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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Day 11
w/ Rabbits, Times of Desperation, Iguanadon, & Dissident Aggressor
A rest stop wake-up and not much to accomplish: we were already in Sacramento, and had nothing going on until the free in-store show at R5 Records (at 6:00). This led to plenty of splashing about in the Sacramento River... and that Michelle finally got to swim. (No one wanted to swim in the foggy cold of San Francisco)
The rest of the day, we were just back in Sacramento... which is not actually in California, but on the surface of the sun. I never thought you'd be able to drive there, but here we are. Walking the street, every time you step between shady spots, the beam of light that hits you can knock you sideways, like waking past the vent of a blast furnace.
I almost tagged the bathroom of the Java Lounge:
Seattle's cooler than Sacramento
(by about 25 degrees)
(by about 25 degrees)
But the Java Lounge is a nice place: the owners, who dug us when we passed through on our way south, asked us to come back on our northbound leg-- we played as part of a 5 band bill, had a good show, and a really strong crowd (especially seeing as we played last on a Monday night-- if we'd been at The Comet back home, we would have been playing a show for the bartender).
We've sold a lot of stuff at the Java both times-- I hate to focus too much on it, shilling our products or anything like that, but it keeps the van full of gas and on to the next show. This time, we sold a lot of CDs, and out of everything we sell, the CDs are probably the best. Shirts make more money, but CDs mean that there are people listening to ubik. in this town. Hell, make copies for your friends: we're not greedy. (Though we are running low on shirts)
The less said about the R5 show, the better: it was another setup where it was just ubik. in a town where nobody knows us. Until the name means something in a town, listing that ubik.s playing somewhere isn't going to bring in a crowd; we need to play with a band from this town, to get the local fans involved. That's the nature of being new to a city-- it's the same thing that happened in Stockton.
The Java show was a success for exactly that reason. We had four other really tasty bands with us, and the show really moved along (done around midnight). No one played too long and everyone set up with a quickness... other shows/venues/bands (*cough* Annie's *cough*) could learn from shows like this.
And we stenciled the door of the van while we were waiting for one of the bands to set up. So we got that going for us.It was a pretty brutal show, though: we had to bring our metalliest stuff to the table and play a slammin' set. I wanted to break out some of the more melodic songs, but this was really not the show for that.
We also get to camp out with the owners of the Java, which is amazing-- no one likes waking up in the van at a rest stop. Tomorrow, another day off (the last one before our final show: in Portland), we are going camping. I think we'll drive north and find a park in Oregon... we learned our lesson about taking "camping" exits off I-5: this time, we're going to find a real camp site, confirm it, find a map, and go specifically where we intend to camp. Period.
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