Saturday's All Right for Coughing... at the Proletariat

I knew when I had to work a 36hr shift that ended on Friday afternoon that I'd more than likely end up being sick on Saturday. There is nothing I hate more than playing a show where I'm not 100
here but whatchagonnado, eh? So at 5:30 it was off to the rehearsal space to rehearse the new songs one last time. We hit the songs perfectly, which is never good luck. So from there we loaded the equipment, the projectors, and assorted Linus crap and headed out. To my surprise Sharks and Sailors were already there Christ, I thought only Linus was this punctual. So it was nice to chat with them as they are really nice and entertaining guys. I proudly showed Shawna, Johnathan and everyone else my bag of drugs: Tylenol, Emergen-C, Claritin and Robitussin. Yeah that's right Robitussin baby this is after all Syrup City. Not long afterwards My Education showed up but I was right in the middle of setting up screens and projectors so I didn't get to cheat with them even though I hadn't seen Scott Tellis in quite a while.

So, after quick run by The Alabama Ice House for Karen's going away party and racing to the house to get film editing equipment, it was back to the Proletariat where we went through a competent set. Given the fact that I was sick and I had foolishly set up one of the projection screens in a manner that blocked Larry and Clinton from queuing off each other we did pretty ok. We had a lot of tempo issues where we played songs too fast or too slow and I can only say that the new song about Rosa and Mara was the one song (despite fluffing the end) that came off perfectly but Linus isn't really about perfection. We're a bit sloppy by professional standards but that's all good; if the feeling is there and we're not playing hacky then I'm happy with the show. So not a great Linus show but a good one.

We definitely were not the band that was packing them in. My Education pulled off a nice set on instrumentals. The keyboardist played his instrument with abandon in his hilarious glittery pink Botox shirt is stark juxtaposition to the burly, bearded, and tattooed violinist in his wife-beater. They played a nice set of instrumentals that generally cycled around a main riff and built texturally. It was a solid set and they easily had the biggest draw of the evening.

But the night really belonged to Sharks and Sailors. I love this band because they are like a frikkin' machine. I don't mean that they play in a soulless manner but simply that they are so precise in everything they do. Where Linus is sloppy and rough, these guys never have a single misplaced note or tone. Its amazing. Everyone should watch these guys in action. Phil is this amazing drummer who clearly abhors the idea of a 4/4. Allen and Michael I think have one of the most amazing guitar interplays in the city. Hell, Scott Tellis and I spent quite some time simply discussing the awesomeness of Melissa's bass tone. One of the new songs had this amazing bit of dynamics where the guitars just quietly shimmered into the distance then the whole band roared back with this heavy riff. When the song ended, I found my self giving a hoarse and uncontrollable "YEAH!" Hell the band even started the first ever Prog moshpit which Rosa (having quickly popped over from the Grindcore festival) found really comical.

I told Scott to wait until the closed with Topple the Pillar. The song is so good that I'd actually planned on Linus covering this song but our limited rehearsals kind of killed that idea. To me Topple the Pillar is everything that is great about Sharks and Sailors in one song and even people who don't dig the proggy approach to songwriting that S&S engage in all agree that this one song is undeniably brilliant and heavy. So when they closed with another song I was quite disappointed and began to shout, "Youre not done! Topple The Pillar!" To the band's surprise, I wasn't the only person demanding an encore. Scott Tellis, not catching the full title of the song, began shouting nonsense like "Topple the Millar! Topple the Kruller! Topple Ben Stiller!" So, in a very sheepish manner, the band took the stage and closed with the afore mentioned song. As you'd expect they brought the house down. All in all a good night of music so where were you, huh?

Pictures coming soon.