April 1 at Zapatos

PLUMP loves playing over at Zapatos in College Station. I would say that the place is always pretty darn crowded. After around 12:30 am, people start getting quite inebriated. There is something about being at Zapatos and being drunk and watching PLUMP play some funky music that makes certain Aggies feel like they need to stand on the stage. I have some theories regarding this phenomenon, but we (the scientific community) may never truly discover the answer explaining why.

Is it a situation where the music is so funky that the rhythm really gets these people and they need to stand on the stage? (perhaps this is the true message of the Gloria Estafan song, and she also had trouble with people on stage) Maybe it's because some people get so drunk that they don't realize what they are doing? Perchance because the stage at Zapatos is elevated by only 4 inches above the ground. Perhaps some people like to be seen standing on the stage where the action is. There's a chance someone has a dire need to see what its like to be 4 inches taller than everyone, and said desire simply will not be quenched unless this can be accomplished while the band is playing. Whatever the reason, this happens all the time at Zapatos. Much much much more often than at any other venue at which PLUMP has ever played. PLUMP has gone so far as to employ a regular strategy of building a wall of our amp cases and monitors and carrying cases around the front of the stage in order to deter people from joining us on stage mid-riff. The wall has worked in the past. However, tonight some crafty (and drunk) show-goer employed devious strategem to penetrate our elaborate bulwarks and was able to gain access to the stage. Said inebriate focused his attention on poor Josh, as he proceeded to stand directly in front of Josh, directly behind Josh, and even trying to high-five Josh--all while Josh is trying to play a song.

Believe it or not, drunk people getting on stage while we are playing kind of freaks us out. For one--we are very much occupied trying to play somewhat difficult music. Number two--very drunk people have a tendency to be incapable of "reason", and there is always a very good chance that they can be aggresive. So, we try to immediately gesture and ask/yell at people to get off the stage (this is mid-song mind you) so they we can play music in a somewhat less nervous state. I am happy to report that Josh's fan left the stage, and to our relief did not return. But, we all had to remark--classic Zapatos.

Tonight we debuted a song we recently recorded called the Brain. The Brain has a slow/funky groove, and the song has a tendency to alternate between 4/4 and 5/4 time. The song also has a jam I really love. Anyway, I would place this song as ranking "more complex than most" on a scales of difficultness of PLUMP songs and remembering all the parts - and as such playing a song the first time makes it even tougher. We rocked the Brain. This is definitely my favorite PLUMP song right now, so I was really pleased woth said performance, and pleased with the fact that the audience really dug it.

In addition to being the city with the highest proportion of audience members that simply must at all costs climb onto the stage, College Station also appears to be the city with the highest proportion of police cars out and about after 3:00 am. I swear, if you have ever beento NYC and have seen that 40% of the cars on the city streets are taxis, and then you apply that same percentage to College Station police cars that was was warranted for NYC taxis, then you will have an idea of what we see and navigate through every time we leave College Station. Truly amazing. We made it to Navasota (20 miles outside of College Station) and I purchased a cup of the worst coffee in the world, and then I made Jason Jackson drive so I could truly enjoy said terrible coffee.