Author: satan165

Low Profile live at Hangouts in Wheeling
Friday August 19th
with Shooting Blanks, Sad Hannah, High Ball and Starlike Collision

i took the whole day off work once again. and what a day. i slept in a lil bit, went to breakfast, watched Blackhawk Down, went to the woods and walked around, then sat and chilled a while, started reading a new book called the Informers, stopped at Subway, tried to figure out who sang an awesome 80’s song that was playing on the radio with the guy making my sub, went back to my crib, played bass for like 20 minutes, checked my guitars and started going thru all my shit for the show, showered up, got dressed and then headed over to Rob’s.

we played 4 songs real quick just to get warmed up and then we started loading up. it took us maybe half an hour to get there. but the area kinda sucks. everything is really spaced out on Milwaukee. we started walking down the street to find a gas station so Satan could hit up the ATM and luckily we turned back when we did cuz we’d have to have walked a good 2 miles to the nearest gas station. anyways, the club was pretty cool. they had a good sized area for the bands to play in. no stage or anything. i met and introduced myself to Dave who was a bartender and doing the sound for the show. he was a super cool and friendly guy. and as the night went on, my drinks were getting cheaper and cheaper and some he hooked up for free. the redbull/vodkas were goin down smooth and we were doin shots of Jagr. mmmmm…good stuff.

so all the bands were there. Sad Hannah was set up and ready to rock. Koz is in this band and we know him from Ratbag Hero and cmon now, everyone knows Koz. he’s also a super cool guy. but this was our first time seeing him with this band. they were fucking awesome tho. i was definately impressed. it’s kinda hard to explain their sound. most of the changes weren’t super fast or anything but they were heavy and just rocked out. i got a cd from Koz so i’ll have to go throw it on later today. both the guitarist and drummer were super cool too. i’d luv to play with these guys again.

we were due to play next. i quickly ran out and smoked up with some VIPs while Rob set up his drums. i used Koz’s amp and Satan used Hoffman’s combo amp. our set was something like this:

Milwaukee
High Gravity
Hotboxed
Figure It Out
What I Failed to Mention
The Will to Kill
Excited to Die
King of the Hill (theme)
R of A (originally by the Rules of Attraction)

Hybrid Moments (originally by the Misfits) requested and sung by Koz

it was a good, fun, hot set. i threw Figure It Out into the set cuz Hoffman says he likes that song so i’ll throw it in every set when we play with Shooting Blanks. and he said he liked What I Failed to Mention too so that will also be in all the set lists when we play with them. the R of A song is just too fucking good. we like it a lot so figured we’d play that for this show. then Koz was calling out for us to play some Misfits. first i heard ‘Where Eagles Dare’ but we don’t play that. then he called for ‘Hybrid Moments’ and even though we haven’t played it for probably over a yr, it sounded pretty good and playing it seemed natural. i had to ask Satan what the first note was and from there, my hands just played the song without much thinking at all. not that it’s all that hard but still, i had in the back of my head i’d fuck it up at some point. Koz ran up and sang most of the lyrics. it was a lot of fun.

the mighty High Ball was up next. once again, just a good band made up of some awesome guys. this was our second time playing with them. always a good time.

Starlike Collision was up next. Satan and i checked out their site beforehand and they listed Smashing Pumpkins as a main influence but we didn’t hear it in their style so that was a lil disappointing but they still had a good rocking sound. they are a 4 piece band and have 2 chicks in the band. 1 plays guitar and sings and one plays bass. thats always cool. i didn’t speak with any of the members of this band so i can’t say much more.

Shooting Blanks were up last. it was getting late so they played a pretty quick set it seemed. these guys are a blast as usual. and we’re playing with them next month too!!!! gotta luv em. they ended their set with Another Chance and Payback so Satan and i were up front singin along for both of those. and once again, Hoffman’s guitar fucking rules. u can slice someone up with that. and Scotty got a new drum set which is pretty fucking dope. so congrats to him on having a new set.

we loaded out and said our goodbyes. we had my buddy Steve and his girlfriend stow away with us for the ride home and i got fucking lost. i’m not gonna get into details and even tho it sucked, i really didn’t mind and would have driven another 2 hours or whatever it took to get us home. it started raining real hardcore right when we got to Rob’s so we quickly loaded back into his basement and then i proceeded to take Steve and Andrea home. so on the expressway back to their place, no shit, 2 fucking cars totally lost control and spun out at separate places on the expressway. the first one got pretty close to smashing into the van and that would have sucked so bad at that point. i watched him change lanes and then the car just did a full 360 and he couldn’t control it. i just slowed down to avoid him altogether so he drove onto the shoulder and i sped up to pass him by. the second one spun out way worse tho and slammed into the guard rail on the right side of the lanes. it was fucking crazy out. i could just manage to see and could feel the van hydroplaning but it was pretty cool. so i got them home in one piece and on my way home saw the first car still on the side of the road. i’m at work now using my work computer to write this review since my comp crashed and the car was still on the inside left shoulder facing the opposite direction when i drove here.

so i got myself home ok and ran in leaving my basses and amp in the van. i showered up and was laying around at like 3:45 watching Simpsons season 6 on DVD smoking bowls, when i started freaking out about my basses. i just had boxers on and it stopped raining at that point so i ran out to bring my basses in incase someone broke into the van. u wanna try to steal my amp, go ahead. i’ll laugh while watching u try to carry it or roll it down the street. but i can’t have my basses stolen. that would suck so bad. anyways, while walking out, my new neighbor and his woman were outside just getting home all dressed up from some club and i had to say whats up to them in my boxers. i’m a fucking goof. they were a lil surprised.

all in all, it was a great day and a super fun show. thanks to Shooting Blanks for inviting us out to play, Deech for taking pics for us, Dave for being such a cool and hospitable bartender/soundman, my sis and Jean for coming all the way down from Wisconsin, Steve, Andrea and their friends for coming out, and everyone who bought me drinks all night. i had a blast.

