CHECK OUT THE LIVE RECORDING HERE
Well we played here once before last December. Lyons Den is a nice venue becasue its very loud and has good sound. Last time they recorded us too because they have a cd burner hooked up to the board. Well I was counting on this so I brought another blank CD because getting that recording is very important to me. I got there good and early and loaded in. I approached the sound man and another guy who well call ‘the bouncer’. He even almost looked like the sound mans brother. I asked them about it and they said they couldn’t do it, and to ask Darius why. Darius is a british guy that runs Criminal IQ records and also works for/runs ‘punk rock night’, a promotion company that books friday nights at Lyons Den as well as some other clubs not in Chicago. Darius wassnt there yet but they said he would be soon. In the meantime I was chillin with ‘the bouncer’ and the sound man by the sound booth. ‘The bouncer’ was listening to demos that bands had sent him (they were trying to play weeknights, not on ‘punk rock night’). Now we listened to one band that was some kind of country. Now I’m not too much into country personally. But this guy was basically listening to a demo with me standing there (listening thru the PA) and he was dissing it! Thats very unprofessional. Why would you do this in the 30 min. before a show anyways? Wouldn’t you do this at your house privately? I joked along like ‘yeah….they, like…suck, right?’. I couldnt believe the guy was going to be unprofessional like this and let me, some jerk off he basically didnt know, sit there and rip the bands with him! I was trying to be nice so I could convince them to record me since they had already said they hadnt. This was only the start of the unprofessionalism I would experience that night from many different representatives of the Lyons Den.
Darius then arrived. I asked him why and he explained that another organization called www.destroyyourradio.com was recording the show on DAT for their site. They only had 1 output from the board with which to record. Heres another instance of bad professionalism. Many bands, espically those that have never dealt with people like this, think they are at eveyrones mercy, etc… and try to go along with everything. My point is that I should have my permission asked before you broadcast my music on the net. Let me also now say that I dont give a shit, and dont need to give permission but thats not the point. Other bands would be like ‘free promotion! wow!’ and agree to everything. Well in this game you dont just agree to whatever bullshit you are offered. Anyways, I didn’t want to cause any more waves with anyone and said fine. I was thinking that I didn’t much care if I was broadcast on some website, because obviously this meant waiting weeks to hear it for probably a short amount of time, possibly having the material get ‘lost’…I’m the type of person that wants to get my own hardcopy immediately. By my own plan, I could have the set edited and ready to go on my own site by the end of the next day. I dont trust others with unique copies of this that no one else has. I explained this to Hilger and he echoed my secret sentiments right away. He said fuck that website, tell them you dont care about it and you want a CD. Then I knew I had to do it, since we both agreed.
A note about www.destroyyourradio.com. This is run by the guys from a Downers Grove band called Destroy EVerything. A long time ago I got their cd for free with an order from RElevation Records (they have nothing to do with them). BEing a free CD I didnt care for it, but for whatever reason I actually put it on…and it was really good! I ended up doing some reasearch and couldnt believe when I found out the band was local! I wrote an email to them and corresponded with one of the members and they were really cool. I got my tattoos from a place in Downers Grove and it ended up they not only knew him, but were good friends and had even played gigs at his shop! So nothing I’m saying here is intended in disrepsect for this band. They are a serious band that tours nationally and has been playing for a long time. It seems they even run www.destroyyourradio.com for nothing just as a service to the local scene, and I’ve even checked out the site and its a really cool format and works great, and I heard some good tunes from bands I never heard of which is the whole point. I dont like how this was presented to me as if I am expected to OK any possibly involvement with audio recordings of my group. We are not a band in the race for maximum exposure expecting 100 people to buy our albums. I personally dont give a fuck for that whatsoever. The people that are going to come to a Low Profile show or buy an album are going to do so because of direct or indirect involvement with members of the band personally. I have learned this over a 6 year period of recording and playing shows with the group. I am not one to count out promotion out of some ‘principle’ or anything like that either however. I respect these guys because of a body of work that I have seen to be professional and quality in nature. Also my own limited personal encounters with the band members. The bottom line is that a) I should be asked before having my recordings shipped off for some website, b) My first priority is with my own hardcopy of the music. I know personally that a number of bands slated to be played on the site are unaware of this entirely. Im not saying this as a threat, but you would think that people would take more precautions then to broadcast copywritten matierial without expressed written consent or at least verbal acknowledgement. The band themselves may have little to nothing to do with any of that and I dont claim they do. I’m not going to take ‘no’ for an answer when I’m told I cant be recorded for myself but can be recorded for someone else. In the end my persistance and willingness to be threatend and berated worked out and I pulled it off.
