niu. friday. march 29, 2024. 3am.

we were talking, and as best we can figure, rock heaven is a bit like this: everyday is a beautiful sunny day, and you are scheduled to play an outdoor show... and oh yeah, there are people everywhere helping you move your gear. well, that's pretty much what this show at niu was like. except on top of that, there was free pizza. we had a long night on friday and by the time we woke up, rounded everybody (including our friend mary who made the trip with us!) up, and got donuts we were running pretty late. chris was coached by robert in the art high speed three land sweeps and the like, and got us there on time! *gasp*

the battle, put on by niu's campus activities board, also featured the amazing adoracore sounds of madison's bicycle day, who rocked us so hard (and sprayed silly string everywhere) as we unloaded equipment and set up. during our set chris noticed what he thought was dried tomato sauce on his ride cymbal... but realized that it was dried bits of the interociter drummer's blood from the night before! nasty. afterwards we got really excited when approached by several students distributing what we thought were freeze pops only to discover that it was instead spray on body deodorant. it was antiperspirant, and tasted awful. we spent the rest of the afternoon talking with cool kids from dekalb, of which we met many, including members of the band "where's sammy k. at" who are great people and who have a nutty band you should check out. we also played some frisbee and drank some cool ones (quite refreshing on such a hot day.) we got beat in the battle by a metal band and this band that played a brittany spears cover, but we did "win the war" during the awards ceremony. you see, show organizer john ugolini was announcing raffle winners and found he had a single ben kweller cd left over. he promised to give it to the first person who could run up on stage and beat him in arm wrestling... robert shot out of the audience and within seconds, the cement steps in front of the stage were transformed into the final scene from "over the top" with robert and john's wiry arms entangled and churning like a python mating dance. when the dust settled robert emerged victorious and, like a true hero, just gave the ben kweller cd to gabe. on the way home, driving the speed limit this time, chris, robert and gabe (in chris's car) listened to the board mix of the set and then gabe (while the a-team theme played) constructed an apparatus (using a snow brush and a wire hanger) to pass the tape into travis's window while going about 70 mph. as soon as the tape was out the window, however, it started to unravel. hilarity ensued. luckily the tape was rescued and tracks can be heard by clicking the links below. thanks to john ugolini, becky campy, and everyone at niu CAB for setting up the show, thanks to bicycle day for rocking us senseless, and thanks to mary for taking the trip with us and taking pictures.

SETLIST:

k.o. star
broken typewriter
the sun is falling
perfect radio faces
rain is rain
i!d!m!