-ERIK
got this show from mr. hoffman of shooting blanks. this was the 7th show weve played with em. our 2nd time with highball, both are ‘coincidental’…got also booked with them originally at the bottom lounge. our friend koz formerlly of ratbag hero is now in sad hannah. i checked out their site and listened to like 15 seconds of an mp3 like an asshole and it seemed to be some kind of pop punk. no doubt im an idiot and was wildly wrong.
wheeling is part of shady white trash suburbs. nearby prospect heights and northbrook are also similar. people always think of northbrook casue of allstate HQ and other big businesses, but go visit ‘salem walk’ apartments on milwaukee ave….fuckin dump. wheeling has trailer parks and all, a real dump. the club is pretty shady, it obviously used to be a house which was converted into a bar. hoffman warned me about their shitty money grubbing techniques, they have no beers on tap and everything else is overpriced with zero specials and zero specials for the bands. they wanted to charge a ridicolous $7 at the door until hoffman told them to charge $5 and take the rest out of his/our end, which they did….and the bands still got paid!

we got their real early. we hadnt practiced in a while so we threw down a very productive rehersal just before we loaded out to hit the road. it definately did the trick and felt real solid. the ride seemed to fly by and there was no traffic. no other bands were there yet, i called hoffman and he said he was on the way. it was pretty hot and humid out but i didnt mind. we quickly loaded in our gear and went for a ‘band walk’ in the search for a gas station and ATM. none were anywhere within walking distance or even eye shot. so we went back and hilger drove to one. we headed back to the club and sad hannah was up first. i was blown away! they are super heavy, all dropped-D shit. their drummer reminded me of the drummer from tool: real heavy with lots of tribal like beats on teh toms, he had a 2nd snare of sorts on the far right which was crazy and he used it often. it was a nice departure from these trendy new bands that play ‘screamo’ where they try to be heavy and it comes off as laghable. this was truly heavy and had good melodic vocals. koz bandmates were super fuckin nice and real friendly, it was a pleasure to play with them but also to chill and drink with them. great guys, great band. why i thoguht they played generic punk rock ill never know.

we were up next. we tore it up pretty good. vocal monitors were a little low which casued me to strain my voice a bit early on. that wouldnt have been a problem if not for the closing song in our set, which should have been a bit earlier on in the show. but it didnt matter. a highpoint was i ran into the crowd during an insrtumental interlude and i ‘stabbed’ some random chick in teh back with my guitars headstock. of course i only fuck with jacksons, which have a pointy end. she actaully screamed a little and jumped in her chair, it was hysterical. before ‘will to kill’ i introduced it by saying ‘hang on now people, i have something really important to say’, then i just started the song which begins abruptly with vocals/guitar. people actually seemed to quiet down a bit and gave me their attention, probably thguht i was going to talk about some political bullshit or bullshit about the war. as if i woudl ever think that people woudl want to hear that crap.

after our set koz (i think, maybe others too??) called out ‘where eagles dare’ , trying to get us to play some misfits songs which we are known for (we must know 20 songs off the top of our heads easy). i vaguely know that song but i never really liked it that much and strangely as common as it is weve never really played it much if at all or learned it. i was going to give up and put away my guitar, i should have demanded they pick another cause then wed probably know it. i didnt need to, and koz yelled for ‘hybrid moments’. definately a good pick and a song weve known for ages. i briefly spoke with hilger for 2 seconds to refresh us both since we havent played it in many months. those songs are deeply bunred into my brain however. we played it perfectly. i told koz to sing what he could and give me the mic if he was stuck for the lyrics. with taht formula, anyone could sing with us. (pic 1, pic 2, pic 3) of course some peopel are ignorant and fuck up, but if they just gave me teh mic all would be well. koz followed this golden rule and the song rocked hardcore!! it was really fun, and even more fun to have koz up there with us of all people.

next up was highball. it was great to hang out and jam with these guys again, talk about a class act. their drummer is super fucking polite, a real good guy. they are a fun band and i was telling rob they should go on tour with the burbanks (RIP), they are so similar musically and i dont just mean that they both are playing ramones influenced pop punk. beyond that even, they are playing the songs the same way, its nuts.

after them was this gay band called ‘starlike collision’. i say they were gay because they made no effort to commiserate with anyone that i could see. no doubt they felt a little out of place since the other 4 bands knew each other before the show so well…but ive been on the other end and felt like an outsider. the only thing to do is just approach people and be like ‘hey, im satan from low profile’. go break the ice!!! i might have even taken care of the ice breaking myself but they seemed pretentious, they showed up like during highballs set, effectively missing 1/2 the show and almsot 3/5ths of the bands. they played some pretty boring rock music as well. not fond of these guys.

well last up was the mighty shooting blanks. i used to rock out to this band cause i knew them more then because of their music, tho now its shifted, i just know their jams so well its great to hear it live! for some reason i still cant get used to deech on the bass, although i only played 2 shows with them it still seems odd. no doubt thats a sacreligious thing to say, as he is a TRUE member of the band, and i was only a weak replacement trying to steal his styles, to varying levels of success. i was pretty drunk at this point and demanded that brey take off his pants as he often does at shows. i dont think he was quite drunk enough to do it on his own but i continued to demand it. then he said he would for a shot, and even offered to pay me back for it after the show (which due to teh ridicolous prices in this place i shoudl have taken him up on it!!) but i todl him fuck that, the shot is on me. i cant remember what song it was in now…maybe ‘another chance’ (which was alwyas one of my favorite songs to play when i was ‘with’ teh band), i just held the shot at the ready to pour in his mouth which he played, at first it was funny, he backed away as if to say ‘wait until this upcoming part of the song when i can more easily play and have jager dumped into my throat at the same time’. he stepped up and i tried to gently pour it in his mouth and i think i did ok. it energized him and he seemed to rock harder. then he fufiilled my gay wishes and depantsed himself. they rocked the house super hard, closing out with 2 awesome songs: ‘shelia’ (which low profile has covered) and ‘payback’, one of the oldest shooting blanks songs and definately one of the crowd favorites. hoffman plays the leads in that song so sloppy that its awesome. i remember i never got to play this song with the band cause i didnt know the bass fills in teh beginning (tho i do now, stolen red handed from deech). they were fucking great all around. ive seen them live since scott has been in the band but last time we jammed with them (at the big horse) it was dans last show. scott rules on the drums and he got a shiny new set. ill bet he thinks hes really special now. yeah right!

