It's channel seventy-two. But perhaps I should stay away as I clearly jinx whatever sports franchise it is that I choose to follow these past few years. Brodeur's slow start should probably be more attributed to my desire to follow hockey intently this year than anything else within his power. Sorry, dude. **

Saturday night the Hot Cops played a show. All told it was kind of a let-down, as far as the performance goes. 75% of that let-down can be attributed to factors out of my/our control, though. We'd been led to believe that we'd be going on at either 11:30 or 12, but didn't actually get going until 1:40am. I can't remember ever, ever going to see band that went on at 1:40. During the band before us, The Terrible Friends, whom I genuinely enjoy hearing and watching which is a rarity for local bands, the one microphone on the stage stopped working. After 20 minutes of playing with wires, etc.. they got it working again.. but that was just the initial snowball that started the avalanche to follow. The mic they gave me was the same one I've seen at Radio Shack for $19.99. The monitor speaker was shot so I couldn't hear my singing at all. The PA speakers sounded like they were emitting sounds from the bottom of the ocean so pretty much no one else could hear my vocals, and the bartender / sound guy (oh yes, he was pulling double duty) was hell-bent on keeping everything as quiet as possible. Those little frustrations multiplied by the fact that I spent that extra two hours waiting time at the venue nervously pounding Budweisers led to a pretty sloppy over-all performance. I tried to ease the tension with self-deprecating stage banter... but I think that probably just made it worse. I guess they all can't be winners. It didn't really bother me too much except for knowing that a lot of people had given up their evenings to come see us and that it probably wasn't much fun for them.

It's worth noting that I was incredibly happy to see so many different people from so many different parts of my life all together. Old Wayne friends, current Wayne friends, Boston friends, New York friends, Internet friends. While that warmed my heart for sure, it also made the poor performance all that much more embarassing. However, most people have said they enjoyed themselves and I even read a review of the show from someone who has no clue I've seen their blog and it was 100% positive. I really am very happy to have the friends I do although I probably don't do a great job of helping them realize it.

Friend and photographer extradionare, Toni, will be uploading some pictures from the show tonight. I'll be sure to link 'em here.**

Two cell phone pics, one of Grandpa from earlier Saturday from dinner at my grandparent's house... and one of Jimmy just prior to us taking the stage, which I don't remember taking:


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