the record release show for for what it’s worse was one of our best shows ever and an amazing night all around. we had great friends (and great bands) faux slang, knife show & the creeping weeds open and we spent the majority of their sets having people come up to us to tell us how amazing they all are. (we already knew that, that’s why we booked them).  dj extraordinaire jersey dan  from choice tasters & y-not radio kept the music going before, after and between the bands.  as for us, we played an hour and a half mix of songs from the new record, old favorites from our past records and some brand new future-hits. we closed the set with a late 70’s/early 80’s arena rock trilogy sandwiched between the first and last songs off our first record 21. that was going to be it but the crowd demanded more, shouting out song titles that eventually evolved into a chant of “gbv, gbv, gbv…..” so we obliged with two guided by voices covers. definitely one of the most fun sets we’ve ever played.

good intentions
st. nick
you never seem to mind
lifeboat
finders
me & sweet j
deep end
geometric mean
everything pales
afternoon is better
shattered leaves
starting now
the greater depression
nutso
infinite space
butterfly
stock
humpty
weekend politics
become
highway to hell (ac/dc)
misty mountain hop (led zeppelin)
under pressure (queen & david bowie)
love oven

encore:
buzzards & dreadful crows (guided by voices)
motor away (guided by voices)

the guys from “bands in the backyard” also have photos posted on their flickr page here.

also, our friend lauree drove all the way up from arlington, va for the show and she has some pictures posted here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150941645910118.763944.509435117&type=3

this was a philly f/m festival showcase celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the book our band could be your life. the festival invited a bunch of philly bands to chose a band that had been written about in the book and cover three of their songs. we were the first band to respond and chose mission of burma. when it came time for our set the show was running ahead of schedule so we took the opportunity to play two extra songs by two of our favorite bands also featured in the book:

academy fight song (mission of burma)
that’s how i escaped my certain fate (mission of burma)
that’s when i reach for my revolver (mission of burma)
back from somewhere (husker du)
left of the dial (replacements)

the other bands on the bill were:

house bat as sonic youth
metroplex as fugazi
ghosts in the valley as the minutemen
faux slang as husker du
howling fantods as mudhoney
yeah clementines as the replacements
the successful failures as beat happening
the silence kit as minor threat
golden bloom as dinosaur jr.

our band could be your life: “provides a chapter-style, documentary-like, behind-the-scenes history of a dozen or so bands that truly defined what it meant to be an indie or punk band during the 1980′s, with stories and facts that shed such a new light on each of the featured bands that I feel like a dope for thinking I knew anything about them before reading the book.” baby got books