The Null Device Blog

After lunch, we returned to our gracious host’s home, chatted for a while, and then the Null Device Posse decided it was time to take a walk and stretch the legs. So we wandered through a park near Kristy’s house, admired a lot of architecture, then got back and a all took short naps.

Apparently I snored quite loudly, and it amused the cats.

Pack up, and off to soundcheck. We drove from Kristy’s to the venue with Dan’s wah pedal sitting on top of my roof.

We had a very laid-back soundguy at this gig, which was very nice – no screaming to get things setup, no berating of our gear, nothing like that.

After soundcheck we needed food, badly. We started to wander in various directions, hoping to find something. After about 10 blocks of art galleries, bars, and three very expensive bistros, we found one palce that looked promosing and went in. I knew we’d done well as soon as I heard Bjork blasting from the jukebox. This little diner, “Betty’s”, is a very hipster place decorated in Vargas art and home of some really good nouveau-diner food. This was quite enjoyable.

We got back just in time for Stygios, the first opening act, to rev up. They were a darkwave band, pretty young, but they were pretty good. They were nicely programmed and had a fairly original sound.

We went on next, and things started out great. We blistered through footfalls, and while I think only three people in the crowd got the Stromkern reference in the middle, it went over well. The During Sad Truth, my mic went out. I was convinced the pedal was hosed, but as we found out later, a cable had detached from the wall jack. I did the rest of the set unprocessed with Dan’s backup mic. So I had no backing vocals from Dan, but at least I had vocals. Without the processing/compression/gating I had to work a little harder though, so by the end of the set my voice was hurtin. I was able to hit the high note on Wicked Game, but after that I was not feelin it, and had to drop some of the more ambitious vamps in Easier. We finished the set, cleared off, and waited for The Azoic.

Columbus loves the Azoic, and the Azoic loves Columbus. Half the crowd I think was ready to marry Kristy halfway through the first song. They kicked ass onstage, which was excellent. I came up onstage to do the male vocals on “Obsession”, which went over well, except once again I had no mic signal (although that was quickly fixed). They did a lot of the new material, which was cool, and I’ve had “Conflict” stuck in my head for two days now.

After the gig, we packed up, returned to Chez Kristy, and all crashed hard.

Again, I snored. Enough to drive Dan downstairs where he was harassed by Pollack the cat. Not enough to make Chuck do anything more than taunt me about it. Kristy drove us to a diner for breakfast, where we had a lovely cheap greasy meal, we walked back, packed up the last of our stuff, bid farewell to Kristy, Steve and Yana, and began the long haul home.

I think we may be the only indie band in the US right now that travels with a produce section. We had rasberries, grapes, bell peppers, peaches, more grapes, apples, and tomatoes to nosh on along the way. Of course we had to buy chips and jerky, because it’s not a road trip without chips and jerky, but still…we finished the drive at about 8pm after a few stops to refuel and get dinner.

Good trip.

the azoic onstage.

into every gig a little rain must fall. we played a good set but once again lost lead vox. i thought the pedal crapped out, but as we discovered after the set that a cable had pulled out of the wall jack. i did the set with dan’s mic and it sounded fine, i just had to work a lot harder. now my voice is a little strained…Oh well.

and dan, hyped up on sudafed and yerba mate, was off the proverbial hook. it was very cool.

kristy, with cat.

naptime for dan.

(i can only get pics of the band when they’re asleep, it seems…)

Even if the gig tonight is a complete flop, which I’m pretty sure it won’t be, we are having one helluva good time.

This is almost like a vacation.

We made the drive from Madison to Columbus in really decent time – just over 8 hours, incluidng two stops for gas. The car is of course packed to bursting but hey, that’s what band-travel is all about, right? The drive was dull but uneventful, and between Dan and my iPod’s we had enough interesting music to keep us going. I think I’ve got Dan hooked on Curve, and Dan has me intruiged by, of all things, Hatebreed.

It was of course about 3am when everyone finally settled in and could sleep.

Kristy’s house is gorgeous, too. Dan has a more succinct description, but suffice it to say it’s really, really nice and it’s awfully big. In madison, this would be a very expensive house. But anyway, it’s old, it’s pretty, and it contains two very friendly cats.

I was awakened by one of said cats this morning. I was sleeping in front of his favorite window, so I was stared at intently until I moved. I got up, a few hours ahead of the rest of the band, and unsurprisngly Kristy (who I am convinced never actually sleeps) was also awake. We chatted, everyone completed their morning grooming routines, I amused the hell out of Dan by wondering aloud if I could find an iron (“my last band, we wondered if they had beer. You wonder if they have an iron.”), and we piled into Kristy’s car for a quick tour of Columbus and some lunch.

Lunch was great, too. We went to a big farmers market place, all ended up getting middle eastern or indian food (I had a very tasty north african lamb sausage stew), we chatted for a while, Chuck and I bought some fruits and vegetables to snack on for the ride back (probably a better idea than chips), then back to Kristy’s house for a little chillout time. The weather being gorgeous, we took a walk through the neighborhood.

This is *great*. I want more shows where he have at least a little time to soak up a little chill time before having to spend 6 hours in a club greenroom.