satan165 – Page 5 – Low Profile

Show #59: Big Horse, Chicago

Well Wicker Park sucks big time for parking so I had my dad drive me once again. I ran in and grabbed Joe from Squared Off and he helped me bring my gear in. No one else was really there at that point. I made my decision early that I would not drink before my set so I sat down and ordered a Coke at the bar. They gave me a nice pint glass full of ice so it was very refresing and good. Soon after Rob showed up and then Hilger. They loaded in thru the back in the alley. I was hanging out there and I also then met Eleanor’s Basement. They were rolling deep with about 5 other dudes besides the 5 in their band and they had tons of gear. Their drummers set consisted of over 2 full sets put together and they also brought their PA so they had like 7 cars full of stuff. Charleston Dueling Society showed up then and I introduced myself and told them how I had seen them play at Big Wig before. They were very nice and said they had ‘heard good things about Low Profile’ from the guys in Break of Day who later showed up also. Betty Burbank (here with Joe) showed up as well as Rhyno from Squared Off (check his ability to flick me off even with a fucked up arm in a sling). Get well soon Rhyno!

It soon started to get pretty crowded which was surprising to me. Looking back, I can’t really remember when the guys from Little Sisters of Philly got there. I know they had to work late or something. Charleston Dueling Society was up first and they rocked the house. They all have super nice gear and good songs. They didn’t play too long which was nice. Near the end of their set some of the guys from Boom Jack showed up. There were twins in the band and they approached me and Weber about loading in. At this point there seemed to be gear stacked up to the ceiling everywhere you looked. I told them that they had better just wait it out. 5 bands at a small club like the Big Horse is WAY too much! I know that everyone is concerned with the ‘bottom line’ and packing the club but you succeed more in packing the club with gear then anything. Its a terrible inconvienence. CDS was trying to get off stage after their set and I was helping them. We were just setting the drums in the tiny hallway next to the stage. At the same time we’re trying to set up as fast as possible. So within 5 minutes were almost ready and Weber comes up to me and says ‘I need you guys to pick up the pace’ or some other ignorant comment. As if I was fucking around and bullshitting up there. First of all, I am very anxious before I play so I am not in the mood to talk to anyone or so anything but get my shit ready so we can start. I had my wireless ready to go and I was just tuning up and he says how Armando (the owner/manager/bartender) says we have to hurry up. I went off on Weber at this point and said I don’t give a fuck what he or anyone else wants, were doing our best and get the fuck out of my face. Actually what I said involved the word ‘fuck’ alot more times but that doesn’t matter. The funny thing is how after I go off Weber gets his typical sarcasm going on like ‘What did I do?’. I was ready to kill him at that point but luckily now Rob was ready and we got our set on.

I was dead sober so I had a ton of energy and stamina and didn’t get tired or anything at all. We were blasting thru our songs and it felt great. Rhyno had kidnapped Rub-a-dub Doggie. Everyone was up front diggin it. Opening with ‘Figure it Out’ can never go wrong as far as I see it. ‘Hot Mom’ 2nd worked real well as well. The set seemed short, I guess because we didn’t talk hardly between the songs and we just tore thru em. We played a Jawbreaker song near the end of the set and I introduced it by simply saying ‘This is a Jawbreaker song’. I knew I didn’t have to introduce it anymore then that since no one probably knew who the band was anyways. I turned up the knob on my guitar and looked to Rob to rip the fill to start the song and in that moment of half silence and the buzzing of my amp, I heard someone say ‘Jawbreaker?’ I looked up and the song was on. My voice was perfectly warmed up at that point and I just ripped it. I love to sing that song. People always bitch about the Big Horse PA but I don’t give a fuck. People were also complaining that the PA wasn’t powerful enough but goddamnit I think I showed those people what was up. I know I could hear myself really well. I also turned my amp up past half way that night which is SUPER loud by the standards of every other show I’ve played with that amp. After the set, I changed my shirt.

After our set the guy that said ‘Jawbreaker?’ came up to me, he was the singer of Boom Jack and gave me mad props. He was super nice and I bought him a beer and gave him some stickers. He said how he loved Jawbreaker and they were going to play ‘Boxcar’ which was awesome. Another drunken weird guy who was brown baggin in the alley came up to me and said how he had actually seen us play at the Divine Cup in Rockford a year ago which was crazy. I didn’t remember him but he said how we hooked him up with a ton of free shit like cds and a t-shirt. That guy ended up getting violently drunk later in the set. But first was the 3rd band, Eleanor’s Basement. They just had too much gear and too many members. I love playing in a 3-piece becasue we are very well suited for small clubs. When these huge bands with 2 guitars and all this shit come up in a club like the Big Horse it just sounds like mud. Leave the half stacks at home! They are too loud! They described themselves as ‘blues rock’ before the show and they were pretty much right on. They ended up covering a Rolling Stones and a Ramones song. I was never able to figure out how or why so many people were at the show that night, and me and Hilger were trying to figure out who made the huge draw. It may have been this band. They closed with ‘I Want to be Sedated’ and a bunch of weird drunk chicks started dancing and even I got into the mix regardless of the fact that I hate the Ramones. Its just a fun song.

Next up was, in my estimation, the best band of the night: Little Sisters of Philly. These guys were reppin the south side so hard that I couldn’t even believe it. They were dead serious and they had properly sized amps! I couldn’t believe it! They had 2 guitars and it didn’t sound like mud! AND ALL OF THEM HAD CRATE AMPS!!! How awesome is that! After like the 2nd song I was thinking ‘this band is pretty cool’. They had a nice rock/roots sound with good mid tempo beats. After a few more songs the beer must have been hitting me cause now I was super digging this band. They jammed out an awesome song they dedicated to 80th and California, and sang about how sad they were that that neighboorhood now is a ghetto. The song was composed of basically just quiet guitars, a few quiet drum accents and vocals. It moved me. By the time they got to the last song they were getting super powerful. Their bassist had an awesome vintage Rickenbacker that looked like it had been around the block. Their last song was called ‘Kings of the One Eleven’, refering to 111th street. I have no doubt that they guys are the Kings of the 111. The end of the song just jammed out with a blazing lead and it was truly emotional. Great job guys, you kicked my ass!

The last band was Boom Jack. Once again — 2 guitars with massive half stacks, it was LOUD. And thats not always a good thing. It was so loud that I went out back and was getting high with Hilger when Lisa came back and said people were beating each other up and getting ruthless in the pit. Well I have been in a few mosh pits myself and had no fear of these people. I busted in and saw our drunk buddy from Rockford who was now wasted as fuck with a swollen eye and some other drunken ass dude who had a busted eye also blood dripping onto his shirt. I walked right into the middle of that pit and started hitting dudes and grabbin em. Boom Jack ended up closing with ‘Boxcar’. They kept asking Armando for 1 more song and he kept saying no, so I just told the singer ,’dude, just start the fucking song!’. So they did and it was good. I grabbed him and sang a few lyrics myself.

Everyone left and I was still around. Oh yeah, the drunken dude #2 who was hittin folks in the mosh pit was now pukin like a lil bitch out back, getting soaked in the rain. In my own drunkeness, I went out and snapped a few pics of his broke ass. Heres a pic of him shortly before passing out, fighting/moshing with another drunken fool.

Everyone left and I convinced my girlfriend to spot me some cash for a burrito since I had spent all my loot at the bar. I ate that and went home and took a shower and kind of felt like shit as I came down from my drunkeness.

Great fucking show, can’t wait for Nov 14th to play again with Burnside Bridge and the Burbanks! Thanks to Weber for the show, looks like the 1st ‘Distortion Tacos’ was a success!! Right now its Sunday and I went back to the Big Horse and the Note the next night on Saturday. Too bad I’m not in Ratbag Hero or I could write another wicked review, as it was another awesome night.

Special thanx to the crew in this pic — its on my desktop right now.

–satan165

Low Profile live at Big Horse Lounge in Chicago
Friday Oct 24th
w/ Charleston Dueling, Eleanors Basement, Little Sisters of Philly and Boomjack

What a fucking night. When I found out there were gonna be 5 bands total, I knew it would be a long night.
I got to Big Horse around 9 and everyone was there already. Weber was pretty much running the PA and all. Scott was there all night too. Thanks for everything guys.
So I started drinking right away and mingled a bit till Charleston Dueling were ready to start. They stalled out a bit and started late. They r a 3piece punk band. Pretty tight and just a fun band. Their drummer jammed fo sho!!! They rocked.
Satan picked up their CD. I’m interested in hearing it and maybe we can set something up with them in the future.
We were up to play second. We had a real good set I thought and afterwards, many people commented and thought the same. Our set was something like this:

Figure It Out
Hot Mom
The Limitation
Walter Mander
48 (thrown into the set at the last minute for Weber)
Execution Style
Lachrymose
Boat Dream From the Hill (originally by Jawbreaker)
Milwaukee (originally by Mongoloids in Crayon Suits)

I think that was it. It seems like I may be forgetting something but I’m not sure. It went by pretty quick. I had a lot of energy the whole show and wasn’t tired at all.
The crowd seemed to like us and seemed like they were having fun. Betty, Joe and Rhyno were right up front. Joe sang along to most of our songs. Thanks dude.
Thanks to Lisa for taking pics. The ones I’ve seen so far look great. We took our shit off stage and let the next band set up. I just had to sit down to calm myself after that set. It felt great.
Eleanors Basement were up next. They were 5 piece with a keyboardist. They played bluesy type music. The drummer played a huge ass drumset with many pieces that covered him up. He ripped a drum solo during one of the songs. They were good but I was so hyper that they sort of chilled me out a lil too much. I went out to smoke a bowl in my car with a select few and went back in feeling much better and got to see them play I Wanna Be Sedated. Williams bought me and Weber a round of shots and we started partying harder.
Little Sisters were next and they were awesome. Representing the southside and 111th to the fullest. We have much luv for these guys.
They were 4 piece. Both guitarists and the bassist played out of small Crate amps. So we were down with that and told them when they were loading out. They were awesome. The singer was great and they were just all around fun. I’d luv to play with these guys again sometime.
After they played, Williams and I were out back getting soaked in the rain and splashing around in puddles. There was a club with a lot of noise coming from it not far away so we tried to get closer to see what was going on. Some band was playing 80s rock covers and there seemed to be a lot of people singing along. So we creeped around and checked it out and just hung out in the back alley. He smashed his beer bottle against a wall and we cheered like lil fucking kids. It seemed so fun.
The last band was Boomjack. They took a while setting up and we were forced to listen to bad rock bass ‘licks’ that the bassist played while waiting for the rest of the band. This band was crazy. They were loud as fuck and had a crazy PA system they set up for themselves.
Their crew in the crowd were getting rowdy as fuck.
Bloodied drunk dude who puked included.
They covered Boxcar by Jawbreaker as their last song. We chatted up with the singer before the show and he told me that 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was one of his favorite albums. I agreed with him. So since we played Jawbreaker, they played Jawbreaker. Fucking A guys. U rocked that song out fo sho!!!
And they had twins in the band. How ya luvin that? They both played guitar. It was a very crazy night. Some is blurred but I had a lot of fun.
It was so fucking loud in there. My ears r still ringin. So many huge ass amps that seem to big for that place.
So I’m goin to see Ratbag and the Symptoms at the Note tonight and then I’ll run across to Big Horse to see Burnside Bridge. Can’t wait. It’ll be another fun night.
So thanks to everyone that was there. Hope u all had fun and enjoyed all the bands and the booze. Cya round.

-ERIK

Show #58: Fantasy Lounge, Chicago

Low Profile live at Fantasy Lounge
Friday September 26th
with Shooting Blanks and Burnside Bridge

Great fucking show all around. I had a blast.

It is 2:35am. I just got out of the shower but am feeling very fucking wasted. I drank many beers tonight and just got done smoking a bowl. Right on! I’ve got on the Lucy show cuz there isn’t much else on at this hour and I don’t have cable.

