After a whole day back in the City, we’re back at the El Rio for the Fresh Meat benefit. In an amazingly symmetric coincidence, this is two years to the day (or was it the 26th?) after our very first gig ever which was … at the El Rio. Wow.

And this gig presents an interesting set of challenges… We all seem to be tired and a few of us (no names!) are decidedly cranky. The stage is really small – it hasn’t shrunk but the last two mini-tour gigs were on stages you could really stretch out on. The sound system is fine but definitely less awesome – it is easy to get used to individual monitor mixes. And while we’re due to go on at 10:30, things run late (as almost always happens at benefits) and we don’t get on until 11:30, by which time (on a midweek night) people are heading home.

But…we still turn in a strong tight set, concentrating on the newer material (I Won’t Go, Losing Sleep, Gender Frontier), with slick turnarounds between songs and witty chat to the audience – and we even do an encore (Just a Girl ). So overall… a nice welcome back to our city and community.

O… and Shawna leaves some stuff behind at the gig. Good to see normal service is resumed…!