Whatfor "Call That Girl" (9.2 MB) from Sooner Late Than Never High Noon Saloon Madison, WI May 23, 2008

I was supposed to be in Montreal when this show happened, but at the end of the two-day drive home from New Orleans, I realized that getting back into a car for 16 hours right away, with a grading deadline looming, was probably going to be a bad idea. A great local band showcase for $5 was a terrific consolation prize.

But since I was skipping what could have been a productive conference with the job market coming up for me next fall, I figured I shouldn't fritter the whole night away. Thus, I spent the first three sets -- from local favorites National Beekeepers Society, His & Her Vanities and Pale Young Gentlemen, the latter of which played a ton of new material -- sitting at the side bar, reading articles for my upcoming prelims. This also had the side-effect of helping me to not be thinking about recording the whole time, which was nice.

That brings us to the stars of the evening, Whatfor, a Sleeping in the Aviary side-project made up of basically an instrument-shifted Sleeping in the Aviary. This song, for instance, is from the CD that was released at this show, but it's also been played at Sleeping in the Aviary shows at least as far back as the first time I saw them.