So we got this show from Matt from Shooting Blanks who got the show from Burnside Bridge. We ended up playing with Burnside at Memories a few weeks earlier and looked forward to playing with them again. Deech is still out of commission so I figured, me and Williams would split the Shooting Blanks set since we both have been doing fill in shows for them and it’d be fun. He agreed and we both chose the songs we’d jam with them.

For the Low Profile set, we busted out some songs we haven’t played live or practiced really in some time now. Think About It being one and Execution Style as the other. It jams though. I brought it up at practice and we jammed it after not playing it for a long time and thru it in the set.

So I showed up to the venue at about 8:15. Williams, Josh and Corey were all there. They were setting up the PA and shit. I noticed Dan’s car outside but he wasn’t in there when I walked in. I loaded my gear in and chilled a while. Dan and Matt walked in a while later. We all sat around and started drinking. Well, I started drinking. Everyone else seemed to get a lil head start on me.

Jonny from the Burbanks showed up. Hoser and Joe from Squared Off showed up. Weber and Scott from Ratbag. Bill, Ross and Andrew from the Powerknobs. It was like a big band fest. There was no turn out whatsoever really. We ended up playing for all band members that we r crew with and that made the show really special in a way. Some people would rip on it all and say it sucked but it was truly awesome. Thanks everyone who was there. It was intense fun for me!!!!!!

So 10:00 rolls around and Shooting Blanks r due up first with Williams starting the set with them. They race thru:

Another Chance
Wasted Time
Ignore Me
Simple Song
She Luvs Me Cuz I Rock

I sang along and took some pics of Satan165 playing with them. Then I took over on the bass and we played:

Knee Deep
Louder
Payback
Mindfuck
Sheila
Home Sweet Home (originally by Motley Crue)

Sheila was added. Since we had planned on covering Sheila as a surprise to Matt, Dan and Brey, I told Williams to avoid playing that song with them but I fell thru. After Mindfuck(which was dedicated to Josh), Matt was determined to play one more song and THEN Home Sweet Home so I asked what he had in mind and he said Sheila. I said “how bout Silly Goose???” and he said nope so we jammed Sheila. It rocked for sure. But u ruined our surprise damnit!!!! Nah. It’s all good. Everyone got to see that song twice. Hope u enjoyed it.
Brey got naked for a bit and it was a lil too much for me and was turning on everyone in the crowd so he had to cover up a lil.
Luv ya Brey!
No No! Too sexy!!! (if u watch SNL u may know what I’m talking about.)

Much thanks to Shooting Blanks for letting us come aboard for these past few shows. Much luv and respect to u guys. I can’t wait to see u guys with Deech back in the lineup. U know I’ll be there!!!!!!
It’s been a blast getting drunk and rowdy rocking on stage with y’all!

Burnside Bridge were up next. Corey was tuning up one guitar and a few people were yelling for him to play his Rickenbacker so he switched to please us all and tuned that one up to play instead. They rocked a real good set. We heckled with them over playing some Slayer and it was just a good time. Their songs rock! They all sing! They r just a cool band all around.
Again, much luv and respect to these guys. Thanks for providing PA and amps and making the show run smoothly.

Low Profile was up last. We played a real long set. We scrapped part of our set list and added a ton of other songs. I’m not even sure I’ll remember everything we played. But it was something like this:

Think About It
Execution Style
Chesterfield King (originally by Jawbreaker) for Ross!!!
En Guarde
What I Failed To Mention
All The Wrong Reasons
Sheila (originally by Shooting Blanks) for Matt, Dan and Brey!!! (w/ Weber and Matt on backups!!!)
(Misfits medley) featuring many back up singers!
I Turned Into a Martian
Vampira
Hybrid Moments
Astro Zombies
Return of the Fly
King of the Hill theme
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
Green Corn (originally by NOFX) with Joe on vocals
Figure It Out (also with Joe on vocals)
Last Caress (Misfits)
Summertime (originally by Crimpshrine)
My Turn (originally by Squared Off) Hoser on vocals, Joe doing backups.

I think that was it. I may have missed something but oh well. It was a lot of fun.
Ross requested Hot Mom and a Jawbreaker cover so we did Chesterfield for him since he told me he listened to Bivouac on the way over to the show. Josh requested I Turned into a Martian by the Misfits so we played that and told everyone to just call out songs. Josh called out Skulls and Attitude a few times but we never did those. I also heard Spook City USA called out which is a pretty obscure but still good Fits song but we don’t know it. Sorry. Jessica called out She but that is an arm bender for Rob. Astrozombies was called out and we went into that. And then Return of the Fly so we went right into that as well. Glad to see so many Misfits fans out there. Burnside Bridge were using my mic for back ups. Props all the way!!!!!

I think we may have gotten My Turn right that time. Rob not included cuz the drums r all good to it. F#ii and then the G – A part. Got it!

It was a very fun set. I played most of it in my boxer briefs. Scott was a lil scared I may play fully naked but I didn’t. Weber did pull my undies down a lil but not to far to reveal my private parts.
Sorry ladies.

We chilled a while after we were thru and took our time loading out. I was exhausted and out of it. I’m gonna finish this bowl off and call it a night. Thanks everyone for coming out. Hope everyone had fun and got home ok. We’re not playing for a while. Check the site for upcoming shows and any other updates. Cya round.

-ERIK

Show #57: Big Wig, Chicago

Low Profile live at BigWig
Sunday September 7th
with the Burbanks, BORD and the Hacks

Our 3rd time playing Bigwig. And what a show it was.
We practiced at 6 and ran thru the set real quick.
Then sat around Rob’s watching VH1 about Snoop Dogg and Eminem. Eventually we left for the show.

Got to BigWig. Loaded in and all that. Sat around, chilled. Started off drinking with a Red Bull/vodka. Dave the bartender said that Monday was his birthday so we toasted to that. Charles and Scott were running the place. Charles doing sound and Scott running the door. Weber didn’t show up but Williams called him up and fucked with him for not showing. Thanks Weber.

BORD from Wisconsin set up and soon started their set. There was a good amount of people there. These guys r real cool. I got to see them play on Saturday night at Rubes also so twice was a real treat. And they covered the Beatles. They rock, they got the harmonizing vocals going and they r just a fun band to watch and hang out with.

The Hacks from Denver, CO played next. They covered a Crimpshrine song but I was at the bar drinking and chatting away for most of their set and then ran out to my car for a quick session with Lisa and Julie. YAY!!! Julie showed up. We met Julie the night before at Rubes and invited her to the show.

The Burbanks played 3rd. This was probably their best set I’ve seen yet. I was feelin it. They used our amps for the show so we set em up for em. They rocked out for sure.

We played last. I didn’t really mind all too much. My only problem is that band members get 3 free drinks a piece but if we’re playin last, then I think we should get like 5 free drinks a piece!!!!!!

Williams and I both rocked the cordless systems with no problems. Our set was something like this:

Carl Panzram
Zamboni
Grudge
Figure It Out
Summertime (Crimpshrine)
30 Years (Pie in the Sky) featuring Jamey Johnson on drums
48
King of the Hill theme
Green Corn (NOFX)

Misfits medley:
Last Caress beginning
Return of the Fly
Last Caress ending
Bullet
Dig Up Her Bones featuring Betty Burbank and Jonny Jobless on vocals

The set was great. We rocked thru all the songs. For ’30 Years’ Rob came out from behind the drums and got to rock out true frontman style. It was awesome to have the added energy at the front lines. Jamey played the song lightening fast and that added to the energy of the song but I was luvin it.
Weber luved 48 when we played it at Memories so we thru it into the set just for him and since he didn’t show, I dedicated the song to Scott.
Williams and I went for a lil walk to the front of the club and then he started King of the Hill. Scott and Dave were laughing at us. Hey, we gotta entertain them too since they can’t really go to the back of the club and watch the bands cuz they gotta work the front.
Joe from Squared Off requested Green Corn so we played that.
Dig Up Her Bones was added last minute. I’m not sure how that came about. I just heard it being mentioned and knew we had to play it. There was a rustle amongs the crowd when it was brought up. Williams invited Betty and Jonny up to help sing and they quickly obliged. It sounded great. There were more back up vocals coming from the crowd and the whole place was rockin.
I doubt anyone really knew Return of the Fly. I know Jonny did cuz he was singin it right next to me. Thats a pretty obscure Misfits song.
We chilled a while after the set and did a round of shots and had another drink. Then I said my goodbyes and went home. I hugged many people that night. There was a lot of luv goin around.
Thanks to Lisa. Charles and Scott of Ratbag. Hoser and Joe of Squared Off. A:/run, Frank and Will of Rocky Denis. Jamey. Julie. The Burbanks, BORD and the Hacks. Dave – Happy Birthday!!!!

-ERIK

The night before this show, I played a gig at Rube’s with Shooting Blanks. I slept about 10 hours and felt very rested. Weber called me at around noon when I was sleeping. Normally I don’t even bring my cell phone in my bedroom when I sleep, I don’t want to be woken up, but for some reason I answered it. He asked me for the 100th time if the Burbanks were confirmed to play that night. I screamed ‘yes!’ and told him not to call so early. I asked when he got up and he said at 630 am. He was hammered at about 2 am and wanted to go to a bar the night before. That’s insane. I went back to sleep and woke up around 3 pm. I assembled my gear and loaded up my car, then I drove to JJ Peppers to make copies of flyers and then ran across the street for a burrito from Cesar’s. It was about 5:30 onw and we were supposed to meet up at Rob’s at 6 pm to reherse the set before the gig. I parked my car in front of his house and went into the River Front Park and sat down at ate my burrito and drank a lemon lime gatorade. Some trasher looking family was drinking Busch cans and playing with their dog. The dog came up right by me and the kid followed, he was trying to get the dog to go away from me but I didn’t feel he was trying hard enough, and I was perturbed that I was having my space invaded in such a huge area. I turned to the kid and said, ‘hey, get your dog out of here’. The dad piped up then and hollered for his kid to get that dog away. I finished eating and my hands were covered with grease and shit. I wiped em in the grass and walked to Rob’s. It was still too early, so I just walked the 1 block home to wash up. I went back to Rob’s and we jammed thru most of the set. I started sweating my fucking balls off for some reason then. We loaded up and I left, Hilger and Lisa and Rob were chillin.

I got to the Bigwig at about 7:40. I was hoping the Burbanks could play first and us second since they were going to use our amps. Well, BORD was already set up. Chuck (on the left) told me that they had to leave early or some shit. I was immediatley perturbed at this for a number of reasons:

1) they only live in Madison, which is probably about 3 hours.
2) they are ‘on tour’, so excuses about sleeping and work the next day — I’m not interested.
3) I try to welcome touring bands to Chicago, but I guess these guys felt like they didn’t owe us shit. 4) I HATE when bands leave early and don’t watch us play. I dont care if you sit at the bar or outside, but you better hang out until the last set is done and say ‘good set man’. its good sportsmanship like they taught you in litle league.

The guys in BORD are real cool for the most part — except for their 2nd guitarist, who for both the Rube’s and Bigwig shows watched not a minute of any of the other bands, he quickly entered and exited before and after his bands sets. They played and I heckled them about eating sausage and cheese and shit.

The Hacks from Denver were next. I really grew to like these guys more and more, musically and personally, over the 2 days I hung out and jammed with them. They introduced one song by saying ‘this is a cover…this band is from berkley….its crimpshrine’. I ran over to Hilger I was so excited — we immediately agreed we would have to bust out a Crimpshrine cover of our own. The Burbanks followed and were awesome as usual. They aren’t ‘like family’ — they ARE family. Its great to play in an awesome venue with cool bands, and bands that you know and have played with before.

So we finally went on last. Jamey came out and brought a gang of people with him: A:/run, frank, and will from rocky denis; colleen suba, and other of their friends including one dude from the band Johnny Rev. Their support is truly fucking awesome. Joe and Hoser from Squared Off also came out which was great.

