The Lothars

The Middle East Downstairs, February 20, 1998, Cambridge, MA

The show actually sold out a couple of days ahead of time. While we'd like to take the credit, most of it belongs to Luna who were headlining the evening. By the time we went on at 10 PM, there were already a couple hundred people in the club.

We thought the performance went really well. We had more time to soundcheck than the last time we played at the Middle East, and as a result we could hear each other much more clearly. The crowd seemed into it, cheering at the end of songs, and didn't appear to notice the few mistakes that were made. The true barometer of success was the large quantity of T-shirts and cassettes that were sold over the course of the night.

February 20 was also Jon's birthday, and the rest of the band surprised him with a birthday cake in the middle of The Lothars' set (accompanied by the obligatory guitar, accordion, and theremin rendition of the happy birthday song). Ramona baked the chocolate and hazelnut concoction herself, even decorating it to look like a theremin. And it was yummy, too!

Overall, this show ranked with the one at Wetlands as one of the two best shows thus far.