Friday January 21, 2000
Shenanigans
Norwalk, CT

Let me just start this gig diary by saying that it has been a crazy couple of weeks on the EPIC front. We have been doing some serious cramming with the new member of the band, drummer Jorge Maldanado. We had to figure out what he already new, practice the things he didn't, and learn new tunes. All in all we did all of that in about two weeks! Not bad, eh? 

Anyway....it's the Wed. night before the show and I'm in a deep slumber....suddenly, I'm at Shenanigans with the band....we are on stage....equipment is failing....I can't remember any of the songs...the place is empty....LITERALLY....the only person in the room is the owner, who is sarcastically clapping at the end of each song.....we were all arguing about what song to play next....THE BEER WAS WARM!!!! ARRRRRGH!!!!!! I'm having a GOD DAMN nightmare!!!!! I woke up in a cold sweat....could this actually happen? Was this some sort of premonition? Please...let it just be a bad dream......

Friday night finally comes. It's one of the coldest days of the year. 30 below zero with the wind chill!! Needless to say, we all froze our hairy bean bags off loading in our gear. Once we got set up and did our sound check we were almost thawed out. We hung out for a bit and had a few beers. Then Tony says to me..."hey, what time you got?" I told him that it was 9:30....um.....the place is empty......<oh no...my nightmare!> Well...we sat in quite panic for another 45 minutes, and the place started to fill up. We all put on our shiny shirts and took the stage at about 10:15. Thanks to Kevin for loaning me his hat! I think I may steal it again at the next show...in fact....I may just buy the damn thing from him....The room continued to fill up as we played our first set. By the time we started the second set we had a really nice sized crowd that was totally digging the tunes. Jesus showed up again. I know what your saying...come on Glenn, Jesus? Well...he is on the mailing list, and he shows up at every show. He's usually tripping out on some hard core shit, but the dude knows how to party, and man is he ever an EPIC HEAD! I wonder if there will be any conflicts during lent? What can I say...you will see for yourself at the next show...he looks like Christ....I swear it! Okay, now that I have assured my spot in hell, I will move on. We debuted a bunch of new material that went over really well. New tunes included Pour Some Sugar On Me, a Poison tune, and some New Blink182. The night was killer. We got yelled at for having too many people on stage with us....check that....too many guys on the stage....it was actually funny how they let the women stay up there longer than the dudes who were singing along...hmmm.....Dave "the shit" was good enough to point out "3 Sweedish girls" to us. I also have to thank the dude who kept buying shots for the band. I know that the shots are $5 each, and he was buying them for all five of us, and he brought over about 3 rounds! Easy math will tell you that the guy spend about $75 plus tip on EPIC! Thanks dude! Also, I would like to welcome the first official EPIC roadie! Dan has joined on as our stage help...you know, carrying shit, going to the bar for beer, security, comedy relief...welcome Dan!

Finally, I would like to personally welcome Jorge to the band. To a man, we are all excited about working with him. Jorge brings a ton of experience, and a dedication to his instrument that is incredible. His abilities and easy going attitude are going to be a great asset to this band, and the end result will be that YOU people will get a great show every time! We are learning a lot of new material, and are already making plans to debut originals as well. Lets all make Jorge feel welcome at the next gig! We already love him and are grateful that he has the same warped sense of perversion that the rest of us in the band share!

See ya back at Shenanigans on February 11th!!!

ROCK
-glenn