#levels below

so last saturday night, we had a show in echo park at a place called the black triangle. it's run by a girl I kinda-sorta-knew from way back, Lately Blu Blu, front woman of Los Angeles shoegaze band Blue Jungle, I knew her from when she used to run a different gallery space in Echo Park called The LKEG. I had communicated with her entirely through email about setting up the show, and had no idea what to expect.

And of course, when prep time came, i decided to get hammered.

Somehow I managed to find the place, which turned out to be an apartment, and get all twelve acts to go on accordingly, it was originally only supposed to be nine acts, but we got drunken requests and one thing led to another and i somehow made it all fit in the schedule.

It was hot, sweaty, drunken, improvised madness of live art, music and poetry.

I got so drunk towards the end, that i performed half assed, had to improv some of it, slipped on my words. When the show ended both me and my buddy lost our keys and couldn't figure out ride homes. It was ridiculous. We also sold pretty much NO merch, made like 16 bucks. I even got forced to put on deodorant by people who came to watch the show, I SMELT SO BAD PEOPLE FORCED ME TO CLEAN MYSELF....aint no place in the world for a fucking crust poet.

What mattered is that it was fucking fun, i felt like there was a great amount of expression, and that there were indeed people there to actually listen and enjoy themselves. Although, I do feel we caught a classic case of party syndrome.

I can sum it up best with a couple lines by Against Me!

"Just gimme a scene where the music is free And the beer is not the life of the party And there's no need to shit talk or impress 'Cause honesty and emotion are not looked down upon And every promise that's made and bragged is meant if not kept We'd do it all because we have to, not because we know why "

I've often found issues with little places, especially house shows, where the concept gets screwed up as a result of the people who show up. The idea is to put on a musical event, and have good times with good people, make a party out of it. But this sometimes gets flipped, and you get a good party, with good people having good times, and there just happens to be a couple bands who play in the living room.