"Life is too important to be taken seriously." -Oscar Wilde

(The following is Andrew's B2P show diary for 2000. It is in no way meant to express the opinions of anyone else in the band, or the band as a whole)

12.15.00/The Echo Lounge: By some stroke of luck, we were asked to do this show. Not only was Echo the biggest and nicest place we'd played, but we were opening in support of some of Atlanta's most experienced acts, including Catfight! (the headliners). Obviously somebody really thought a lot of us, so we tried to return the favor by rocking like mad bastards. We did. The weather was cold and rainy, and we were on first, so there wasn't a whole lot of people there. But I was stoked anyway. I even got to play out of Catfight's amp.
Puddin was on after us. We'd never heard of them, but they were absolutely incredible. Their music fit right in with ours, which is something we hadn't experienced until then. Everyone in the band was really cool too, they hung out with us in the "backstage area" before we went on. Their cover of "She Rides" made me an instant fan. I screamed along like a little girl.
The next band was 6X. All I can say is that they had smoke, lights, and interacted with the crowd very well. It was obvious they're a huge band and a lot of people love them. We all stood there with our mouths open. The bass player was the most fun to watch. Now I have to come up with new moves.
Catfight! was last, and I was right up front screaming all the lyrics the whole time. Call me dork, fanboy, whatever. They are the best. The only other band you can compare them to is The Ramones. And we owe Catfight! big time for giving us such an opportunity, hopefully we can return the favor someday.

12.02.00/Dottie's: They asked us back, and who were we to say no to the venue that treated us the best? Despite some shitty weather (again), this ended up being one hell of a show. We opened once again, and the crowd was incredibly receptive. Whether they were already piss drunk or not is of no concern, the fact is they cheered and laughed and went nuts over us the whole time. We really were a hit, I've never gotten so many compliments after a show. Jeri could barely breathe with all the people swarming around her waiting to unload their positive reviews.
The other bands we played with were awesome. Candela, an all-girl hard rock act, put on a diabolically great set. You could tell they were true pros, and it showed in both their performance and the music itself. They had a wide range of influences and a cool, diverse sound. Plus, they were nice to us.
The Moonshine Killers played last, and they destroyed the place with their "cow punk", something I'd never heard before. Part Hank Williams, part Sex Pistols, whatever...it rocked. They were all jumping on the tables and stuff, burping, and saying the funniest shit I've ever heard come from a local band. For the last song, they switched instruments for an insane cover of G.G. Allin's "Tough Fucking Shit". I loved it.

11.18.00/Somber Reptile: This show came very close to not happening at all. First, I got up that morning, and the weather was terrible. The television said things were just going to get worse as the day progressed, and they were right. Next, concerned about driving conditions, one member of Pinkeye almost dropped out of the show. Then, we got a call from the club saying that their sound man had taken all their mics to play with his own band somewhere else. Needless to say, things weren't looking good. We'd planned on making it a cross-dressing show, in which we'd wear dresses and Pinkeye would wear pants. All things considered, I was getting a not-so-fresh feeling.
Amazingly, things came together. To their credit, Somber did come up with some mics, but to us it seemed like they were doing everything they could to discourage us from playing. The weather didn't yield much of a turnout, but most times we're having too much fun up there to give a crap anyways. The cross-dressing thing worked out, and I was surprised at how much more comfortable I was in a dress onstage. Hmmm.
Pinkeye rocked as usual (they just can't help it), and we didn't do so bad ourselves. Jeri's mic kept cutting out, but nobody did anything to fix it. After having played there on & off since we were 16, Santiago and I decided it was time to say goodbye to the place.

11.04.00/Somber Reptile: Jeri wanted us to play on her birthday, and Somber was happy to provide facilities. Opening the show was Stradladder, from Jacksonville FL. They were a hard-hitting punk band who really had their shit together, it was intense. The guys in the band were nice as hell too. I bought one of their t-shirts and wore it during our set. Next up was Diesel Cockwrench, who were playing their first show that night. They were friends of ours from way back, so it was cool to have them along for the ride. They have true rock n' roll spirit, which is (sadly) something most bands lack these days. Diesel's performance was great, and they were hilarious between songs. I had to drop my pants during our set just to compete.
Speaking of us, I thought we did really good that night. Unfortunately, someone didn't think we were good enough. We didn't get paid. Which was strange, because I spoke to a couple people that paid $9 to get in.

10.26.00/Dottie's: Pinkeye asked us to open this show, which in addition to having a "Halloween" theme, was partially to raise money for their trip to Seattle (they were slated to perform at the Rockergrl festival, along with hundreds of other female-fronted bands from around the country). We'd never played at Dottie's before, and our stomachs sank as we drove (at night) through the neighborhood trying to find the place. Also, let me add that we were dressed in our pajamas.
Luckily, Dottie's proved to be a lot cooler inside than out. Everybody treated us nice, and the sound guy was just an incredible person all-around (a rarity). There were some mean-looking guys playing pool in the back, and I heard them making comments about our costumes. However, once we started, they stopped. We had fun, kicked much ass, and Pinkeye joined us onstage for our cover of "Pussy". By that time, all eyes and ears were on us. Out in the parking lot, one of the scary guys came up and, instead of kicking my ass, went on and on about how great we were.
The next band up was The Trashcandys, whom I looked forward to seeing. Somehow they came in and set up, played, and stopped before we even had all our stuff put away in the car. Maybe their songs were just really fast?
The night definitely belonged to Pinkeye. Dressed to kill, they played like rock maniacs and held everyone's attention. After the set, they raffled off spankings to raise money for their trip. Santiago and Justin both got their asses whupped by Mitsu, their singer/bassist, and so did many other Dottie's patrons. Truly a night to remember.

