A funny story

Narrated by Holly: photos by JohnnyBurma and Johnny Arguedas
Last night m@, Jill and I loaded into Harpers Ferry at 4:30pm and met with the sound engineer , Ben and the monitor engineer, Tex. Everyone HUMANWINE besides Courtenay had filed in by 4:45 and we set up stage for our sound check. We had known we weren't going to have Courtenay for sound check but when you're playing with someone who has been with their instrument since they were 4 yrs. old the fear level is set at a non-existent hum. One really great thing about the Rumble is that all bands get a full hour sound check for their 30 minute sets! That is unheard of in the rock club world. You're lucky to get a sound check at all, usually for an hour long set. The sound check went well and gave us hope for a good sounding set. With that out of the way we all went our separate ways for food and rest and planned to reconvene for the 8:00pm doors. By 9:oo the show was begging to get underway, we got a call from Nathan Cohen (violin) saying, "Hi we're at an apartment in Allston right now and I have the strangest news..." it was really loud in the club and we couldn't quite make out what he was saying but he said that Brian King (piano), Courtenay (cello) and he would be there by 10:00pm, leaving a little down time before our 10:40 slot. Keep in mind that this is the first show Courtenay has ever played with HUMANWINE. So 10:00 rolls around and they meet us in the 'game room'. Courtenay pulls out 2 mechanic style shirts and 2 mechanic style pants. She says, "Well I knew I wanted to wear a mechanic outfit so I stopped by this garage a few hours ago and asked the guys working there if, in trade, I could play them some Bach on cello for their outfits. I played for them and they literally took off their clothes right there and gave them to me!" She now pulls a set of keys out of the pant pocket and says," I think I have the keys to the garage here, either that or the keys to someone's car they were fixing!" So Nathan and Courtenay donned the very used oil stenched clothes while laughing like kids in the back room. I couldn't stop leaning in to smell them, that true oil, anti-freeze, kitty litter, dust smell, for some reason I really like it, it reminds me of my family...
We started to load up onto the stage one after the other, first Brian King and his piano, then myself running to the front of the stage with Nebraska Dontask with the "YouBangies" and the weights that hold them stable on the front of the stage (facing the audience), They are these wooden frames with all sorts of bits and pieces of human life like can lids, can, bent spoons found on the street, paint can lids, hose parts, piping, tubes, bottle caps galore and string. The whole thing is screwed, nailed or woven together giving you a glorious array of pings, tings, tongs, bings, swishes and pops. After I set up my guitar and mic Brian was completely boxed in, then Nate Greenslit came up piece after piece of drums, cans, lids, smashy things and then it was time for Ben to begin placing the mics, while that was going on m@ was making ready his guitar set up, which is very minimal so he had time to tune my janky-ass acoustic, next up was Nathan Cohen who has a minimal effects set up and his violin then while Courtenay got her folding chair (thank you Brian) situated I offered to her that I would hold her cello while she set up. With my heart racing I did it. You have to understand something about me an violins, cellos and upright basses. When they are under my care, my blood pressure seems to change my skin gets cold and clammy all the visions of how this thing is going to smash to bits in my hands come to mind, it's exhilarating sure but it's still no bueno as we say in J.P. Ahh! Alas! Courtenay is all set up and I am relieved of my temporary duty as YerYerOwn Cello-Holder. Paul Dilley has a small amp for his upright bass he's just about finished tuning when the announcer, Robby Roadsteamer asks if we're ready to go and we give the "okay". I wish I could remember what he said but it was something like this, 'I want you to put your hands together for the hardest, heaviest metal band in all of Boston...HUMANWINE!'
(Before we began m@ got the audience to shout,"Fuck Yeah!" on the count of 3 for the band who played before us, The Shills, these kids are solid. We're looking forward to planning a show with them this summer. I was convinced they were going to take the night and was just hoping for a Wild Card* at that point) We opened with a song called "Epoch" it starts on with just me on guitar playing very very very softly and singing all pretty like. So during the first bar or so, in my best cookie monster voice called out a slow,"Mehhhhtahhhl" and we began our set. I don't really remember what happened during our set because I like to tune out the world so I can tune in our songs and really get inside the worlds in them but I do remember that during "Rivolta Silenziosa" our last song of the set, when I handed out drumsticks for the "YouBangies" to the first few rows of people facing the stage. They hopped on immediately smashing and crashing their way through the song. It was perfect. Good Job folks!

Players:
M@McNiss, Courtenay Vandiver, Nathan Greenslit, Paul Dilley, Nathan Cohen, Brian King, me and the first few rows of the audience.

* Each night's winner moves on to the semi-finals the following weekend, with two wildcard bands rounding out the top 8. The two semi-final winners are joined by one wildcard band for the final round the week after that. A special guest, usually a national touring band, headlines the finals while the judges come to their final decision.


packing up
Photo by JohnnyBurma
Harpers Ferry, Boston, M.A.
Click here to see the whole photoset from JohnnyBurma for that night.


Photo by Johnny Arguedas
Harpers Ferry, Boston, M.A.
Click here and also here to see the whole photoset from Johnny Arguedas for that night.