The homecoming show at the Mercury Lounge was better than expected. And, trust me, we had some very high expectations. Especially considering the occasion, the bill, and the fact that the Mercury Lounge is probably our favorite venue.

As nearly all rock shows do, the show ran a little late. The band who played before us (Pilot To Gunner, who is awesome, and who we’ve all liked for a long time), started playing at 9:20, and their set was over a couple minutes after 10. We set up our gear as soon as they broke down. By this time, I wanted to run to the bathroom (had two beers before our set). So I ran downstairs to the “green room,” where there were a lot of people hanging around. The bathroom was occupied, but a guy who appeared to be waiting as well said, “No, I’m not waiting. They’ll be right out.” A few minutes later, I discovered he used the “they” pronoun not because he was unsure of the user’s gender, but because there were two people in the bathroom - an incredibly coked up looking girl, and some guy. I mention this because I then proceed to have one of the strangest and most annoying exchanges I’ve had in a while:

Unaware Coked-up girl: (clutching the guy around the neck; they’re both still in the bathroom) Are you Kurt?
Confused Me: No, but I’m supposed to be on stage right now, would you mind if I got in there for a few moments?
Stupid Coked-up girl: Is he Kurt?
Sensible Other guy: No, but he’s performing right now. Let him in.
Disgusting Coked-up girl: Where’s Kurt? Are you sure you’re not Kurt?
Annoyed Other guy: He’s not Kurt, but get out of there so he can get in!
Stupid Disgusting Coked-up girl: Not if he’s not Kurt (giggle).
Incredibly Aggravated Me: Jesus Christ.
[Repulsive Coked-up Mess closes door, as I turn and go back upstairs to the stage where I’ll sweat the beer out]
Scene.

So then I get back on stage, and Matt tells me “It’s 10:20, and we just got told we have to be done by 10:45.” Now I’m pissed off. It’s standard that rock shows run late, but it’s entirely unreasonable that our set should be cut short. For one, we didn’t do anything to make the show run late. For another, it was a very important show for us. Kenny came over and said, “Don’t worry: If the crowd loves it, they won’t yank it.” At the point, I actually thought he was simply relaying a message from the soundguy, but as it turned out, he was just stating his personal theory. Either way, it was enough.

Oddly the experience I had in the green room, and then being told our set might be cut nearly in half was kind of perfect for the set. It made me angry, which is good for the music we play. And I think it caused us to play faster and with more urgency than usual. Always a good thing.

We barely paused between songs. Just enough to occasionally thank people and say the next song. But really, our goal was to start the next song before they could make a determination that it was time for us to stop. In the end, though, the crowd was almost as amped up as we were. Really amazing to see the Mercury Lounge, almost at capacity, just going nuts.

On the tenth song, I switched over to the custom Squier Stratocaster I had purchased in Kansas City. We played “Goes Cube Song 33.” The guitar didn’t survive, but some friends and fans got to walk away with some mementos from the show.

Afterwards, we got some exciting news, but I can’t post about that yet. Nothing is for sure. However, if all goes well, we’d consider it to be part of the tour. So, when I can, I will.

This isn’t the tour wrap-up post, so I won’t go into my fear about how I’ll feel as I re-adjust to playing shows once every three weeks, rather than every night. Suffice it to say, though, touring is something we all fell in love with.

More on that later.

Check out a really awesome review of the show here!

Also be sure to check out EarFarm today or tomorrow, as I’m sure he’s going to be posting something soon.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Daily, Goes Cube Winter/Spring Tour 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.