Getting Down & Dirty At The Dirt Picnic!

Last Saturday at the Dirt Picnic, my plan had been to take pictures of all the bands (Anagram, Holy Cobras, The Ultimatemost High, Teenanger, us, and Ell V Gore) and then comment on their sets individually, as I have sometimes done before when the bill has been similarly rich. Unfortunately, the photos that I have of the show are by and large far too dark to use.

In fact, I really only got two decent photos the whole time: one of the boatyard beneath the patio, and another of Ell V Gore on the patio (displaying their saxophone player's fabulous gams):



After this, we go indoors and it gets dark. If you're interested in seeing some really good B&W shots of the show, get thee to Ivy Lovell's blog post haste. Here's a couple of shots she took of your hosts No No Zero in action:



Inside, it was hot, hot, hot. A light sprinkling of rain went down well between sweaty sets. It was Jordan's first show drumming with No No Zero so that was extra special for the band, and he delivered with a heavy hand (I mean that in the best possible way).

It was also our first time playing with (only) two of the other acts on the six-act bill - Ell V Gore and Holy Cobras. That was a thrill, and they both put on excellent high energy sets. I am a huge fan of Simone TB's drumming in particular, wow. And Holy Cobras played my favourite song of theirs, "He's Rubber, I'm Real" (I'd been hoping they would for weeks, but I didn't dare get too excited in case it didn't happen...).

And now, a couple of crappy iphone pictures to break up all this text:



For my part, I had a bunch of technical crap go wrong, which is always frustrating - first, the adapter for my theremin (debut with the band) was missing once I got to the venue so I couldn't play that. Then the Cheeseman-Miszczyk telephone microphone I was using, so dependable at practise, crapped out halfway through our set.

Oh well. The guys played fiercely, the night was a lot of fun, I got to see five great bands, some old friends, and drink a whole bunch of $3.50 screwdrivers because I didn't have to drive home afterwards. Thanks to Erin Hagen and James Ryan Halpenny for putting it all together. Finally, here's a pic Ivy took of Jon from Teenanger wearing one of our setlists:


Addendum: I forgot to add that I finally met Joe from Mechanical Forest Sound at the Dirt Picnic, and had a nice chat with him. He's got tunes up by Teenanger and Holy Cobras recorded live that night, and told me to expect an actual review proper some time next year maybe... (he works at a similar pace to myself)