EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.
Jake’s Back Room is a huge place with a large stage and sound system. It’s the second half of Jake’s Sports Bar which is full of televisions. This is another one of those places where the people that work their do not care who is playing. We played with Right On Red and Panda Can Party!. Right On Red is some Lubbock high school band who brought a whole lot of people, then encouraged them to go to another show they were playing that night. They played first then bailed with the audience, mostly polite friends and family … who paid the cover charge. I was told later that there was some sort of record company scout present for their performance. I hope he gives them plenty of room because that was a pretty rough and uninteresting set. They called the other acts “electronica” in a patronizing sort of way. More annoying stereotyping from other bands. Jerome, Panda Can Party!, came out next with his laptop and broke out the beats for his friends. He had them going quite well with dancing and singing. I came next and was avoided by everyone in the place. This was the first time where “experimental” was equated to “bad music” and even the spectacle of my gear and performance did not overcome their disinterest. Needless to say, this has been the most embarrasing and infuriating show for me and I cut some of the songs short just to get through it. Brandon came next and had some people dancing. My helmet and visuals worked and a few people seemed interested, but the place was largely empty. At the end, the AC power block for my computer worked its way off of the belt and the computer ran out of power. At a gas station in Texas (on the road to Ft Worth I think) we found these “Texas-sized” 32 oz beer cans. Brandon broke one out during his set and was told by a bouncer that he would “be going to jail for that open beer can”. We weren’t sure what that was about … is it illegal to drink beer in a bar? Brandon and Jerome laid down a dj set and the 3 of us bumped, annoying anyone else in the bar because we could. We got most of the door money from the people who came for the first band so, even though we played for just a few people, the payout was the best so far. Jerome offered his floor and fouton to us and we crashed at his house a little outside El Paso.