at some point in my drunkenness between ours and shooting blanks sets i tried to take a pic of brey. he waved his arms all crazy to try and sabotage my great photography skills but it didnt work. so i tried leaving the shutter open and using ‘night mode’ but it still fucked up. so i got 4 crazy pics and none really got blurred. but they sure are funny!!! and big ups to deech for taking great pics of us again while we played, i found this one mixed in there too, he must have been making a very important phone call. i can tell becuase of the area code he must have been calling some of his thugs!!!

after that i was pretty drunk and tired and hungry so we rolled out quick. i guess we actually we going to get paid but we left too quick and hoffman still has my money. hilger volutenteered to drive home this guy steve he works with and his woman. so rob, steve and me all rode in teh back of the van aka ‘teh cage’ aka ‘the dungeon’. it was getting pretty hot back there and i had a headache as i came down off my alcoholic buzz. we took mad wrong turns and got totally sidetracked, so much so that hilger actually dropped me and rob off first (even tho schaumburg where steve and his woman were supposed to be dropped off was definately on the way). just as we arrived it started raining, something it hasnt done in chicago land much in teh last 4 months, and it rained HARD. really fuckin hard, i got soaked pretty good just loading back into robs basement, and i got REALLY soaked walking home. i tossed my 2nd axe in my cars trunk (my 1st stays at robs for rehersals) and drove 1 block to mcdonalds. i got gas and got 2 quarterpounders (the mcdonalds is 24 hours but has a gay ‘limited menu’). i drove home and got soaked yet again trying to walk into my backdoor with a bag of food and my guitar. the bag was super wet and falling apart and i was trying to guard it.

i made it upstairs to my condo and set down my guitar and got ready to rip off my soaking fucking clothing and looked atht ebag of mcdonalds in my hand. think of in ‘back to the future’ part 1 when doc builds the model of the town with the model car. the car flys off the table and bursts into flame. doc (christopher lloyd) makes this crazy facial expression and runs to put out the fire with an extinguisher. the mcdonalds bag in my hand was so disintegrated that i was literally holding a shred of paper and the burgers were gone!!! i imitated doc and was truly infuriated and shocked. i realzed they may be sitting in the pouring rain!!! i had no food in my house and was starving and this was bad news. i sprinted out the door and down teh staris and the power went out! it was pitch black and i had to laugh hysterically at myself. luckily it came right back on, and i found my food sittin g in the rain on the back patio. i scooped it up and it wasnt that wet (the boxes protected them somewhat from total ruiniation). and ran up and ate them and crashed out after taking some allieve for my laser beam headache.

–satan165

Low Profile live at Buddy’s in Franklin Park
Saturday June 25th
with the Rules of Attraction and the Powerknobs

what a fucking show. what a fucking weekend. i had a blast. and trust me, i’m still feeling it today(Monday morning).
so i lounged around this chicks pool in St Charles all day Saturday. it was great. so i was fully energized and ready to stay up all night. i got to my crib about 6 and Satan called me to see what was up. we got off the phone and he went to go eat and i went to go shower up and get my shit ready. we met up at Rob’s around 7 and played a few songs to warm up. then we loaded up and headed to Buddy’s. we got there a lil after 8 and the Powerknobs were already there drinking and everything.
all 3 members of RoA showed up and some more people started to arrive. Metko got there pretty early and started drinking right away. i must have drank about 5 glasses of water, spent like 5 bucks on the Sopranos pinball machine and probably 12 bucks in the jukebox. but hey, thats fun for me.
RoA started some time around 10 i guess. they played a good rocking set. i knew most of their songs. Satan burned me a CD of all their songs off the record so i know them but not the titles. except for the Rules of Attraction song which is my favorite one right now. each member of this band rules. good people, good musicians, good songwriters. this was our second time playing with them and i can’t wait till the next one.
the Powerknobs were up next. we haven’t played with them in way too long. so i was really looking forward to seeing and playing with them again. they played an awesome set. they played Wild Colonial Boy for us which got us rowdy. but the last 2 songs took the cake. Dr. Z came up and i thought they were going to do Bat’s Blood but instead they covered the Ace of Spades by Motorhead. it was fucking awesome!!!
after that, they covered our song Hot Mom. and that was even more awesome. that was our first time being covered. and what an honor. Gaynor had they lyrics in his pocket and i saw him double check them before they started the song but he sang it all good. Satan, Rob and I were all right up front singing along. they rocked it out for sure. so thanks guys. that was truly awesome. and we luv u!!!!
we played last. i’m not sure what time we started. but we played the whole ‘get it RiGht, keep it RiGht’ album.
Ultraviolence
High Gravity
the Will to Kill
Milwaukee
Hotboxed
Radical New Idea
One Mississippi
Studio Nightmare
JPF
and then we covered Breaking the Law by Judas Priest as our finale.