So I approached Darius about it again. Now I was getting annoying but figured it was worth it for the CD. We’ve played many many shows and dont get recorded regularly. Since I knew they had the capacity to do it, I can’t pass it up. I told him I didn’t care about the website and wanted my own CD still. I admit I was taking it a bit far but in retrospect it was well worth it since I got what I wanted. I had to pay a bit of a price for it but that price was small overall. Anyways, me and Darius were standing next to the sound booth and he finally agreed and told the sound man to disconnect the DAT and just CD-R us. The sound man agreed. Darius was getting pissed at me now because he said he had to run out before the show started (when he would return) and also that he had just come from a funeral. Well he told the sound man to do what I wanted and then left the club. As soon as he was out of eyesight/earshot, the sound man went into an extended rant on me personally and how i was a ‘dick’ and ‘this is bullshit.’
Time to sidetrack about sound men. I work for the phone company. I am part of the IBEW which is a global union. I’m not saying I work hard but its what I consider to be a ‘legit’ job. Who am I to decide? Fuck you! You must be a sound man. Rob is a graphic designer. Hilger makes/installs conveyer belts. These are ‘real’ jobs. I’m sure many of you reading this have ‘real’ jobs. BEING A SOUND MAN IS NOT A ‘REAL’ OR ‘LEGIT’ JOB!. Getting to hang out in a club and listen to punk rock and get paid is cake. I dont want to hear you bitch or moan ever. Also, I have a degree in sound engineering. This is a bachelor of arts that qualifies me to do similar work. So I know quite well (or good enough at least) the ins and outs,e tc…. My fucking point is that this guy was super put out to have to do something he didnt’ want to do (though his boss (Darius) told him to) and now I was the scapegoat. He was making like his fucking job was terrible and whatnot. My brother is also in the IBEW — he works for ComEd and reads meters. He was to walk almost 20 miles a day sometimes. Also in the freezing cold of winter. Now THATS a hard job. When you can drink beers at work and get paid in cash, this is not a REAL job. I dont have pity for how hard you work. I just dont give a fuck.
Well this asshole starts going off on me becasue I had pestered Darius to do what I wanted and now he had to do it. I told him that I had been cordial with him the whole time and there was no reason to call me a dick or anything else. He told me how ‘it was a free country, and thats the reality of it!’. I explained that while I could call everyone a dick, sometimes I choose not to because it serves no purpose, and you dont have to be that way with everyone you meet when its unwarranted. I made the mistake of using an analogy that ‘you dont have to call everyone, or you friends or someone you want to be friendly with, names for no reason’. He told me that ‘we arent friends!’. Listen, I’ve punched many people in the mouth for different things and I’ve been punched and kicked and choked for many more reasons. I’ve been called worse and I’ve done worse then discuss it with people that werent nice to me. I dont mean that to brag, I’m just saying that asking why he was being so mean isnt my usual plan of attack. BUt I was really shocked at how pissed he was about unplugging the DAT and plugging in the cd burner for our set. I couldnt conjure up any anger, I was really confused by his wild name calling,etc… I eventually just handed him the blank CD and left him the fuck alone with his bitterness.
Well I had enough of him and walked away. I lounged around before the show and tried to forget about it. I had a few drinks and then the first band started. They were called Remember the Tiger Tales. They had 2 guitars and 1 was the singer. They were total garbage. They played like they didnt give a fuck and it sounded that way. They were using clean guitar tones and it sounded like shit. I can listen to lots of noisy bands, etc… but this was trash and they knew it. They knew they sucked and they were obviously trying to play off of it like it was their gimmick. I listened to 1 1/2 songs and went back to the bar.
Hilger had seen this Misfits cover band called Last Caress over the summer. I had also heard their name around everywhere and Hilger said the show was great. Well some dude came up to us in the bar and gave us flyers for a Last CAress show at Cals. I am pretty obessed with the Misfits and weve been known to play upwards of 10 covers at certain drunken shows. So this guy said his name was Scott and he was the singer. The thought immeidatley came to mind — I was just meeting this guy right there — to have him come up and sing with us on a cover. We told him we would suprise him and he agreed. He was a really nice guy and it was an exciting prospect.
