it was about the size and shape of a not-quite inflated football that has been covered in cheese sauce. "I don't think this can fit in my stomach," said the non-goth. "It sort of looks like a stomach," I offered. Though there was general agreement at the table, none of them spoke to me for the rest of the night.

At the gig, we discovered we were to play fifth of six bands. This was bad news: fourth band and beyond rely on pity to retain their audience, since they generally wind up playing at 1 or 2 am.

First band was some, uh, guys. The most remarkable thing about them was that the lead singer was playing a Parker Nitefly, the economy Parker guitar. Still, it retains the futuristic styling and design innovations of the Fly. They sounded like the listened to a lot of King Crimson.

The second "Band" was this chubby white guy in a tight white button down shirt. He had a white telecaster and a drummer. Those two guys only played for ten minutes, but it went on and on; he yowled and shrieked into the mic until people started covering their ears (despite this being a totally uncool thing to do when you are at a place with a live band). I was really appreciating my earplugs (also not very cool, but actually well worth it. Like ear-sunglasses.) He sounded like Frank Black, if Frank Black had no talent and was retarded besides. Sorry dude, that's what you sounded like.

Third was "Chiaroscuro". They had three keyboards, a rack drum set, a 6 string bass, a midi guitar setup and fuck fuckity fuck loads of talent. They sounded great, another band in the genre we would be part of, if it had a name. We definately want to get in contact with them in the future. The only bad thing about them playing is that we would now appear totally lame in comparison.

Fourth was some sort of band or other that I don't remember because I was reeling from the implications of Chiaroscuro. Also, I was getting annoyed at how late we would be playing, and everyone leaving.

Five was Mr. Yuck: Us. It was a bad show. Our sound was clearly fucked from the get-go, and when I asked Kris what he thought was wrong, he floundered helplessly, physically and verbally. This was bad. I didn't know what he heard that was so wrong, and he couldn't help me; he was panicking. What would turn out to be 3/4ths of the way through our set, I discovered that our stage PA was not plugged into the house system. So the audience was not hearing the drums or guitar (except in a tinny, distant way), and those things were blasting us in the back of our collective head, so we'd turn the drums down... get reports of no drum noises... turn them up, get blasted in the head, repeat. When we nailed this down, our sound healed, and we played all right. For a couple more songs, when we were notified that we had to cut it short.

Bad blood was created between us and the following band, who wouldn't be able to play at all ("You are shit", quoth a japanese woman from that band). They complained that they had been "quoted a time: 11:30". Very early on, we learned that quoted times are more like predictions than promises. Actually, more like wild guesses than anything. I wanted to tell them that they had to pay their dues, but instead Brian went to put on the obsequious act.

Our set actually ran 5 minutes over time. We started at 1:30. If we had played a negative 2 hour set, the following band would have been on time. However, since we have no way of playing negative sets, they weren't. I didn't feel like I owed them an apology, though I do sympathize with their problem. Still, calling us "shit" should definately have canceled their sympathy chit.

I found out later that ROY confronted them outside the restaurant and told them they should respect the other bands and give them a chance. The drummer guy apparently perceived ROY as a great threat and they all fled in a big hurry.

Laterwards we discussed what went wrong and how we could be better. Inspired by Chiaroscuro, we were all promising ourselves that we would practice more, be smarter onstage, absorb talent from the ether, and record a CD.

Then I got home, where I am now, eating "Easy Mac". It is possibly the easiest hot food to prepare I've ever seen. You empty bag 1 in a bowl, you put water in the bowl, you microwave it. You dump bag 2 in and stir until it looks like you can eat it, at which point eating may start immediately. Macaroni and cheese is still novel and thus interesting to me. I wonder about the genre of food that Easy Mac, Instant Ramen, and possibly frozen burritos fall into. Could I make a menu of instant food that I could rotate through and not get sick of while simultaneously saving money and time? What else is on that list?

Apparently I am a Net.Goth to fear and loathe, as well as a 3-L loser (Oct 31). Boo hoo, SHUNNED FOR BEING WHO I AM. Well, that was in the past. Now I get awards and links for being who I am! Thanks Net.Goths and Losers.org!

I have a feeling that my appearance on both of those link pages is due to either the same or at least similiar people.