Syracuse Ska Forum

How was it i didnt get to go?

There was like 30 people there, and I'm pretty sure, excluding bands, the average age was 15. I felt really old. I headed back to Cortland after Fatter Than Albert, I had an early doctor's appointment this morning.

i think i was the only one there who got in for 5 bucks..and the guy hassled my ID.

the kids who were there looked like they were having a good time.

I'm sure people liked the bands, but I thought it was a ska show. Didn't see much (any?) ska there.

Left before Raz Sum went on cause I had work at 5:30 am.

Props to the Raz Sum dudes who put it on, but I guess it just wasn't my bag.

Yeah. The Verbs were great. You could actually hear Rosie.

Plunket was def. very pop-punk with horns. Then I went outside after Fatter Than Albert's first song because I didn't like it. I came back in and they played an okay reggae song, and their last song.. was alright I guess. Umm, Perfect Orange was alright I guess. Their trumpet player was really loud. Not his playing itself, but just him as a person.

Then RazSum was amazing. When they had the "beard-off" I was laughing so hard it hurt. Chris Markle is amazingly funny. It was nice having them play a really good show after the past couple have only been decent.

I didn't get IDed, not sure why, I'm pretty sure I look under 21, but whatever. They didn't really care about kids going in and out. The guys are the doors were kind of jerk-ish, so screw it.

But overall, it wasn't so bad. I was really tired though, so I didn't dance much. Meaning, at all.

eh, i didn't get to stay very long after our set (which btw wasn't as tight as we would've hoped to have it ::glares at james:: ) Glad justine thought we did alright. Plunket's guitarist looked REALLY young, maybe he was really 16. haha well anyways how was the other bands seeing as i left after plunket?

Was an awesome time.

To Brandon:

Shut up. haha, You guys were tighter than ever. You guys looked comfortable up there, the notes were hit, it was really a good show, dont worry man!

I really enjoyed Plunket's set. Can anyone say Beard-off? that was too funny. how do beard offs work anyways?

Fatter than albert are not only super nice and super easy to live with for 3 days, but they put on a really fun, tight show.

Perfect orange is hit or miss for people. They ride the line between rock and ska, but usually hang on the rock side. I cant complain, because they hooked us up hardcore in Tennessee and all of them are mad chill.

And we had a fun time also! Could anyone see us sweat our body weight away on stage? How about the new dances? haha...

Look, i was happy to see a bunch of familiar faces out there. A couple STPers were there, which totally killed. I was so stoked when i saw ronnie show up. Just to know that, 4 years ago i went to shows and saw him rock out... and now he came out to see us. Man... it seriously brought a smile to my face. I was so happy. I saw Mr Parker (Sorry for not saying hey!), and i wish you coulda stayed for our set... Joanne (sp?), the Goat boys, old friends, new friends, everyone. Thanks for a fun night!


Rory

Johanna. Yep it was an okay time. I know the guys in Raz Sum just really wanted to try out that venue and help out their friends. Too much pop with horns for me but whatcha gonna do. Plus we ended up saving the poor birdie outside so the night was a success.

Sorry, thats it. But you hit the nail on the head. The venue was cool, they treated the all ages thing VERY well, which we all appriciated. And we got to give out some favors to good friends. yes, lots of pop with horns, but hey, you cant win em all. I just really appciiate that you came out, stayed throughout, and most importantly SAVED THE BIRD Thanks again, Johanna

Rory

Sorry I couldn't make it. I always feel bad when I can't, because I'm afraid kids will try to read something into that when they shouldn't ...

I'd have gone if I could have, but I work nights and my boss requires us to make up time off. The way that works out, I can only take off one night every 2 weeks and I'd just taken last Friday night off to be at my own Westbound Train show. Johanna keeps telling me I can trust her to run a show without me, but I'm not mentally ready for that yet and plus, I consider Obi a very good friend and I love his band. So, I caught that one and then dragged my ass off to work the next morning at 9am to make up having Friday night off.

As it goes, I desperately wanna catch both Streetlight and The Big Orange Bonanza in the same week, but my work won't let me take both days off that week, so I'm still not gonna see Streetlight.

Anyway, a couple of comments ...

I didn't book that show, so I wanna be sensitive to those that did. I know how hard it is to make these shows work sometimes. And yeah, Johanna was right, RazSum was trying to help these bands out and it didn't work according to plan. Its like that sometimes.

I was nervous that it was a Tuesday night after the college kids have left town, leaving mostly high school kids to get there on a school night, to see bands they don't know at all. And to convince their parents to let them go to a club where the bar was obviously going to be open. Trust me from experience, thats a BIG issue with many parents, especially those with young daughters -- which is a big portion of the current local high school ska audience. I was crucified for every show I did at Planet like that by angry fathers, especially.

It also didn't help that Tundra is a big room and there was no way you could have come close to filling it, especially on a Tue night. That never looks good or feels right. I hope to do some ska shows of my own in there, but only the really big shows where we have a shot of filling it. Otherwise, I've learned to use the smallest room possible for every show, because it feels and looks better. Had you done that same show at the Westcott (which I realize was unavailable on Tue night), it'd have felt and looked a lot better. But I know better than most our current venue limitations.

And yeah, it seemed like too many unknown out of town bands on one bill, all tending to the same style. I've become very sensitive that kids like more variety in shows, because, let's face it, if you're not crazy about ska-rock or rock w/ horns, there wasn't much reason to attend that show. We got kids at the Westbound show that came not liking Old School, but came to see someone else play, same as there were kids there specifically to see WBT. Balance helps turnouts, no question.

Ben is that huge trumpet player in Perfect Orange and he's the same dude that put on Ska Weekend in Knoxville TN. I didn't get the impression the rest of his band did much to help him with Ska Weekend, so I give him major props for taking on such a huge project pretty much by himself and pulling it off so smoothly. For that alone he deserves high praise. But, he's also a super nice guy and I felt very guilty not being at that show to show him some respect back after he so graciously entertained me at his house in Knoxville.

I barely caught FTA at Ska Weekend, so I couldn't form much of an opinion of them from that and I knew almost nothing about Plunket. But I'm glad to hear the whole show went fairly well under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Major props to everyone that played or came out that night. You all rock.