Show Journal 1998-07-25
Talk about hot, holy cow Richland, WA is hot. 103 degrees when we arrived. Still over 90 when we left at night. The Uptown Tavern is located in a small strip mall of bars with live music. Its also conveniently located on the town’s main cruising strip. Every redneck and jock in tri-cities seemed to visit this area at one time or another this evening. Whether entering the clubs or simply driving by making the token redneck “woo” sound at girls they all seemed to make an appearance. Needless to say we were not in our normal element. The booking guy Dustin and the Burning Cindy’s were the thing that kept us sane in this club. The show was … uhmm … interesting. It was one of the first time I’ve really felt like a “bar band” … and I don’t mean that as a good thing. Let me explain. Two doors down at the next bar there was a cover band of 40 something’s playing the current spectrum of “alternative hits.” Whatever they want to play is their business but its annoying to think that we have spent the past 4 years playing and writing these songs and to the average live music fan in this town its probably just as memorable seeing us play our balls off as it is seeing some balding, washed out 40 year old playing a Green Day cover from the radio. (They probably get paid 5 times as much too!) Perhaps I’m over analyzing this, but sometimes it really is frustrating when you play to an audience that is generally apathetic at what you do. There were lots of people and no one really booed us but it just felt awkward playing that show. After the show was the redeeming part of this evening. A couple of people came up and said how they really liked us and that bands like us don’t come through their town real often. Even some of the people that I had pegged as stereotypical “rednecks” seemed to really like what we are doing and were far more receptive than I had though. It was a nice surprise.
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