So many of these posts I want to start with “STRANGEST SHOW EVER”, and Arlington ain’t no exception. This was nuts. It could be the weirdest show on the tour….but its early days, so I don’t want to jump the gun just yet.

We had arranged this house party through Your Black Star who we met in Pittsburgh. They organised for us to jump on the line-up. We were staying with Todd in DC who put out the first OTA record and he had made us some awesome vegetarian burgers and an amazing looking dessert…so we left kinda late, after we managed to stumble upon the house – Middle of NOWHERE, we were really confused… It was totally conservative squaresville, rural properties, big white houses and very quiet.

We were meant to kick off the party at 9pm…but had arrived quite late at around 9:10pm, genuinely late…not just ya know, playing for time so we could start later. We expected the party to be in full swing, but I drove up the empty driveway and parked in the yard of the house which appeared totally dead. I looked through a few windows but couldn’t see anything happening, I knocked on the door and walked inside…the band Your Black Star were sitting on a couch with two other people watching TV.

Sweet Party.

We get directed to the garage which another 2-3 people are hanging out in and we start setting up. Casting each other those glances, you know…the “what the hell are we doing here”, we set up the backline. By the time we finish setting up the gear a little group of a dozen jocks had gathered in back of the garage and the band started.

What happened next can ONLY happen when you have the following ingredients.
A) A garage in a family homestead in a rural area of a very conservative area of the US
B) A dozen jocks and their girlfriends
C) A house party organised by somebody who looks like Marky Mark of the funky bunch
D) A College town
E) You book a show knowing nothing about it or the people putting it on.
F) A keg of beer, Paper Cups, Ping Pong Ball and a trestle table.

OK. Now try if you can to picture this:

OTA play at one end of a garage. A clear space of around 3 metres infront of them reaches a Trestle Table, on that trestle table are a whole bunch of plastic cups and behind the table are a bunch of jocks playing “Beer Pong”. Two people play, one at each end of the table, one player tries to bounce the ball and then have it land in the other players cup…if he does, the other player has to skull.

The Beer Pong table with the stage in the background

Played a stranger show? Doubt it? Imagine if you can, the constant cheer of jocks as they have to drink and hearing the bouncing of ping pong balls in the gaps between songs. Maybe two or three people watching the band (maybe)

I am pretty damn confident that this will remain one of the weirdest gigs I’ve booked a band to play for a very long time. After the show we hung out with the locals for a while and had some fun with the jocks..and marky mark

Rhys meets the locals