Low Profile live at Big Horse Lounge
Friday November 14th
with Burnside Bridge and the Burbanks
What a fucking show!!!!!
I had a pretty shitty week so was really looking forward to playing a show, releasing some energy and drinking and having fun.
I got to Big Horse a lil before 9 with Lisa.
Josh and Cory were setting up the stage and getting the PA working.
I went and said hi to Jon and Marky. Then I went to go move my car.
Rob and Jamey showed up soon after that. I then moved my car and parked in back of the place behind Rob’s car.
Cactus Matt was there pretty early and we started drinking and bullshitting about a bunch of stuff.
A bunch of other people started arriving. Robin and Shaun, Hoffman Deech and Brey, Weber and Scott, Jessica (here with Weber and Matt), etc. Williams wasn’t there cuz he had to work that night and didn’t show up till around 11 while the Burbanks were playing. Lisa and I were saying that it felt like Low Profile wasn’t even playing cuz he wasn’t there. I felt like I was just there to see the Burbanks and Burnside which was fine but it was hard to be excited with him missing in action. Kinda strange.
Burnside Bridge played first. They rocked the house. Robin fucking rules!!! She rips crazy bass lines and plays so crazy with her hand. They all sing which is awesome and keeps things new and exciting. I’ll hear back up vocals but not see anyone in the front lines singing and then I’ll see Shaun behind the drums singing them. Pretty awesome. I didn’t take a free CD cuz I’m gonna wait till our show with them Dec 12th cuz it’s their CD release. Awesome set all around guys!!!!
The Burbanks played next. They rocked as usual!!!!
They were having a good ole time. I requested Henry the VIIIth which I don’t think was actually in their set list. Hang on, I have their set list in my crate. I’m gonna add it to my collection.
Nope. No Henry. So that was cool. I dig that cover. Thanks for playing it. And I gotta say that the ‘Low Profile’ lil song u did was fucking great. It truly touched my heart. I luv u guys. Really I do.
And I have to say that u guys really have nice trousers, nice slacks and a very fine skirt and knee highs. And nice sneakers!!!!
During their set, I snuck to the bathroom to smoke a hitter of some good green. Its pretty cool smoking up in weird places. I packed it up again for someone else but it was clogged and therefore useless. That sucked. I was plannin on hooking some peeps up. But oh well.
So Williams and I just used Jonny and Marky’s amps. Thanks a ton. I’m glad we didn’t have to bring our shit. We both got to walk in with 2 guitars and a crate each. Pretty awesome. I didn’t really care whose amp I used I just didn’t want to bring mine. Although I consider Robins amp a ‘bass rig’ and thats what I refer to it as. It’s massive.
So earlier in the night, Hoffman asked if we were gonna play any Misfits songs. I said ‘probably but we don’t have any in our set list.’ Then he asked if we’d play Halloween and I was like hells yeah but we’d have to ask Williams.
We had planned on playing 1 Pie in the Sky song and a Face to Face cover with Jamey Johnson (here, 2 drummers!) on drums and Rob on vocals but we ended up using and abusing Jamey more than that and ended up playing 5 PITS songs and I’m Trying with him on drums. It was great. It was good to throw those songs into our set. And I must say that we have not even played Green or Serial Killer in many, many months and they both seemed flawless. So our set was something like this:
Walk Don’t Run (originally by the Ventures)
Where Did U Go? (originally by the Burbanks)
Figure It Out
Hot Mom
Halloween (originally by the Misfits) for Hoffman
What I Failed To Mention
All the Wrong Reasons
King of the Hill theme
JPF (new song)
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
Lachrymose
Milwaukee (originally by Mongoloids in Crayon Suits)
48 (requested by Jessica and Lisa)
Jamey on drums, Rob on vocals:
30 Years (originally by PITS)
I’m Trying (originally by Face to Face, RIP) for Josh
Rob back on drums:
Skulls (originally by the Misfits)
Green Corn (originally by NOFX)
1000x (originally by Face to Face, RIP) for Scott
Grudge
Mr. Pig (for Jessica, here on stage)
Sheila (originally by Shooting Blanks) Hoffslut on vocals
A Date With Destiny (originally by Guttermouth)
Jamey back on drums, Rob on vocals: (all 4 PITS songs)
Green
Coming Down
Serial Killer
Spreading Yourself Thin
I think I got everything. We only had like 10 songs on our set list, I swear. People would yell something out and we’d just play it. We added so many songs. Jonny said that we ended up playing like an hour and fifteen minutes. Thats fucking insane!!!!
