It was exciting for us to be playing somewhere that wasn’t the Webster Underground. Don’t get me wrong – we love to play the Webster, but it’s nice to venture out to new venues. Not only did none of us ever hear of The Wet Bar, but everyone we told about the show had no clue about the place either. Even people who live in the Norwich/New London area had never heard of it.

Master, an established promoter in the CT Metal scene, invited us to play that night with his band Apocalypse Highway and a couple other bands. Unfortunately for Master, an accident left him with several injuries preventing him from performing that night, however for the rest of the bands, he kept the show scheduled. The 2 other bands performing were Eyes of Wrath and This Time Down.

After rehearsing for a couple of hours in the studio, we packed up our gear and headed off for an hour drive to Norwich, CT. My trusty, yet sometimes ambiguous, GPS directions landed us at an intersection downtown that clearly flagged The Wet Bar as being directly to my left, yet nowhere in the physical world. Pulling into the side street and over to the curb for closer examination I couldn’t find any indication of any kind of bar other than a sushi bar anywhere around. A girl came out of a door of a building that resemble possibly an old elks club or something, so I asked her if she knew of the place and she gestured to the door she just came out of.

As always, we were the 1st to arrive, so after parking as ambassador of the band, I made my way through the door, down the stars, and to the bar to introduce myself and check in with the owner of the club and one of the promoters of the show. Both were very friendly and gave me a tour of the room including the private rooms where we could store our equipment.

After loading in our stuff the waiting game began. We quickly learned that there was no sound engineer and only a questionable PA system with a board that looked like it had been left on the side of the street in a really bad neighborhood, with missing knobs and all. In addition to that only the stage right speaker worked and the there were channel issues with the microphones making them cut out every once in awhile.

The 1st band, Eyes of Wrath, were struggling with this mic issue, and there being no audio engineer on staff, I lent my knowledge to the problem. We swapped out several cables and mic’s and I even lent them my mic to use, but the problem persisted. They continued to play out their set despite the frustration on a faulty PA system. The second band played 4 songs with obvious PA issues and then broke down into what can only be described as a tantrum, refusing to play on.

With the 2nd band finishing early it moved our time slot up a bit. Master ask if we were going to play in light of the PA issues and I assured him that we made a commitment to perform and we would stand by that. I tested a theory I had about the sound board and the compression settings and that seemed to fix the problem for our set. We had a full hour set to fill, which we’ve never had before. We’re used to having to cram as much as we can into 30 minutes for all of our previous shows, which left very little time for chatting. With an hour set we were able to stretch things out a bit play a more relaxed gig. We played our asses off to a very scarce crowd, however those who were there did appreciate our effort.

Attendance was a major let down most likely do to the Mayhem Tour going on that night and the general obscurity of the venue having no real visible signage. The few people that were there throughout the night were either the promoters, the bands, or friends of the bands. By the time we went on none of the bands had the courtesy to stick around for us and took their friends with them. Something I’ve always considered a “douche bag move” from playing at the Webster with other bands. When it comes down to it, there is no camaraderie among local bands as one would expect. The support among them is almost non-existant.

In spite of the poor attendance and crappy PA system, I don’t see this gig as a negative experience for us. Every time we play out it’s a new learning experience for us and this was no different. Although The Wet Bar has its downs, it has the potential to be a really cool place to perform with the right promotion and working PA. The stage is itself is just big enough for a drum kit and a few amps, which puts the band on the floor in a more intimate environment with the crowd. The couches and poor tables give the place a more relaxed feel and the private adjoining rooms offer bands a place to store equipment, tune up, or relax a bit before show time. If the above issues were taken care of then I’d love to return to The Wet Bar again for another gig.

Related posts:

1. Show Report: The El N’ Gee Incident
2. Show Report: Webster Underground
3. The Big Show
4. The Show Must Go On
5. Our 1st Show