Transmissions from Mars: Show Night Our Set Part 1

The line up:

Me: Vocals

Tiny: Programmer and Lead Synthesizers

Donna Matrix: Vocals

Round Trip Jones: Synthesizer

Ethan Magloofabits: Bass, Trumpet, Percussion, Vocals

The Screamstrees: Hand Percussion

Twelve Gauge Calhoun: iPad, Percussion and Synth

Location: The Lucky Dog Music Hall, our home club.

We started our set with a song we had not played in a long while:

1. Necranomicon, MA

An upbeat jam mixing hiphop beats with gothic chimes and distorted organs. It got a big pop from the crowd. It wasn't a conscious effort to not play it for a while, but holding it back definitely paid off.

Then we went into a favorite off our EP:

2. New Murders in the Rue Lounge

We played this now for a few reasons. For the last few years we have been starting mid tempo and building to taking break in the middle for slow songs. A song like New Murders would generally be at the end of the set or midset; the last song before we go into the more slow groovin' jams.

We wanted this set to be unpredictable and almost disarming. We didn't want you to be able to guess what was next. We know spring shows are tough. And a lot of our audience is closer to our age then not so staying till 1:30am to see the end of the show is a tough sell.

At Halloween we have the costume contest to make people stick around, but with spring there's no such gimmick. I gambled that a super unpredictable set would keep folks guessing and keep them sticking around to see what would happen next. This song was the first step in that attack.

Lastly, this is an Oracle song. The hook lives and dies by her amazing vocals. Being aware of how popular it is we knew we couldn't skip it so we just sorta wanted to get it out of the way.

Mz. M did a great job, as always, belting this song out, but it suffered a bit from where we placed it in the set. The crowd just wasn't absorbed enough to be overtaken by the frenzy that this song normally creates.

Next up was:

3) Too Sexy For Robots

Super fun jam that always gets the crowed moving. Accept, perhaps, tonight. There was some dancing and some toe taping but the madness I'm used to seeing when I look off the stage was missing. We almost had them, they were ready to get down. The next song was just what the witch doctor ordered!

4) Ghost

We had 'em. This was the first song Tiny and I wrote. We loved this song. The crowed loves that song. We knew this song like a old lover. We were perfect; the crowed was ours.

5) The Night To Me (Sexy Remix)

This is an old song that Tiny revamped to be an upbeat opener.

So far it hasn't really worked. I think it's mostly because the vocalists were not really comfortable with it. Not that we disliked the change; it's just the opposite we loved it, it's awesome! However, it's very different from the slow sexy dark wave original. My crooning just didn't work.

So we tried something new. Me and Ms. M worked it into a duet. Unfortunately, I knocked all the sexy out of it by not being really sure of my parts and when I was supposed sing and what I was supposed to sing. Nobody's fault except that of my broken brain.

So today it still didn't work. but the potential of this song just went through the roof.

6) Soundtrack Of The Damned.

A new jam and another song we've been unable to make work as a live entity. This time it worked hugely. Ethan's Back up vocals and Ska like wails really brought this one together. The only bad part of the song is I chipped my tooth. I don't have a lot of nice teeth and I definitely chipped the one good one in my whole stinking head.

Now we were going to have a little bit of fun and something amazing happened. We took a bunch songs we don't play often and a bunch of relentlessly heavy songs that would generally go at the end of the set and payed them back to back to back. Called this the 'ambush section' of the set. Now, most bands fans may not notice an upswing or change in set formation, but a big portion of our fan base is so loyal I think that even if they don't always know which songs are coming next that they have figured out the way we make a set list. In part, it's because we make the set list based on our relationship with the audience. Playing the same room for the same crowd for a long time is a lot like being in a long-term relationship. We know how the Lucky Dog Music Hall and The Deadites fans in it like to be fucked. We generally give them just that. but on that night, May 2nd, at the Lucky Dog Music Hall we rolled the room over on its stomach did terrible terrible things to it. And though it may have been slightly embarrassed after the fact it really really liked it.

7) I Fear You

This song has a long intro from the film Cemetery Man. We had not played it in a while and Oracle normally sings it. The minute long intro gave the crowd the opportunity to think about about the destruction that was about to be waged upon them.

It also gave me a moment to realize I didn't really remember the lyrics.

Those of you keeping up with the blog will know that Oracle was injured in a dustup with mystical beast and wasn't going to be able to join us on stage for the set. Were all pretty upset about it, but we went out and got the best replacements that we could find. When I added this song to the set it was strictly for pacing and mechanical reasons; I wasn't thinking that I didn't really know it that well. I made a joke about it and that's when something awesome happened.

"That awkward moment when you realize Oracle normally sings this song"

And then out of the smoke like an evil goddess Oracle appeared. In addition to the fact that she was injured in combat, the Math witch just had a baby in January. I sort of think she's lying.We've had opposite schedules I haven't seen her at all in the last couple months. It legitimately looked like she pulled her self off the cover of Maxim magazine walked through the smoke and onto stage with us.

She killed it. She Destroyed it. She Annihilated it. She Crushed it. She Tore it up. She Aced it. She Humiliated it. Wrecked it. She owned it!!!

I've been doing what I do for a lot of years and this was one of the coolest most special, awesome moments ever. At one point I just got off of the stage and watched like a fan because I AM a fan. I'm a fan of The Deadites, but moreover I'm a fan of the amazing people in it.

On a technical level it was perfect. Donna came in and accented everything that is awesome about it and with Oracle they hit all the right notes. Like I said they owned it.

We met on the stage stairs - her going down, me coming up.

"See ya on Halloween, creep" was all she said.

As I hugged her I thought I saw the damnedest thing - 2 ninjas jumping behind the back bar.

It must have been a trick of the light because the bar tender didn't even flinch. I also didn't recognize the back bartender. That wasn't that unusual. It is sort of a lousy gig and they cycle through pretty often. My eyes have been failing me a lot as of late. Ever since I was poisoned I've come to really distrust my peepers. This was a really vivid hallucination, but before I could get too hung up on it the next song started.

8) Executioners Lullaby

I hate this fucking song. It's from a time in my life where I'd traded down form being a shitty singer to being a more shitty rapper. I feel ridiculous every time we play it, but it's a crowd favorite, super upbeat and about as heavy as we get. It fit perfectly in with this part of the set. As always, it went over well.

Psyco Patric:

The room was rocking! I was feeling ballsy. I looked up and saw my ol' buddy Rupert. Years ago (many many many many many years ago) he used to join us on stage to perform a song named Psyco Patrick. Not originally a Deadites song, Psyco Patrick was the pro wrestling theme song we wrote for our good buddy and former band mate ...... Wait for it.... Psyco Patrick! It got on the Murder By Moonlight EP because he lost the recording of the song and used it to fill up space. Well in typical Deadite's fashion it became very popular especially as a live entity. Its intro really popped the crowed. Rubert on stage really excited long time fans. Was it risky? Sure. If we fucked this up we would look awful and assassinate the momentum of the set. The clone killed it. Even the last verse call and return, which got pretty complicated - he nailed. I felt like I was along for the ride; swept up in the momentum of the song and the excitement of the moment. It was 1996 all over again. It was like no time had passed at all. As we wrapped I search the crowd for our time traveling comrade, Silica, maybe it was 1996 again. No Silica just ninjas

Murder Me Rachel:

As we started our cover of the Nationals' Murder Me Rachel two ninjas snuck out of the dressing room area and around the corner towards the front door. The cover went over great as always, but needless to say I was distracted by the Canon film that was unfolding in the crowd.

Start here

Learn Who's Who