The Navins at the Blue Moon, 6/11/16

Well all right! Saturday was my first time playing at the Blue Moon on 45th. Last time I set foot in there was maybe 20 years or so ago when my sister-in-law, Alison, and her husband, Todd, lived up here. It was before any of us had kids and we had gone there on New Year's Eve. Well, we ended up there, somehow; we didn't plan on going there, I don't think.

But, even so, I'm guessing that 20 years ago, the only things different about the place were the hi-def widescreen TVs. Of which there was only 2. Still had books on the shelves, likely still had the same clientele there also. Leave it to the Navins and crew to modernize the place up.

First up was a little power trio called Vibragun. Joel on guitar and vocals, Crystal on bass and vocals and not sure about the drummer's name, but I think it was Preston.

Vibragun. Check 'em out!

They played a nice, tight set of shoegazy rock. Lots of pedals on stage, lots of different sounds, very moody stuff. As bands go, I enjoyed their stuff. Plus, they were nice! And Crystal played some badass bass! Her small hands looked like they couldn't do it, but she did awesome.

Next up was The Fucking Eagles. Apparently they get their name from the movie The Big Lebowski, where one of the characters hears the actual Eagles and mutters something about, "the fucking Eagles."

As they set up, it looked like there were about 7 of them. Turns out, it was a 5 piece (drums, bass, 2 guitars and a harmonica) and a guest on 2 songs. They were rough and riotous. It was dirty and nasty and their drummer was like Animal back there. They should put him up front, he was so entertaining.

The Fucking Eagles. Look out!

We took the stage after them and there was a nice little crowd there for us. I had six people there, 66% of which were lesbians! I found it amusing.

For such an old club, the Blue Moon had a decent monitor set up. At least I could hear myself pretty well. The sound guy only miked the kick drum and vocals, though. Our amps did all the rest. From where I was, though I could hear Corey's drums just fine, I felt like he was playing at practice volume. I didn't feel much energy from him, but it could have been him playing it safe as he was having slippery bass drum issues.

Emoting at the Blue Moon.

Sort of weird, though. I felt like we had a rough night. I did, at least. I had a several times where I forgot words, or sang the wrong words. I also wore my hair down and I didn't realize how hard it was to see the frets through hair. There were a few songs where I simply played wrong notes!

People didn't seem to care, though. Everyone had a good time. Even our onstage banter wasn't too awkward. Usually I don't like talking much, but I figured I should practice in case none of the other guys want to talk.

Overall, we played pretty well, despite my errors. I did bring my old Sony Video 8 camera to record our show. I've had that thing since at least 2001 or so, as I recorded lots of Ethyl shows with it. This is the first show I've recorded in years and, after reviewing it when I got home, it sounded great, it looked pretty good (only 480p; this was before HD), and, yes, there were errors, but not as bad as I thought.

I know that as the player, you're always your worst critic. Despite my misses, I need to remember that I'm pretty good at what I do and even though there were some clams, the show was pretty good. The video is processing right now and I'm gonna get it to the guys. After that, we'll put it on youtube for people to check out.