Halloween / Seas of Blood cd Release Show

w/ The Project Seven, Big Coffin Hunters

I’ll be quite frank: the recording and release of “Seas of Blood” was a fucking miserable affair. Things went wrong in pretty much every stage if the process. Worst of all, Cruella was diagnosed with breast cancer right as we were finishing it. So, in the midst of our “cancer hiatus” we came together to perform the one gig we did not cancel from our schedule: our halloween/cd release show. While Cruella was planning on performing, we thought we might need a backup, and asked Aepril Schaile of Vina’s Viscious Vixens to be ready to step in if necc. Fortunately, Cruella was feeling up to the show, so Aepril’s services were not needed, but we’d like to thank her for her professionalism and flexibility through the whole thing.

I’m a big fan of The Project Seven, so it felt good to give them their first gig at Geno’s. They of course, did their thing in spades. Ian’s such a great guitar player, I’m amazed that he only wanted to be a singer when he was in Hushed. Big Coffin Hunters actually went on last and rocked the joint as well.

Knowing how burdened she was by chemo, I had not seen Cruella in person in quite a while (though i talked to her on the phone every few days), but when she arrived right before our set, she looked looked at a crossroads: decidedly thinner from the chemo and not quite the bundle of energy she usually is, but at the same time in a really cool new dress (sort of fetish heidi) and doll-like makeup. We went onstage, straped in, and turned around to see a crowd so thrilled to see us again. It was qute bittersweet, since this welcomed outpouring of emotion would not exist had their not been such suffering on Cruella’s part. Our set, of course, was the Seas of Blood LP, and truth be told I knew that i was the last time it would make up the bulk of our set, since we had already planned on having a beand new LP written by the next time we played live (after Cruella’s treatments had ended, most likely in the spring.) So, while we plowed through the material, I kept watching Cruella for signs of fatigue, and amazingly there were none. She really rose to the occasion. We had not planned on an encore, but the crowd insisted, so we pulled out a short old song (i think “every night” – to be honest i can’t recall.) At that point I knew Crtuella was done for the evening. I’m just glad we got to this show and got through it.