i thought it was a cool idea to play the whole album. i don’t think we’ll ever do it again but it was cool to do it once. i think we played really well but i lost my voice from yelling so much during the RoA and Powerknobs sets so i couldn’t sing too well. not that i sing good anyways. but it was all good. we had a blast and it seemed everyone else did too. Metko took pics for us but i know some other people were too cuz i kept seeing flashes goin off. my buddy from work the Birdman came with his brother and some ladies. he set up his video camera up on a tripod and some fucker knocked it down. he didn’t see who did it tho which sucks. so he says it must have gotten a few of our songs. i’m actually kind of glad he didn’t tape the whole thing cuz during JPF, i went up to my mic to sing my part and when i went to say my lines, nothing came out. my voice was totally hoarse and dry. so i wouldn’t want to have to watch that. hahahaha. but it was a good fun set anyways.
we loaded out past 1 i think. we unloaded at Rob’s and then Satan went to go start the afterparty. i went to my crib to shower up and change clothes. then i headed back over to Satan’s. the Powerknobs were there along with the 40oz crew. it was awesome. drinkin, smokin up, playin atari and spinnin records all night. i walked out of Satan’s crib at 5am. i didn’t go to sleep till a lil after 6 and didn’t get out of bed on Sunday till like 1:45. i was hung over and hungry so i went over to Northlake fest to chow. then i laid around for the rest of the afternoon/night. i watched a good movie called Truth or Consequences, NM. it is written and directed by Keifer Sutherland and he also stars in the movie as a totally ruthless thief. it was awesome. so if u haven’t seen it, check it out. Vincent Gallo is also in it and normally i really hate him and he annoys me but he was alright in this. not so annoying for some reason. but he played his normal type of scumbag role.
alright. thats about it.
shout outs:
i gotta thank Metko for showin up and taking all the good pics. the Birdman(sorry about your camera), Veno, Amy and Stephanie for showing up and supporting us. the Powerknobs, the Rules of Attraction. Brock and Dave for hookin us up and being so hospitable. the Ranger soundman. the 40 oz crew. Susie Bilik and her crew. Rob’s gf Katie. Danielle, my favorite Buddy’s bartender. and everyone else who was there watching. this show was a blast and we should be setting up another show there sometime soon hopefully so stay tuned to the Low Pro site folks!!!! cya round.

–ERIK

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i visited new york city amongst other east coast locations in april of this year. i got plowed in a bar in greenwich village with my friends and it was great. are you wondering why im bringing that up? good question. beucase it was one of the best days ever. and this show, and everything that went along with it was actually a better and more fun day and i didnt really think that was possible.

i got up around 2 pm. the night before i was shooting dice, spinnin wax and drinking belvedere as well as an obligatory olde english 40. so i was a bit dried out and hung over when i woke up. i had planned for that and stocked my fridge with pedialyte. if you dont know whats up, now you do. all the real rock stars know whats up with the pedialyte. well i felt a lil better after that. so i jumped into some fresh gear and cleaned up my house. in the midst of my cleaning i got really crazy and cleaned my shower. i went down to the local RG eatery ‘goodies’ and copped a ham and swiss club sandwich w/ fries and i also got an order of onion rings. ive gotten the onion rings a few times before but ive always gotten my shit to go. and when i get home the breading on the rings is fouled up, and like ‘weird crunchy’. i always attributed this to the hot onion rings making condensation inside the little strofoam container. i figured if i ordered them to eat inside the joint they would be good. they werent. conclusion=goodies onion rings suck. luckily everything else there is good.

after that i cruised my ass over to robs. we thru down a short set to warm up before the show. i started sweating and felt loose. we had been rehersing as our set as our last album all the way thru, in order. we also decided to toss in ‘breakin the law’ as a finale after that to close out the set. i came up with the idea for ‘breakin the law’ just this week and told rob and hilger about it, so we wanted to practice it a few times real quick. its an easy song and we used to play it all the time but its been a while. so we rehersed it ok but then i could not for the life of me remember the 1st line of the 2nd verse. we loaded up the van, but rob had been working all day so he wanted to take a shower. i told him to also go online and print me lyrics for ‘breaking the law’, and he was going to meet us at the club in an hour or whatever.

so me and hilger drove to buddys and unloaded all the gear and drums. dr. z and andrew and bill from the powerknobs were already there. just then mike from RofA pulled up as well. the club was dead empty. so i sat down at teh bar and was drinking some water. hilger was sitting next to me and there was some prick at the end of the bar. he was obviously gettin lit up and he started making a bunch of comments. the bartender was a truly beautiful young lady and she was fuckin with me saying she refused to serve me water. so this guy starts getting all obnoxious saying ‘its like coyote ugly! no water is served here!’. i kind of laughed and hoped he would shut up. he kept trying to talk to us and he said some bullshit then he was like ‘who punched you man?’. that might seem like a strange question but ive had a few rude invidiuals ask me that. you see, i am a very ugly person. i have pale skin and i have huge black circles around my eyes. i might actually attribute this partially to being punched a few times, tho that hasnt happend in years. its genetics, my dad and brother have it also (tho mine are worse then theirs). i answered to the guy ‘sorry im not pretty enough for you’. but being that he was drunk — and a prick (at the same time) — he pressed on….’no seriously man, who punched you?’. looking back i should have run up on the dude, he was severly pissing me off. i told him ‘yo im ugly dog, dont worry about it’. then i bailed out before severe violence popped off. fuckin cocksucker.

so we lounged around and all the bands loaded in. we had joe aka ‘explosive joseph’ from ranger sound running the boards and mics. we have dealt with ranger sound numerous times at different venues and also at buddys in our previous gig there last year. i never dealt with joe before i dont think but he was fuckin awesome. we talked for a long time about bands and all kinds of musical related shit. before the show he was telling me hes in a few bands and one plays alot of heavy metal covers and he said they play some judas priest. i asked what song and he told me ‘breakin the law’, i admitted our secret finale, what a coincidence.