Hilger came up with the idea of Jamey sitting in for a song with us, and playing a Pie in the Sky song. We tossed around a few possibilities and decided on the classic, ’30 Years’. We had not played it in months, and we had not played with Jamey in even longer. He sat down and it was fucking amazing. You could probably wake up the 4 of us from a deep sleep and throw us at our insturments and we would play 99% flawlessly. It was an honor to share the stage with an ex-PITS.

After the show I started getting pretty smashed on all the vodka I had drank. Me and Hilger helped clean up the place by trashing empty bottles and bringing glasses back to the bar. I helped Chuck clean up the sound gear and left around 2 am when they kicked us all out. It was a truly wicked weekend of 2 great shows, surrounded by the best bands in Chicago and a great crew of people that love music as much as I do. I laid in bed that night just going over everything again and again…the sets were just a blur to me, but all the partying and drinking and just having fun with other bands stuck out and made me smile even then in the dark under my covers. Thanks to all involved.

–satan165

Show #56: Memories, Chicago

I got involved with Squared Off and Smear Campaign back in March of this year. We were booked with Smear Campaign and got to know them — Cactus Matt offered me a gig that we ended up playing like 4 months later. I also met Hoser that night — his band (Squared Off) wasn’t playing then but he mentioned that he booked shows at a club called Memories. I had never heard of it. Later I came under the impression that it was located in the town of Cicero, I guess this was some confusion with the Street (Cicero Ave.) upon which this club sits. As a side note, I mention that this was my first meeting with Hoser. Unbeknownist to me, I had met him a year or 2 earlier when his previous band FID played at the Fireside Bowl with us as well (as well as bassist Dan, who at that time was musically unemployed, but is not in Smear Campaign to add a final twist).

I often pressured Matt and Hoser to get a show going at Memories with just our 3 bands. Well eventually Hoser came thru and although the bill was longer, I knew this was the show I was waiting for and luckily we were able to take it. It was to be a party for Hosers b-day party which was to occur 3 days later. Smear Camp was not on the bill, but Squared Off and Low Profile were accompanied by out of towners The Tradesman (an Oi! outfit), Burnside Bridge (who we were at the time booked with at another show in total coincidence) and I Attack, another local group who I knew Squared Off had played with before.

I arrive with Hilger, Lisa and Rob and we were the first ones there. I had been to Memories once before to see Squared Off and Smear Campaign (with original Smear Camp bassist Wally). The place seemed a bit cramped (but was that due to the facilities or just a massive crowd, I wondered). I also remembered that they had a decent stage going. When I walked in there were maybe 5 locals there, a huge pool table in the way, and no stage. There was some wood piled up in the back though…hmmmm….

I think it was Corey from Burnside Bridge who was one of the first other people to arrive. He knew as much as me as far as what to do (nothing) and we decided to wait for the big boss (Hoser) to call the shots. He soon arrived and I realized that the stage was collapseable. They have large sheets of plywood (carpeted) and tons of milk crates out back to support it. Joe from Squared Off, myself and an old gentlemen with what appeared to be 1 tooth total threw down the crates and assembled things as well as moving the pool table and a bunch of other shit out of the way. The lineup was soon decided and Rhyno attempted to give us the ‘bad news’ that we had to play first — which I gladly accepted. That night the slot actually hurt us, as a much huger crowd showed up later on. Some people had already showed up tho: Weber from Ratbag Hero (he said he came to see Burnside Bridge though and had no idea we were playing, although I had given him a flyer for the show the week before at Bigwig), Hilger’s sister Amber and her friend Laura (pictured here and here with Rub-a-Dub doggie, who is getting some groupie love). Betty and Johnny from the Burbanks showed up, but late and they missed our set. Also of course Cactus Matt was there, and later Jimmy, Smear Camps drummer and Chris their ex-2nd guitarist as well.

At some point while killing time before 9:30 when we were scheduled to go on, I was outside and a person I later identified as the singer/bassist for The Tradesman rolled up (onto the sidewalk) in a vintage Silver Vespa scooter and matching old school silver helmet. He tried to rip on it and say it was a piece of shit but I thought it was pretty tight. He said he was just coming from some scooter convention or something. I asked if he rode the Vespa all the way from Erie, Pennsylvania and he laughed and said no.

We went on to a thin crowd and opened with a sure fire way to alienate the crowd: an 11 minute, 8 part medley. Including #7 ‘A Barell With Poles’ which consists of only guitar and vocals. I wasn’t feeling the show and if you read the previous 10 show reviews, I don’t think I say that even once. I don’t think anyone there was feeling the shit at all. I don’t fucking know.

After the set Hilger changed shirts (so did I, as always, it was pretty sweaty). We stepped outside and his shirt was unbuttoned and it was flapping in the wind and I scored this pic, then I made fun of him for trying to cop such a ‘sexy pose’. Later on Rob noticed some chick with the low-riding jeans that rode a bit low and the ass crack was exposed. Now I’m often known in many circles as a Paparatizi for taking crazy pics of people without their permission. I was at a festival in tha RG recently and snapped a pic of another similarly not-that-hot chick with a thong fully exposed. I took a pic of that and almost got into a little trouble, physically, but got away with the pic. Well anyways, I felt obligated to take a pic of this ass crack and I was nervous to use the flash, althuogh I knew I needed it. I had had this same problem with the thong pic, I took one real quick and checked it and it was mostly useless (even after I brightened it later on my comp), so I immediatley took another with the flash — and thats how I got myself into trouble. Well in this case I bitched out and I only have the one pic, which is barely visable after being lightened by my super high-tech comp warez. Enjoy.

There were 4 more bands after us and I stayed until the end. The Tradesman played traiditional punk/Oi, with the guitar solos and everything it reminded me of Warzone. I attack was more old school thrashing punk rock, alot of smashing mid tempo beats. Very loud. Squared Off was great as usual. We played our Squared Off cover ‘My Turn’ for the 2nd time at a show with them. Squared Off then played it in their own set and Hoser made a point to not only point out to me, but to rub my face in it, that I was playing 1 note 1/2 step off. I made a mental note on that and Hilger looked and realized it to. Ny bad dude. I didn’t drink at all at the show because I got pretty wasted the night before had to get up ‘early’ for practice before the show. The funny thing is that as much as I say I wasn’t feeling shit, I’m sure all the other bands did and I’ll bet the whole crowd did too. Weber stressed to me that it was the best of the 2 or 3 sets hes seen us play. I guess we played well enough. I’m going to cut this review now before I rip on myself more. Good show.

–satan165

Low Profile live at Memories
Saturday August 30th
w/ Squared Off, I Attack, the Tradesmen and Burnside Bridge

We practiced at 5 on this day and went thru the set real quick. Then me Williams and Lisa went and made copies, scanned photos, updated the site, filled out the CD inserts and smoked weed to kill time before we had to leave for Memories.

We were the first ones there. But soon after some of the members of Burnside Bridge arrived. We just sat around and chilled. I ordered a Rolling Rock and sat at the bar. Then decided to play some songs on the jukebox cuz it was way too quiet and we had some time to kill.
This jukebox is awesome. I played some Crue, Scorpions live, Halen, Bob Seger, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, etc. It has a lot of good shit in it so I was amused.

So my sister Amber and her friend Laura show up. Jessica showed up. Weber from Ratbag Hero shows up to see Burnside Bridge but got to see 4 other awesome bands so that was very cool. Matt, Jimmy and Chris show up. Hoser walked in and I walked up, wished him a happy 12th 21st birthday and gave him 10 pics I’d picked up when I went to the guitar shop. I wanted to get him a pick holder and give it to him full but they didn’t have any. Oh well. It was lookin good though cuz the place was fillin up and the drinks started to flow.

Hoser, Joe and Williams started getting shit organized. Setting up the stage and the PA and monitors and all. I just sat back, drank a few and chilled. So awhile after that, Williams comes up and says that we play first which was cool with the three of us. So we helped Rob load in and we had Hoser and Rhyno hook us up since we were using their amps. Our set was something like this:

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8
Sex Party
Excited To Die
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
48
Hot Mom
My Turn (originally by Squared Off)

After Excited To Die, I remember saying something that our set was almost done and Cactus Matt yelled out that we’d only been playing 20 minutes and to me it seemed like an hour. It was kinda weird. I wasn’t tired or anything, time just seemed real weird that whole night.

Folsom was received well as it always is. My sister asked both me and Williams if we’d play it so we thru it in the set. Weber told me that this was the best time he’d seen us out of like 3 or 4 times and then said that seeing us play the song 48 really made his day. So that was real cool to hear. My Turn was good and fast and exciting. But we later learned that we play a change a lil wrong. Hoser pointed it out to us when they played it correctly during their set. Sorry bout that.
Johnny and Betty walked up to me while I was standing around after our set. Johnny says “nice set” and I’m like oh yeah, thanks. Then he gives me a big hug and says “sorry, we totally missed u guys. but we could hear u while we were driving around trying to park” Thanks a lot u 2. No problem though cuz u have to sit thru our set this coming Sunday at Bigwig. Just kidding. Don’t even trip about it. We listened to the CD u gave Williams while in my car chiefing.

Burnside Bridge were up next. They had real nice gear. The one guitarist had a bunch of pedals all nice on a board and played a left handed vintage Rickenbacker. Josh, the other guitarist played a real nice SG. And the chick bassist played a nice black on black Ernie Ball bass. Props all around. Their sound was good. I liked their songs and got into them but we went out for a session during the end of their set and ended up chilling outside cuz it felt so good after playing a hot and tiring set. We later walked in and watched the Tradesmen who totally rocked and impressed me a lot. Very fast, energetic street punk. They sing about the working blue collar class and about the union. Williams and I later talked with the lead singer/bassist and he said he was a union pipefitter. Oh and they r from Erie, PA and said that Memories was the smallest place they’ve played in a while but they had fun anyways and after their set they were ready to get drunk. Good luck with the rest of the tour guys.

I Attack were next. I knew that Squared Off had played with these guys at least a few times. They were great. Super fast, high energy, yelling punk rock. Glad I got to play with and finally see these guys. They gave Hoser a pinata for his birthday. It was pretty funny. It was soon smashed and in pieces all over the floor. They ended their set with an Ozzy cover and the singer didn’t know all the words but improvised and I thought he was gonna collapse on the floor. It was so fucking hot in there at that point.

Squared Off got were up last. Hoser was pretty drunk at this point. People were buying him shots and he was just havin a good ole time. Their set was great. They opened with Made In America and had a bunch of us right up front singing right along. They played My Turn and Hoser made sure to point out what we play wrong. OOPS!!
They played Two Way Street, Sue You Got, Porcelain, I Want One More, etc. They covered We Can Dance and then played Seeing Red by Minor Threat with either a very hoarse Joe singing or his vocals were just quiet cuz we couldn’t hear him. Oh well. It was good anyways.

It was a real fun night. Thanks everyone involved.
Happy 12th 21st birthday Hoser!!!!!!!

-ERIK

Show #55: O’ Malleys, Alsip

The Burbanks and Dina from Future Entertainment hooked up this show for us. Dina also books for Oasis 160 and they had just finished giving us the run around big time, so she owed us. Alsip is south side and I thought the show would suck for some reason. I was off of work so I got home a few hours before I had to leave. I ate, took a shower and then slept until 8 pm. I got up, changed and hit the road.

The place is alot like Champs, in Burbank, another southside venue. I rolled up and went inside. Hilger was already there, as well as all of the Burbanks. I loaded in and the bouncer asked for ID. I showed him then he marked me down as a fan of the Burbanks on his little list. I told him, no, I’m in Low Profile. He rudely replied ‘not to worry about it’ or something. Still dont get that. Hilger helped me load in and we chilled. They had $1 domestic bottles and I had a few Miller Lites. Rob showed up shortly afterwards. The Burbanks were supposed to go on at 9:30, and even though they were set up and ready to go, they pushed it back to 10:00. Then 10:15. I busted out some flyers and the asshole bouncer told me that they dont ‘allow that’. Now thats supporting the scene. Fucking dicks would let us put flyers out or even give them to people.