I asked him how many songs we played and he said ‘Like 25’.
It ended up being 26. So you’re fucking close dude. What a call!
Jonny made us play till exactly midnight.
Matt, Brey and Deech (here, with Betty Burbank) brought us shots during our set. Everyone was going nuts. People were requesting songs left and right. It was a very fun and crazy set for sure. I was soaked in sweat and exhausted afterwards.
Rhyno arrived at some point while we were playing. I told him not to kidnap Rub a Dub Doggie. I had to check to see if he was ever missing but he was all good chillin on Jonny’s amp.
The Burbanks were surprised we covered their song. (I think this is actually some reactions to the song here!). It was a great reaction for sure. We picked a good song to do.
Throwing in the Shooting Blanks cover was a good add in to the set too. It was very fun. Hoffman joined us on stage and got rowdy with us. Truly great!
Lisa and Jessica were snapping pics. I can’t wait to see em.
Brey snapped a close up pic of each of us while we were playing and I swear it blinded me for a second. It was pretty funny.
What a fucking show!!! It was great and I had a blast. Thanks to everyone there. Thanks Jamey for hopping behind the skins for a few songs. Much luv to the Burbanks and Burnside Bridge.
Hope everyone had fun. U know I did!!!!
Cya round.
-ERIK
This show was unique. Johnny from the Burbanks offered it to me and said Burnside Bridge was playing. We were talking one late nite on IM and I quickly consulted a calendar and saw that I had the day off, so I tentatively accepted it. The next day I asked Rob and Hilger and they jumped at it. I told Johnny and all was well.
Until a few days later when I realized that I did NOT have the day off! This was not good because I work 4-midnight. I thought about canceling us off the show then decided that if we played last I could get out a little early and make it over there. I told Johnny about it and all seemed well.
So the day of the show I just brought my guitars to work with me. Everyday when I go to work I pick up a company car near my house in Schiller Park and drive wherever I have to go that day (all over the city), then I return it at the end of the night and jump back in my own car and go home. Well this day I didn’t do that because I knew I would go straight from work to the show. I had to cover 2 locations at work that day: 1 was at Irving Park and Laramie and the other was around Devon and Harlem. So I drove with my 2 guitars straight to Irving Park and Laramie and sat there. If I had to go to the other location I could just use a car from that location so all was well. I was planning to drive in my own car at 11 to another location at ARmitage and California and take a cab to the show (that was the closest SBC location to Wicker Park, I knew I didn’t want to deal with parking plus I would be pressed for time). Of course if something big came up at one of my 2 locations for the day at 1045 I would be fucked and have to scam my way out of it or do it quick or not do it at all, none of which should I be doing or did I want to do. I did tell my boss in advance of my dilemma and he acknowledged without saying that it would be ok for me to leave a little early (since it was unsaid, who knows what he considered ‘early’, probably later then what I considered it to be).
