International Pop Overthrow - Boston, MA - 2007

Last night was Rub Wrongways Records night at The International Pop Overthrow. That means that both The Fawns and School for the Dead played at Great Scott in Allston, Mass. (Boston). The Fawns was a four piece and SFTD a three piece for this event and since the I.P.O. provides drums and amps, we were able to all take one car, which is always very nice. We arrived a bit early, with enough time to get some dinner beforehand and we ended up at (what was it called, Soul Fire?) a bar-b-que place that Dennis from the Winterpills had recommended to us. They had played the I.P.O. a couple of days earlier.

It was good food and Max was able to watch some of the Patriot's game while we ate beneath the giant black and white pictures of great soul artists. After dinner and back at the venue, things were a bit quieter. The crowd was thin, it was a Sunday night after all, but Great Scott is very nice and it's easy to get to and parking isn't even too bad (at least on a Sunday night).

I talked a little bit with David Bash, the man behind the I.P.O., and then before you knew it, The Fawns were playing our five song set. It sounded really great on the stage and the few people that were there were very nice. The School for the Dead set was a bit later so a few more people had wandered in but they were all pretty intent on hanging out in the far back of the room. I did what I could think of to try to engage them, but I failed. What should I have done differently? Maybe we should have played unplugged or invited people to join us or something. But once again, I was unable to get over that hurdle, whatever it is. I'm quite sure that in ever situation, there is a way to turn it around and find a way to engage people in our show. I'm just not good enough or brave enough yet to always find it.

Still, there was a decent enough amount of folks who were enjoying us, and each band sold some albums. A couple even danced to "Day Job" and shouted out that it should be a single.

After our set we pretty much took off right away. I always feel bad doing this, but we have a long ride ahead of us and need to be up early in the morning, so even though we feel bad leaving, we'd feel even worse the next day if we didn't. Besides, it's not like all the bands that played later came early to support us. So there.

Anyway, we're jerks and we fled. On the way home Brian played deejay with my IPod from the back seat. Suddenly there were two Bob Dylan songs in a row and then a third and I turned to Lesa and said, "I think the deejay fell asleep." We rolled into Northampton before midnight with "Blonde on Blonde" playing softly in the background.