This was one of those nights where absolutely nothing went as planned! Here’s what happened. My friend e-mailed me that she’d like to go see Devil Driver at The White Rabbit. Coincidentally I had also received an e-mail that day about the band Kill Hannah, who was also scheduled to play the Rabbit that night, offering review tickets and interviews. So I was like, sure...I can do that and we’ll see Devil Driver...sounds like a plan.
Ha ha ha. I should never use the word “plan.” That just guarantees that everything will get screwy.
Screwy RabbitI never received word on tickets for the show (which as it turned out had been moved to The Sanctuary), and couldn’t really afford the Rabbit’s $18 cover. So, I figured we weren’t going, thus made plans to meet my friend to pick up the aforementioned disc at Make My Day. But my Devil Driver friend still wanted to go and offered to pay my way in. But first I had to go by Make My Day, so we figured we’d grab the disc and haul ass down to St. Mary’s and catch Devil Driver. That was Plan B.
There’s that “P” word again.
Hit Make My Day at 9:00, but my disc friend didn’t get there till after 10:00, which didn’t give us much time. So we hurried to The White Rabbit, only to find that Devil Driver’s set was half over and they still wanted to charge us, not the $18 mentioned on the Rabbit’s web site, but $20 each. C’mon, $40 for half a set? There are very few bands I would pay that much to watch for half an hour and Devil Driver isn’t one of them. My friend agreed. So...
Plan C: Find a restroom. The couple o’ beers we had at Make My Day had hit me. Papa Ray’s was right across the street and I knew that Amplifyd was playing there. So ok, let’s go in, use the facilities, have a beer and say hi to the guys. Then we’ll go bar-hopping down St. Mary’s.
So far, so good. Bathroom. Beer. Shot (uh-oh, added element not in the plan). Saw Rick Sanford (former singer of Legs Diamond)...chit chat. Guys came over from the Rabbit and the Devil Driver show...chit chat. Amplifyd’s set ended...chit chat. My friend is like, ok Rowan, chug-a-lug, I need some heavy stuff and I need it now!
Wait, short interlude...I should mention something about Amplifyd’s show, even though I’ve caught and reviewed them a few times. They have a new guitarist, John Bracy, and this guy kicks ass! Very energetic, shredding leads...I was very impressed! Awesome guitarist and showmanship is always a bonus.
John BracyOk, so now it’s getting pretty late and plans are falling apart all over the place. The bar-hopping thing is pretty much out of the question. So, let’s just pick one bar and go there. The guys from the Devil Driver show wanted to go, too. So we reached a general consensus...
Plan D: The Mix.
Good choice. I don’t think any of us had been there before, but it’s a cool place. And man, it was packed! Yoshimoto was playing, and we came in during the middle of their set. Good straight-forward heavy rockin’! Most impressive to me was singer/guitarist Tiffany. She’s this little tiny sweet-looking girl, dealing out heavy hyper guitar and vocals. Jumping up on chairs, playing guitar with one hand and holding the mic with the other while she belted out the vocals. We were very impressed with the whole band and very into the music, but she was definitely the thing to watch!
Tiffany
They finished, we hung for a little while, talking to Toni of The Edge and Erica of Desdemona (who I was surprised by on two accounts - 1. she’s a little tiny thing too, with that big ol’ voice; and 2. I had Desdemona down as playing at The Sanctuary that night...whoops!). Both lots of fun to talk to. Then we split while I was still capable of driving!
So it was a fun night, and I guess sometimes Plan D is the best? Or maybe just skip to Plan Z - ignore all other plans and just fly by the seat of your pants!