The Burbanks went on finally and rocked hard. Johnny had to take a leak in the middle of the set which was weird. They played a song with a long guitar/vocals (from Mark) intro, then Johnny got back and him and Betty joined. Joe from Squared Off showed up and I gave him my camera to take pics of us while we played.

The 2nd band was called Who Did Bender? which I still don’t understand. They had a ton of top notch equipment. They sounded super produced and had real good vocals — double vocals actaully, from both guitarists.

Finally we got to go on. Me and Hilger both had the wireless systems in full effect. We wrote up a set list shortly before we played and fucking rocked out. We played ‘Dont Turn out the Lights’ by Screeching Weasel because I always wanted to play that for the Burbanks. It came out great. We played ‘Folson Prison Blues’ and I was running around the place for the guitar solos. I wanted to go right into the King of the Hill theme and was about to start it and Hilger ran up and told me to play it — he read my mind. Both of us totally ran around the joint for that whole :40 second song, awesome.

Betty had asked that we play ‘Dig up her Bones’ or ‘Saturday Night’ by the Misfits because she wanted to sing. She kind of chickened out before the show but I told her we’d play ‘Dig up her Bones’ and she could just sing what she knew cause I’d sing the whole thing. We played it last and it helped her on the stage and told her to just take Hilgers mic. We had not played this song whatsoever in probably 2 years and didnt practice it at all. I listen to the Misfits constantly and the song is very simple. I know the lyrics in my sleep. The vocals (or at least the monitors) sounded great and I was actually kind of impressed with my own vocals. Johhny came on stage and was over by Betty’s mic. Neither of them were singing much and I was thinking, what the fuck, are they going to sing or what. Then the chorus kicked in and I got the chills and couldnt fucking believe it. The 3 of us were all singing it and it was so perfectly intune, it was unbelieveable, it sounded better then we ever played it even back in the day. I was singing like 2 feet from the mic and it all blended perfectly. For the 2nd chorus, I just let them sing it compeltely. I was blown away. Not only did we play the song exactly after not playing it for a long fucking time, it sounded great.

Well we were the last band so after that I wanted to play more. We jumped into ‘Ghouls Night Out’ and ‘Horror Hotel’ to keep the Misfts thing going on, I was nearing collapse at that point and very little sound was coming out of my throat because I couldnt breathe.

A gang of people came up to us for shirts and cds and shit, one dude named Troy said he was there cause he knew the bartender and was very impressed by us, I hooked him up with some free merch. The bouncer even came up and paid us $17, which I totally didn’t expect! Then outside the Burbanks told us that they got paid $77! Thats insane, around the most weve ever been paid in 50+ shows. They demanded that we take $25, I said no, then finally took the $20 bill and refused to take the $5, Johnny just threw it on the ground, so then I had to take it.

Super love to the Burbanks, that show was fucking awesome.

–satan165

Low Profile live at OMalleys in Alsip, IL
Thursday August 7th
with the Burbanks and Who Did Bender

I got this show from Dina who booked us at Oasis 160 or One Sixty or whatever they call themselves. Then about a month later she cancelled the show date. So then she called about a week later and offered a the midnight slot at OMalleys and said that the Burbanks were playing so I called up the Bossman and he told me to just take it. So I did.

Lisa came and picked me up and we went to Rob’s to load up her truck and then drove to OMalleys. We got there a lil after 8:30.

The Burbanks were all there already. Betty was lookin so fuckin fine in the lil skirt and tall socks. And Johnny and Mark were also lookin good. But not as good. ha ha j/k.

There were some people chillin and drinking and they had a bunch of TVs with various things on them so u had a choice. They had the first season of Jackass on a few and the Simpsons on a few others. Elimidate on some others. Good shit. I ordered a redbull/vodka and chilled a while.

So Satan165 shows up and we load him in. We chill and check out all the old sports cards in the tables. Very cool idea and very entertaining looking at the old jerseys and styles of the players.

Rob showed up a lil after that. We loaded him in. Satan bought us both beers. We chilled a while. Joe from Squared Off showed up. Thanks for the support and for taking pics.

So at a lil after 10, the Burbanks were given the go ahead to start their set. They rocked. They were very fun and amusing. We luv them! And they covered Henry the VIIIth again. Props.

Who Did Bender were up next. They had some very nice amps and shit. Honestly, I wasn’t feelin em at all. I don’t wanna rip em. I was just not into it. But they were tight and having fun and they rocked their set for sure. I just wasn’t into it. So I watched a few songs and then went outside for a quick session. I came back in feeling very in the zone and ready to fuckin jam but I had to sit thru a few more of their songs. They played a song and introduced it as a song that has been played on Q101 but for me, that kinda shit is why I don’t listen to that fucking radio station. If that song came on the radio, I’d shut it off quick. Bossman was mouthing to me “You love it” and we were laughing back and forth to each other. But u know what, they had a lot of people come out to see em and had some chicks standing up and dancing along to the music so props to them in a way. Like I said, I just wasn’t feelin it. I was gettin mad waiting around and just wanted to get up on that fucking stage.

So finally it was time for us to get up there. They tore their shit down pretty quick. I actually went and helped drag their amps off so we could get going.

Our set was something like this:

Figure It Out
Low Pro pt 1
Zamboni
Don’t Turn Out the Lights (originally by Screeching Weasel)
Hate
Grudge
Excited To Die
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
King of the Hill theme
Dig Up Her Bones (originally by the Misfits) featuring Betty and Johnny
Ghouls Night Out (Misfits)
Horror Hotel (Misfits)

I think that was it. We ran around the place a lot. Cordless systems rule. There were a pair of scissors on the stage in front of my monitor and I kept looking at them and laughing to myself about how my mom used to tell me not to run around with scissors or I’d stab someone or myself. So I picked em up at one point and ran around the stage with them and slipped and fell in a lil puddle of water and luckily didn’t stab myself. Sorry Mom.

People were digging our energy. Johnny Jobless’s uncles dug us for sure. They came up front at the end of the set and told us how entertained they were and how crazy we r and all that. I think its just cuz they were drunk. Like I said, the more u drink, the better we sound. hahahahaha
Thanks everyone.
One guy put on a Low Profile shirt right away. Very cool.

So we took our time loading out and chilled a while by Lisa’s truck. Then we said our goodbyes and headed home.

Thanks to the Burbanks for being just all around cool. Thanks to Lisa for ushering me around. Thanks to Joe for showing up. Thanks to Williams and Rob for rocking so hard with me. What a great set guys. That show was a fucking success!

-ERIK

Show #54: Big Wig, Chicago

It is always a pleasure to work with people that you like, and who are professional. The venue known as Bigwig could have just as easily have fallen into the wrong hands — some stupid fucks who would have shows that didn’t come off properly and been littered with other problems. Luckily for us, and every other band with an opportunity to play there, this is not the case.

I would gladly do whatever Charles and/or Weber from Ratbag Hero tell me to do. They call the shots around this place and I couldn’t think of any better people to deal with. True class acts. I could praise them all day but allow me to talk about the actual events of the night. I’m sure that in doing so I will end of praising them more so its all good.

Weber offered me this show a few months ago and we snatched it up immediately. This is my favorite place to play in the entire world. Some aspire to some fucking arena or other garbage — I don’t need anything more then that which is laid out for me at the fabolous Bigwig. I got a ride from my dad to the club to prevent a DUI related crash later in the night. Got there way too early and chilled outside with my gear. I was the 2nd person there — the bartender was the 1st (I am a fucking asshole for not knowing his name, I admit it). He was working with 3 tall boys of ARizona green tea. I find that stuff repulsive (I’m a black tea man myself) but I respect his decision in beverages for the night because I myself consume many gallons of tea, soda and juice everyday. He asked me to watch over his cans of tea which he hit up the adjacent Pizza Hut to score a pazone. In the meantime, Hilger and Lisa showed up. Charles was the man with the keys so we were all way too early and waiting on him. The bartender came back with his food and just then Charles and Weber showed up. We loaded in a chilled the fuck out. I got my 3 complimentary drink tickets and saved them for later in the night. That is until the bartender comped me a Pabst for no apparent reason. But who am I to argue with a free drink. I swilled it down and then he came back with a Miller Lite bottle and a Long Island Iced Tea that someone had ordered and then not wanted or something. Me, Weber and the bassist from Break of day were all sitting together drinking and we all had a bit of an aversion to the Long Island Iced TEa. I started to pound my now 2nd Pabst as fast as possible in hopes of scoring the Miller Lite. Then Weber, man of extreme passion that he is, made the recommendation that the 3 of us share the Long Island Iced Tea 1950’s soda shop style with 3 straws. We all jumped in and gave it a go and I thought I was drinking straight Tequila at one point. I pulled away gagging and saw that the drink was barely dented. Then we got Mike from Break of Day to snap a pic of us fagging it up with this drink. We sucked it down and I had to drool a bit into a nearby garbage can, as my taste buds don’t agree much with the foul liquors in a Long Island Iced Tea. The 2 beers and that which was consumed in about 15 minutes provided a nice buzz and I felt quite relaxed.

Joe and Rhyno from Squared Off showed up. (Heres a nice pic of Rhyno, Lisa, Hilger and Rob completely relaxing in the confortable couches.) Frank and Will from Rocky Denis showed up to see Replacing Sydney. Things were looking very very good to me at this point. Charles threw a little ‘Return of the Dragon’ on the projector and I thought maybe I had died and gone to heaven. Replacing Sydney took the stage and I was unsure of what to expect. They all certainly had top-notch equipment. Hoping not to sound like a sexist asshole, I must admit that the 2 female members of the group were very cute as I had been told far in advance by friends who had seen the band before. I was very surprised by their sound — they had only female vocals which creates an interesting texture over distorted gutiars. Both guitarists worked the hell out of their footpedals as well, clicking from clean to distorted very often. Very interesting to me was the keyboards — the keyboardist used the same tone the entire set, kind of like an electric piano sound. I expected just from other bands I’ve seen who had keyboards to hear organ type tones and whatnot, but this was a very mellow tone that melded well with the other insturmentation and certainly the angelic female vocals.

Next up was Break of Day. I had worn my brand new Last Man Out shirt which I had just scored from the band a few weeks earlier. The drummer of the band had told me that he used to drum for that band! Small fucking world. Mike, the 2nd guitarist, recognized me from Columbia College, where we had attended together years before. I didn’t remember him but he said I was trying to sell him on Pie in the Sky at the time, my my, that MUST have been a long time ago! They took the stage as a 5-piece band with a frontman (who even provided his own cordless mic, nice!). Their sound was decidedly not emo or sensitive. Although melodic, they played plenty fast and made good use of the 2 guitars. Unfortunately, their set was scattered with technical difficulties. This worried me that it was a jinx and we would have probelms too when we played — I had just gotten my cordless system the week previous and tested it at rehersal just before the show. I crossed my fingers.

By this time there was defiantely a good amount of people there and many were plenty drunk. I was very anxious as always to get the show on the road. Hilger and I duct taped our cordless packs to our straps for each other (only 1 of many ‘things’ we do for eachother…). Of course, after that it becomes a blur. Not a drunken blur, for I had had only 3 of 4 drinks over 2 or more hours at that point, but an adrenaline type of blur, as it is at any show we ever fucking play, anywhere.. As I type this the next day my neck is pretty stiff and only after a huge shit and shower do I feel less drunk and ‘with it’. Some highlights included (those I can remember): Me and Hilger ran out of the room into the bar where I started up the ‘King of the Hill’ theme — Hilger was standing on a barstool (and nearly falling) and I was back by some tables scaring people. We had rewritten a new set just before we played, and after we went through all those songs, we just kept playing and playing…after numerous requests from Rhyno we jumped into ‘Attitude’ by the Misfits. I just stepped away from the mic at that point as Joe and Rhyno from Squared off were screaming the lyrics into one mic and Will from Rocky Denis even got inspired to grab Hilger’s mic and sing as well. (He even had the balls to apologize for doing that. Please dude! Sing away! By all means! How dare you even ask!). (Here’s me and Rhyno singing the ending to the song.) We jumped into ‘Green Corn’ by NOFX and the guitarist from Break of Day watched me intently. (it was Joe’s request, so of course he sang it) So of course I had to blaze the fuck out of that solo. He even had the respect to bow down as I ripped it. I repaid him later with a nice Peach Stoli/Redbull.