10.07.00/513 Club: Things looked pretty cool for this night. I'd played 513 a couple years before with another band, but I heard it had improved since then (Tilt, one of my favorite bands, had played there recently). Plus, we were set to go on after Pinkeye, so what more could we have wanted?
That night was an interesting experience. 513 was the same as I remembered it, but somehow we didn't feel very welcome there. Thankfully, a lot of people showed up to support us. I remember being really nervous speaking to the girls from Pinkeye, because I really admired them after our previous show together. They were very cool, so it helped.
First up was something called Elvis Chicken. It was a one-man show unlike anything I'd ever seen in my life. The guy wore a chicken mask and a gold cape, and used a small red keyboard as his instrument. At this point, it's hard for me to describe what he did, let's just say I laughed very hard throughout his set. It was incredible. However, most of the audience got sick of him, and were ready to skin him alive after just 10 minutes. I thought he was a genius.
Pinkeye rocked, as usual. And again, everybody loved them. 513 didn't know how lucky they were to have that band on their stage.
We played last, and it was a lot of fun. The audience was very vocal, Pinkeye did some backing vocals for us on our cover of "Pussy", and the crowd...um...ate it right up. There were some scary-looking punks who stood right on the stage beside me, but I tried not to look at them. At the end of our last song, Justin decided to do a nose-dive right into his drum kit. It was awesome, even though one of his cymbals almost cut Santiago's head off. It was the perfect end to what will probably be our only show at 513 (we broke their kick drum mic).

09.25.00/Somber Reptile: Despite having now become used to the stage and this club, I was going nuts about this show. The buzz about us had grown, and we were going to be sharing the stage that night with Pinkeye, whom had already played some high-profile gigs and really had their act together. Plus, there was a rumor that some of the members of the band Catfight! would be coming to the show, and I was a huge fan of theirs. We'd met them a few nights prior, and they were super nice to us (they even announced our show from the stage during one of theirs). So I was really nervous. I stayed inside the club, not talking to anyone, waiting to go on.
First up was Summerjack, a punk band from Orange County, CA. They were very professional-sounding and great, and the guys were cool. Next up was the mighty Pinkeye, whom none of us had seen play before. They were an instant hit with those who'd come out to see us, and we loved them. We hit it off in a big way with them, and ended up playing many more times together.
Our set was a blur, it went by so damn fast. I gave it all I had, especially since the ladies from Catfight! had indeed shown up and were watching us (along with more people than I'd seen at Somber in years). After we stopped, I fell to my knees and stayed there for almost 10 minutes. Many people came up and said flattering things about our performance, and I shook a lot of hands. I felt absolutely exorcised. Luckily we got that show on tape, because I remember almost nothing.

09.22.00/Somber Reptile: This was our official first show, the one we invited everybody out to. Again, we chose Somber because of its familiarity, and because they always gave us the headlining spot on whatever nights we wanted. Everybody was really anticipating our first show, because they all knew we'd been working really hard since the band's inception. Plus, nobody knew what we were going to sound like! So there was an air of mystery to it. Would we suck? Nobody knew but us.
The band that went on before us were cool, and we asked them to stay and watch us. As the crowd grew, a bit of nervousness set in, but seeing all those familiar faces made it easier. Again, we destroyed. The guys from the first band only watched for a bit, then waited outside while their girlfriends rocked out to our music. I'd say it went rather well.

09.08.00/Somber Reptile: After rehearsing & writing songs all summer, we finally had enough material to play a 45-minute set. Santiago and I had played at the Reptile many times (in other bands) before, and they knew us pretty well, so we chose that venue for Born To Please's debut performance. We didn't announce the show, didn't really even tell any friends about it. We sounded great in the practice room, but Jeri & Justin had never played onstage before, in front of an audience. So, it was kind of a test run.
It was a Friday night, and the crowd was there to see some band from Columbus. We knew our music would clash with theirs, so we weren't expecting their fans to stay for us. Amazingly, they did. At least, for a little bit. We came out, and Jeri smeared fake blood all over her white shirt to start things off. We went through our songs like a speeding train, we sounded awesome. The crowd, however, was getting pretty freaked out, and people started heading for the door. Some guy made a comment about the blood on Jeri's hands, and she told him she'd had "an accident" in her pants. Almost 3/4 of the way into the set, when we did our cover of Lords Of Acid's "Pussy", the last remaining patrons ran for the exits.
We knew then that we were destined for greatness. The promoter took us aside, apologized for the unreceptive audience, and told us we were "going places". We went to Waffle House.