We Played a Show: Sundown Bar 11/21/23
A venue "that doesn't really do punk music" gave us a shot... so we took it and RAN! (Plus, the recap days are behind us, so we're starting with a new series title - "WE PLAYED A SHOW")
Yes there is a little trend.
We keep getting to play venues that “don’t usually have [our] kind of music.”
I have always struggled to be and/or stay categorized, so this kind of tracks.
Sundown Bar is a super cute venue in Ridgewood (hot neighborhood alert! Gen Z says Bushwick is mid now!) that is SO COOL that they don’t even have a sign outside. There is a simple orange neon squiggle, and the kids know it’s read “Sundown.”
Yoko-san had been talking about how badly she wants us to play at Sundown Bar since… September. She’d been a few times for her Takoyaki Pop-Ups and she was in love with the vibes. In her usual Yoko-san way of being able to befriend anybody, she initiated getting us booked.
But as I said, Sundown is the place to be right now, and they know it. They were not keen on booking a little punk band they’ve never heard of with no audience guarantee. They usually try to book 2~3 bands who can sell out their 60 person capacity venue, but we had to bring four. (Still no guarantee of selling out, btw.)
We all scrambled for bands we knew, cold-reached out to bigger bands, and pitched and pitched and pitched line-ups but they weren’t happy!
There was about a month where I was fully convinced we weren’t going to get to do this show.
But we did it! We rowed our little boat ashore, even with our little hand paddles.
We were able to get Tomo, Death13, and Moonunitt to join us, and the show was a go! (more on them later, of course.)
Of course the day before the show, the photographer we booked messages me saying they have to get an emergency wisdom teeth removal the next day and might not be done in time for the show. The day before an event is toooo last minute, and our budget isn’t big enough to make people want to change plans to shoot our shows, so even though I contacted all photographers I knew and then some, we couldn’t find anyone to cover. WE WORKED SO HARD TO GET THIS SHOW AND WE WON’T EVEN GET GOOD PHOTOS?
Mark offered to take photos in addition to his usual video work. Always coming through for us.
I had never been to Sundown, but it did live up to its hype. The space was incredibly cute; A lot of warm toned neons, which I am always into plus a disco ball? I’m fully sold.
It was cold and pouring the night of the show and I was pretty miserable carrying all of the merch, my own belongings, and Yoko-san’s bass while being pounded by ice water. To add insult to injury, the L train was delayed forcing me to take an Uber I could not afford to make it to the show on time.
The Uber driver who noticed the bass on my back asked
“Doing a show on a rainy night huh?”
“I’m worried nobody is going to show up because it’s so nasty out.”
“Your supporters will power through this rain and show up!”
“I don’t even want to show up to my own show!”
I made it with 5 minutes to spare, feeling sour that I didn’t have any time to warm up, still drenched from pre-Uber rain-walking, immediately trying to soundcheck while setting up the merch table (does not work like that, silly Non you only have one body and a barely functioning mind!).
One day I shall have achieve the level of optimism that Uber driver had.
But that day, I would not have been able to chill out had the space not exuded the impeccable vibes that Yoko-san had been raving about.
Shower me with some hot pink light, I will get my shit together.
Shine a disco ball in my face, I will do my damn job.
So, we do a quick line check to make sure that the sound person can hear how everything is balanced out and start.
As mentioned up top, this venue is full of cute little tables and velour seats that whisper, “sit back and enjoy….” so I had to yell at everybody to stand up and get closer, but I think that actually set the tone perfectly.
And guess what, we’re in the middle of OSAKA and I see our photographer, puffy-post-wisdom-teeth-removal-face and all, run up to the front of the stage with their camera.
HOW SPECIAL TO HAVE SOMEONE COME THROUGH LIKE THAT 🥺
I was pretty surprised because my health is not great and one dealing with my body incident would fully take me out of commission…
And look how beautiful the images they captured are!!
(I’d like also shout out the fact that they shot us on film, and had them developed and scanned in less than 24 hours! Unheard of! I sometimes have to beg digital photographers for files!)
I gotta say, despite the chaos preceding this show, I had so much fun. It felt like one of our best shows yet. (I know I seem to say this after every show, but that HAS to be a good sign, right?) The shape and size of the venue felt really good, where it felt pretty full but I could see audience faces all the way into the back.
I love making eye contact.
The easy-listening moody lighting and setup of the space gave it a cozy intimate feel that kind of worked despite our potentially alienating noise. The sound in the space was really nice and I just felt really connected to the audience throughout.
By the way, one audience member said he was really wanting to start a little mosh but got nervous. I want everyone to know they are always welcome to start a little mosh pit.
Another nice touch about the space was that the drum kit was on stage right, rather than behind me. So everyone, including myself could see how great Zéev is. Everyone always raves about Yoko-san and Aki-san to me, Zéev and Duncan deserve some love!!
We debuted our new song Grapefruit Juice that went over really well 💓
(I highly recommend checking out our TikTok if you want a aural taste of our music!)
The lineup was also really amazing, SUPER fun bands that I think all ended up betraying the usual mood of the venue.
Tomo had this ambient trippy beautiful thing going on, and the vocalist just had a tone that I would do some questionable things for. And THEN I find out after they leave the stage that they are a fully improvisational band! WHAT!! Magical.
First of all, Death13 was super kind to us after our set and even bought one of our shirts! 🤯 And their music was a hard as their name suggests. They were extremely watchable, with a super expressive keyboardist and drummer while the front person had a mask on. Kind of the inverse of us in terms of giving - so fun!
Moonunitt had a crescent moon shaped guitar! They were all wearing white jumpsuits! A commitment to a theme, obviously I am in, in, in. Their music was full of funky goodness - you can tell that they are fun and they have fun. The show ran late (I mean, you read how it started…) so they had a late start but they were such great sports. I felt so lucky that I got to play early in the night so I could just dance my little legs silly to Moonunitt’s funk with no other care in the world.
Next show: 12/9 at Harefield Road in Bushwick!
It’s our first ever “magazine issue launch party” oooooh ahhhhhh so I don’t know how the vibes will be but I’m excited! They’re Zéev’s friends so I am sure the coolness will be blinding to me. Can’t wait!
As always, thank you so much for reading.
Talk soooon <3
Non
Great show great people great venue!