rules of attraction were up first. so i think ive seen them twice and this is the 2nd time were playing with em. their drummer matt who is a huge star wars freak joked that we are playing a ‘triology’ of shows (we have a 3rd with them in a month)…so therefore that makes this show ‘the empire strikes back’ which he said is the best one so therefore this show will be the best. they were so awesome on stage as usual. its hard to say but possibly this was the best gig ive ever seen them play. i could go on and on about these guys. ok i will. their bassist andy has such a proper textbook technique of bass playing its fucking phenominal. ive seen him play bass fills all on the same string like a guitar. the way he picks teh strings is so awesome, like no wasted effort. he makes playing open strings look awesome. his style is very hard to explain but its fucking awesome. he just looks like (And he is) a super experienced musician. his style has been focused over years and years of jammin. then you have matt the drummer. now im saying this to show off no doubt, but its also true. i do not often or ever see drummers better then rob himself. i mean, lets be serious people. the drummer in my band is hands down the best. he has a technical understanding of drums and is interested in the style of very skilled drummers. however matt from RofA is so impressive it blows me the fuck away. hes the only drummer besides rob that i see where im that impressed. hes a real hard hitter even tho you might not know it lookin at the guy. but hes more then a hardhitter, like andy he has a style that cant be described….and its a style ive not really seen before. and of course mike. mike is such a skilled vocalist he actually measures the distance from the mic to his mouth (while playing guitar no less) by using a number of fingers (1,2,3,4). he uses all types of different voicings and strange chords and is one of hte best lyricists ive ever heard, no joke. i love the way the gibson SG looks but id never play one cause i dont like the way they sound. in fact, i think that kind of sound is horrible, sounds like shit. but i realized that he not only can get away with that guitar tone, but its absoutley perfect. that guitar was made for him and his style just as my 4 jacksons were made for me. its a beautiful thing. i went and saw them play a few weeks ago and i was very disappointed that they didnt play any of my favorite songs. but at this show they played them all and it was awesome. my favorite songs are ‘geography’ and their self titled hit ‘the rules of attraction’. they played both in a row! i was in heaven. my new favorite song which i dont have a recording of is called ‘smoke’. this song starts out super simple then gets so complex. i love watching them play it because i sit there and watch mikes hands and try to keep track of the changes and it just keeps getting more and more complex. its amazing. after their last show i told him i loved their song ‘sprue’. he said maybe i meant ‘smoke’. i have no idea how or why i thought he said sprue….what the fuck is a sprue anyways? i need to write a song called sprue now.

next up were the famous powerknobs. this was the 6th time weve played with em and they are so awesome. this band is truly beginning to evolve now, its amazing. they truly are becoming even more tight and taking it to next levels even tho theyve been around a while now. i felt like i hadnt seem them live in so long, it was like a different band. they seem so rehersed up there its amazing. they played a bunch of songs i never heard before, some where covers and some were new originals and im unclear on what was what. they played 2 songs with crazy long psyhdeclic breakdowns. one was called ‘the raven’ and i remembered bill telling me something about a new song with crazy parts and this must have been it. i cant wait until they record this track so i can hear it. its hard to believe this band has only been together for like 3-4 years. it was good to see them again after a while, it was like seeing a whole new band. they had a slight wardrobe variation with some white slack and shit. dr. z even wore all white with a white sweater vest. it was awesome. they closed with ‘ace of spades’ by motorhead with dr. z on vocals. i saw it on their set list the whole time and i was wodnering if it was actually some other cover called that or possibly even an original. i dont really like or know any other motorhead songs besides this one and i figured that they didnt listen to motorhead at all. it was fucking awesome. they tricked me real good too because they know i always stand right up front watching them and i read their set list to see whats next. my point being that they left one of the most important songs off the list….after what i thought was their last song dr. z came up front. so im thinking ‘ok, maybe they are going to play ‘uncivilized’. they often close with one of a few songs that dr. z comes forward to sing all crazy. but it was so much more……..they busted out ‘hot mom’…an older low profile song!!! i was baffled. for like the 1st couple seconds i was thinking ‘what the fuck song is this?’. then i realized and rob came running up and i was literally in shock. hilger told me that ross kind of tipped him off earlier and said how he was nervous to play it cause he couldnt play drums like rob or some crap. thats the last thing you need to worry about! i dont expect or even want to hear some kind of perfect cover of the song, i want to hear it powerkobs style and i defiantely did. actualy when i watched tehm play it i was marveling at my own awesome songwriting. it was cool to see it from an outside perspective.

well then we went on last. ross used robs drums so set up was pretty quick. i talked some shit to the crowd and watched their reactions. thats always fun. like i said before we played our whole last album beginning to end. i dropped my pick during the 2nd song which doesnt happen very often. i tried to see where it was while i was still singing/playing so i could try to grab it when i got chance but i couldnt find it. ‘high gravity’ was not a very forgiving song to try and play with my hands. so many times people have surprised me by grabbing my dropped pick and handing it back to me while i was still playing but no one did. oh well. my throat was kind of fucked from screaming for the 1st bands which hasnt really happend before. i joked on stage that thats what happens when you play with good bands. i was happy to reach the end of teh set, i was running a little low on oxygen. i think i only drank a redbull/vodka and a shot of jager before our set. i was saving myself for after the show. we closed with breaking the law as planned and i remembered the lyrics no problem, rob had brought me a printout and i briefly reviewed them before we went on stage. the line i couldnt remember was ‘so much for the golden future, i cant even start’ i feel like ill never forget it again now and its very obvious. the end of the song ends ‘clean’, meaning we all hit a note at the end and it just ‘cuts off’. i recommended that we do a ‘2,3,4’ count after it and then go into a long ‘rock n roll ending’ at practice. (if you arent in a band all that may have well sounded like nonsense). i should have reminded rob and hilger about it cause we ended the song and i spun around to look at rob and he was standing up walking off stage! him and hilger totally forgot. i meant to make fun of them for it after the show but i forgot, ill have to do it next time i see them.

