The Wellspring:Gallery of Creations show at WestGate went off spledidly. It was nice to have a "relaxed" set up and sound check... for once not having to worry about being rushed off the stage for whatever reason. I say "relaxed" (with the quotation marks) only because it really didn't turn on exactly that way.

Load-in was peaceful enough. WestGate's stage is HUGE relative to our normal fare. Mark and Rich arrived a little later, roadie-less, and therefore a tad behind schedule. Still had plenty of time though. Its was only when I got everything situated and powered up that I realized my powerbook G4 wasn't charging up. Seeing how my pbook runs all the samples and synths for MI, we were going to be in quite a situation with only %50 power (and falling). Hmmm. No Time to go to the Apple store and pick up a new adapter, nor was there time to go home and grab a spare... Luckily, some fast dialing over to Design Reactor and I was able to catch my friend Jason before he left. He brought over his AC adapter and we were back in business.

The cool thing about this show was the fact that we got to use WestGate's Aviom monitoring and in-ear monitoring system.... And we quite possibly had the best mixes EVER. What a difference in-ears make. Too bad we can't count on IEMs for every show.

A little break in the rehearsal action since last Friday (due to travel for work, etc...) didn't seem to have any adverse effects. All the tunes seem still to be in great shape... even the ones we haven't pulled out in a while. Only drawback? Forgot to bring my power adapter for my laptop... so we lost the samples towards the end of practice. Doh.

A couple days of back-to-back practices does wonders... the stuff is starting to sound a little more buttoned up. It will be nice to stretch out a little bit with a longer set... and mostly new stuff at that. Now I gotta go program soe more tones on my POD.

The SF Renegades invited us back for this year's installment of the Loud Music Symposium. Odd that we haven't played a gig since last years LMS... But we haven't been entirely lazy. We did do that soundtrack thing. Incidentally, Haunted Highway (what I hear is the new title, formerly Death Ride) is to come out on DVD on August 9th, and will also be released theatrically in Japan.

LMS 7 was held at the recently remodeled Campbell Heritage Theater, not quite as big or majestic as last year's Herbst, but very nice indeed. The sound system was far better (at least from our vantage point) and the same goes for the sound tech crew... Thanks Adam and Jeff! I suppose now we're getting slightly spoiled playing these nice theater venues. The loading areas leave a little bit to be desired... You have either the truck-level loading dock or the Stairs. No Ramps. Bummer.

Our set was short and sweet... 20 minutes. in and out. We debuted "Rendered to Chaos" (check out a short video clip here)... Which went over exceptionally well (with just a few glitches and mis-triggers here or there). The real train wreck came during "Ghost Curve" when Mark busted a string towards then end. Aarrrgh. Of course his backup guitar was the one tuned differently for "Rendered", so there was no easy way out. If we were smarter than we actually are, we would have launched into a bass solo or drum solo... Or something. But alas... Such was not the case.

After a brief pause for re-tuning, we launched into "Jack Palance the Ninja"... A nice way to end the set and take out a little frustration.

After shuffling our gear off stage and tucking it away in the corner, I hung out in the lobby during intermission and was finally able to say hello to some of the folks who actually came out to see us. (Doesn't really happen that often, as things shake out...) Nice to see some new faces, and to put faces to internet acquaintances...

Big thanks to everyone who made it out... Even it it was an abbreviated set. Next Stop: Wellsrping...

Set List:
Intercepted Entropy
Rendered to Chaos (new)
Ghost Curve
Jack Palance the Ninja