The day was super slow which made me even more anxious. Since I had my guitars with me I brought one inside and jammed a little bit, went thru 1000X by face to face which we planned to cover that night impromptu style (I had just reminded the band about it the day before; we hadn’t played it in months). Around 1045 I could take it no more and had nothing to do so I went to a different location at Irving Park and Kedzie and decided I would take a cab from there (didn’t feel like waiting for a cab on Saturday night in a bad neightboorhood (Humboldt Park) holding 2 guitars). I walked east and saw a cab right away and jumped in. I was about to start whipping the driver like a race horse to go faster I was getting so anxious. We came south on Damen and I just told him to stop at North and walked the rest of the way (got there for under $10 which was nice). I busted in and doubleJ (our second drummer) was manging on a taco. Burnside Bridge had already played which sucked,I missed their whole fucking set but kind of knew that I would have to. The Burbanks had been playing for maybe 10 minutes. I said hello to some peeps and chilled back in the cut with Rob. The Burbanks rocked as usual and even whipped out a crazy ‘Low Profile Theme Song’ which consisted of a nice riff in the key of E and a shouted ‘Low Profile!’ part. Thanx for the props guys. I started to get anxious again and wanted to play pretty fucking bad. Eventually, we went on.
Well we never played ‘Walk Dont Run’ until 2 weeks prior on Halloween. At that time, I wanted to bust something out that people could dig rather then me screaming about weird shit. Like many songs we know, we can not play it for 6 months then play it perfect. When you play as many shows and practices as we have, its just like riding a bike. I can bust out a song we havent played in forever, and its like my hand remembers the songs 1/2 seconds before I have to play the part and I just watch my hands moving around. Well ‘Walk Dont Run’ isnt quite that forgotten, but I came up with the idea to open with it and I dont know why at this show. I designed the whole set list (except for the 100 songs we added at the end, I’ll get to that in a second). We had learned the Burbanks song ‘Where Did you Go?’ in advance. Its become a thing we do to cover a song of a band once we play with them a bunch of times. And they all always say the same thing — ‘you played it even better then we do’ which is bullshit of course, but they’re just being nice. Well I figured it would be dramatic to open with a famous insturmental and then go right into the Burbanks song which would catch them off guard. I think it worked pretty well. I was carrying around the lyrics at work that day to memorize them as good as possible and I remembered at the last second as we were hanging the last C major of ‘Walk Dont Run’ so i unfolded the paper from my pocket with one hand and looked at them one last time. We started the song and jammd it out without fucking up, which I am always afraid we will do when covering a bands song in front of them (luckily we never really have). We threw in ‘Halloween’ for MAtt from Shooting Blanks who was nice enough to come out and see us play with Brey and even Deech who had been hiding away healing his busted bones for weeks before hand. It was a little intimidating to see him for the first time since I had played 2 shows filling in for him, I got nervous like a groupie. He thanked me for playing as if it was somekind of chore or something when in fact the 2 shows I played with Shooting Blanks were such a fucking blast, every day I am greatful that I got the opportunity to jam with them, it makes me a lil sad to think about the memories. Ok thats enough cheesyness for now, back to the set.
We played the crowd favorite ‘King of the Hill Theme’ right into a new song called ‘JPF’ about John Paul Franklin, the sick racist bastard who shot Larry Flynt ‘for printing interracial porn’ as the lyrics say. The 2 songs are both some kind of country western influcened stuff so they go together well. Just then Matt came up to me and said ‘play Folsom PRison Blues’. He said it kind of weird too, like he knew something that I didn’t; like he knew that we didn’t have it on the set list but knew that everyone would love it (they always do, it seems). AGain, its no chore for me to play Johnny Cash or Misfits songs all day and fucking night. Those 2 artists are huge influences even though you probably wont hear it in the songs we/I write. Well we jammed thru that and it was awesome. We went into another new song called ‘Milwaukee’ which we have only played live 2 or 3 times. Its actually a song by a band called Mongoloids in Crayon Suits. They are a band which was never signed or played any gigs, just weird freaks who got drunk and recorded fucked up songs on a 4-track. I got so involved in this band that I ended up corresponding with the main freak, polycarp kusch, who is from Arizona but lives in Budapest, Hungary now. He runs a couple sites: The New Absurdist and Bizarre eBooks — both sites I have work featured on, check them out. The original song is just voice and acoustic guitar. He approached me about an MCS tribute compilation and asked what song we would want to cover. I picked’Milwaukee’ right away cause its an awesome song, its about how the city of Milwaukee is sad that Jeffery Dahmer is dead. I wrote a totally new arrangement for the song, and kept the lyrics and keys and key changes intact but otherwise its our song. The compilation may never happen but this will be on our next album. I love the song and people always ask me about it and seem to like it which is good.
