The band was on point this past Saturday night. The crowd was the usual lot at Mac's, mostly 20 somethings looking for a rowdy time, nothing new there. But I swear, we were just locked in. Voice just seemed to carry farther and hit harder. The rest of the band were right there with it and the crowd responded with electricity. By the end of the gig people were packed in so deep they could hardly move, yet move they did, almost like a wave crashing throughout the venue and breaking upon the raised stage at the front. Every time the band looked to stop the crowd bayed for more. By the time they finally left the stage the band had run through just about every song they had written. Afterwards the crew went out for wings, drawing down the last of the 3k that went into the pot just a week earlier.

It was time to write some new songs. K had been feeling inspired after their most recent contract and the acquisition of new power to write some new material. They came to practice with handfuls of scribbled lyrics and some hummed ideas for how the tunes might go. Turns out Kate (the bassist) had some ideas of her own that had been kicking around in her head that ended up flowing like magic along with K's ideas and within a couple of hours they had 4 new songs taking shape. Songs that really spoke to the messages that K and the band had been trying to convey but just never quite seemed to have the words or the beat to, but now had the flow to make it happen. Speaking of the beat, Allan (the drummer) was on fire as well, getting into the Grove and laying down the drive that propelled the new songs to be easily the best work of the band so far.

That was a wrap on another successful gig. It wasn't just K's imagination, they really were getting significantly better recently. The whole group was tighter and K's performance was packing a lot more punch. After the show, to celebrate, the whole gand went down to Over the Moon to celebrate. Over the Moon was a greasy spoon the was open late and Chrisi in the back was an old friend so half the food always ended up being free. Plus the atmosphere was conducive to a bit of raucusnus, which this group was definitely bringing. In addition to the band themselves, there was Izzy, the sound technician, Ben, the rigger, all of the members of Festival of Banality, another local band that often got booked together with K and a handful of super fans jazzed out of their minds to be hanging with the bands and plying everyone with drinks. A boisterous good time was had by all.

Looks like the band has gotten its first big break. Got booked at Club Y, a nearly 800 person capacity venue and word is it was a sellout crowd. Things are really looking up. The concert went amazingly as well. Everyone was on point, rather than the pressure of the situation getting to people, the crowd really fueled everyone in the band and we were locked in from song one. The energy in the place was through the roof as well. The whole crowd was on board and absolutely electric.

The money coming in from the gig is not bad either. I still believe in the commune and what we stand for there, but running contracts has reminded me that much as we might wish otherwise, we live in a capitalist society and money is another tool to achieve the end goal of a better world. It would be nice to not have to keep borrowing from the other contractors every time we go out.

Perhaps needing to clear their head after the last contract K decided to take up a new exercise routine. They've been putting on muscle surprisingly easily since they started running contracts so it was a combination of wanting to flex their newfound gains and feeling like surely they must need to do something to keep them that spurred K to start exercising in a more structured way. They started by adding a daily evening run to their routine. In theory their neighborhood is not exactly the safest to run in but K was feeling pretty invincible to normal threats following their recent power acquisitions, and besides they could project a pretty good "don't fuck with me" vibe as well as a "I don't have anything of value on me" vibe as well if we're being honest. On top of that they've added a full half hour of muscle building exercises in to their daily routine to keep themselves toned and buff. A few months ago K doubts they would have had the stamina for this, but now it all comes shockingly easy.