The Null Device Blog

In what I hope is a precedent-setting first for the band, everyone showed up for loadup on time. I’d spent a while beforehand making sure everything was packed up properly, as I am wont to do, so loading was just a case of haul it up the stairs and heave it in the Forester. And miraculously, everything fit just fine with even some room to spare (although the dholak rattled against the window for the whole drive – I think I need to wrap it in a towel or something.

The drive was mostly uneventful. Jill endeared herself to Chuck forever by emitting one of her patented mega-belches. Chuck and I bought pretzels at the Des Plaines oasis. We tried to explain LOLcats to Jill, and failed. (“It’s these cats…that say…uh, funny things! With bad grammar!”)

As we entered Chicago, we busted out the Google map I’d printed and tried to follow the directions. This is where it got a little funky. The directions said go .3mi down Damen. We went down Damen and .3 miles got us about 3 blocks, which is not where the venue is. We drove around in circles for about 20 minutes and then decided to just keep going until we found Chicago Ave. So we found the venue, which was landmarked by a big sign and Dan in a cowboy hat standing out front.

Naturally, it wasn’t open yet. So the combined forces of Null Device and the 31 members of the Dark Clan (estimated, I didn’t get a good count) stood outside and tried to stay warm. Then Andrew Sega showed up. It didn’t get the doors open, but it was amusing to have him there nonetheless. We called WTII-David to try and find out when the club would open and no sooner than the words had left my mouth did someone show up to open the doors. I attributed this to David’s magical powers.

Loadin went smoothly, soundcheck setup went smoothly, I geeked out about gear with Pete from the DC for a bit, and then we soundchecked. The soundguy was nice, although he seemed sort of exhausted – nonetheless he got us a decent monitor mix. The violin refused to make any sound for me, which was owrrying, and it wasn’t until I realized that it wasn’t actually plugged in that anything useful happened. We soundchecked, cleared off, had a little bit of charliefoxtrot trying to backline our keyboard (it probably shouldn’t've required three people).

[obligatory Null Device Food Blogging]
Andrew, being a local, recommended a bar across the street for dinner. While I’m usually a bit wary of pub food (at least in this country) this place turned out to be a bit of a gastropub and we ate well. I had a grilled skirt-steak salad with horseradish dressing. I was impressed that it wasn’t just some chopped meat on top of a pile of lettuce – it actually had some nicely-cooked green beans and potatoes in it too, and some sliced beets that were not irritating. Chuck had a spicy pork burrito, Jill had…something with chicken, I didn’t see what. It was all pretty tasty and I had a hoppy pilsner to go with it.

The Dark Clan posse showed up after their soundcheck as well, and I almost didn’t recognize Dan after he took The Hat off. Factory-style or not, That Hat is iconic.

Mulled around the club after that, chatting with Erin from TDC and a few other folks, while Elizabeth and Jill went off to being the pre-show outfit changes. When, during our first practice with the new lineup, Jill and Elizabeth had had in-depth discussions about proper show-attire, I knew that Jill was going to fit in fine.

I went outside to make a phone call and kill some time. While leaving a voicemail, this scrawny bearded guy in a packers hat and a battered carhartt jacket walked up to me. Before I could say “sorry, dude, I don’t have any spare change”, he said “Sup!” and I realized it was just Ned. I talked to him for a bit, then went inside just as Beta Virus went on.

BV – well, Skot thinks they had problems but I didn’t hear any. They played a short but energetic set. I got a kick out of Chris on the drums. Dude really tears into those. It’s awesome.

TDC setup their massive amounts of gear quickly and took off into their set. I dunno what it was but they sounded a even fuller than at the Reverence show. I think it was the keyboards or something. They sounded great, and once again I was reminded just what a seriously monstrous drummer Glenn is.

Sega sat down next to me during “Vampire Sex Funk” and we both agreed that the song had to have been written specifically so Dan could play guitar behind his head.

After TDC cleared off, we set up and…well, it went quickly. Too quickly. We ended up with about 20 minutes to kill before we went on. I talked to the folks from I:Scintilla who were kind enough to come out to the show, and I’m amped to see them at the Inferno this weekend.

It was about then that Aimee Lee called me, asking directions because they were quite lost. I couldn’t give them great directions, since I only had a vague concept of where we were, but I tried.

We got ready to go, I did my stupid intro -”We are Null Device, now with 33% less cock!” There was some giggling. I looked at Andrew and Ned at the bar and added “with 25% more chaal beat!” I cued Jill to start the show and….

Nothing.

No sound. Nothing.

PANIC.

I looked at Jill, who shrugged. I looked at the soundguy, who shrugged. I looked at the keyboard…and noticed that the audio outs weren’t plugged in. I guess they musta got pulled when we were moving the keyboard/Kaoss mess back into place after backlining. I plugged everything back in, cued Jill and…ahh, there we go.

Playing the dholak live is harder than it was in practice. I don’t know why that is. I may or may not continue to do that. I do know I smacked the ever-living crap out of my hands during “Triangular” when I missed the drumhead and hit my knuckle on the bolt-arm.

Things went well otherwise. Jill’s harmonies in “Hourglass” are everything I could ever want them to be. I keep having to make sure I don’t just stop and listen to them while performing that. It’s just neat!

A few hiccups – as usual, no matter how many times we nailed it in rehearsal, we will never, ever get the lyrics to “Travelogue” right onstage. Ever. It is a curse. I think “Down the Line” has a similar problem, but it’s easier to cover – Jill just has to say “[mumble]ing it up and [mumble] down the line” and it’ll fit. Small crowd, but, eh, whatever, we got to play a show and our friends were there so it was all good.

There were people slow-dancing to “Return”, which was entirely surreal.

We closed with “Twisting and Turning” which is a brutal song – Jill needs to sing a ghazal in Urdu and I need to sing in one breath what it took about 7 takes to do in the studio. Jill of course sounded great, and I made it through the lyrics to the song although I nearly blacked out from hypoxia halfway through the chanty “rising rising” part. Our little segue into Blue Monday worked better than I hoped, further validating my theory that Blue Monday mixes into everything. It also gave a nice “hook” for the big finish.

Teardown was easy, and Dan came up to me as I’m packing up and gave me a compliment that stunned me so much I nearly broke into tears. For serious.

We loaded out, I ended up hugging a surprising number of people, I talked to the slow-dancing couple (who both apparently work in radio), bid adieu to Sega and promised to trek down for a belgian-beer-fueled weekend in the near future, and we drove off for Wisconsin. We stopped for terribly unhealthy food on the way (except, surprisingly, for Donutmaster Chuck, who bought fruit) listened to some early 90′s techno, and almost got Chuck a cat at a rest stop just over the border (a stray was hanging around, and expressed interest in Chuck before zooming off into the underbrush). I managed, with difficulty, to stay awake for the drive, and got everyone home in one piece.

I called in sick on Monday, because I did indeed feel like six kinds of ass when I got up.