Black Cat, Washington DC, Thursday, June 16
w/ Bettie Serveert

Setlist
Things You Never Said
Flowers and Trees
Park Slope
Back To Me
I Need You
Summer Nights
Someday
Every Conversation
Bliss!
Tonight

Notes
Not that we weren't thrilled to be sharing a stage with Bettie Serveert, but it's a shame that it had to come on a night when every stage in DC was filled with some big-name marquee band: Architecture in Helsinki, Bloc Party, Modest Mouse and Travis Morrison were all playing exactly the same night. We tried to explain this to Bettie Serveet in reponse to them being a little disappointed at the 1/3 full Black Cat, but I don't know if it made any difference to them.

But regardless of how they felt about it, we had a blast. It seems that, when it comes to the drinks that the bands get, there's a definite difference between playing the main stage and the backstage, specifically the difference between two pitchers and a case. But maybe that's the difference between playing on "the slowest night of the year" (like we did on Jan 2, 2004) vs. playing with a long-time big name band. We still sat in the tiny little dressing room that we always do when we play there, but somehow it felt a lot more rockstar than it did in the past.

And that stage is amazing to play on. TWO sound guys! We each had our own monitors and still had plenty of room even though we didn't have the full stage. We felt like royalty. It's maybe true that we have pretty low standards when it comes to these sorts of things, but we'll take it. It was the best.

Also a note to everyone except the sound guys and the upstairs bartenders: you missed Nicole's soundcheck rendition of Loretta Lynn's "Family Tree", which means you missed a lot. Your loss.