Back in Action

Hey!

I thought I had lost you. Following our show at Ronny's on the 11th, I tried to log in and update this thing and I couldn't. I kept getting messages saying that the blog was no longer here and that the name was no longer available. I was perplexed to say the least. Only recently did I hear word from Kristyne that it was back up. That's good news for me; I have been enjoying myself.

A lot has been going on since last I made an appearance. We played our show with the always amazing Let Me Run. The turn out could have been better, but we had fun nonetheless. X is for Eyes played as well and they were a lot of fun. They really enjoyed our set and vice versa. I'm hoping for shows to be played together in the future. I'm really looking forward to seeing them at Riot Fest in a couple weeks. Following the show, the three bands all just hung around and talked about the state of music and the scenes today. I took some shots before the show and tossed them up on Flickr if you wanna go check them out. They're worth it just to see some of the faces Jimmy was making while we were setting up.

After that performance came our show at the Elbo Room on the 19th. It was a lot of fun to play some older songs and "Wayfarer" continues to come off effectively as an opening track. Unbeknown to us, a woman was in attendance to who keeps a blog about the Chicago music scene and she wrote a very kind review of our set. Check it out here: http://southsideonthetown.blogspot.com/2010/09/19-sept-10.html This was to be our last show for a while so we could focus on getting some recording done and new songs written. It was nice to be able to have such nice feedback on a show that just seemed to be over so quickly. We are hoping to come out of hibernation next spring and take Chicago like a storm with a solid collection of songs and a heavy schedule of shows. We have a few shows right now for the upcoming Fall/Winter months. One will be in October in Berwyn and the next in December in Barrington.

Be sure to keep an eye out over the coming weeks and months for updates on how we are doing. Saturday is going to be the first day we've got together since our show at the Elbo Room. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it has been too long. Granted, I extended the break this week further to see the White Sox play, (which they won, by the way), but the sentiment is still the same. The creative juices have been flowing and I am so excited to hear what everyone has been up to.

On an unrelated note, I recommend that everyone pick up the new Bad Religion album, The Dissent of Man. It's far from their best effort, but the first 11 songs alone are worth the price of admission.

Until next time, take care and keep on rocking in the free world.

-Mat

Let Me Run...to Ronny's this Saturday

BIG NEWS!

We were just offered to play a show this Saturday tonight. It's going to be at Ronny's with doors at 8pm. Obviously, any show offer is great news, but this is different because of who we are playing with. One of the great things about playing in a band is the opportunity to play shows with bands you actually knew of and listened to before the show. This Saturday we are playing with Let Me Run, Rust Belt Lights, and X is for Eyes. I've known about Let Me Run for a while and I jumped a little when I heard we were offered a chance to play with them. It excites me to be playing a show with bands I feel like we will fit in with. It would be nicer if it were an all-ages show, but since it's on a Saturday, I think a good amount of people should show up.

We were going to save this for the Elbo Room on the 19th, but this is too good of an opportunity to pass up. We have been working on this one song for a while now. Everything has been ready musically for some time. All we were waiting on was for Jimmy to finish the lyrics. We were being patient; knowing that there was no need to rush at all. We debated playing it instrumentally at a show because it is just that much fun. Jimmy laid down the gauntlet, determined to have the song ready by the 19th. I am happy to report that he finished the lyrics this afternoon, we perfected it tonight, and it is going to be debuted this Saturday. The song is called "Wayfarer's Hymn" and is one of my favorite songs we've written.

If you are able to, please come out and support us. We are playing first which means we go on around 9. We would love nothing more than to see friendly faces. If nothing else, keep your ears open because a demo of "Wayfarer's" should be showing up soon.

See you Saturday

-mat

Elbo Room 9-05-2010

I would equate the feeling I have about the show we played last night with how good I felt after our first show at Reggie's. I would probably throw it right up there in the top three with said Reggie's show and The Double Door show. (We were fortunate enough to be playing the main stage that night.)

Sitting here typing this, I can think of a few consistencies between all three shows: 1. an audience. Not just any audience, but a crowd of people who had never heard our music before and just happened to be there in anticipation of the later bands. We knew we had to bring it to win these people over since we brought no support; other than Justine, of course. 2. We had to play first. It's never easy to be the one going first at a show. Especially when no has ever heard your music and it's just as likely to fail as succeed. Thankfully, we pulled it off every time.

Tonight was special because Kristyne finally got a small percentage of the recognition she truly deserves. A gentleman came up to her after the show to exclaim how awesome she did on the drums.

I learned first hand why Matt Freeman is such a huge fan of P Basses. I thought I was done spending big money on band stuff for now, but I went to bed with dreams of a Cherry Red American Standard P Bass dancing in my head.

Check out our Facebook for some videos of the show that excited Justine to the point where she left well before we did so she could show the world. I watched them and they are good. Aside from the start of "Come Back to Me", these are some of our best performances of these songs. If you think those are fun, come back to the Elbo Room in 2 weeks and talk to me. As far as I'm concerned, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Oh, and I decided to start using flickr to keep track of any pictures I take. Please don't confuse my crap with Justine's actual hard work.

We'll see you all very soon. As for now, we are going to get back to work on this new song that is going to rock your socks.

Our set last night was:

Come Back to Me

45 Alive

Apathetic Casualty

3 AM Thoughts

Let it Roll

And the World Moved On

The People Vs. The Gun

Alibi of the Innocent

Blue Person Group

I know what you've all been thinking: "You all have been together for almost a year, how come Warhellride has conquered almost every facet of the internet except the blog world?" Well, you all may put those fears to rest. As the bass player, I feel it is my duty to create and maintain a blog to keep the world posted on all things Warhellride. Here you will find posts containing pictures, videos, show updates, and anything else pertaining to the band that I feel like posting. Come along as we continue along the roller coaster ride that is being a band doing everything DIY.

Today, I thought I would toss up some shots from our show last night at Miskas. These come courtesy of the always fantastic Justine Gendron. I love these pictures. Personally, I think my eyes in that picture make me look a little like Matt Skiba...if he had more hair...and played bass.