Our thoughts: Deering Grange Hall (Portland ME)

July 7, 2007

w/ Seven Stones, Trebuk, Dour

After the disaster that was our last show at the Asylum, this low key affair at a local grange hall was a lot of fun. One of those DIY all-ages affairs and the cd release for the headliner, Seven Stones. We didn’t know them personally before they asked us to play the show with them, but apparently one of them was a fan of ours. As for the other bands, Dour we knew (our old drummer Captain Awesome played with them for a while, and I would run into the guitar player Derek at the Dunkin Donuts in westbrook.) Trebuk was unkown to us (Apparently from the Augusta area.)

The Grange hall itself was, well, a grange hall, and the PA was pretty bare bones but do-able. The sound guy usually does punk shows, and did not bring any stage monitors, but fortunately cruella had hers and I went back to our rehearsal space to get one for Jenny (she ususally uses the house monitors.) Dour played and brought a scary crowd – they looked like major drug users. Trebuk did ok considereing they were not local, but played to the smallest crowd of the night. I think they still need some more stage time before I can pass any more judgement on them.

Our set was typical: the crowd stood their drinking in every little nuance of the music and not making a sound except to cheer at the end of each song. One downside was that one of the guys in Seven Stones made motions like he was hanging from a noose, as in “this goth band’s music is so depressing I’m going to kill myself like I think all goth music fans do. aren’t I funny?” Trust me dude, you were not.

Seven Stones themselves were an odd mix of sort of generic american rock and interesting prog. Sort of like Taming the Shrew the second time we played with them, a band in the midst of an important stylistic change. The guitar player performed dressed as a droogie from A Clockwork Orange – a little cliched to old timers like BBA but probably qwuite new to the kids at the show.

All in all, a fun night. I wish we could play more all ages shows, but there are not all that many around here. However, when I was kid, there were even less, at least where I grew up, so I think these kids should be greatful they have what they have.