California round-up: Modesto.

So we left. Brian didn't leave enough food for his cat, so we had to drive all the way to SF before heading to Modesto. Couple that with traffic and we were running hell of late.

We arrive at the Queen Bean in Modesto, and we're running late. For some reason, they decided to hold the whole show up waiting for us, even though Police Teeth and Mount Vicious aren't playing until later on in the evening.

The show is at a coffee shop's outdoor patio. There's no cover, but you have to buy one beverage before advancing to the show area. Clever!

The first two acts are a young lady singing Cranberries covers over her keyboard (not hating, jut not my scene) and a group of several teenage kids playing smooth jazz (again, not hating). There's like, all kinds of little kids and old people running around and shit.

Turd, meet punchbowl.

We set up. Don't even try fucking with my amp, use Alli's. Plug in, play a couple stray chords to test settings.

We're told to turn down. We turn down.

We're told to turn down again. We turn down.

The master volume is on 1.

Can you turn down some more?

We start playing. It's not the usual set we do, but a couple songs in, we get our bearings and build up some momentum. And then we get cut off. Local band Anthem needs our time to play the same set they play every week to the same people they play to every week. I mean, it's not like we drove from, say, Seattle or anything.

I don't like to get in the habit of talking trash about the bands we play with, so I'll just say this: If you like authentic blues, you'll love Blueshammer.

Mount Vicious played last. It was a great triumphant punk rock fuck you. I wish we had the balls to play the set they did. They are told to turn down. They pretend to turn down and just keep playing. Towards the end of "The Long Walk," Conan climbs up on the tent structure covering the patio and hangs upside down from it, Instrument steez.

Did I mention that there were like, a dozen folks walking round wearing "SECURITY" shirts? One of them walks to the power and threatens to cut the power. Right now, I would suggest that you go over to the Mount Vicious MySpace and cue up "The Long Walk" to get the full affect.

Conan climbs down and bellows the song's "We shall overcome" coda while pointing his finger at the "SECURITY" lady. She slowly backs away from the power and stares Conan down with her arms crossed while he finishes the songs, staring right back at her.

Shit like this doesn't happen at "good" shows, which makes it all kind of worth it.

Somehow, we still pull in a decent haul from merch. We stop at In N Out burger on the way back to SF to celebrate.

Chris from the EA forums took a couple of pictures at this show. Check them out here.