Well at some point we got to our planned grand finale. Josh from Burnside Bridge has made a note on their site about how he was sad that face to face broke up. We are all pretty crazy fans and have covered I’m Trying and 1000X many times at rehersal. We called up our old friend doubleJ to reherse with us a lil bit and come out to this show. He has previously played live with us for a song here and there at at least 2 shows, one was at BigWig this year; the other was at Afternight Studios and got onto a live album! He was in a band called Pie in the Sky that we used to play with and who broke up some time ago. AT certain times we were good friends with them and at others enemies. ME and doubleJ have known each other before either of us played any insturments at all, and we played in my first band together CFD. We love to jam out some Pie in the Sky songs with him and we’ve played I’m Trying also with him so it was a perfect fit for the show. Well we first went into ’30 Years’, which I swear is one of the best songs EVER, and originally by Pie in the Sky. Rob was singing as our frontperson. We went right into ‘I’m Trying’ and dedicated it to our good friends Burnside Bridge.
DoubleJ then left the stage and Rob got back behind the skins. We went right into 1000X which we have not rehersed in months. Of course: no problems to speak of. Well there were only 3 bands and there were supposed to be 4, it wasnt too late, plus we were last so I fully intended to take advantage. It scary but after our ‘encore’, we played 12 more songs.
We started busting out songs left and right, including ‘Skulls’ which Cactus Matt grabbed the mic and 10 dudes were yelling the chorus, I just kicked back and jammed out. Another song I’ll play anywhere, anytime. At some point I figured we should play ‘Shelia’ by Shooting Blanks since 3/4 of the band was there (fuck you Dan!!!). We had only played it live once before, and hadnt played it since. I looked at Rob and said ‘can you handle it?’. He hesitated for a second and said ‘yeah’. We jammed it out perfectly and Matt ran on stage and sang the parts I didn’t know. We had some nice double vocal action in the break. Matt was dressed to the nines, he must have thought the Big Horse was formal dress only.
Someone called out ‘play some Guttermouth!’, probably cause Hilger was wearing the shirt. This song we played — ‘A Date with Destiny’ — may not have been the best choice and the crowd seemed a lil silent afterwards. Oh well. Better we play that, a technical Guttermouth song then somthing boring like ‘Just a Fuck’. At that point Rob was getting furious with me cause I kept saying ‘Ok, this is our last song….’, plus we were running out of ideas of what to play. Then someone came up with a bright idea — play more Pie in the Sky! doubleJ came right back up and we jammed thru 4 more songs, 3 of which we have not played in a very long time. After our 26th song of the night it was safe to stop.
The Big Horse closes early which sucks. I only had 1 Heiniken and they closed the bar. So I went up front to eat some Mexican cuisine and Rhyno started to criticize me because he said my ass crack showed during the set. That is the price you pay for me wearing those pants and jumping around a lil bit. He wouldn’t let up on me and all I can say is this: if you keep mouthing off Rhyno, I’ll bust your other arm you musclehead.
This was a very successful gig. We played a long set and the only flaw was me missing Burnside Bridge which I must apologize again for. I feel bad and wish there was another way. Were playing with them for their record release party soon and also with Shooting Blanks. IT will be at Lyons den which we have been trying to get into and Ive been wanting to play so this is going to be a very big fucking show and I cant wait. See ya then!!!
–satan165
