Southampton College, April 20, 1990

Before this gig, we didn't know if we were any good. We had been getting together for years, we were having a lot of fun with Frank, it all sounded good to us, but we had no idea how we would actually go over in front of an audience.  Since I'd joined in 1986, we'd played a total of two shows, years ago, and none with the new lineup.  And now for this booking, we were expected to play 4 1/2 hours.  LOOB was a weird, eclectic band, especially at this point, and we weren't taking anything for granted. That's one reason we quickly worked up some covers for the occasion, just in case they started throwing fruit! 

After this gig, I don't think we ever walked onstage again without feeling supremely confident, almost cocky!  I, for one, can't ever remember a time being nervous before a Life Out Of Balance gig.  After this day, I always felt - rightly or wrongly - that I was in the best band in the land.  What a difference a day makes!

The flyer making mention of the Good Times poll which we had "topped", despite having played only two low-profile shows within the last four years and no proper demo tape.

I don't want to make this gig sound like it was all smooth sailing!  Within a few months, playing four sets would be no big whoop.  But at this point? We crammed the night before (see previous post) learning a ton of songs just for this occasion.  Would we remember them all? Would there be a train wreck?  Would the audience catch that some of these songs didn't have lyrics yet?  And what about the other guys in the band?  Who were these people, anyways, this Ted, this Mike?  Were we going to get onstage and suddenly be embarrassed? Were we a gang....or was it every man for himself?

This was four sets of work, concentration and effort, flying by the seat of your pants, no switching to auto-pilot, there was no autopilot.  If this song was going well, don't get too comfortable because the next song would be a whole new set of problems to overcome! Some (most) songs we just had to wing-it ("That's Not The Way", "That's Jazz", Pink Floyd's "Breathe", all with lyrics made up on the spot by Hubie. "I'm Crying" too).

Luckily we had a musically-adventurous,understanding and fortified(!) audience, almost all people known to us.  Attendees included the brothers Poole & Russell, Christine too, Paul's friend Tord, Hubie's friend Alex, Val, I think Jim Maloney was there....my friend Josh Pickering came out from CW Post to observe the festivities, I think I drove out with him....he had heard so much about LOOB for years! In fact, that's who the audience was! Not really students at the college, but people who had heard about LOOB...and had always asked "so when are you playing a gig?"  Asking this year after year!  As you can hear, it's not a giant crowd or anything.  But virtually the entire audience came from some distance - some from the city, some from Nassau County, the nearest friends were from Port Jefferson, 40 minutes away.  We could have easily sucked and been the laughing stock of our respective circles of friends.  "I drove out all the way out here for this???"  "Gee, your band sucks." "Why are you playing with that lot anyway?" "I see why you guys don't play gigs!"

Probably hitting the big harmony in "Return Britain", one of my favorite things to do in all Loobdom.

Instead, through sheer will, skill, and a lot of quick thinking, LOOB put on a dynamic, varied, compelling, engaging, entertaining show.  I'm not saying everyone in that audience fell over with adulation. As you can hear, the kinks were far from being ironed out.  But after years of rehearsing, we came out of our shell and played for the world.....and the world did not puke!  Quite the opposite!  You might not personally dig every song, but you couldn't deny they were all legitimate songs!  (even the made-up-on-the-spot songs!).  Every one catchier than the last!  

Sure, there were a few near-train wrecks, nothing major. More often than not, we hit our mark, turning in distinguished performances of "Return Britain", "Is It Safe?",  "I Hear A New Voice"(why in the world did we stop playing this?!),  "I'm So Tired" (ditto), probably the best version ever of Frank's mysterious "The Advocate" (which features Hubie playing a beautiful meandering solo, using his custom "Swimmin' Poole" setting on his effects rack), Ted's rocking "Castles And Planes", and the absolutely gross (but often well-played) "Beating A Dead Horse".  I think this show began the tradition of audience "woo"-ing during the stops in "I Know Your Name".  And I know I've said this about another great version in an earlier post, but this has to be the ultimate "Island Music", Hubie is drop-dead hilarious for 14 mind-boggling minutes. We stopped doing this song because some girl scared us off it (we're from the Island, Long Island, get it?  Jamaica Bay? Hello?)

However, I think our secret weapon, the thing that sealed the deal...was the acoustic set, which we dropped in the middle of the show. To go from "Island Music" to "I'm Crying" in a few minutes time....I know I would have gotten on the mailing list! I mean, what couldn't this band do?  And then "Don't Step On The Blue Grass"?  It was - how do you say - fucking awesome!  

performing "I'm Crying" at Southampton. The lyrics to this - and other - songs were not yet finished, and Hubie had the unenviable task of making up the words to half the show off the top of his head. I'm playing Karen Mal's cuatro. 

These photographs of Life Out Of Balance were taken by Peter Helenius.  These are the only ones I have found so far, but there are lots more.  These two acoustic shots, as well as the top picture, were blown up and printed on long sheets of paper, I just photographed them with my cellphone as they are too big to scan.  They used to hang in our studio above the studio monitors. 

After the acoustic mini-set, we played one more electric set of strong material, most of the "question-mark" tunes behind us. When the last tape cuts off, we're just about to go into the last verse of "Sailing", our final song for the night. After the show, there was just enormous relief and much back-slapping, we had done it, we hadn't embarrassed ourselves, we didn't even have a so/so gig.  We had actually triumphed, blown people away, rocked the house - entirely on our own terms, with our own material.....and all we could think of was when could we do it again.

(and when could we next rehearse, for we now knew exactly what needed fixing!)

Life Out Of Balance, The Rat at SUNY Southampton, 4/20/90

1st set
We Both Wobble
Don't Let Me Down
Minnie's Cold Glass Eye
Return Britain
It's All Right
Spotlight Shining
Inside Outside
That's Not The Way
Beating A Dead Horse

2nd set
Phobia
I've Got An Onion
"That's Jazz" (untitled song)
Castles And Planes
Love  You
The Advocate
I Hear A New Voice
Island Music
Breathe ->
On The Run ->
Is It Safe?

3rd set (acoustic)
I'm Crying
What You Say
Don't Step On The Blue Grass
Complete Collapse

4th set
I'm So Tired
Wintertime
I Know Your Name
When I
Can't Hold Out
End Of The Story
Sailing/

Hubert Poole - guitar, vocal
Frank Russell - guitar, vocal
Ted Schreiber - bass, acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocal
Michael Goodman - drums, cuatro, acoustic guitar, vocal

Note about the recording:
The sound was done by Kenny Dugan, who would later engineer our "Return Britain" demo.  We gave him the Portastudio to record our set, but obviously he had his hands full mixing the band.There's some distortion on the vocals at times,the first few songs of the show have a disembodied mix, it's not perfect. But it's a document.  The first set is the weakest, the second set improves as it goes and the last two sets are fine.  I realized halfway through dubbing this that you have to actually sit there and perform a mix, ride the faders, lower the vocal track if it's going to get loud, etc etc.  Maybe one day, I'll give this one another go.

Download here:
1st set: http://www.mediafire.com/download/4batyytjpypkjya/1990-04-20+Southampton+College%2C+1st+set.zip
2nd set: https://www.mediafire.com/?8czc30fvcx2831g
3rd & 4th sets: http://www.mediafire.com/download/vdn42japt19no5u/1990-04-20+Southampton+College%2C+3rd+%26+4th+sets.zip

...of course everything i just wrote is highly subjective!