Open mic nights were our version of dipping our toe back into the performing waters, after so many years away from playing together (let alone playing together in front of PEOPLE). This was, if I remember correctly, our second open mic night. We look happy, right? Well…

This was snapped before our slot, which was something of a disaster. The sound guy walked out to have a smoke after setting our levels, which turned out to be set utterly wrong. We stopped in the middle of the second song because what we were getting through the monitors was so unbelievably bad it didn’t make sense to keep subjecting the (small) audience to that. A knowledgeable fellow from the bar stepped in to futz with dials in the soundman’s absence, and our final two songs actually sounded not bad.

The lesson here? Make sure the soundman has had his smoke break BEFORE you go on.

(As an aside, the food at Analog is shockingly great. Really.)