Rock N Roll diary - Norfolk, VA

I don't remember circumstances surrounding my consenting to playing a show in Norfolk, but if I had known I would be moving to a new house and trying to finish painting rooms at the same time I'm not sure I would have agreed. The wife and I were in very pissy moods on Friday--not enough sleep, more painting to be a done, a one-way 2.5 hour drive to Norfolk, and then back again because there was more house work to be done and a greater chance of finding food that wouldn't kill either of us at home. At the outset, I was just going to be happy if I could escape Norfolk with out being beat up by guys from the military base for wearing unpolished combat boots.

However, the evening turned out well. We originally hadn't planned to stay the whole night, but ended up staying through all three bands. Silent Muse opened for Void Stares Back (local to Norfolk) and In Tenebris (Charlottesville band that deserves a lot more attention).

So far, I am only accustomed to playing dirty bars that ought to be condemned, so I was skeptical when I found out we were playing a club inside Jillians, a commercial chain party/arcade/restaurant joint. Seriously bizarre. The place was beautiful and clean. Nice cushioned furniture. An entire wall of windows looking out over the Elizabeth river on which barges and ferryboats drifted by. But people showed up and seemed to enjoy the show. And most of them did not seem to be drunk, curious military personnel. Apparently, there is enough of a scene there for underground music to have enabled the place to make money off the show (even after paying the bands fairly well for our time). On top of all this, the promoter was a damn fine guy. He really was enthusiastic about the event and truly seemed to appreciate the opportunity to be our host as much as we appreciated the invite to play a show.

Our set went well. Not amazing, but not bad. We received some hearty cheers now and then, which is always nice. I haven't had anything thrown at me yet. Void Stares Back did a fine job with their laid back, trip hoppy goth goodness. If my observations are accurate, I think they may have had the largest audience of the evening. Probably a combination of the time and being the local band and being preeety dang good. In Tenebris did an awesome job, as usual. Their sound was great. I heard more nuances of the layers of sound in the songs than usual, although their vocalist was apparently rather ill. But she pulled it off. I doubt anyone really noticed. I've listened to her sing several times with the band (and we share a vocal teacher so perhaps I have an insider's perspective on her style), so I did catch on that she was having some trouble. However, she only impressed me more having been able to sing through that.

I cut out a little early, shortly after the last band ended. I napped through torrential down pours on the way home. Got to bed at 5am, which wasn't too shabby considering the evening's plans. I probably owe krasota a million foot rubs for this weekend though.