How does a show happen? 

Buckle up. it might get stream of conscious up in here. In July 2018, a string of texts happened that re-started The Undertaking! For those of you who don’t know, The Undertaking! has existed in some form since 2005. It’s taken some breaks, grown up, made mistakes and it’s still truckin’. July/August 2018 were spent re-writing old material so we could have something to play… but then the big question dropped… “How do we get a show?” We didn’t have music released, we had no connections in the local scene, we were starting from scratch. 

Sooooo we quickly record a 5 song demo that became Scavengers (still sounds bad… sorry). And then we started showing people our music. We knew we had the physical gumption to put on a good show but still had no connections. Brick by brick, we started to build our network. Speaking of Brick by Brick… a lot of this comes to mind ‘cause we just played there last week. It’s probably our premiere non-live nation local venue. 500 cap room. Solid vibes. Owners are awesome. We got a chance to play there through a lame local showcase. It was a bill with 15 bands and we all had to sell tickets. Super lame show actually. But it got us in the door. Because of how well we did with our ticket sales, we got hit up to play with Earth Groans and Comrades and then because we did so well at that show, we got hit up to open for Fall of Troy at Brick in December 2019. A fun little ride from no connections to making some waves.

Fast forward to 2025: we just played Brick by Brick for the 9th time (we think we counted all the show correctly). Still love that venue and it’s a solid spot for friends to come hang. We played with Confessions of a Traitor, Bloodlines and Lightworker. Had over 100 people come out, which is pretty solid for a Wednesday night in late June. As the opener, its nice to be able to share with some friends that we’re playing early so its not necessary to stay out til midnight to catch our set. My aunt came. A friend from church came. Early shows help bring out the non-night owls. 

So here’s how the show kinda comes to be: Meadows say no to our east coast run cause they got offered the southern portion of this Confessions tour. We know the tour is happening and we know it’s coming to the southwest. We submit our name for the tour but we don’t get accepted. No worries. When it’s announced, we see San Diego on the bill so we hit up Shannon, the talent buyer at Brick, and say hey - these are our friends, can we play this show? I hit up Rasco, the band’s booking agent to close the loop and we get the show. 1 of 4. One local. 3 touring bands. Show might have benefited from one additional local band but I don’t want to debate 3 band bills and/or 5 band bills. We’ve played a couple two band bills and those are always stupid. Oh - side note, I always reach out to brick to play shows and often times, the bill has no locals. For instance, Better Lovers is playing San Diego in July and it’s a no locals show. No locals cause they don’t need any additional ticket support. Show will sell out, most likely. 

We used to try and limit how often we played San Diego, which I actually think is a mistake. Any show is an opportunity to play and have fun, see friends and meet new people. We’ll see what we decide moving forward. 

Moving on - promoting a show is tricky. We aren’t a big band. Locally, we aren’t a sexy up and coming hardcore, lights on kinda band so the kids aren’t interested. Promoting a show is like a spider web. If you can get a couple people to confirm that they are coming, you can leverage that to other people and grow the web. You just nee da couple solid RSVPs and the web grows and grows. Man... this isn’t as snarky as it will come off but most of my close friends aren’t really interested in our type of music and don’t come to shows so you really gotta push hard to get people in. “Hey... this is gonna be fun… so and so is coming to this show!” “Oh, I didn’t know that, I’ll try to come!” (They dont’). Another side note! I did talk to brick last week about bringing back physical tickets. I think online sales and/or door sales don’t make people commit to going to a show. It’s not tangible. Might try to do physical tickets next time we play brick. We shall seeeee. San Diego also has a lack of all ages venues which is becoming… more of a problem. Again, not like kids are coming to see us but I still think it limits who can come to a show. 

KEEP moving, Austin. We practice and/or get together every Monday. For this specific show, we practiced twice. Songs were pretty fresh from our east coast run and recording. We had a 30 minute set and we can jam out 8 songs in 25 minutes. Show was fun. Overall, it was actually better than we expected. One bad thing, we didn’t sell a ton of merch and I pulled my calf muscle in the 2nd song. 2 for 2 on hurting myself this year at local shows.

Hopefully that gives you some insight into shows. There are so so so many things we could talk about, from talent buyers to booking agents. To venue promoters to other local bands. Sound guys and bartenders. Lots of moving pieces. 

Oh, speaking of summer, our webstore is 30% off right now. Hoodies end up at $35 and shirts are like $21something. 

Doom: The Dark Ages (by Johnny)

 I’ll admit I haven’t played any modern Doom titles. The newest one I’ve gotten my hands on up until last month was Doom 64 so that’s my lens.

Playing as the Doom guy (who the game calls The Slayer) is extremely satisfying. He’s quick and nimble for any platforming the environment puts in front of you but also he’s a tank who literally shakes the ground, landing from jumps killing enemies with the shockwaves - no fall damage is a huge plus. You’re basically the Hulk with weapons.

All the weapon sound effects and visual impacts scratch that itch of making them feel powerful, though I kinda just stuck with using the shotgun and a rapid fire plasma gun and prioritized those upgrades. You also have this buzzsaw shield that’s used to block/reflect projectiles and throw Captain America style into the chest of demons.

Oh, demons! Lots of demons in the game. And gross aliens. And spider-like brain monsters with gun mounts and spectral skeletons that shoot skulls. Like, imagine being a kid and doodling scary alien hell monsters and that’s what the enemies are. Some enemies are city-sized horned demons so you gotta hop into a Megazord to punch their skin off. You also get to ride a cyber-winged laser-shooting dragon for a few levels because, you know, it’s the Dark Ages.

There’s a story in the game but tbh I was having a hard time following. I’m probably off base but it’s something like the Slayer is controlled by this alien guy to fight hell demons in this medieval village because the aliens are working to help(?) the high-tech king and his knights against the head hell demon and his witch. But the king’s girl (wife/daughter/idk) gets possessed so at some point you go to hell to fight and you get swallowed by a monster and then you’re in space…it doesn’t really matter.

You’re ripping and tearing through monsters. That’s the game. It’s a relatively short play but if you need something mindless that’s pure fun, check it out.

I rate this game five buzzsaw shields.

THE BEAR is back 

It’s Austin again. I watched season 4 of the Bear. Its awesome. I have no complaints about the ebbs and flows of what the show is doing. I love these characters. I want them to be happy. I will always watch them. Not sure this season reached the previous season’s highs but it’s still so solid. 

I adore this type of show too - every summer for the past 4 years, we’ve had a new season of the bear. Slow Horses is the same vibe. Not that its not hard to create something, but for the love of God, we don’t need to wait 4 years between seasons (House of the Dragon…. Severance…. The Batman…). I didn’t mean to get on that tangent but its crazy how long some stuff takes to get made.

Okay bye bye

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