An Atomically-Correct Evening

That's right, Kool and Your Gang, there was a party goin' on right here (and by "right here" we mean Lincoln's Roadhouse) last night.

I’ll cut to the chase. 

Last night at Lincoln’s Roadhouse, Atomic Drawers played the best set we’ve ever done.  I mean, I hate to toss out unsubstantiated hyperbole like so much celebratory confetti, but the that was the single best Drawers performance, Chester or Atomic or otherwise, that we’ve ever, ever, ever played.  Ever.  I’m not sure if that’s really saying much when you look at comparables, but there you have it. 

The strange thing is, we did it on one night of practice and played mostly well-worn covers.  We had decided to play last night just to get back on stage and into the mix after a long time off, and that next week was going to be the week where we really put it all together.     

Lamentably, the days of depending upon a support base of near and dear old friends has largely passed into history; however, as it turns out, we still have a few of the old guard who come out to Lincoln’s for a variety of great musical stylings, excellent food, unparallelled service, and the best Wednesday night atmosphere in Denver.   And fortunately, several musicians and lots of random strangers seem to dig our stuff.   

We have found one way to get friends to come see us; give them a ride to Lincoln's in The Atomic Taxi/Tour Bus. Thanks, Jared, for ridin' shotgun on the long trip from Completon.

All of these factors and more made last night a freaking blast.  We were slated to go on around 9:20, but instead hit the stage about a half hour earlier and stayed up there for a good long time.  (The joint wasn’t packed, but there was still a good, rowdy crowd.)  

We started off with Chilly Water.  It seemed to take off all by itself. At the end, Billy and I looked at each other like, “holy shit, where did THAT come from?  

We followed with I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, then on to a frenetic East Bound and Down, Can’t Hardly Wait, T-Shirt, and Straight to Hell.  It was the first time we’ve played Straight to Hell; it’s easy and fun and a lot of folks seemed to really like it, singing along and clapping and such. 

I know, I know, it’s difficult to imagine singing and clapping audience members, but there was a hootenanny a-goin’ on, and subsequently we can cross another goal off of our list: audience participation. 

Excuse the wild conjecture, but I really think, and there was discussion of this last night, that when we finally record our first album it’ll sell ten copies in the first week and go Plastic.  And if by some miracle we can match that sales total in the second week, it’ll go Double Plastic.  From there, we can live on the residuals alone.

Major thanks to everybody who was at Lincoln’s last night, friends and strangers alike:

Keith, Keith’s bearded friend whose name I forgot but might be Phil?, David & Renee, Jared, Kelly, and new Denver immigrant/great old friend John, as well as the Lincoln’s Roadhouse Softball Team and friends, Weird Ancient Hippie Rainstick Lady, and all of the musicians, eaters, drinkers, bikers, stoners, Irishmen, and EVERYBODY who made last night the best we’ve had in a long time.  We hope you had as much fun as we did.

Even more thanks to Chris for pourin’, Rebecca for servin’, and John for sound, support, and organization.     

We are tentatively optimistic that our Atomic Constipation has passed.  We have a ton of new original music that we’re working on and which should be ready for consumption very soon.  Also, I’m hoping to upload a few recent things to this site in a few days.

Until then, I dream of one day having our number of show attendees come somewhere close to that of the blog readership. I wonder if a weekend gig would help?