Philly "Jus Words"

We stopped in Philadelphia again on the way back to NYC and found ourselves another open mic.

We called them up, and they said they were happy to have our band play. When we got there, we discovered it was more of an open forum/poetry jam called "Jus Words." There was even a house band providing backing music for a few spoken word and sung pieces.

When we got there, the host was discussing race relations and the recent arrest of a Harvard professor with the the audience (a huge crowd by the way, over 100 people there).

Also, it turned out we were three of the maybe six white people in the room. We felt somewhat out of our element. Gene began panicking, insisting that we would not be welcome and that even if we were allowed to play we'd be booed off the stage.

The bartender assured us that they'd love us and that this open mic was all about doing your own thing and being accepted for that. In our case, our own thing is weird rock music, so we'd be accepted for that. (I later talked to a few other people there who expressed their happiness at seeing a rock band there. One said that he much preferred punk to the normal hip hop and R&B normally played at that event.) Others came over and told us that we were welcome to play rock and expressed great interest in hearing us play.

Still, Gene needed a drink to steel his nerves. Dave ordered the bartenders specialty. She told him it was called "a piece of ass." She then poured two shots of 151 rum, another shot of hard liquor (I forget what), and some sour mix into a glass and passed it to Gene.

We eventually hauled our equipment up to the stage (they had a band, but no guitar) and set up.

We then received the best intro we've ever gotten and went on to play:
TAoCP2 - It was quite well received.
We were only allotted two songs, so I passed the mic to a still-nervous Gene, who cracked this joke to loosen up the crowd. If you listen closely, you'll notice two people laughing. That would be Dave and myself. Awkward...
We then played:
thE32nd - Holy carp! This is the most enthusiastic crowd ever!

Two more days worth of bootlegs are forthcoming. I'll post them when I finish them.