Posted on May 10 2011 11:56 PM
More videos will be posted in the upcoming weeks; I finally got copies of all the DVD's we made during the Summit, and additional copies will be mailed to their respective bands Wednesday or Thursday (save Jack Maverick, whose DVD unfortunately didn't take--booo! 
). I also just posted this bit of Blood Red River's show on the Instro Summit You Tube Page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0rH0PwspiI
As I said before, I've been packing, moving, and unpacking these past two weeks, and I'm still a bit turned around and inside out, but It's been a while since I promised my own thoughts on the big ol' monsker I created, so here goes:
Friday: Beyond my expectations, save the lower attendance from last year. Still loving how every band really revved up and knocked one out of the park this night.
Saturday: Musically, I knew this would be a knockout of a night. The Surge (sorry--X-Rays!), would get everybody in a good mood, and while Bu Hao Ting might scare the crap out of everyone, they'd prep the crowd for the increasingly aggressive instrumental assault that would follow.
And it was, from the Noseriders, to the Atomic Mosquitos, to the Coffin Daggers, to Daikaiju, it got more aggressive, frentic, wilder, and just plain rockin' as the night progressed. If I'd left it at this, I'd have a night legends are made of.
But no, I had the cockeyed idea of having Phatlynx follow Daikaiju (insiders tip: NEVER listen to Santanu about what band should follow another!), and tried to get a crowd that at that point was exhausted, drunk and just plain intimidated to come on stage and join us for the various contests and jams we had to round out the evening. (Bless Mom Surfing for having the cajones the boys didn't that night!). Ah well, it was a noble failure. Next year, I think I'll have the whole Rumble Jam/Contest thing around 10pm or so, before all them Pabsts have taken their effect on folks.
Sunday--honestly, I had low expectations: Three local acts, plus three pretty much unknown bands that had never played the area before? I just hoped we'd make the same amount we did last year at the door (although that had Daikaiju as the headliner, which no doubt had an affect on the take).
Color me tickled pink as things rolled out: A better than decent crowd, bands that knocked people off their socks (best quote of the night from a delirious woman fan: "Crispy! Kill, Baby...Kill.....FUCK! 
" and the take at the raffle table nearly doubled by eager bass players trying to get their hands on that Classic 4 bass.
One bit of scariness: A pair of drunken yokels during the Killer Filler set nearly came to blows, all because one wanted to leave, but the other one wanted to stay and see the show! It was flattering, really, if a bit unnerving. in honor of them we dedicated our next song which--perfectly!--was the Al Hirt classic "Java"! What better song to dedicate to a pair of drunks than a song about coffee?
It was also neat that nearly everybody who won the raffle prizes was in the crowd that night (save that bass again, which is going all the way to Connecticut!). And when my Phatlynx co-guitarist and right hand man Robbie Poore won the Instro Summit guitar--well, I couldn't think of a nicer thing to happen, or a man who deserved it more.
All in all is was a fabulous weekend musically, though we certainly didn't draw as good a crowd as last year. Thankfully the raffle take made up for the loss, and I was able to pay each band roughly double what they would have made at the door. And thanks to PBR, my losses were quite minimal--under 70 bucks--so I'm pretty happy, too.
Hopefully, we can do another one of these next year. As some of you know, my personal life is going through a particularly messy state of transition, and I'm hoping I'll come out of it better than I was before. in the meantime, Robby Poore and I will be watching our copies of the Summit, and slowly picking and editing our favorites from the nearly 20 hours of footage we shot. So stay tuned: Much more to come here.
--Crispy
Last edited: May 10, 2011 23:59:24
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