Well we went on 2nd. The set was fucking flawless if I dont say so myself. WE busted out some obscure older songs that had never been recorded live before. We played ‘Astro Zombies’ with Scott from Last Caress 2nd to last and the crowd fucking dug it big time. He was definately right on. After the show he had the balls to tell me that we could have ‘been more creative’ with our song choice. I like that kind of a challenge and next time I’m going to learn a super rare obscure song to challenge him back. This guy is a master musician. Last, we covered a Smear Campaign song ‘Hulk for PResident’. This was our 2nd show with Smear Camp, we met them about exactly a year earlier when booked with them at the Fireside. As many people know, we have a thing for covering our friends bands songs and playing them live when booked with them. ITs always a huge surprise and they freak out and its really fun. We rehersed this one for weeks in advance and I called Matt on stage and he sang it, fucking priceless.
This leads to yet another beef that was created that night. Before the 1st band played, someone put up these huge paper posters which were blown up photos of a band rehersing all over the stage. They were on every monitor and like 3 on each mic stand. I assumed they were some shit for the 1st band but started to wonder. They were like silly poses and stuff. I thought about it for like 10 seconds then decided I would not play with this bullshit representing me. We play pretty serious music and I’m espically serious person (musically at least). My words are important to me and I’m not trying to project somekind of joking bullshit ass music. I violently ripped the posters down and threw them on the ground below.
While we played our set I had a first. I actually got bottles thrown at me. Once again the Lyons Den security was completely lacking here. The bottles continued without stopping thru the set. My hair mostly blocks my vision when I play and I cant see the crowd so well. One bottle hit me in the shoulder. One whizzed by my head I was told and at least 1 more hit the stage in front of me. They werent throwing bottles at low profile, they were throwing them at satan165. Thats understandable, since I shake shit up like a rock tumbler. I am a true fucking revolutionary. Im among the elite dynamic musicians you have ever seen. I would be salty too if I was upstaged by a wild and awesome musician. Near the end of the set I addressed it on the mic and said that they throw terribly and called them ‘bitch ass tricks’. You can DL the recording and hear for yourself. Strangely the bottles stopped after that. Funny that no one approached me to knock me out after the gig, looks like its easier to throw bottles at someone who is not paying attention then punch a dude out that you dont like when hes in front of your face. Fucking fags. IF youre reading this why dont you fuck yourself in the ass. Pussy ass bitches.
After the show I was handing out free CDs like always. One guy was giving me some props and I gave him a CD. Then he said how he was friends with teh 4th band and why did I rip those posters down. I saw the possibility of getting rolled on right there and broke out back with a posse by the bar.
So far, Ive annoyed Darius, had the sound man call me a ‘dick’, had bottles thrown at me and had this guy almost threaten me as well for ripping down those gay posters. Well I wasnt done for the night! Oh no! It keeps on!!!
I had the bright idea to get my own burned cd from the cd player in the sound booth real quick rather then fuck with the asshole sound man again. I looked and seen a cd burner. I know it was because I saw the ‘finalize’ button on it. Now how many cd burners could they possibly have back there? this had to be the one. I hit ‘eject’ and the music playing over the PA inbetween bands stopped. My heart froze and I think I might have audibly said ‘oh fuck’. The sound man whipped around (he was on stage micing shit or whatever for the next band) and he seen me dead on. There was no place to hide. He raced down and came straight at me. He grabbed me by teh shirt and went off with a bunch of what I call ‘big talk’. MEaning that he never did do any of the things he so earnest promised me. Such as: killing me, beating me up, etc… HE said I was a ‘pussy’ and a ‘bitch’. I felt stupid since I did stop the music but didn’t much like this grabbing of my shirt thing. I stuck my face so close to his our noses touches and kept repeating ‘what are you going to do?’. AFter about 3 times he let me go and walked away. Then I hit in a crowd before ‘the bouncer’ bounced me for fucking with gear.
