The Lothars

Terrastock 5, Oct. 13, 2002, at Axis in Boston, MA

Another Terrastock, another Lothars gig. First, some background. The bands were supposed to be performing on two stages - the main stage as well as a smaller one in the upstairs room. As the weekend of the festival approached, it became clear that the upstairs room, currently under construction, would not be completed in time. So the folks at Axis made the festival organizers an offer: "We'll give you the huge room next door (Avalon) for most of Friday and all day Saturday, but on Sunday you'll have to make do with just the main room of Axis." So on Sunday morning, a second stage was built and placed adjacent to the Axis main stage. The bands would still alternate between stages, but it would all take place in the one room. We were scheduled for Sunday. Right before Sonic Youth. When we were originally presented with this time slot, we figured most folks wouldn't stay to the end of our set (and some would skip us completely), since they would want to jockey for a prime SY viewing position in the other room. Now, we were all in the same room. The result was 700 packed fans watching us and not daring to move for fear of not being able to see Sonic Youth play next. A captive audience! Bwaaaahahahaha! There was stress since we had to set up in near-darkness while The Sunshine Fix were playing loudly right next to us, but after a few initial sound problems, we proceeded to blast through a 40 minute improvisation that ended with much applause. Ramesh joined us again, as well as Mark Sullivan, an excellent guitarist who manages to be technically amazing without overplaying.

Once again, the Terrastock audience proved to be one that spends freely. We sold a lot of stuff, including many copies of our latest limited-edition CD "Connected".