i lounged around a while after teh show and drank about a gallon of water. i was so hot and sweaty it was out of control. i had a full pitcher and a cup and i just started drinking out of the pitcher eventually. it was so goddamn good. brock hit us up then. first he took some money folded up and like thrust it into hilgers chest so neither of us could see how much it was. he said something like ‘heres the money for tonite’ or something and shook his head like he was super disappointed in himself for paying us so little. it seemed to me like he felt bad about it or something, but maybe he was pissed that more people didnt come out and he blamed us for that. hilger said eariler he was saying how pissed he was that there was a local fest going on this weekend and also that rocky denis had a show, which i took to mean like he couldnt possibly blame us for those events. hilger checked after he walked away and we got 60 which i was very happy with. i didnt think of it at all at the time but i guess that money was for all the bands. shortly thereafter andy from RofA asked me if the bands were getting paid. then i put it together and i conceded my $20 to him and his band. so either rob or hilger should have paid the powerknobs their 20. further more i want 33% of low profiles $20!!!

well we rolled the fuck out of there. every body came back to my place. the cops were all around but i guess they were acutally there for someone else. myself denny and 64 all jumped on the turntables alternately and spun some jams. i was wondering before the show when i was cleaning up if people would want to play the atari. of course they did! dr. z asked about it right away and i told him to go for it. i warned him that it was a typical atari system and could be a bitch, and you had to fuck with the cartdiges and shit to get em to work sometimes. amazingly, he had no problems then i started to play and it worked for me too! they it got really out of line when andrew and dr. z started playing NHL hockey on the xbox and dr. z was screaming ‘no!!!!!’ when andrew woudl score a goal or some shit. it seemed that all the powerknobs in attendance were pretty ripped. late in teh night i was offereing them beers and they all turned me down hahahahaha they were all smashed. nothing wrong with that.

my man 64 came thru with a 1/5th of peach stoli which i have been on a hunt for for over a year at least, i first discovered it at the big wig back in the day and its been impossible to find since. we were mixing that with 7up and a splash of grenadine. awesome sippin drink.

by about 530 am or so only hilger and metko were still around. hilger went to jet and metko who was smashed asked if i wanted to go swimming. he lives in teh grove about a mile away and i said fuck yeah. i drove his car (since he was drunk……and he has his license suspended…from a DUI!!! hahaha) and we went for an awesome swim. i walked home with my bathing suit on which caused a bit of chafing (ouch!) but nothing major. i could have crashed out when hilger left and been happy with the night, but this was a great ending to the night. i got home at like 730am and crashed hardcore, it was nice. awesome venue — awesome show — awesome afterparty — awesome everything. thanx to the bands and everyone else involved, it was everything i hoped it would be and then some!!

–satan165

Low Profile live at Buddy’s in Franklin Park
Saturday July 31st
with Time and Distance and Rocky Denis This show was fucking great!!!!!!

Thanks right off the bat to ManKnee who booked us.
Thanks to Rocky Denis for playing with us.
Thanks to Time and Distance for passing thru our town, playing for us and for
being cool guys. Good luck with the rest of the tour!!!!!!

We met up at Rob’s at 8:30. Well, I got there right on time. Satan showed up twenty minutes late. We both loaded out while Rob was taking a shower and taking his time getting ready for the show. I don’t fucking blame him, he lives not even 5 minutes away. That made the show all the more better. We all live so close to Buddy’s.

So Satan and I got there around 9ish. Loaded in and just hung out. Mingled. Chatted with everyone there, etc.
We walked to what used to 2001 and each bought a Red Bull and some water. Pounded the Red Bulls and headed back to Buddy’s.

Rob showed up and he loaded in. A lil later, Time and Distance arrived and pretty much set up and started playing right away. They are from West Virginia and are on a lil tour. They played acoustic type emo. 4 man band. 2 guys played acoustics and sang, 1 guy on bass and then drums. They were pretty awesome. I watched their whole set and dug it. Good vocals, good backups, good changes, interesting song structure, etc.

I bought their CD and hooked up the bassist with our CD. They were real cool guys. Their next show was in Minnesota but got cancelled. So they were still heading that way and were going to see Midtown play. I guess the drummer from Midtown put their CD out. Pretty cool. The Cd is good. But is all acoustic guitar and vocals. No bass, no drums. Seems like it may have been recorded by just the singer/guitarist frontman. Its good tho.

We were due up next. We took our time setting up for a change. There seemed to be no hurry. This was our first time at Buddy’s. I hadn’t been there for at least a year. The stage is only a few inches off the ground but is plenty big. We’re only 3 piece and we made good use of it but it is very spacious. Gotta luv that.

Digger was somehow connected to this show and were supposed to play but they broke up not too long ago I suppose. They had played Buddy’s once before Monty was telling me before the show. So we learned and thru the Digger instrumental into the set to show our appreciation for that band.
Our set was something like this:

Digger (instrumental originally by Digger off of Powerbait)
Milwaukee
Ultraviolence
The Limitation
Walter Mander
48
The Will to Kill
Studio Nightmare
Hotboxed

The set was good. We played pretty tight. Rob’s bass drum beater fell off for the last half of Hotboxed. He asked me if I noticed and I definately didn’t. I remember something being a lil off and trying to really listen to Rob to stay in time but didn’t notice there was no bass drum.
Double J took pics of our set. So thanks to him!!!!!

Rocky Denis played last. They fucking rocked!!!!
This was my first time seeing them live since we played that lil show in Rob’s basement with them a long while back. I was truly impressed and would luv to play with them again sometime. They brought a huge crowd who loved every song they played. Props guys!!!!

I hung out till about 2:30. I was so ruined tho and felt so damn icky from being so sweaty all night. I went home, showered, drank some more and smoked up some herb and didn’t pass out till past 4.

Thanks to Manknee, Rocky Denis, Time and Distance.
Thanks to Brock and Dave for letting us all rock out at your place.
Thanks to the Ranger for running good sound and being a cool guy.
Thanks to Jessica and Crystal. U 2 r always fun!!!!
Thanks to Double J. always a pleasure to have u around and great pics as usual.

