Birmingham, Alabama. July 3, 2005. Nick's
Sun Jul 03, 2005 2:00 am
Night Bizzarro
Oh what a night. Where were we? What just happened? Birmingham - somewhere, near a big concrete freeway overhead... an intersection of many roads, near a neighorhood, but very sketch. The venue is made of wood; there are billions of staples stuck in the facade - evidence of years and years worth of putting posters on their walls. There's a dumpster less than 10 ft. away from the door that reeks to high heaven. Nobody is there when we arrive at 7:30... load in was supposed to be 5:00 according to my advancing, but "it's 4th of July, everyone is on vacation and I have a busy weekend." They wanted us there at 8:00pm!
I said,...."and doors are at 9:00? We have 1 hr. to get 2 bands checked and one to back line... it usually takes us 3 -4 hours; there's no way we're going to be ready to go.. I'm walking a thin line... I don't want to insult the club or the people of the club. The two people we dealt with were super nice. Nick's is a small bar with a stage, a sound system and it's own scene.
My question is: why is Eisley playing 21+ shows.Don't know that much about it. Either way, the show was. too sleepy to focus. goodnight----------
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Let me start over. Despite our being booked at 21+ shows (!@#$!) for way too many nights on this tour, the evening was great. Yahoo came out and did a really good interview at a nearby indie coffee shop (and bought our coffee and pastries)... it was two young guys with great personalities, a director, 2 camera guys, and audio guy and a coordiator (Alison - who's actually from Longview, TX - near us)...
They're doing this thing called 100 Bands, 100 Shows. Their interview with Eisley fell on Birmingham... which is great. But most of the people at the show for Eisley were very confused as to why Eisley would be playing at this small 21+ bar - when most all their college and high school friends couldn't come. They said their were tons of kids who would have been there. There was no food, no hospitality, no bottled water, no meal buy out, no dressing rooms, it was a late, late show for an older crowd... most of the people there thought Eisley was a local band... and thought they were amazing. ha ha. I have video of the place, a little prior to Eisley's set... and their show. I have to find time to put this on line. You guys would love it.
Repeating myself, but... I found great comic relief in the evening. The crowd was very diverse. There were older guys with long, pointy grey beards, women dressed to pick up guys (black, slinky, low-cut halters), tons of bear drinking older guys looking for local chicks.... AND, you guys - Eisley fans. There WERE people there we related to... and again, thanks for coming.
By the way, thank you for the double encore. That was the first on this tour. Of course, the band didn't really have anywhere to go... there was no dressing room... just a side door leading to the mosquito infestation next to the dumpster. ha ha haaaa... But seriously, you guys were great. Thanks for coming. Thanks for understanding.... Honestly, we were really bummed when we heard there were 22 advanced ticket sales. 150 turned out, which made that room look fairly packed.
And YAHOO filmed and tied into the board for audio... first 4 songs, but "My Lovely" was the sacrificial song - to get the sounds dialed in. They recorded Memories, Mr. Pine and The Escaping song. They wanted songs that hadn't been recorded... interesting, indie stuff. I think the songs came off perfect. I was thrilled. Yahoo is really supporting Eisley right now:
They're going to do 5 US promotional, free shows with Eisley as the headliner... we'll get flied out to 5 major markets with crew, the band will play on back lined gear, Yahoo will promote on line and...however, I don't know exactly; And I don't know where and when the shows will be... perhaps August? Not sure. Anyway - probably like LA, NY... others. Not sure. Look for info on that soon.
Woah, thundering in Birmingham. We're leaving today... but later. We'll probably hang out, go get coffee, do stuff... drive to N. O. late. (why hang out with the crazies on Bourbin Street as they get drunk for the 4th when you can chill in a quaint little Southern city and drive after it get's cool?
NICKS.
One fan - a John and his friend Chris said it was the best show ever.... not just Eisley shows; they recanted the infamous shows they'd been at... big ones; John especially said it was his favorite show of all time and that he needed it at this time in his life... the music. I understood.
They planned to cut their set short since the venue pushed back load in till 8:00!! from 5:00 (advanced) Pilotdrift started i think around 10:-00... can't remember. Eisley started after 12:30 I think... They planned not to do an encore... what? for a few people and with such a late show? no way. but it became apparent they'd have to. Even after about half the crowd started filing out the door... once the band came back, most of them did too... After Sea King and Head Against the Sky, they wouldn't leave... So "Blackened Crown" seemed the best solution. It came off great, i think.
Well... gotta go.
boyd
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