Well then I made my wild appeal to Darius, who had already had enough of me for the night. First I tried to build my own case. I explained how right after he had walked away before the show, the sound man called me a dick and whatnot. He was a little shocked I must say. (He didnt know about me stopping the cd). Then I explained how I was very silly and did a very silly thing with the cd player. But I said how he grabbed me and threatened me. HE said not to worry about that guy and he was a little off kilter. He even recounted a story that I had actually experienced first hand. I saw the Phenoms play at the Lyons Den and the singer John opened the back door during the set and also opened the doors to some cabinets that house the power amps for the PA. He didnt break anything. He didnt touch anything. The sound man flipped out like nothing else and ran full stride with a salty look on his face to the stage like he was going to save the day. Well now I had come clean with Darius so I told him that he would have to get my cd fromthe burner. Now he got pissed. I had literally been bugging him about this for hours and also had made a lot of problems in general about it. HE told me that I was very annoying. I acknowledged him and again politely asked for my cd. He finally got it and I ran and put it in my car. Then I had a good laugh to myself for all teh shit I had gone thru to get it. WEll it sounds awesome and was well worth it. Hey sound man. You are a douche bag. When I am your age (35 approx i would guess) i will own my land in orlando and own my condo nearly as well. I will not be making $50 a night in cash. You are bitter at the world becasue of it and because you watch bands rock out (including me) and you dont get any glory or credit like the bands. I went to school with people like you for 4 years and I know your type inside and out. You also pussied out at the showdown and refused to hit me tho you threatened to. What exactly were you waiting for? Fuck you!!!
Smear campaign played then. They had their old 2nd guitarist Chris back which was awesome. Also they have a new bassist, Dan, that wasnt in the band a year before when we met them. But Ive seen Smear Camp a bunch of times since then and already knew Dan. I even saw a show where Chris played in a on a few songs. But never a full set with the full new lineup. It was remarkable stuff.
Last up was a band called Farkus. I guess this was a ‘reunion’ show. Early in the night we were surpised to see Eorl. Eorl is an old friend who we met at the Fireside a very long time ago. He has come out to a bunch of shows since then. We saw him and I said thanx for coming but he then explained he was there to perform with Farcus. He said he wasnt an original member but would be playing bass tonite. Well in the end I’m not too keen on Farcus. Its hard for me to say that maybe without dissing Eorl but this needs to be said. What you fucking wear on stage and the props you bring up and how much of a mess you make isnt all that cool when your band and your songs are worthless. This band brought a bunch of acoustic guitars and basses which they smashed. The guy that had kind of threatened me for ripping down the posters was wasted and even trying to smash an acoustic bass in the bar area earlier. Again, big ups to Lyons Den secutiry for letting this go on. Luckily the thing was too strong and he didnt break it, but I could imagine spliters of wood coming at my fucking face. This is not the type of thing you should generally allow people to do in your club. Well this band got cut off after like 10 minutes. Partially for smashing shit and partially because it was getting to the end of the night. Which raises another bogus thing about Lyons Den, they close early and kick people out like Nazis. They get hardcore and really run you out quick which sucks. Well this band shattered like 100 bottles on the floor and broke a ton of guitars. The guitars actually looked nice and shit too, I dont understand the whole thing. I would have liked to just take one home, because you see I’m a little strange like that. I have guitars in my house on stands that I actually play, because I like to play guitar and want to improve. I know its a radical idea. They just wasted a bunch of guitars to look cool but I think its pretty fucking lame.
HEres the thing, bands love to throw bottles and wear crazy clothes and break shit etc…Now if you have some good songs that you play properly and all that it can make you cooler. But when you suck and dont care about your songs it makes you lamer. So breaking shit and all these gimmicks are not always the right thing to do. Just some advice to throw out there.
Also showed up was John, once of the Yellow Snowmen. WE have known John for many years from the scene and hes been in a bunch of bands of numerous styles. We played with the Yellow Snowmen back in like 1998 and its good that we still talk with him and hes just a great guy. Hes also friends with Eorl so he had double reason to come out that night and I’m glad he did. HEs a person that I know I can just level with about music or bands or the scene because hes been around as much if not more then me, and hes always cordial and a down to earth person. I was really glad to see him. Here he is with Eorl.