Right after the show I ran down the block and ordered up 2 delicious steak tacos with everything. Total=$4.25. Total time to wait for order=approx. 35 seconds. I brought ’em back to Bigwig and chowed em down, fucking fabolous. Then I commenced to drink about 6 Peach SToil/Redbulls. I highly recommend that everyone go on a Redbull mixed drink bender at some point, the effects are very odd. I was swillin’ em down and buying em for everyone in the house in my drunkeness. I sat with Weber and he told me tales of working his Kung Fu stylings on gangstas on Morgan street in his south side hood. ‘Return of the Dragon’ ended and Charles threw in ‘Enter the Dragon’ — fucking awesome. Of course, by this point I was deeply inebriated and felt my body sinking into the confortable Bigwig seating. Charles reacted quite violently to someones claim that ‘the Bigwig was dirty’ — he threw a caddy of straws and napkins on the floor in a true mess. That’ll show em! Weber was on his upteenth PBR and we had a conversation something like this:

Weber: “Yeah, I’m going to call into work tomorrow”
(he has many times told me of coming into work after a Distortion Sunday at Bigwig half drunk on 1 hour sleep, or just calling in altogether.)
Me: “Good deal dude. Fuck it, you deserve a day off”
Weber: (without skipping a beat) “Yeah, I’m going to go into work tomorrow”.

Then he described how he woudl just go into the bathroom and ‘chill out’, or maybe even take a nap. Hope your monday wasn’t too harsh, bro.

I wished the night would never end. I drove home and scored some White Castles and then slept for about 11 hours. I know I’m missing something in here but hopefully Hilger will remember.

–satan165

Low Profile live at Bigwig
Sunday July 6th
with Replacing Sydney and Break of Day

First off, I had a great weekend. But when Sunday came around, I was dragging my ass, not very excited about the show or even leaving my apartment. It would have been a great day to just stay inside. But of course my mood totally changed once I got to the club.

I showed up with Lisa at about ten to 7. Williams and the bartender were chilling outside and the doors were locked. So we waited and then Weber and Charles showed up. I wore my Bigwig (the band) shirt in tribute to the place we were playing. I got many compliments on it. =)

Right away we had Charles throw on some old AFI. The same album that was playing the first time I walked in this place. Then they later thru on some Bruce Lee flicks for us.

All the bands showed up. Rhyno and Joe from Squared Off showed up. Jessica showed up and took pics of us. Props all around. It was much fun just chillin and hangin out. Bigwig is such a laid back atmosphere and then after Replacing Sydney start up, Williams gets the urge to go and completely drop the set list and wants to bust out some more of the hardcore shit we play. So we sat at the bar and wrote a sloppy ass set list on some paper. It looked good though. We ended up adding a bunch more songs off the list of course. But now I wanna talk about the other bands.

Replacing Sydney were fucking awesome. Very rocking. Melodic and noisy. Great female vocals. And very cute chicks at that. The bass player chick was definately awesome. Didn’t use a pick. Reminded me of Kira from Black Flag a lil. U go girl. They had 2 guitarists. They both rocked and played a lot of lil lead parts. The other girl played keyboards and sang some songs by herself and did a lot of backup parts with the beautiful melodic chick voices. I luved it. I dug this band a lot all around and had a lot of fun watching their set and heckling back and forth with them a bit. I put your sticker on my bass case already. I’m a fan fo sho!
You’ll be hearing from this band sometime in the future. They could definately go big and get on a label. So do it! Put that cute bass player chick in a video on tv and you’re goin somewhere.

Then Break of Day set up. These guys were cool all around but their set was sloppy as fuck. They stand around for like 10 mins and then the guitarist is like, whoa, I gotta tune up. Give me an A. Everyone was ready for them to start and get the show going and it was just sloppy. Be fuckin prepared to rock guys. I was pumped to see u guys and then was blown away by the unprofessional shit and mishaps and had to go outside. Actually, I can’t even say that much cuz I watched the first 2 songs, or lack thereof and went outside for a session of some supers. So I can’t say much more cuz I didn’t give u guys a fair listen. And why r u against bands having CDs and websites and tshirts and stickers and shit? I didn’t get that comment at all. It had me totally stumped. Thats part of being in a band. Thats all good though cuz we give that shit away for free. Ya heard me???

We were up last. Both Williams and I rocked the wireless systems with no problems at all. We both duct taped em to each others straps which is going to become a new custom right before each show. Fuck playing with a cord.

So like I mentioned before, we totally scrapped the set list we originally had and didn’t play one song off of it. To the best of my memory which is pretty cloudy from a long weekend of partying, our set was sumthin like this:

Zamboni
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Figure It Out
Grudge
En Guarde
Attitude (originally by the Misfits)
Green Corn (originally by NOFX)
A Date with Destiny (originally by Guttermouth)
King of the Hill Theme Song
Breakin the Law (originally by Judas Priest)
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
Spreading Yourself Thin (originally by Pie in the Sky)
Hot Mom

I think that was everything. Rhyno ran up and sang Attitude. Will also ran up and grabbed my mic. It was great. Good crowd participation. Then we had Joe come up and sing Green Corn. Many people sang along to Folsom and Breakin the Law. Those both went across real well. I think, the more u drink, the better we sound. Hahahaha. So I’m glad we played last.

We gave out a bunch of CDs, stickers and tshirts. We played a great set. Both Williams and I ran thru the audience a bunch of times. I was jumping up on the booths and barstools jamming. It was awesome.

I chilled for a lil while after our set and pounded down one more redbull/vodka and then loaded out. Stood outside Bigwig for like 20 mins and then drove Lisa home who lives kinda far.

What a night. I had a ton of fun. Thanks to Charles and Weber and the bartender. Thanks to Joe and Rhyno, Lisa and Jessica, Will and Frank, Replacing Sydney, and everyone who watched and sang along.

I think thats it. Much of the night is kinda blurry. Crazy long weekend. I luved it. My crazy life…………

-ERIK

Show #53: Elk Grove Community Center, Elk Grove Village

Low Profile live at the Elk Grove Community Center
Saturday June 28th
With Squared Off, Lacquer and the Amazing Interceptors

This whole day was just awesome. I woke up to a lawn mower at like 10:30 in the morning but didn’t really get outta bed till noon. I went skating for a lil while. It drained too much energy from me so I went back in and just chilled. I watched the baseball game and fell in and out of sleep. Then I put on some Slayer to get me motivated. I showered up and got ready.

We met up at Rob’s at 5. Loaded up and headed on our way. We got there around 6. Met up with Hoser and Lisa and just chilled outside enjoying the sun till the rest of the bands showed up. Lisa and I went on a run and came back with some yummy Mt Dew Live Wire slushies. They were pretty damn good. Got a nice brain freeze from it.

A bunch more people showed up. Andrew and Bill from the Powerknobs showed up. Jessica showed up. Cactus Matt was there swigging some whiskey out of some fountain drink type container.

Squared Off decided to play first. There set was fucking awesome. They opened with Made In America. They played My Turn, Not Takin It, I Want One More, Our Fallen Bretheren, Porcelain and a bunch of other good songs. They covered Seeing Red by Minor Threat and went right into Merchandise by Fugazi. Props all around. Great set.

The Amazing Interceptors played next. I didn’t watch them one bit but could hear them clearly. Pretty loud and rocking. Sorry, I can’t really say anything more. I should have went in and watched a few songs. I was too busy chillin, mingling and having a session in my car with a few others.

Lacquer played next. I saw them with Squared Off and Smear Campaign at Brauerhouse last weekend so I knew what they were all about. They played a good long set and had the people dancing.

We played last. Our set was:

Attitude (originally by the Misfits) for Rhyno
My Turn (originally by Squared Off)
Green Corn (originally by NOFX)
Kamakazi 9-11
Hot Mom
Spreading Yourself Thin
The Last Laugh
Astrozombies (also by the Misfits)
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)

I think that was it. We rocked it out for sure. Attitude was a good opener. Rhyno and Cactus Matt sang. My Turn was a lil sloppy but came out all good. Hoser ran up and grabbed my mic and sang like a front man while Joe and Rhyno grabbed Bossmans mic and sang backups. It was great. Very cool to see their faces when we started it up.
Joe and Cactus Matt ran up to sing as much as they could of Green Corn. That song rocks hard. I luv playing it. I watched Bossman blaze the solo. He ripped it up fo sho!
We’ve never played the Last Laugh live before. It was a lot of fun. It’s a pretty mid tempo slow song so I was chilled out for it and it was a good break in a strenuously fast set of songs. The peeps in Lacquer all went swimming during our set. I’m jealous. They snuck into the pool. I guess they don’t have it too secure. There was a big ass water slide attached. I would have brought my suit and paid to go down that thing if I knew it was there. Oh well. Now I know for next time.
Bossman added Folsom at the end of the set and that was that. We took our time loading out and just chilled afterwards and talked. Bossman drove Bill home. Thanks and much luv to the PK’s.
Squared Off invited us to go to Brauerhouse to drink for the afterparty but then Rob invited us back to his house for a late night swim so I quickly changed my mind. I’d rather drink in a big ass pool over drinking in a bar anyday.

So I went home and brought my guitars in and showered and put on my suit and headed over to Rob’s. Hoser, Rhyno, Joe, Lisa, Bossman and Rob were all there already. We drank a lil and then Bossman and I jumped in. Joe and Rhyno later jumped in and then finally Rob came in. It was great. Like bathwater.

What a day. What a show. What a night. I had a blast. Thanks to everyone involved but especially to Cactus Matt and Squared Off.

-ERIK

One of my greatest pleasures whilst in Low Profile was playing early 2003 at the Fireside. Although it was our 11th time playing there, we were lucky enough to get a show with the mighty Smear Campaign. The greatest bunch of guys as well as awe inspiring musicians. 5 minutes after our set, their frontman, Cactus Matt offered us this show — a good 3 to 4 months in advance at that. The date eventually got moved back a week or so, and bands were added and removed from the lineup as well. Finally the date rolled around. I had seen Smear Campaign (with Squared Off) once more in the meantime and hung with Cactus at some other shows. Hoser from Squared Off was at the Fireside that day as well and we learned his band would be playing with us as well. We even played once with them in the meantime and got to know everyone in both bands really well, including Smear Campaigns new bassist Dan (who coindicentally was in a band with Hoser — who we played with — at the Fireside years before!) formerlly of FID. The date was quite anticipated.

Got there early, it was a very nice day out. Sunny and warm, but a bit overcast at times. There was a forecast for rain but it never broke upon us at all on that date. Cactus was no longer playing, but he was the mastermind behind this gig so he was in attendance, swillin’ whiskey from a bottle in the back of Joe from Squared Off’s minivan. He offered it to me a few times but I declined. I drank 2 Cokes before I left, then had a Red Bull and a Mountain Dew Live Wire Slushie before the gig.

Bill Knobs and Andrew from the Powerknobs (here with Cactus), with some other people they brought along showed up which was great. Matt had printed up some great fucking WFTN Radioflyers which were double sided and full color, beautifully done, which even has an awesome blurb about us (with all the other WFTN bands) in it. PVC and his lady showed up, much support there thankfully. I just found out because I am oblivious obviously that Rhyno is a fireman, so he busted out the full mask and helmet for me to wear and amuse everyone. Just like they say, you don’t want to know all the crazy shit a fireman has to wear and how much it weighs.

The lineup was getting changed real fast — Squared Off and us had flipped a coin to see who would play 3rd or 4th. I won the toss with Hoser and we got 3rd. Then due to some nonsense, we were moved back to last. That sucked big time. And somehow Squared Off went from 4th to 1st then.

