Great Gig

Even though the crowd wasn't all that big because of so many people heading out of town for the 4th, it was a really enthusiastic crowd, hoopin' and hollerin'. That's good news, because it meant the bar would book us again in the future. The sound onstage was really good too. They have both sides of the stage treated for sound, and there's a thick curtain sort of thing that covers the entire window behind the stage. They have an OK monitor off the side of the drum riser (which is big and solid), but it's so far away that I couldn't set my Gatorade on it or tape my set list to it and be able to read it.

The sound man was using a really cool PreSonus digital board. Check that thing out. Every channel has its own gate, compressor, and limiter, along with the usual EQ and stuff. Amazing. Plus built–in FireWire I/O and recording software. Plug it into a Mac and the software links up with the channels on the board and records all of them. One thing they mention in the "live" video is not needing the band to be there to do a sound check. Just play the previously recorded gig back through the board. Heh, cool.

Kim & I were starving afterward, so stopped at Perkins. We had cinnamon rolls and bacon. Really, can it get any better?

This evening we went over to Geoff & Carolyn's porch, then saw a couple town's fireworks from there off in the distance. I heard there's now a larger fine for using illegal fireworks. Maybe that's why the family down the street didn't do any this year. He always gets a shitload from Wisconsin and they fire them off for about an hour after they get back from watching the big ones. It gets pretty annoying after 10 minutes. And I especially don't like finding burnt up pieces of them on our deck the next morning, because you just know there are pieces on the roof, and who knows if any of them might've still been smoldering after landing.

Watched Quantum of Solace today. I liked it. The action starts right off, and it's filmed incredibly well. It really looked like all the shit was really happening, like Daniel Craig was really in a car being smashed against a wall with bullets flying all over. It is lacking gadgets though. Olga Kurylenko is plenty hot, even when she isn't naked. The absolute worst part of the film is the opening theme song. I started hating it within only a few bars. Then I found out why: It was fucking Jack White. God I hate him. Why does he think he's such a musical genius? Ugly stupid fuck.