Right before they kicked everyone out, Darius comes up to me and says ‘Theres no money’. I asked him what the fuck he was talking about and he repeated himself — and so did I. Then he explained no bands were going to be paid. Which is a joke since the place was packed and they were charging an outrageous $7 to get in. When I asked further he couldnt explain why. Now weve probably made zero dollars at 80% of shows. But many had a small draw or some other apparent reason why we shouldnt (or the other bands) be paid. They made a lot of money that night and he couldnt explain where it went. I’m not saying that Darius stole the money or something like that, I more blame the Lyons Den then him as hes pretty honest I think and wouldnt lie or whatever.
I emailed the guys from www.desroyyourradi.com the next day and explained the situation and said I would still like to be featured on their site, and could gladly make the material available to them immediately. They said that would be fine and Hilger has probably already shipped them their CD by the time you read this.
This was one of the wildest shows ever and we all agreed that getting bottles thrown at you, at least in the context in which they were thrown at me that night, was legit credibility and that our performance most importantly was of the higest quality. We all had a ton of fun despite some BS. I’ve had my share and themsome of BS in my experiences of playing gigs with Low Profile so I long ago learned to forget about it and enjoy the shit. You will never hear me (or probably any of the rest of the band) say that a show ‘sucked’ despite whatever. We come to rock everytime no matter what and I will always throw down 110% no matter if you whip a bottle at my head or threaten me. Or if 100 or 1 person shows up. We’ve seen quite a bit and little is new to us so bring on your roadblocks for our good time, because we will fucking steam roll over them.
–satan165
Low Profile live at Lyons Den
February 20th
with Smear Campaign, Remember the Tiger Tails and Farcus
What a fucking show!!!!!!!
I took a half day at work and left around 11:30. I went, cashed my check, picked up some Johnnys beef on North Ave for lunch, went home, ate, played some bass to warm up, watched American Beauty, took a nap, and then showered before I went to meet the guys at 7. We loaded up and headed to the club. We got to the Den a lil after 8 and we were the first band people there. Satan and I ordered up a drink and chilled at a table. I played some songs on the jukebox. Some more band people showed up and the place started to pack up. Satan had some drama with the soundman but I’ll let him explain all that.
So while we were sitting around, this dude comes up and gives us a flyer for a Last Caress show coming up at Cal’s. He introduces himself as Scott the singer. I didn’t recognize him cuz when I saw them play, he wore the full makeup. So we started bullshitting a lil bit and then we came up with a plan. We told him that we were going to call him up on stage and put him to the test. We scraped Lachrymose in our set and added a Misfits song but we didn’t tell him which one. We threw around a few song ideas but all agreed on doing Astrozombies. That way, he could hear the beginning music and get himself ready to sing the lyrics. We were all real excited about doing it and having a guest singer on stage who we just personally met that night and have never played a single song with. I’ll say right now that it was awesome but I’ll touch on it some more later on in my review. Props. Scott u rule!
So a lil after 10, the first band, Remember the Tiger Tails start their set. They are a 4 piece with 2 guitars. The singer/guitarist played lefty and played the whole show in his underwear. Now that I think about it, I think he walked around most of the night in his underwear. Anyways, I wasn’t feelin this band too much. They seemed to sound or just play very sloppy. So I watched the first 2 sons and got bored and headed out to get another drink and mingle it up with some people. Satan came and found me and we ran out to my car for a quick session. We were due to play second.
So Tiger Tails take a while breaking their shit down and getting it off the stage and out of the way. The singer/guitarist asked me if they could leave their amps on stage and I gave him a simple ‘NO’. I mean, my amp wasn’t on stage while u played. They kept stalling so I just started hauling their amps and guitar cases off the stage and moving them out of the way. I think they got a lil mad but I didn’t give a fuck. There were these signs hanging up on all the mic stands and on the monitors and stuff with pictures on them and Satan asked me what they were. I had no clue so he started ripping em off the mic stands. I guess that pissed some people off and he’ll touch on that in his review. Again, I couldn’t give a fuck. When u play, do what u want. Bring whatever u want on stage. If u need props, thats fine, bring em up with u. But when Low Profile is set to take the stage, get your shit outta the fucking way. I don’t want your fucking promotional pics hanging on our mics while we play. I don’t need any extra amps on stage giving me less room to move around. To me, thats all just common courtesy. We set up and break our shit down quick and get out of the way for whoever is up next. So enough bitching about that.
