AKA Lounge on Saturday was an absolute blast. I say that a lot. "Absolute Blast." I'm over it now. We played with locals Studio K and Sonic Explosion and Spot Lucy from Clearwater. After loading our gear up the old and rickety flight of stairs and having to park three separate cars, we proceeded to take a lengthy seat on the venues comfy couches, beers in hand, and spent about 30 minutes having an in-depth discussion about absolutely nothing at all while Studio K soundchecked. People started filing in and I was surprised at the turnout. I think that was the most amount of people I'd ever seen in that venue. Most people who've lived in Orlando their entire lives don't even know where the lounge is located.
Studio K took the stage first and delivered a great set full of piano-driven tunes about love, hate, and Mars. At least, that's the impression I got.
We were up second and delivered a 10 song set that left the crowd with melted faces, missing socks, and a nasty case of Tinnitus. That was a clever way of saying that we rocked. Something fierce!

We were totally on top of our game. During the last song of the night "Girl Like Her," I thrashed around so hard that my glasses got some mad air off my face and took a dive onto the stage, landing in the perilous region of JoAnna's constantly moving feet. She had no clue. Luckily she didn't step on them. Around the same time, Doug's guitar decided to break free from the bondage of his strap and face-planted onto the floor. Like a trooper, he continued to play the song while kneeling on the ground. After the song ended, we did our usual dramatic "Feedback, Drums, and Noise Finale" and I hoofed it across the stage to knock Doug over. Poor guy. He retaliated by tossing his guitar into the back of my knee. I didn't get injured, but Doug pretty much destroyed his guitar cable. Was it worth it?

We cleared the stage and made way for Sonic Explosion who fit in really well with the rest of the show and had a very energetic set to deliver. To make room backstage for the rest of the bands, we decided to start loading our gear back down the steep stairs (I wanted to roll everything down, but was outvoted) and then had to go grab all of our three vehicles once again and park illegally while hoping we didn't meet with any Orlando police or Busses since we pretty much took over their lane. Realizing we didn't really have the cash to park our cars again, we took off.

Bert had a friend in town, Doug had to catch a flight to Ohio and needed to be up early, and JoAnna didn't drive herself, so we all went our separate ways for the evening.

Good show. Those Studio K guys are good people. The guys in Spot Lucy were fun as well and I wish I could've seen their set. Next time. There's always a next time. Well, not always, but you know what I mean.

Now I am off to have a hurricane party even though there are no hurricanes around. Figure that one out.

_Wes