Whatever was wrong with our sound during our first rehearsal in the practice space, we fixed it for the second one. Much to our surprise, we actually sounded pretty good.

I think a big part of it was that we turned down our amps a bit since last week. Since the neighbors at the space don’t complain (unlike the ones at the KrakaTomb), we felt more comfortable about turning up the noise. What we learned from that experience is this: just because the neighbors don’t mind, that doesn’t make it a good idea. Richard and I turned amps down a notch or two, and that seemed to help a lot. We got a better mix with Jeremy’s amp and the PA speakers when they weren’t struggling to be heard under the other amps cranked to eleven. The other thing that helped our sound is that Richard was able to resolve the issues he was having with his guitar/amp setup last week.

The biggest single improvement, however, was the fact that Richard’s microphone quit shocking him every time he sang. We diagnosed the problem as stemming from an ungrounded extension cord, which we replaced. Richard’s a trouper, but it must be difficult to sing through a 120-volt French kiss.

Richard’s jubilation at fixing this problem was short-lived, however, as we quickly railroaded him into being bandleader for the evening. It was his own fault for sending an e-mail earlier that day that contained the word “agenda.” Anyway, he took us through a collection of our newer songs, including Jeremy’s brand new song from last week. That one’s still coming together.

We’ve finalized our sticker design and we should be ordering them any time. We’re making some last minute decisions on the t-shirts, and we should have a decision by our next rehearsal. So stay tuned. You might be able to get a hold of some Krak-cessories yet.