We set up and get ready. Our set was:
Outspoken
Character Profile
Chimerical
The Limitation
Walter Mander
Astrozombies (by the Misfits. with Scott from Last Caress on vocals)
Carl Panzram
Hulk For President (by Smear Campaign. with Cactus Matt on vocals)
We rocked the fucking house. Our set was super tight. The live recording came out great. And since I knew we’d be recording live again, I picked some songs we haven’t recorded live as of yet. They all came out great. I was the most excited about Chimerical and I want to throw that in our set for the next few shows. That song is awesome.
Kurt, or Nikki as we call him cuz he looks like Nikki Sixx came up on stage and gave us a good introduction but I don’t think it got recorded.
Astrozombies was fucking great. We called Scott up and introduced him. He grabbed my mic but there was still a mic for me in the middle so I got to do a lot of backups. The crowd was really hyped when we started the song. Many people were singing backups and it just felt great. Having Scott’s added energy on stage really got everyone going. Especially me. After that, the crowd wanted us to play more Misfits. I was considering it but we went back to our original set. And then for our last song, we covered Hulk for President in tribute to Smear Campaign. We really like these guys and have fun hanging out and playing shows with em. We learned it a few weeks ago and jammed it at practice a few times but with no vocals besides for the choruses cuz Satan and I couldn’t figure em all out. So when it came time to start the song, Cactus Matt was nowhere to be seen. We called for him on the mics and he ended up staggering up to the stage from the bar with a fresh drink decked out in his Mardi Gras garbs and beads. We started the song and he did all the vocals. It was fucking great. I hope u guys enjoyed it.
I felt real good after the set. We tore our shit down off stage and went for more drinks. I got a lot of props from everyone on how tight our set was. Thanks a ton. It felt great.
Smear Campaign were up next. Jimmy borrowed some of Rob’s cymbals for the show I guess cuz his car was parked a few blocks away. They were all dressed in silly Mardi Gras party type clothes and were sporting many plastic beads. I’m sure they saw many more male boobs than female boobs but it was all in good fun. At some point in the night, Lumpy was getting hauled out of the club by the bouncers and on the way out, I asked him what happened and I think he said something about going behind the bar and pouring himself a drink or something like that. I’m not sure exactly but it was pretty funny. Anyways, Smear Campaign rocked. They did a lot of their originals and covered Pretty Vacant by the Sex Pistols near the end of their set. I think they ended with Kill Somebody, Go to Jail. Seeing them play with 2 guitars is the shit. I’ve seen em play with just Paul on guitar and they still rocked but two guitars really polish their sound and add to the energy on stage. They played a good, tight set.
Farcus was doing some sort of reunion show and they were up last. Our buddy Eorl walked in with these guys and said he was playing bass with them for the show even tho he wasn’t an original member. Normally he plays drums and has been in a few bands I’m sure but he said that he can play bass better than their drummer and thats how he got to play this gig with them. These guys brought in a bunch of acoustic guitars and ended up smashing them all and totally destroying the whole room and stage area up. It was a disaster area. I think they only got to play like a 20 minute set or something. Well, it seemed the club owner or bossman and Darius were a lil pissed. I don’t really blame them. At the end of the night, the club workers had to clean all that shit up. They were sweeping shit up into a fucking shovel. Darius didn’t seem to happy about the whole night when I went to go say goodbye to him. I’m not gonna even comment any further on that shit. It just seems a lil excessive, out of line and is uncalled for. Oh well. It’s over and done.
Besides all that, I had a really fun night. Satan and I left together and dropped our shit off at Rob’s and then we chilled at his condo and watched the Bottle Rocket short 13 min film he downloaded which is fucking awesome. And of course we had to have another session to unwind while we listened to the live recording. It came out really well. Can’t wait to get my copy Satan, wink wink. Drop that shit off soon.
So here I go with my thankyous for the night. Thanks to Darius, the soundman, who was cool to me, but not so much to Satan. Smear Campaign. Ross and Andrew from the Powerknobs, Johnny and Betty Burbank, Hoser, Rocky Suba and Dan, Jessica and Crystal, all for coming out. Also the singer/guitarist from MOTO, and the guitarist from the Phenoms. I don’t know your names but know your faces. Thats about it. I’m done. Cya round.
–ERIK
