So everyone’s seated on the floor, lights turned off, banging water bottles in accompaniment to the chantsong from Al, Tobi and Amy on ’stage’, myself squat-legged in the middle of the audience sometimes breaking into a fresh verse of the old gospel spiritual, room stunned into silence and - gradually - more and more voices joining in with the sombre tones of the chant. “There’s a man going round taking names/There’s a man going round taking names/He’s taken my father’s name/And he’s left me crying in vain/There’s a man going round taking names”.
Tobi and Amy’s voices swell and fade in the current of emotion, my voice cracking, my eyes downcast, people coming in at the back of the room looking in vain for the music’s source. I wander whether I should lie fully-stretched out on the floor like I did 15 minutes before, prior to an entirely new version of ‘The Void’ where I change the line “It’s five in the morning and I wanna get fucked up” to “It’s five in the morning and I wanna get some sleep”, but decide against. My voice soars once more through the disharmonic groundswell of emotion as I come in with the line, “Death is the name of that man/Death is the name of that man…”.

…………

Later, there’s me and Eric and Tobi and Sarah and Maggi and Chris and Joey dancing to The Saints’ ‘I’m Stranded’ and Dexys’ ‘Let’s Make This Precious’ and girl group sounds, half the room doing the limbo and the other half a cross between the mashed potato and the pogo, and I’m reminded of exactly why I love this damn city Olympia so much. I can’t sleep all night, too wired and excited and exhilarated by the energy emanating from those around me.
Nikki and her husband with their baby in a papoose drop by the venue - 60 bands playing or something - to say hi, and everything becomes crushed into one fine whole…Beth from The Gossip promising to duet with me on Tuesday; Joey Casio dancing the manic dance to his twisted dope-smoking 80s drum machine; The Mae Shi fending off questions about bicycle accidents and embarrassment in that one-dollar beer bar downtown (everything’s downtown in Olympia); Dave from Numbers so friendly and smiling; me and Maggi knocking back cheap bourbon and warm beer; tea with the Bangs; watching Mae Shi pass all off their instruments off the stage and into the audience so they can partake in the joyous explosion of sound and frenzy, ah so inspirational; Al Larsen smiling and hidden in shadows…
Mirah and Anna Oxygen casting oblique and bouncy shadows in the ballroom upstairs; shadows in the bar of the Eagle’s Hall; Slim Moon all supportive and alive; Tobi; all the musicians coming up to me after the set congratulating me on my voice; the weird San Francisco vibe of Amps For Christ and their sitar and multi-coloured beard and cute hippie chicks…Nathan shouting out for ‘Rockaway Beach’ during The Legend! set, and me not obliging, explaining that I don’t ‘do’ punk I only ‘do’ Legend!, and insteadripping into a rant about Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the centre of ‘Spokane’ (the songtitle and the YYYs rant garnishing the biggest applause of the set), Tobi dressed in wig and shades incognito…
And now I’ve really got to find some sleep. Honest.