gunther murphy's. friday. november 22, 2024. 9pm.

when jeff ruffo, who abandoned the abandoned silos to start his new band swansea mass, posted something to the hyde park musicians list requesting bands to play with him at gunther murphy's we just couldn't help ourselves. i've seen a few shows there including caviar, and a big show which included annie quick and the absolutely amazing "the deatholz" and i knew that gunther's was one of the best sounding small rooms in the city. logic of elliott was added to the bill because they rock and we owed them for that great lyon's den show they gave us. originally two girls with guy names, an amazing new hp duo, was on the bill as well, but sadly they cancelled last minute, possibly because they broke up. let's hope not.

we arrived at mr. murphy's lovely bar only to find gary, the same guy who ran sound at the bottom lounge show we played last fall, setting up mics. gary is the most methodical and "scientific" of sound men and his soundchecks are really something to see as he personally checks each vocal mic while shouting all sorts of numerical sound-board jargon to his "intern" back at the board. i wish i had some audio i could post. needless to say, i now know why the room sounds so good. all three bands tried very hard to make things easy on gary and share equipment, but things wound up getting pretty confusing in the process, amongst the things not in attendance when we arrived were an amp, the high hat clutch, and gabe. the latter had us sweating a bit but as it turns out he was delayed by a showing of the matrix and he showed up ready to rock. before the show i was talking to my friend jason and, not thinking he knew anything about it, referenced homestar runner in response to a coment he made about his beer not being cold but only being "cool." to my surprise he came right back at me with a mouthfull of strongbadia! i love when that happens.

the show was a great one with swansea getting things rolling with their gritty stoner anthems. our set featured all kinds of fun surprises including an intro from joe alonso (that was actually kind of funny this time,) steph from logic of elliott playing drums on too close to you, and the debut of the song "the rocktapotamus farewell." the latter began with a lengthy explanation of the song's premise. it's about a eight legged half octopus/half hippopotamus that has only one desire: to destroy rock and roll. the song features a section called "the attributes" where the beast is described, and then tells the story of the time that the members of this band took it upon ourselves to leave our homes and families to meet the beast head on. after this explanation, gary was so overwhelmed by how dorky we were that he shut down the stage lighting and threatened to pull the plug on us.

we were all pretty nervous about playing the song, but we made it through almost unscathed. for those of you keeping track at home, robert did break a string in his fierce battle with the rocktapotamus, and travis's crappy old guitar was once again pressed into service. after we were done logic of elliott proceeded to once again kick everyone's ass (and joe alonso returned to the stage to take care of some unfinished business.) this was the first loe where they were selling their new demo, and if you are into them, it is a must have. thanks to jeff and everyone at g.m.'s for having us, and thanks to gary and his intern for running and excellent show!

SETLIST:

the sun is falling
keep your hands away
k.o. star
perfect radio faces
the rocktopotamus farewell
too close
three small words
i!d!m!
broken typewriter