Do I post the review here, or elsewhere since the innocence of this thread has been lost...
Sure!
Mr Toast rings in the New Year with Downright/Anthem/The Merry Maids of Iron!
As many of you know, I flew in from Tennessee (yet again) for this gig. Due to a lack of available seats, the only cheap ticket left was at 2:30 PM the afternoon of December 31st. I ended up spending about an hour driving around looking for the club (issues with Mapquest - but the map still had me close enough that I wasn't actually lost, just looking in the wrong place...). This put me in the parking lot at... 5:30 PM. As I still had a little jet lag, I took a catnap until around 7:30 PM, when I noticed that Linda and Mark had arrived.
I spent the next hour or so helping with load in, chatting with Linda and Mark, and helping decorate the club (the bartender hooked me up with a couple of free Sprites for my efforts). Then I waited around for the first act. I found it amusing that the club was across the street from the John Wayne airport (next time I fly in there), and that a John Wayne movie as playing on a TV in the club as we waited for opening time...
Downright prepared to take the stage, but there were some delays before they finally started playing. I've seen Downright once before, and they did a fine job playing this time around as well.
Downright fits in well with the Nu Metal sound, which would normally turn me completely off, but their guitarists let loose enough to keep me interested. Another interesting note is that their bassist plays his bass 'upside down', and had a pretty nice sound. They were offering free CD's, so of course I made it a point to pick one up.
At some point, Sara walked in, catching the last song or two of Downright in the process. Sara is usually one of the early arrivals (for the Maidens), and she has made it a point to check out the other bands each time I've been out.
Wanda also walked in at some point, so as soon as I was aware of her presence (this being our first encounter), I ambushed her with the Evil Toast Cam and the Flash Of Doom...
(continued)