Squared Off was awesome as always, tore thru a great set with FID, Minor Threat (w. Joe singing!) and Fugazi. I had never heard the Fugazi song before I saw them play it first (at a previous gig). It seemed like this time they played it and it was even tighter. Next up was The Amazing Interceptors. They were a 4 piece with 2 guitars, both guitarists singing. The vocals weren’t really delivered with any force behind them but they had interesting, chaotic 2 guitar attack, lots of textures and different tempos. They were clicking their pedals and footswitches all the time too. Their drummer wore no shirt and was all built. He also wore a tight backwards cap and drumming gloves. He actually did look like he was holding back then to crack a stick right thru those skins. The bassist had a nice Fender Jazz Bass and looked like Dave Guerin (owner of Melrose Park Cock Robin) a bit. He was active on the bass as well and had excellent tone.

Next up was Lacquer. I saw them play with Squared Off and Smear Campaign (as they had many times before in the past) the week previous at Brauerhouse. They are a 4 piece with 1 guitar and a singer. The singer wears some wild outfits and plenty of makeup and even has a DigiTech footpedal board for the vocals. The guitarist name is Mike but looks like a chick, even more makeup on and a big hollow body guitar. The bassist is Lisa, Cactus Matt’s girlfriend. The drummer Brian is by far the most normal, talked to him for a while, he carries his drum stands in a big bed comforter.

By this time I was getting quite anxious and not wanting to talk to anyone. People say I act like a dick when I get this way, but I just don’t want to talk to anyone. I try not to hang around people in that situation because I might snap at them, so I just try to sit alone and stare at the walls. I’m getting a little angry thinking about that feeling now, how you feel when you have to wait 3 or 4 hours to play. I know people will say I’m a pussy or a rock star or any of a number of other things. But here’s the thing, you fuckin’ haters (shaking fist at imaginary people): I don’t drink 5 cases of beer before I play like you fuckhead. And as a result I make you look bad again and again. I thrash until my body is limp and devoid of strength. I swear about a gallon and soak a towel. I try to swing my arm to hit the guitar from as far as I can reach toward the ceiling. So that’s why the fuck I don’t like to wait.

Finally got up there. Hilger was daring enough to bust out his wireless system which often has failed at shows and forced him to use a cord. But I will say, when it works (as it did at this show luckily) it kicks ass. The thing seems to be able to go about 1000 feet, this place is a gigantic room, he was way back in the other end of it and I never even noticed he was gone. The bass was clear as a whistle.

We opened with the message board contest winner song pick from Rhyno — “Attitude” by the Misfits, then went into Squared Off’s ‘My Turn’, it was great seeing the look on their faces for that one. Hoser ran on stage and sang the whole thing, with Matt, Rhyno and Joe yelling into my mic. We played it flawlessly depite what Hilger will tell you. We ended up hooking up Squared Off with more shirts and they were all wearing em like our #1 fan club, thanx guys.

We tore through our songs and it was pretty damned hot in there. I was swiggin’ on some water and drying my head with the magic towel every song and those 2 things make me feel fucking great. If I was a big rock star, all I would ask is that I have a stack of 4 or 5 white towels, neatly folded and maybe 2 cold and 2 room temperature bottles of Evian. And a free ball of coke everyday. And 5 whores. And a deep freeze on the bus full of Colt 45 and Schlitz Blue Bull. And a few Olde English too. And a Mexican chef to cook me shit every day. And an Italian Chef too. That should do it. I think.

After the show as always my mood changed 180 degrees and I was relaxed and smiliing like a motherfucker. Playing a show can only provide that feeling. I could care less about a crowd. I just want to play in front of other bands, that’s obviously enough for me. Rhyno recommended we go to Brauerhouse and get drunk but Rob was gracious enough to proivde the use of the pool for the 2 bands, it was fucking awesome. On the way home I hit, in order, all on North Ave. from West to East:

1) TCF bank — free ATM — $40 withdrawl
2) Taco Bell — ordered 1 7-layer and 1 chicken burrito. I believe they were both bean burritos. Bad times there.
3) Liquor Brokers — the greatest liquor store in the fucking land. My #1 40 spot. They Carry:
a. Colt 45
b. Blue Bull
c. OE
d. St. Ides
e. Steel Reserve 16-oz 4pack

Copped 1 Blue Bull and 1 Colt 45. Ate my Taco Bell in the Liqour brokers parking lot. I was rushing cause I get bad party anxiety (among other anxieties). This is where I’m going to a party and I get scared its going to get rowdy and I’ll miss it or arrive at a bad time. As a result, I often show up to parties way too early or start speeding on the way there for no reason. I chowed my nasty T-Bell and cleaned the beans off my body, and copped my 40s. Went home, thru the 40s in the fridge, jumped in teh shower, dumped dirty show towels and shirts in the hamper. I was only taking a quick shower like when you go to the pool, like where they make the brothas wash out their afro-sheen so the filters dont get clogged. I threw on my new Polo bathing suit and a Polo robe Tony Soprano style, sandals and the big blue cricket hat. I walked up to everyone but Hilger with 2 40s in my hands. Now thats a true playboy. I offered Joe a 40 and he took the Blue Bull. I swilled the Colt and we went in the pool. Burned some shit when Hilger got there. Drank some more Miller Lites after that, got home at about 4 AM, updated the site, then crashed till 1 the next day. I got up, took a shit, piss, blew a ton of snots out of my nose and slept on the futon (change of venue always works) with the AC and fan blowing on me hardcore under 2 blankets, slept till 5 PM. Scored Ceasars 3 steak tacos right away and now its 324 am the next day. Ive got a OE in the fridge Im about to get into and some other things I just bought that im ‘consuming’ now.

The show was a success, needless to say.

–bigbossman

peep the pics from the afterparty….

Show #52: US Beer Company ‘Mob Fest’, Chicago

GET THE LIVE RECORDING HERE

What is MOBFest? Not sure that I know myself. Something along these lines: for a fee (aroudn $50 as I understand it), you submit your demo and some big time record exec’s listen to it and then come to see you play at MOB Fest sposored show, which occur for 2 or 3 night around the city. Approximately 10 clubs a night participate in this event. I think that its largely a joke, I’m sure that no bands get ‘signed’ as a result of this, its just another sick excuse to ‘pay to play’. US Beer Co from our previous experience there is a shady club, at least as far as the way its run. The 1st time we played there, they had only Bud Light and Budweiser available. When I asked why, the bartenders told me something about the owner being distrustful of distributors and their alleged ‘scams’. They had run out of booze and beer at a recent previous show and had not re-copped shit because of the lack of convienent availability. Now this to me signifies a fucked up type of management. So MOB Fest was being hosted at the US Beer Co that night. There were 8 MOBFest bands booked I believe, they were scheduled to play on the upstairs main stage. We (with 6 other bands) were set to play on the downstairs stage simaltenously. We technically had nothing to do with MOBFest, although since we would be playing in the same club with record exec’s in the crowd, wouldn’t we as well have a chance of getting ‘noticed’?(Plus we didnt’ have to pay some bullshit fee) Ironically, we would end up having even more exposure then the basement stage, but I’ll get to that…. Hilger and I arrived around 5:30 pm as planned. Rob said he would be there closer to 7. No worries since according to the (broke-ass) website of the club, we were scheduled to play at 9:30. Ratbag Hero was the band that originally got us the show, but they had canceled. Shooting Blanks had been booked at the last second (day before), and our old friends Last Man Out as well as club promoter Andy and his band The Symptoms were scheduled, so I was excited. It seemed that we were there excessively early, but this was the time Andy had told me to be there.

So we chilled and bided our time. A crowd started to filter in as well as some of the other bands. Shooting Blanks arrived and we had them store their gear with ours. We started drinking and everything seemed well. It was however, not the case….

As we mulled about in the basement area, I was talking to Andy and trying to find out our slot and what time we would be going on. Just then I watched his face freeze up and I turned to see what he was so shocked at. Two cops, in plain clothes but with holstered weapons out (one even had a bulletproof vest on) came down and started looking around. I didn’t know why there were there but figured it couldn’t have been good. Just a few nights ago, the place got shit down a bit early due to noise complaints.

Rob arrived but we were told not to load in any more gear. We were told that the owner was talking with the cops. No one knew what was going on but it was beginning to look like the basement bands were going to get canceled. Just then Andy popped up and hit me with the news. The owner had been cited for not having proper permits and tax shit since he techically had 2 clubs/shows going on, they didn’t want the basement show to go on. Andy’s solution was to set up the basement acts on the floor in front of the MOBFest bands big stage upstairs (thus putting all the bands on the same floor). We would only get to play for 15 min. each, in the intermission between bands on the big stage, while the next band set up. We set up 2 guitar rigs, a bass rig and a drum set for everyone to use to minimize set up times. This situation was definately fucked but thanks to Andy’s smarts and unwillingness to let the show get canceled, it looked like it was going to happen.

Yer Mothers Lovers was the 1st band of the night, they were one of the MOBFest bands. Hilger’s original band Socially Unacceptable had played with these guys back in the day and Hilger and met one of the members even previous to that while standing in line for Primus tickets. Then they opened for the Powerknobs not a week before this night, I missed their set though. They were awesome and rocked hard. Their song ‘Satan and Lucifer’ is, to say the least, right up my alley.

The the 1st basement band, Last Man Out took the stage (or the area in front of it). This was our 3rd time playing with them — in 3 different venues, all 3 times booked together by chance. This was the 1st time I really partied with the members and watched them closely, and discovered a new found respect for them. This band is awesome, can’t say enough good things about them. Due to the cramped arrangements, at one point a cymbal stand fell over. Someone picked it right back up but myteriouslly the bass rig died at that same moment. Luckily it was in the closing seconds of their last song so it didn’t matter. Upon investigating further after the set, we found that the edge of the cymbal had falled perfectly and chopped the bassists cord right in half, perfectly clean. Now that was fucked.

Shooting Blanks was the next ‘basement’ band to play. Matt somehow broke his strap right before they played while tuning up in the backroom. He has some kind of weird strap locks so Hilger (who also has strap locks) couldnt even loan him a strap. I just said fuck it at that point, and told him to use my guitar. He beat the shit out of it but it survived and somehow stayed almost completely in tune.

After them was some country music sensation: a 16-year old prodigy. Her set seemed to go on forever. Finally we took our ‘stage’.

Our set was:

Grudge
Excited to Die
Hot Mom
Spreading Yourself Thin (Pie in the Sky)
Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash)

It was a total success and went off without a hitch. We really went all out and went insane considering how short our set was. It felt really good. We gave out a bunch of stickers and shirts in the chaos after the set and got a good response from people.

The Symptoms were the next basement band and they fucking rocked once again. They have elements of weird guitar lead and vocals over it like Fugazi, but they also play fast straight forward punk shit at times too. Andy has an octave pedal that he uses constantly, clicking it on and off — he plays more lead and riffs then chords. They are great.

I stayed a while later and then busted out, I was drunk and still nursing a mysterious fever I had taken on the night before, which still sticks with me even as I type this the next day. Its just enough to feel weird and uncomfortable. Wish it would go the fuck away.

I’ll never play US Beer Co again unless its under new management. I would beef with the cops but they were probably just busting this guys balls cause they dont like him, and it would seem like he would deserve it. Much props to Andy for always being optimistic and knowing that the show must go on. Big up to Shooting Blanks and Last Man Out, 2 dead serious bands that have been doing their thing for years. Can’t wait to play with either of them again.

