Play for pizza

Last night we played at Howie & Son's Pizza in Visalia CA. It's a family kind of place, and we arrived during the dinner rush to a bustling restaurant with no stage, lights or sound system. We sat and ate our pizza and waited for the diners to finish. Finally some bearded local indie rockers showed up with a PA and began dragging all the tables and chairs out into the parking lot. The Album Leaf took a smoke break before leaping into action. Those guys carry a ton of gear in the bowels of their tour bus. Every night we watch them transform a rock club into a suitable space for lights and projections. They had their work cut out for them last night, trying to turn a pizzeria into a theatre. The salad bar remained in the dead-center of the room.

Complicating matters were the hordes of kids that began filling the room well before the 9 PM show time. On the night before Thanksgiving all the college kids were back in town, and all the high-schoolers had the holiday break to look forward to: everyone was out looking for a good time. A lot of people were there for the music, and an equal number were there just to hang out and smoke cigarettes in the parking lot. There was a place like this when I was in high school, an awful guitar shop in Chantilly VA that put on all-ages shows in the back room. Those nights were tons of fun, when the cool kids from all the local high schools got together to listen to music and flirt and shoot the shit.

There were probably 200 kids crammed in the restaurant when Lymbic Systym went on. This was the last night of tour for them after 5 weeks out with the Album Leaf. Jared and Mike put on a tight, flawless show. They've played this particular pizza shop before and they had a bunch of fans awaiting them in Visalia, including one possibly methed-out kid who told me that he listens to Lymbic Systym every morning when he does his pushups. The Album Leaf gang ambushed them with silly string during their last song. Those two little dudes will be missed.

We've been playing a lot of our mellower songs on this tour, but everything was running way behind schedule, so we set up in a hurry and banged out a fast hard set. The crowd was circled tightly around us, bobbing their heads. At most shows, sitting at the back of the stage with lights in my eyes, I can't really see the audience at all. Last night they were right on top of us, sitting on the salad bar, standing on chairs and tables, and the energy was palpable in the room.

Of course, the down-side of there not being a stage was that I couldn't see a damn thing from the merch table while the Album Leaf played. Just the projections and an occasional glimpse of Tim's head, bobbing to the beat. But it sounded beautiful, and I got to watch the crowd go ape-shit, high-fiving for their favorite songs. Good times. Visalia rocks. We're thankful!