A Horse's Ass

From now on, whoever says the FLB ain't worth a horse's ass is just plain lying. We're worth at least two...

Charles Town Races and Slots - 3/25/06 - Charles Town, WV

Man did we need this one after Thursday and Friday's bummers. This was a great gig that gave us the lift we needed after the weekend's earlier disasters.

For those of you not familiar with this venue, Charles Town Races and Slots is a large casino in WV with lots of slot machines and a horse racing facility. My mind staggers at trying to imagine the amounts of money that flow in and at out of that place. It was Saturday night and the place was pretty packed.

In the middle of the casino is a very sizable stage, which is above and behind one of the casino bars. Behind us on the stage was also a giant Megatron TV screen which broadcast our rocking for those to see from afar in the casino. It was like we were U2 or something! Ahh, the Vegas of West Virginia. Check it out:

Just look at those scantilly clad statues! It's amazing we were able to focus. I remember Randy made some comment about climbing one of them and playing a song sitting on its chest. More photos are on the website. (No, none of Randy sitting on the statues.)

We also had a little backstage room to hang out in between sets and got to see some of the inner catacombs of CT. It was interesting to see some of the behind the scenes interactions between the staff members--security, drink waitresses, bartenders. It was almost like a separate society. The first few songs were a little rough out of the gate because we were still adjusting the sound at that point. Our soundguy, Brian, had actually worked with some big national acts (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sheryl Crow, etc.) and was really cool to work and talk with. Had some great stories. Brian was also running the lights and the video cameras. A man of many talents.

Some pretty sizable crowds gathered during our sets, and everyone was having a blast. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to have folks on stage with us, but this one lady kept yelling that she wanted to come up. I tried to explain to her that we were legally not allowed to have her up there, but I'm not sure she got it--even after we gave her a tambourine and let her jam from the crowd. Some guy suggested we just hire her on the spot for $1 to circumvent the legalities, an idea I liked and thought was creative. I'm not sure it would've gone over well with the management, though. But I was all for it...

All around, a great gig. I thought we did very well and I hope that we'll be asked back. They'll be making a DVD of the performance and giving it to us soon, so hopefully I'll be able to post some clips eventually. Photos will be up soon as well.

Eclipse Nite Club - 3/24/06 - Hagerstown, MD

Well, I'm not going to sugar-coat this one. This gig was a total buzzkill. Nothing is more depressing than playing in a big empty club...

Eclipse is a fairly large nite club in Hagerstown that is known for their dance club nights on Saturdays. Personally, I think the place has great potential to be an awesome place to see bands (big stage, big dance floor, cool atmosphere, etc.), but it's location is off the beaten path and it just hasn't caught on all the way yet. That, in combination with the fact that the FLB hasn't been around that long, led to an attendance disaster. We played a great show--to very few people. It was one of those nights that really left me questioning my existence and what the hell exactly I think I'm doing.

Thanks go out to the groups of parents, friends, and fans that checked out the show and stuck it out. You guys are hardcore. It was also nice to meet and talk with a few new believers who caught the sets and stuck around.

I was proud of that fact that we were able to set up and run an entirely new PA system that we basically took out of the boxes before the show. Since we have started to play some bigger venues, we decided to invest in some new, more powerful PA equipment. We didn't have a chance to try it out before this gig, and were basically flying by the seats of our pants during set-up and soundcheck. When all was said and done, it worked quite well.

Time re-evaluate the game plan...

McGrath's - 3/23/06 - Harrisburg, PA

Not much to say about this one. This is the first time the full acoustic FLB has appeared at McGrath's. The performance went well but it was a slow, uneventful Thursday night at the pub.

We took the opportunity to screw around with the arrangements of a few songs. We played a swing/reggae version of "Hey Jealousy" and a country/bluegrass version of "Here I Go Again." It was fun to dork some of the tunes out.

Like I said, not much to this one...