Show #51: Mutiny, Chicago

I want to take this moment to talk about some motherfuckers that are homophobic. Because I have found myself over the years doing a lot of hugging at good shows. Last night I hugged:

Charles from Ratbag Hero (more than once)
Weber from Ratbag Hero
Deech from Shooting Blanks
John from Shooting Blanks

It was just that kind of show. This is an envionrment where you are giving your all and exposing yourself to everyone there. At least for me thats how it is, its fucking personal when I take the stage. Well anyways, here the story…

Matt from Shooting Blanks offered me the show months in advance. I later found out that Parr-5, Ratbag Hero and Shooting Blanks have had shows together at the Mutiny before, those 3 bands then they get a 4th ‘oddball’ band to laugh at and make fun of. No just kidding. But they do get different 4th bands and we were it. From previous experience of playing at the Mutiny, I left real fucking early to get a good parking spot (which I did, right in front). I sat down at the bar and slammed a Heiniken and talked with Ed, the owner, for a bit.

Hilger was the 2nd to arrive. We both loaded in all our shit and went on a hunt for something to eat. We found it directly across the street at a place called Sonny’s Pizza. It was kind of weird in there, like someones house in a way, ate some slices which were a little weird as well, but still good. I’ll eat any kind of pizza all fucking day long, I love it all.

We headed back to the club and 2 guys from Parr-5 showed up, they were supplying the PA and started to set that up. Me and Hilger started playing some pool and chillin’ back. More patrons and bands showed up.

The 1st band (Parr-5) was supposed to start at 10:00 pm and they didn’t go on until 10:40. This made me a little mad since we were playing last, tentatively at 1:00 am, and I didn’t want or need that already late hour to be pushed back anymore. Besides, I knew that the longer we waited, Ed would just have to close the bar and then I wouldn’t be able to have any drinks after our set (which is what happened to us last time). Well they finally started.

Andrew and Bill Knobs of the Powerknobs showed up which made me very happy. Bill was sporting the Low Pro708 shirt. Low Profile and the Powerknobs are extremely supportive of each others bands. We have played with the Knobs 4 times and I’ve seen them probably 6 times. Well I think I’ll take a moment here to go off on a tangent and try to list all the gig’s I’ve seen them at:

Rock House Cafe
Wise Fools Pub w/ the Phenoms
A loft/warehouse in Chicago, film benefit
The Lyons Den
Big Wig (got to play guitar on ‘Wild Colonial Boy’, what an honor!)
Prodigal Son (showed up late and missed there whole set, Hilger did the same thing)

Well, back to the show review.

So one of the cool things about the Mutiny is its jukebox which contains not one but 2 Motley Crue albums. Hilger is a deep Motley Crue fan, hes gotten me into them as well. Well at this show we learned of the origins of those CD’s getting into said jukebox. We had already fed the bitch and played a bunch of Crue. Suddenly, a wild looking cat came out of the backroom. He saw our appreciation for the Crue and fired in some more dollars to the box for even more Crue. He even asked Hilger and me what we wanted to hear. He identified himself as Kurt, a sometime bartender there and he said the Crue CD’s were from his personal collection, he had actually put them in the jukebox himself. We started talking about Crue and whatnot and I was like, “Hey dude, This guy[pointing to Hilger] plays the motherfuckin’ Nikki Sixx Blackbird”. His jaw dropped and he wanted to see and play the thing really fucking bad. Eventually Hilger busted it out for him and let him play plugged in later right before our set. He was in heaven. I can’t blame him, that bass really is fucking awesome.

The infamous tamale man showed up hawking his homemade tamales and either he had a partner or some competition cause there was another dude selling tamales also.

Well back to the show. So Parr-5 went on quite a bit later then they should have, they played and it wasn’t very memorable. One sentance is all they get in this review.

Ratbag Hero was next. I was very eager to see these guys after meeting Weber and Charles at Big Wig and e-mailing with Weber a few times also. These guys are madmen: they play all over constantly, and have their hands in everything. They recently started a label and are putting out comps now too. They complained to me that they weren’t happy with their set but it seemed OK.

Then Shooting Blanks. By now I had been at the club for almost 5 hours and was real sick of waiting. I went outside and changed and grabbed my towel. I threw in some ear plugs and chilled, waiting for Shooting Blanks to finish. These guys are rock stars. Matt seemed to be pretty tanked up on alcohol before the show but he played flawlessly anyways, his whole band was great and rocked the stage hard. They were even better then the 1st time I saw em. And what a great bunch of guys! All friendly and cool. They played their rendition of ‘Home Sweet Home’ for all the Crue fans around, which there seemed to be many. There was some other dude there playing pool who was singing Crue like mad when we first got there and he also admitted his love for the band.

Well We finally got on stage at 1 something. We opened with ‘HAte’ for shock value but Shooting Blanks huge crowd and tons of hot bitches that came to see them were fucking gone, despite Matt’s many, many requests during his set to ‘stick around for Low Profile, coming up next!’. Just like Hilger had at US Beer Company, I broke a fucking string within 10 seconds of our first song. I busted into my backup and was worried that it would fail me as well, but it actually did great. It seemed to get fucking hot in there, I was chugging water. Dont’ remember much about the set as usual but it seemed to go well. I threw in ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ after playing 1 too many hardcore songs which seemed to have our small crown very confused and disinterested. As it always does, everyone loved that song.

So we actually got done early enough to slam 2 redbull-vodkas and chill a little while. My girlfriend Jessica showed up even though I originally thought she wasn’t going to. She took some great pics of us playing.

Now I have to get into the bassist for Ratbag Hero. For any members of that band, I hope you realize my love and respect for you all. But I have to get into this bullshit right about now. I had my 2 guitars and amp chillin and I was sipping my drink and trying to relax after the show. The bassist from RAtbag Hero comes up and starts poking around at my guitars, like hes about to carry one away. I just watched him for a minute, then I was like ‘Whats up dude? where you going with that?’. I tried to say it in an almost joking way. He gave me a real hard look then and mumbled something and walked away. I’m thinking, what the fuck is this about? So I walked up to him and asked ‘are you looking for a guitar?’ and he admitted he was. I started to help him look but just then Charles walked up and said that he had already loaded his bass, so all was well.

So this bassist has been unfriendly and even a bit rude at this point. Unlike Weber and Charles who are extremely nice and everything. Then he really gets hardcore. I’m standing there with Hilger, Jessica and some others. So Ratbag Hero is leaving, their driver Charles told me he had to work an 18 hour shift on Sunday (ouch!) so he was eager to leave, it was like 215 am anyways. So this bassist then goes and starts motioning like he wants a hug from my girlfriend.

Time for another tangent: Some guys would step in right now and get all jealous or whatever. First of all, I trust my girlfriend and I’m standing right there anyways. But I’m more curious at that point, like what the fuck is this all about? Did they become quick friends at some point during the night? What’s the deal? I’m eager to know. So I lounged back in my chair and played it cool and sipped my drink. I could tell that even Jessica was a bit confused by this fellows advances but eventually gave him a half hearted hug. Within the next 5 minutes I watched him massaging some chicks neck. I didn’t know her so I thought nothing of it. But the very drunk Weber was like, “Hey man, what the fuck is that all about?” I watched and listened on, I guess that Weber knew that chick and knew she was unavailable or something, to the effect that it was a waste of time to be massaging on this chick. In another minute, I watched this dude actaully accost one of the bartenders (the nastier of the 2, the other was the very fine Rhonda(here with Hilger)), but like grabbing her in some kind of bear hug. Weber laughed at this also and Charles said that This guy has a problem with this shit, that hes always hitting on odd chicks all crazy like that, that a couple times hes had to stop him cause he would be hitting on friends girlfriends and shit like that.

All I can say is that if you’re going to pull manuvers and shit like that, get some game. And I wasn’t trying to be a dick dude, when I asked about the missing guitar. I tried a couple times to crack stupid jokes with this guy to lighten the mood and he looked at me like I was speaking LAtin. I have no idea what his problem is, but he may want to consider being nicer to people like me, who are just looking for a little bit of band camaraderie. On the other hand, you’ve got Charles, who me and him are fucking embracing and shit, and giving each other props and showing some real band love. When this bassist first got to the club I pointed to my Sox hat when I saw he had a Sox jacket on. I wore that Sox hat on purpose cause Ratbag Hero is from the southside. I don’t know shit about baseball, I just wanted to represent and show that I am down with them. Again, he just mumbled something and walked away. I don’t know what the deal is with this fellow, but its his loss, not to just have a good time and chill, rather then being a jerk and hitting on all the chicks in the place with no regard for who they are with or anything.

Enough about that. This show was a fucknig success. Shooting Blanks I am in awe of. MAtt Blanks is the fucking man. Im am much obliged to these bands for having Low Profile out. We have alot of love for all these bands and mad respect. Thank you for having us, hope I can return the favor one day.

Low Profile live at the Mutiny
Saturday May 31st, 2003
with Shooting Blanks, Ratbag Hero and Parr-5

So we practiced like normal on this day at noon. Then I went and chowed a late breakfast after practice and went home and chilled. Watched Chinese Connection. I left for the Mutiny around 7:20. I got prime parking right in front of the place. Perfect.
So I go in and the Bossman is sittin at the bar. I load in and then help him load in. He says he’s hungry so we go out to walk around and find something to eat. He says that he wants a piece pizza and I look across the street and there is a place with a sign in the window ‘Slices’. So we go chow at that place. Good pizza. Kinda different. Very crunchy. And we got to watch the Spanish channel.
We were laughing at some crazy shit they were doin.
So all the bands arrive and load in. We chill and talk to the guys from Shooting Blanks and Ratbag. We didn’t know Parr-5 at all but they were all very cool guys. Andrew and Bill from the Powerknobs showed up. Much love guys. Glad u came and got drunk with us. Jessica showed up too. Supportin the RG, the 708!
Bossman and I played some pool and bullied the jukebox for a while. I was playing some Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, Scorpions, Motley Crue, Halen, and Alice Cooper. Then we met this dude who worked there who had jet black ratted out hair and looked like Nikki Sixx. He was awesome. He busted out his bass which he had in the back room. It was pretty awesome. Then I had to bust out my Nikki Blackbird bass and let him jam on it. It made his day. He was so thrilled I let him play it. Then while we were setting up, we were standing around and I let him play it outta the big ass amp. He jammed the bass to Too Fast For Love by the Crue. What a guy. He ended up playing the whole Shout at the Devil album and a bunch of songs off of the Too Fast For Love album on the jukebox. Awesome guy. I was calling him Nikki all night. He told me his name but I quickly forgot.
Rhonda the hot bartender with the huge tits was great too. Lookin so fine in the tight pants and hot pink furry top. I was luvin it. It was such a friendly atmosphere. Ed, the owner is great. Lets u do your thing and just wants everyone to have fun.
So Parr-5 take a while setting up and doing soundcheck. Bossman is real anxious to get the show started so we don’t end up goin on at 2am or later and get cut off cuz of close. It was hard to be patient. It sucks waiting thru bands but these bands were good so that made it a lil better.
They play their set. Very good pop punk. Very melodic vocals. Lots of backups. They were tight fo sho.
Ratbag Hero r up next. They rocked a lil harder. Also very tight. A great bunch of guys. Charles does sound and runs the punk rock night Sundays at Bigwig and had to work the next day so he was having trouble getting the boys out of the club at around close cuz he had to be up early for work. Hope he made it okay.
Shooting Blanks played next. They rocked the house. Matt was throwing shapes and getting crazy ripping on his axe. Dan is the shit. John tears it up and falls all over the place. And fuckin Deech man, u rock dude. These guys r great. They played a shorter set to please us. It was alright by that time. We were real anxious to play and didn’t really wanna play last but it all worked out fine. They played Silly Goose when someone called it out. They played She Luvs Me Cuz I Rock, Sheila and Ignore Me. I recognized all those. They ended with Home Sweet Home and me and Nikki ran up to sing back ups. Well, I sang back ups and Nikki took over and pretty much sang the whole song. It was awesome.
So we played last. It was past 1 at this point I’m sure. Or actually, I’m not sure what fuckin time it was. We were all a bit out of it. Such a long fuckin day. So crazy to be playin a hardcore set at 1 in the morning. I used the bassists amp from Ratbag Hero. Thanks dude, sounded great. That thing was huge. Bossman used his own amp. So our set was something like this:

Hate
Figure It Out
Grudge
En Guarde
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by Johnny Cash)
Coming Down
Breakin The Law (originally by Judas Priest)
Carl Panzram
Mr Pig (for Jessica)
Spinal Remains (originally by the Misfits)
King of the Hill
Wild Colonial Boy (originally by the Powerknobs) for Andrew and Bill

So the Bossman breaks a string within 30 seconds of the first song. The same thing that happened to me at US Beer Co. So he busts out the Kramer and uses that for the rest of the show but we were a lil worried cuz that guitar is known to break strings very easily and isn’t too great of a backup but it had no issues. And I wore pants to this show which was a mistake. All day was windy and shitty out. I should have brought shorts and changed into them. The weird thing is, I wore pants the first time we played here too. I don’t do that too often.
We added all the covers into the set. Had to play Wild Colonial Boy for the Powerknobs. We heard Andrew call it out so we played that shit for them. And since Jessica called out Mr. Pig, we played it. We were throwing shapes and getting rowdy. A few people sang along to Breakin the Law. It was a fun and tiring set. We were all soaked in sweat and totally beat. Bossman collapsed on the floor afterwards. We hung out for a while afterwards. Just sat and chilled. Tried to calm down. Took our time loading out. Ed was in no rush to kick us out.
So we said our goodbyes and headed on our way. Our set was tight as fuck. We had a lot of fun. Everyone got a long and it was a nice, friendly atmosphere. Gotta luv that. And such a great jukebox. So thanks to Shooting Blanks for offering us the show. We’ll do it again anytime.

