this week in shows, Trash Bar, Connoly's, Popeyes

Hey this is Roach again from Slam One Down. I posted something the other day about our show at the Trash Bar and how sick that show was, but its Sunday now and after two more shows this week i wanted to give the full week in review.

Now when I first heard we were booked for three shows in one week, i 'll admit i wasn't sure if all three of those shows were going to be great. The problem with a band with no national notoriety that's just starting out is that you always get your friends to come to your shows. Most bookers and agents all agree that doing more than two shows a month is not a good strategy because all you end up doing is annoy your audience (basically your friends) by forcing them to come to the same show over and over. You also run the risk of getting stale really quickly because your playing the same songs in front of the same people. This is within a month, mind you, let alone a week.

Well if you read the last blog you know how the Trash Bar went. It was a sick show and we met new bands and people. Connoly's I wasn't too sure about because it was a late show (we went on at midnight) and it was Times Square, a place where metal fans don't tend to frequent anymore. My fears were crushed, however, when i saw the crowd that was there. We met a couple of them beforehand and just like true metal fans, they stayed till the very end of our set. The most surprising thing i saw at that show was that more girls were moshing it up than the guys. Now I'm not going to point any of you out, but fellas, the girls were showin you up at this show. If i wasn't behind a drum set at the time, i would've jumped into that. You guys have no excuse. You better make it up to us on the next one.

The last show we did was last night at Popeyes Pub in Cortlandt manor, ny. Before we even get to the show disaster almost struck. We took two cars, Bobby J.R. and Scotty took the S1D-mobile with the hitch up and Me and the misses took my car with my drum gear from the city. We both get stopped by the cops. Now my comrades were stopped because they had a trailer on a parkway, something you're not supposed to do apparently. They were let go, however, but given a warning. I, on the other hand, was stopped because i was speeding in a small westchester town. The cops comes back and tells me my license has been suspended since November. The city, in it's infinite wisdom, failed to notify me.

They actually arrested me and took me to the precinct. The cops, however, were really nice and after i told them about the show and everything, were very accomodating and fast tracked the paper work that needed to be done. After about an hour waiting in a jail cell, the paper work was done and i was back on the road (needless to say, my wife drove the rest of the way)

we get to the venue and lemme tell you, it is TINY. We barely had room enough to get our gear into the back where the stage was. after a drink and a laugh about our excursions with law enforcement, it was our turn to play. we set up our gear and went on with the show. We threw all the bullshit and drama to the side and rocked the fucking joint. Everyone was banging their heads and moshing. just like the last two shows this week, this was starting out to be a great show.

then something happened. During one of our songs, I'm looking down, concentrating on the certain part i had to play. I look up and EVERYONE is on stage, moshing, head banging, yelling and screaming. The place went absolutely nuts. Scotty got drenched in beer, people were air guitaring with J.R. and Bobby joined in the moshing. After 8 years of playing live shows, i thought i'd seen it all. This was probably one of the sickest things i'd ever seen. The crowd was fuckin hot and we gave them what they wanted.

This was also the first crowd that got Beer Run right. We like to turn the mics around and let the fans sing this one, but the last couple of shows nobody's been willing to participate. Well Popeye's destroyed that. We had the entire place singing B-DOUBLE E-DOUBLE R-U-N BEER RUN! BEER RUN! it was such an amazing experience and i hope Popeye's has shown the rest of you how it's done.

So with all our fears and apprehension of playing three shows in one week, we rose to the occasion and crushed all three. each show was better than the last with Popeye's being the culmination of all this. We're learning our lesson from this experience, though, and we're going to stick with a two show a month formula. Of course if someone throws us a free show here and there we won't turn them down, but we're gonna focus more on picking and choosing our shows, working on more original music as well as covers, and getting merchandise for you crazy fuckheads.

be sure to check out our sites myspace.com/slamonedown reverbnation.com/slamonedown. and also on facebook search for Slam One Down. Also on Facebook search for our mascot Brew Ski. I'm getting a lot of people asking who Brew Ski is, thats the mascot for the band. So if you get a friend request from a ripped metalhead with a chump in a headlock forcing a tap into his mouth, accept it and check out the music. Until next time, keep it metal!

-Roach