We still remember it well --sitting there outside a friend's house where we were having band practice on a hot summer evening, contemplating the possible future of the band. We seemed to do this whenever we needed a break, perhaps to distract us from how hot it was outside… but outside was, oddly, cooler than inside, as our practicing had heated up the house!
We thought about local venues we might play that were within our reach, and eventually we came to Music Farm. We laughed. Yes, it's true! We laughed at the idea of ever playing there, first because we knew we didn't have anywhere near enough of a following to qualify as an opening band, but also because local shows at the Farm weren't too common back then.
Fast forward to now, and well, it happened! We played Music Farm. And while we're still laughing about it a little and asking ourselves whether it actually happened, there's no denying it was quite a show!
It turned out that around 400 people showed up that night for all the bands, which was pretty wild. It was, hands down, the biggest audience we'd played for before. And they weren't just there for us, obviously! Soda City Riot, The Shem Creeps, and The 33's brought the house down with us. We'd been wanting to play with each of those bands for awhile actually, so having all three on the show with us was really cool.
We got to see the new remodeled green room up close and personal, which was a new experience for us. It felt crazy being in there, considering all the well-known acts who'd probably hung out there over the years --world-class acts at that, and while we weren't under any illusions, being there was still fun!
When we walked downstairs to the stage from the green room, we didn't really know what to expect. After all, we were just the opening band, and we'd all personally been to Farm shows that were give or take in terms of the opening band, which is actually quite understandable. But when we came onto the stage, we got quite a raucous greeting from our many friends who had gathered, and it was kind of unreal how many people were already there.
Past the point of no return, we started our set. But we didn't start it the way we had in years past --we added a new intro, designed to tease the audience, and it worked! A quote of the main guitar riff, some low-end drums, and lots of guitar feedback kicked things off. We had to laugh as cheers were already starting and we'd barely begun with Dark Story, which was the first song we'd ever written back at the beginning of the project. From there, we had a lot of other surprises planned for everyone, so it was a fun time!
First off, we had a new band member, “Insane” Shane on rhythm guitar, and he delivered in spades, sporting his signature hard had covered in his favorite band stickers. He filled out our sound more than ever before and added plenty of extra craziness to the mix, but that wasn't all! Before long we called Ash Vapor to the stage, and when she came out, let's just say she stole the show!
Ash performed Society with us, holding nothing back and even jumping off the stage to interact with the crowd along the barricade in a new outfit she'd put together just for the show. While she hadn't worn this particular ensemble on stage before, some elements of it were straight out of the Society music video, which was an awesome touch!
We jumped into some new material from there, including our newest single “I Like Goth Girls” and all the goths in the audience had a great time dancing to that one. We were really happy that we could play it as it's one of our favorite songs we've put together of late. Chops introduced the band, and we rotated solos, finishing on a drum solo of course!
When we got to our material from 5-Hour Anergy, Sloth took over on main vocals and hyped everybody up with his usual screams and stage antics. We also called out Freebird to finish off the set with Slow Burn, What You Say and Jail Tonight. We were really glad to have him there, and naturally he had every right to be there, having appeared in several of our music videos as well as laying down guitar tracks on “Society” and our “5-Hour Anergy” EP. We were at full performing power for the last song, as even Ash came out to shout the words along with us and the crowd!
After the set, we spent some time hanging out watching the other bands and saying hi to people at the merch table, and we really appreciated each person who bought merch from all the bands and even gave donations. It was great to see everyone --some friends swung by that we hadn't seen in years, and man of them had on the shirts they'd bought from us back when we were still just playing friends' houses, so that was definitely a trip! All in all, Charleston Punk Night was a great time for everyone! The fact that there wasn't a single “major label” band on the show and so many people showed up anyway is a testament to the fact that people still want to hear brand new punk rock today. Not only that, it proves that an underground music scene still exists in the southeast, ready to tear it up on the stage and in the pit! We can't wait to do it all again.
Photo Credits: Adam Sweet and Kushi S