February 1st, 2003
This was our first regular show as the new band, so naturally we had reserves about the whole thing. It was a test to see how things were going to be from here on out: Jason and Ian in the band, being based in Orono, and me living in Boston. Since Old Town is right next to Orono, this was basically a hometown show. Except for myself, of course. I took a bus from Boston on friday and practiced with the v2.0 band for just the third (3rd) time ever, to mediocre results. Practice issues aside, we reconvened saturday morning at the venue to set up for the show.
We unloaded and ran sound tests, and we were set up and able to practice by 1:30pm or so. Practice went better than the night before, so my spirits were better. Things seemed to be ready to go. But then Fate remembered that A) we were Lowfive, and B) we had a show that day, so it had to figure out a way to screw us up - this evident in the car troubles we had in the late afternoon, barely getting us (Gabe, Sean, and I) back to the Knights of Columbus in time for the Agent 13 soundchecks.
Said band kicked off the show around 7:20 (Scary Mary cancelled, so we started a little late), and they played a set of street punk covers and the likes. I knew most of the Rancid songs, but that's about it. They were good for the style, i suppose.
We took the floor at about quarter past 8 (aka "showtime!") and jumped right into our set, opening with Lie Down With Dogs. To my surprise, the song was like butter, and everything was dynamite. I was still getting used to the new live formation: me sans (aka french for 'without') stool for the entire show and using the house PA for my keys. I could hear fine, and was pretty comfortable overall. Then we played a few older songs, including Prelude (which is turning up less frequently in our setlists), and Action Reaction. Later in the set, we played 2 new songs: An Element Of Subtlety and Calico, which we debuted at the Watson Hall show on December 27. Calico was a little shaky for me, but overall it was pretty solid.
Now as for the crowd, we had a meager core of about 30-40, and i was worried at first that they wouldn't respond well (seeing how the other 2 bands were pretty straight punk). However, after wrapping up Autumn, we had the biggest cheer/clap response i can remember getting at a live show (but perhaps it was just that big empty hall echoing). We closed off with Boys Will Be Boys. Overall i was quite please with the show, feeling like i played pretty much flawlessly, despite the non-existence of full band practice. The rest of the band seemed to feel good about it as well, save Gabe's slight concern over his vocal performance.
Limetown Riot went on after us, and although they had an energetic set, people seemed to be either getting tired or disinterested. They played for a while (i could have sworn i heard them cover one of the same songs as Agent 13), before starting to fizzle out into an unofficial end of the show.
Afterwards, we talked to a bunch of people from UMaine's newspaper, The Maine Campus, and college radio station, WMEB. Check out the show review here. Even if there weren't too many people to impress at the show, this proves (hopefully) to be a good promotion for future shows in the area.
SETLIST
Lie Down With Dogs
Prelude
Action, Reaction
Jesus Sunrise
EOSC
Calico
Autumn
Boys Will Be Boys?