-ERIK

Show #50: Brauerhouse, Hillside

Steve Brauer contacted me out of nowhere a long time ago. I didn’t even know who he was or what his club was. I blew it off and never responded and then he started doing the same thing again a while back. I contacted him back and he eventually gave me a date without even hearing our shit. The day before the show I’m hearing from everyone that we need to bring our own PA and there is not going to be any real sound at all. A couple problems with this, first of all, I need to be told of this in advnace. Second of all, if I bring shit then I know another band is going to want to use it and thats how my shit gets stolen, broken or lost. Well we got there and it was typical. I parked and saw a bunch of dudes in a circle in the parking lot. I knew they had to be one of the other bands. I approached them all crazy and said whats the deal with the sound. They told me there was some house sound, 2 large PA speakers. They just wanted to use my PA speakers for monitors and said they had a PA head that could power all of them. so i gave him the speakers and figured, nice, minimal committment. the dude said he would hook it all up and take care of everything. this is john, the singer for exit 31 by the way.

now i have to get deep. everywhere i go, all i ever hear is ‘williams, fix it’. i have to repair all the shit in the world it seems like. john and one of the guitarists from exit 31 were having some issues, they could only get 1 house speaker and 1 monitor working at once (and strangely enough, they were opposite sides working at the same time like right house and left monitor or vice versa). so then i looked at the set up and just said, everyone step aside. heres what i did.

i took all 3 mics (all 3 bands only needed 2 mics but johns idea (and not a bad one) was to mic the burbanks guitar amp since it was small) and hooked them into my PA head which i got from the ride. i hooked my PA speakers up to the head. then i took the line out of my head and put it into a channel (#10 if you give a fuck, i dont) and used that 2nd PA head to power the house speakers. this PA system worked great. no problems at all.

so me and hilger were there and john from exit 31 said he wanted to play 2nd. i had no problem with that and figured we had a chance to play first which is always prefered so i can get drunk as fuck and not worry about passing out and sucking on stage. we were stressing for rob to get there quick and set up before the burbanks did but the next thing i know they somehow very quickly set up and it was too late. heres the crazy part: me and hilger had been peeping this hot chick walking around with a short skirt and some high fucking socks. and you all should know that that is mine and hilgers fetish. we are always scoping for the tall socks as we call them. well what the fuck, that chick is the drummer for the burbanks! i did know they had a chick drummer but i didnt know she was it.

so me and hilger sparked up a game of pool and i bought a pack of newports in full party mode. i was really getting wild. i went to the bar and it was disgusting how this place had way more and better beers then the US beer company where we had played 2 nights before. i got a labatt blue and was living large. everyone was showing up: Cactus Matt, Hilger and the ladies, paul from smear camp, paul and cactus matt from smear camp hoser and joe, and rhyno from squared off.

so they played a quick set, they didnt fuck around and talk too long or anything or bullshit around, i definately have to show love for that. exit 31 got up there and they had tons of expensive equipment. me and hilger thought their singer was blowing lines in the bathroom but it was some kind of weird nose spray. he pulled a panty hose over his head and went crazy up there. both guitarists were working with the jacksons which you know i have mad love for. john told me his/their biggest influence was faith no more but they are way too heavy for that shit.

so ive been getting alot better about being anxious before shows. it used to crush me for many hours even before i left for the club. i honestly believe it because i started drinking a few before the show…only problem with that being like i said before, when you play last. but with this show it was a bit different. i was feeling good but exit 31 had the long epic metal songs, like 5 minutes each and they played mad songs for like an hour. plus i was sitting by the PA and shit the whole time to make sure it didnt fuck up so i had to watch them up close. i started getting anxious but like the old anxiety that didnt seem to have a particular cause, this was clearly because this band was evil and heavy and i take that as a threat, i have to take the stage and try to scare the audience more.

the DJ, his name is DJ Mugotu all night had been spinning lots of good tunes, played a bunch of old and new Misfits. he was crazy, smoking a big cigar in the DJ booth. i told him that we would play a misfits song for him and that we knew a million so what did he want to hear. of course he picks some real obscure ones, ‘theme for a jackyl’ and ‘walk among us’…finally i said, how about ‘vampira’. so we added that to our list and opened with it. the set was feeling alot better then US beer, even though i was getting real tired i felt alot better then i did there. we played our whole set and thru in chrimshrine ‘summertime’ for cactus matt. hilger was playing in just his underwear at this point and told matt to pull down his pants and we would play it. so i start with the guitar, im dragging it out and rob and hilger and just waiting for my cue. matt drops trou and even whipped out his dick and put it on my guitar. i later found out that no one else really saw that but me. at the end they yelled for more so we played that #1 crowd favorite, ‘folsom prison blues’ by johnny cash (RIP june carter). that still wasnt enough and hilger called out ‘solitaire’. as if on cue, me and rob yelled ‘no!’ at the same exact time back to him. i then recommended more misfits, so we played ghouls night out and horror hotel. i had no air whatsoever for that last one and i kept motioning rhyno from squared off to come and sing it into the mic as he was singing the words already from the audience. i was almost collapsing and pointing to him and then pointing to my mic but he didnt seem to get it. oh well.

everyone loved us and we gave out tons of stickers and cds, even a few shirts. steve brauer and me spoke later and squashed any hard feeling and he bought me a red bull vodka. then a random drunk from the crowd bought me another, then i demanded that my cousins girlfriend buy me yet another. me and john chilled a while and i left when the bar closed at 3 am. snapped a nice pic with myself and the guys from exit 31(except the bassist) and dodged a roadblock on south manheim road. probably wouldnt have gotten a DUI anyways, those 3 drinks must have been all that was not metabolised in my body after 4 hours and sweating balls for 45 minutes. excellent show, a fitting 50th show as well.

–satan165

Low Profile live at Brauerhouse in Hillside
Saturday May 24th.
with the Burbanks and Exit 31

This show was so much fun. I can’t get over it. I’m still feeling it, trust me. Trying to take the whole thing in. It’s all too much.
So this place is kinda weird to find. Or at least is the first time. And my mapquest was fucked up. It told me to turn on N Railroad and that street is a fucking dead end. So whatever, I found it.
So I got there right at 9. Walk in and go right up to Rhyno from Squared Off who is chillin at the bar. I offer to buy him a drink but he is not drinking and still recovering from his b-day. So Happy Birthday my man. I load in and then order a drink. Williams shows up and he loads in. Rob shows up and he loads in. Hoser and Joe from Squared Off showed up. And Hoser hooked us up with their new CD before the CD release show. What an honor. Great job on the CD guys. I listened to it on my way home. Cactus Matt and Paul from Smear Campaign showed up. Cactus Matt is fucking awesome. He made my night a lot funner so thanks Matt. Luv ya brotha.
So we chill. Play some pool. Williams sucks. So do I but I did good my first game and I haven’t played in like a yr. Then Joe kicked my ass. I still had like 5 balls to get in. Oh well. Nikki and Lynn show up. And Lynn is very mean everybody. She bit me and now I have a big bruise on my arm and it fucking hurts bad. I seemed to get many bruises last night and don’t remember any others besides that one. And Lynn kept stealing Rubb A Dubb Doggie from me. U crack whore! j/k.
The Burbanks r set up and gettin ready to start their set. This band was cool. 3 piece with a fine ass drummer chick who wore a lil skirt and some knee high socks so she kept my mouth watering all night. They were very fun and had cool songs. Oh and did I mention that the drummer chick is fucking hot????????? So Exit 31 set up next. They rocked the house for sure. And u know the Bossman got all excited to see both guitarists bust out Jacksons. I heard him from across the room yelling to them about how he plays Jacksons and they r the shit. I was laughing hysterically. They were loud and crazy. The insane singer dude wore a crazy getup but was a true frontman and was very entertaining. Williams was running the sound the whole time. He was having fun with it and he got some great pics.
So we play last. Hoser told us to turn up our amps but our shit isn’t as loud as y’alls shit my man. Sorry. Even if I turn my amp up to 10 it’ll sound like shit. I don’t have an 11. Wish I did. Oh well. We play with the bare necessities.
So Williams recommends we open with a Misfits song cuz the dj was jamming a lot of Fits all night. The DJ recommended we play Theme For a Jackyl but that is a pretty crazy song and we never learned that one. So we decided to open with Vampira. Our set was something like this:

Vampira (originally by the Misfits)
Zamboni
Figure It Out
Summertime (originally by Crimpshrine) for Cactus Matt
Low Pro pt 1
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Pathetic Individuals
Character Profile
In the Zone
Spreading Yourself Thin
King of the Hill
Folsom Prison Blues (originally by the man in black) RIP June
Ghouls Night Out (by the Misfits)
Horror Hotel (by the Misfits)

We added a few songs in there. All of the covers actually. I requested that we play Solitaire somewhere in there and both Rob and Williams yelled “NO” in unison. I was truly outvoted on that one.
It was a lot of fun. I was ruined after our set. And I played in my underwear. Cactus Matt said he’d take his pants off if we played Crimpshrine so we did and I ended up taking my shorts off and playing most of the show in my boxer briefs.
It was a wild set fo sho. After I put most of my shit away, I just had to sit down so I just sat on the floor. But that wasn’t good enough. I had to lay down. So I was laying on the dirty floor in my underwear with my bass case under my head and I got tackled and crushed by a bunch of people. It was fun. Like a big wrestling match. I was so out of it. Spent from the show. Well get this, we played a show on Thursday night, then I went to see Bigwig at Fireside on Friday night, we played again on Saturday night and I’m goin to see Squared Off play tonight. So my ears and voice r pretty ruined. And I didn’t sleep good in days and have partied a lot. Not that I’m complaining. Carpe Diem. Live for the day! Gotta have fun in life, right?
So, much love to everyone there last night. We had a blast and u all made it even more fun. The crazy patrons of the bar who weren’t there to see bands took it all in very well. This one guy was telling me he was 40 and has been playing guitar for 25 yrs really got into us. He walked up to me and says “just call me Jimi” and I was like why? and he went into how he plays guitar and hes so good and he wanted to play the star spangled banner and I told him he should have asked. Bossman would have let him use his guitar for sure to hear that one.
It was great. I listened to the Squared Off Cd on the way home. Thanks for hooking it up Hoser. The whole night was too much fun. If u missed it, u suck. But go to all the other up and coming shows at Braurehouse. This place is fun as hell and cool to play and hang out in. Thats all folks

-ERIK