Stand and deliver (or possibly "Stand by your man" or maybe "Stand up and be counted", can't decide...)

DJ Knight Rocker was feeling a bit anxious. He hadn't organized a new club for nearly a forthnight so something must be done. It was time to revive "At The Crossroads"-club to Belly in Uudenmaankatu and he really had to get Streetcar there to play some extra special super tunes!! And so Streecar got another gig, this time supporting country rockers Kim Curly Band. (Well, ok, maybe that's not exactly how it happened but close enough...)

This time we didn't have Peppe's extra special super transportation unit available so we had to get by with Bartsi's regular car with just enough space for the gear and two persons. So B and Mara went to get the stuff but in the rehearsal room our heroes noticed that we had a problem. There was just one guitar stand! And we had 1,2,3, three guitars. "Hmm, Ville is going to freak out" the dynamic duo thought. But after some more thought they decided that "Nah, can't be, Ville is an adult and a reasonable person, he'll surely understand". There were actually some other stands but they weren't Streetcar's and we don't loan other people's stuff without permission because our moms said that it's not nice.

So B and Mara drove the stuff to Belly and met Peppe and Kökkis, the sound man for the gig. He was actually Bartsi's old friend from years years back. "So, you guys played once together?" asked Peppe. "Yeah, we played in a band in 1990, which is, erm... 17 years ago...". said the old timers and sat in thoughtful silence for a while trying not to drop their false teeth.

And then Ville came in.

A lonely stand

Ville: "Hey dudes, how's it going?"
Others: "Fine...fine..."
Ville: "Cool!"
Others: "Expect.."
Ville: "What?"
Others: "We only have one guitar stand."
Ville: "What!?!"
Others: "We only have one guitar stand."
Ville: "What!!! Oh My God! We only have one guitar stand! Oh my GOD! How can you fail so miserably"
Others: "Well, there weren't others and we can't loan any from Scramangas since we don't have the key and Curlies don't have any with them and..."
Ville: "Aaagh!!"
Others: "Actually, we don't really need three since we got three guitars and.."
Ville: "Graah!!"
Others: "...two of them are always in use."
Ville: "But the acoustic doesn't fit in there and on the floor it'll go OUT OF TUNE and sound HORRIBLE and..."
Mara: "Erm, actually, I have my guitar like that all the time in Scaramangas-gigs..."
Ville: "...and even if it fitted then when I change guitars I'll have to juggle with two guitars and then it'll look really STUPID and.."
Others: "Hey, c'mon, you'll manage"
Ville: "Arggh, no guitar stand, raaah!"
Others: "Cool it, man!"
Ville: "ArghgraaahRAAH!" (*runs screaming into the night*)
B: "Guitarists...*sigh*...so gear-orientated"
Mara: "Actually we also forgot one of your cymbal stands but you'll surely manage with one from the Curlies and..."
B: "What! No cymbal STAND! BARTSI MAD! BARTSI SMASH!" (*turns into a green monster and kills everyone*)

Hmm, that ending might be a bit overdoing the joke... But anyway, Ville travelled all the way back to Vallila and borrowed some guitar stands from there (after asking permission!) and then everyone was happy happy joy joy, soundchecked and ate some great food. Belly is a popular lunch restaurant and we really felt that in our bellies (haha!).

Edutainment

One idea of At Crossroads Club is also that before the bands play you get to see a music-themed documentary about some legendary musician or band. This time the film was Fallen Angel which is all about Gram Parsons. A really interesting documentary about a great musician and some great 70's flared suits. Great!

And then it was time for Streetcar to play. The stage in Belly has a strange upper class atmosphere due to red back wall (it's hairy, actually) and the big chandeliers in the ceiling. Like playing about a hundered years ago. The gig in itself went ok, though audience was a bit sparse and was made mostly out of totally familiar faces. Again we started too late and we had to leave 2 songs ('Laundry lines' and 'Sweet Jane') out from the set though we did manage to play 'You used to be so cool' live for the the first time. Technical troubles riddled the set, Ville's pedals snapped, crackled and popped and B's bass drum pedal's beater just fell off during one song (that's a first...), luckily during a slow section so there was just time to fix it before the chorus. Ville also did the classic if-it's-tuesday-it-must-be-göteborg -thing and thought that he was in Mendocino. Oh well.

We intended to video the whole show but our video guy thought that Streetcar would play last and showed up when there was just 2 1/2 songs left from the set. Well, at least we got them on tape as general bad example of everything. Nah, actually the tape looked and sounded rather good, though here was a strange sepia filter applied purely for the artistic reason of making people look blue, green and purple. (The red back wall turned grey, for christsakes...) Here's a small sampler:

Youtube videos, this is very Web 2.0! Awright! After we finished and cleared the stage, it was Kim Curly Band's time to entertain the crowd with very Gram Parsons-ish tunes, which they did very well. Those boys sure can play.

After all the bands had finished there was a bit unusual hassle of clearing the stage because it had to be filled with tables for hungry diners rushing in first thing next morning. Kökkis dismanteled the PA system, Curlies took their gear out of the door to a waiting car and we had to get our stuff downstairs to the dressing room. This operation involved carrying the instruments and gear down a steep and tight metal spiral staircase. Lots of huffing and puffing and cursing followed. Why we didn't use the nice service elevator next to the staircase is anybody's guess but the answer could probably be found from the little cute brown bottles. We got a whole case of those as a small gig payment and since Peppe had to go to work early the next morning Ville, Mara and Bartsi had to sacrifice themselves and stay behind to finish the load. Poor souls! Luckily they were soon Lost and Found.

Pics from the belly of the beast:

Ville isn't really interested in uncle Gram	Stage awaits. Notice the chandeliers.	Mara
Peppe	Ville	Don Peppe
Shady locals	DJ KR delivers some beats