Thanks to Satan’s 40 crew for being there!!!!
Thanks to the cool underage kids I met outside who I gave CDs to.
And thanks to everyone else who was there watching, hanging out, drinking,
partying, etc. It was a great night!!!! Can’t wait to play Buddy’s again!!!! =)

-ERIK HILGER

---

i met manny at robs house. rob was having a party after the river front fest which is 2 doors away from his crib (and 1 block from mine). i heard someone yell ‘satan!’, i looked and was confused cause i didnt recognize anyone. manny introduced himself. we were both tanked but i remember him saying some shit about mexican food, how awesome he thought it is cause its just made from ‘meat, cheese, lettuce, etc…’, he offered me the show right away. i was a little apprehensive, espcailly since i knew we were both getting drunk and i like to do business like that sober and shit. i gave him a cd and he rattled off a grip of insults at me. first he said how we dont play that many shows. i tried to defend myself saying how we played alot last year and have been playing at least once in month in 2004. he wasnt havin it! i gave him a cd and he said he would play it on tritons radio station where he DJs a show. he added that he would play it if the cd was a ‘good quality’. i told him it was recorded in a studio, i didnt know what he meant. he kind of took it back then. he busted my balls quite a bit within 10 minutes of meeting him. im not mad about it and im definately down with manny. he wants to get rowdy with booking shows and shit and wants to let you know that he knows whats up. since i like him personally i can respect it, otherwise if i didnt know him or if he was more of a dick i might go off on him. well anyways we got the gig and all was good.

so the story is that originally teh bill was supposed to be triple lindy (tony perrys band) , rocky denis and digger. digger ended up breaking up shortly before the gig so they were out. strangely triple lindy pulled out also, they didnt want to play without digger. while i can certainly feel their pain for digger disbanding, i cant see why you would want to turn down a local show, its very convinenent for people coming out to see you that you know. we played with them on halloween and theyve changed drummers a few tiems since. i dont know what their deal is exactly and i dont care to find out to be honest. i think that pulling out of the gig was an insult to rocky denis and to the scene and everyone in general, like they are too good to play teh show without digger, like they play 100s of shows or something. well it was just as well cause it contributed to manny needing bands more so we got in. the 3rd band of the night was called time and distance. they were from west virginia and played some acoustic emo type shit. they definately had their act together and had like $1200 in awesome road cases for all the drums and shit. they were very solid. 2 of the members stood right up front basically our whole set which was awesome. i definately dont expect the other bands to do that esp. considering we play very different styles of music. they are on tour so i bought a tshirt and cd to support their cause as they go on. cool people.

well they played first and i tried to cool out. i was feeling pretty anxious and wanted to get it on real bad. luckily we went on 2nd. the stage was very solid and plenty big. the PA sounded great and so did the monitors. my wireless system worked great and i didnt break any strings. didnt go out of tune and my voice felt strong. i really cant complain about the performance and it felt solid. hilger was critical but i wasnt hearin that. we definately pulled off a tight set. we stuck to the set list and ripped thru it as fast as possible. it was cool to see some people in the audience like jim washburn and joe reid, they really did inspire me to play harder and better. in general got to see alot of cool people and it was a good vibe.

some of my peeps from the south side came up including simon the bulgarian, my man 64 and my boy king cobra and also my boy biggie. they were pumped and seemed to enjoy themselves and said the set was solid. althought king cobra was wilin out now, he wouldnt be later (foreshadowing!!!) we planned to get crunk afterwards at my place so i copped some beers and 40s and 64 brought a case of big bear 40s for good measure.

rocky denis went on last. i know they were eager to get up there. it seemed like the crowd doubled when they went on, i dont think any one else showed up but all their fans who chilled in the background the rest of the show came up front to support their band which was awesome. watching them play was pretty intimidating, its like they sat down one day decided to be an awesome band and write super soild songs. they keep writing better shit and moving on and elevating the game constantly. im gracious they welcomed us and i expect to see big things from these guys soon. they dont have to do much else then they already are to blow up on a bigger level.

after the show we all headed back to my place. hilger and rob ditched out, the south side crew came as well as tommy myers, washburn and reid. king cobra was passed the fuck out and shit got rowdy.

i think ive covered all teh show details. at this point ill leave you with a copy of the super long post i wrote the next day on a message board for my man 64 to read. looking back it was fun and worth it and i would do the whole thing again. good times all around, solid music at a solid club. big up to brock and dave, major players in the game, entrepenurs on a higher level. i told them many times thru the night of how awesome their club is as far as every component of it. big up to my man the ranger from ranger sound working the boards that night, every time we run into him he provides a great mix for all involved.

so ill leave you with this rambling post. enjoy.

–satan165

---

well time for me to tell the tale
my house is clean now and ive calmed down a bit

64
simon the bulgarian aka mr ignorant
biggie
king cobra

all rolled down to tha RG last night for my big show.
the bar was packed and the show was absolutely a success
big shot out to rocky denis for letting us/helping us get this show because i was very glad to be a part of it.
we got paid almost double our previous highest payout for a gig.
people seemed to love us, i saw lots of local peeps i know that i havent seen or talked to in ages
gave out LOTS of cds
the south side crew was gettin fucked up at the bar
i only had one drink all night in the bar (vodka red bull) after my set
rocky denis played last and the peeps seemed to come out of the woodwork, suddenly they all crowded up front.
when they were done i bailed out
came home and got shit ready

peeps came out then to have some drank at my crib
4 QRCs
me
my girl
one of her friends
washburn
tommy myers
mr. reid
2 hoes i didnt know that reid brought

we were having a great time
king cobra was real trashed
by all accounts he had drank 3 24s before he even left the sotuh side
he drank steadily at the bar for hours while we were there
as soon as he came in he asked if he could have a 40
i busted him a little kings
64 came thru with a case of big bears
i also had a case of heiniken keg cans and some various other brews
i cracked a ballantine for myself
simon the bulgarian came in and starts rooting thru my fridge for food!
i had to break him off some linguini for his hungry ass
i cant wait till i go to his house
im going to make a triple decker sub sandwich and sit on his couch with his parents and elbow em out of the way and eat it

so we start having a good time
king cobra blasts thru a 40 little kings in record time
now hes fallin ass out
not lookin so good
he cracked a heiniken keg can at some point and was fallin out

peeps were crowing around my computer to play some gay old ass computer game like wheel of fortune
i was smahing thru bongs of 65/eighth shit in my living room with the smokers
my girlfirned comments that king cobra is drooling on himself
which he was and it was disgusting
the whole front of his shirt was wet

i should have fucking known!!!
drooling only leads to one thing well around 4 am i was feelin crunk and so was everyone else
i gave one of these random hoes a 40 of big bear and she smashed thru it and was real drunk talkin all crazy
im shooting my mouth off to these 2 hoes cause i didnt know em
i started telling em to follow orders and that id crack their skulls and shit
just verbally abusing the fuck out of em

its kind of hazy at this point but i think it was my girl that said king cobras barfing

now im the king of barfing
althought i havnet /dont that much any more, when i was younger i did LOTS
i came into my living room and he was completely fucking unconsious
puke was like dripping slowly from his mouth
all over some pillows and my couch itself
if i was sober i would have grabbed him but i was like stunned
i just stood there for like 10 seconds and watched him do it

then i smartened up, i kicked my ikea rug out of the wya and tossed him on my floor
i have tile cermaic everywhere so thats easy to clean

i grabbed this 260 pound or more motherfucker and tossed him in like a boddy slam to my floor
then he puked a bunch all over the floor

i got super pissed then
my buzz became total rage
i yelled at simon and 64 that this was their time to get teh fuck out of my crib
in 64s defense he was shitfaced
he had drank 2 40s at my crib amongst a ton of beers at the bar and like anything he could find

i told him to grab cobra and roll out and he just kind of looked at me
no longer could form sentances
then i started yelling to get teh fuck out of my house immediately
so 64 tried to rouse cobra and was slapping him HARD on the back
cobra didnt budge

now in case you dont know cobra is an alcoholic
the stories are true about the 1000s of cobra 40s
last year he drank like 15 schiltz blue bull 12 oz cans at 64s one night
woke up at home hours later in terrible pain
the doctors did emergency surgery and slashed open his gut to remove pints of blood from his stomach

his puking was disturbing
it was just flowing from his mouth and i started to wonder if this dude might die on my floor
not because he drank so much that night
but because he shouldnt be drinkin and he looked like he was in a super bad way

i screamed at them to carry his bunk ass from my crib right then and there
i husted everyone else the fuck out
finally he got up after a few minutes
he looked up and his face was completely covered in puke
his eyes were the reddest ive ever seen
his visor and shirt were tottally puked
it was honestly maybe the most disturbing and disgusting thing ive ever seen
but i had mad adreneline and kenw i had to protect my shit so it didnt really gross me out

in a biblical way
i grabbed a dirty towel my girl had used to clean spilled brew and wiped the chunks of puke from his face like mary does for jesus in the bible

he took his shirt off and we tossed his visor in the garbage
i had 2 40s for 64
steel reserve silver wide moth (DC40s)
MX ice (turbotic)
i handed them to biggie as he walked out
walked them to the door

i ran back up and my girl was drunk and also literally about to puke becasue my lviing room was a foul site indeed
she was honestly gagging and i told her to go in the bedroom and change
cause i knew id need some help with this shit

i rolled my carpet out of the way
luckily it missed any pukings

pushed the couch out of the way
ripped off the cusions and pulled the pillows out of the covers
one of the covers literally had like a 1/2 pounds of chunky puke on it
i had to be strong
you cant let that shit set on there or its ruined for life
i should also mention that this is a loveseat thats over 50 years old
its been reapolshered many times and i got it from my grandma

i tore off all my clothes except boxers
grabbed the 2 couch cusion covers and another pillow case for a throw pillow he puked on
the actual pillow would have to be trashed

i ran to my laundry room and put it on hot and pounrd in a gallon of soap

ran back up and i had endless brew bottles everywhere
20 cans
abou 6 40s i think
weighed a million pounds
carried that and the half full case of big bears downstairs to recycle

came back up and mixed up buckets of hot water and mr. clean
me and my girl scrubbed the floor
i had to actually scoop up huge blasts of puke from my floor
then we both scooped and then scrubbed the inside of my couch
under where the cushions go it was wet
i lysoloed everything for odors and germs
we scrubbed the floor then busted out the swifter mop

then we looked at the actual couch cushions themselves
their covers were in teh washer but one of the cushions was real wet the puke had seeped thru

the cusion is like a square piece of yellow foam with like white cotton stuffing around it
the stuffing had to go

then scrubbed the yellow foam with mr.clean and lysoled it set up fans to air out and dry shit

took out massive loads of garbage
grabbed shit from washer and hung to dry

total vibe and buzz killer

my girl passed out so i killed the lights in my bedroom and turned on a/c
i cleaned for another hour and sat there in a stupor trying to figure out what the fuck happend
took a shower and crashed at 6 am
i talked to 64 on his home phone
he left his cell phone here in the chaos of leaving i told him to come pick it up tomorrow (sunday)
i was like ‘yo dude my couch is fucked, shits disgusting’
he goes ‘oh yeah? oh…from king cobra?’

i almost drove to burbank there to grab him my the collars and shake violently
he was real drunnk and couldnt hardly understand me
i told him to come after 3 pm cause i knew id be sleeping
of course he comes at 1 pm
i gave him the phone and went back to bed
slept till 5 pm
woke up and my girl brought mad arbys over
ate and cleaned the floor again to be safe
the couch and everything was dry and i forced the cushions back into the covers
vaccumed everything else
found a nice burn hole in my carpet in office
thanx to whoever did that, 64 was sitting directly there it was still a good time
everyone was laughing and having a good time
oh well