Battle of the Bands @ the Masquerade in ATLANTA, GA

Here we are, Righteous Love; playing our second show ever at the Masquerade in Atlanta. Of course, being a fresh indie band we don't get our own shows, so, we take what we can get. Gorilla music was putting on a Battle of the Bands and like hungry sharks we as Righteous Love bit at the chance to play. The Masq has always been a place welcoming just about any genre of music from displeasingly crabby grindcore to electronic artists that turn the place into a rave house. As Righteous Love we felt very accepted by the cliques from the other bands participating in the Battle of the Bands. An interesting phenomenon occurred as our fresh band set the stage and started out our set. The people who had come to support their own friends and their music actually came out of their clique hang-out corners and watched us play. I say it was a strange phenomenon for the fact that this didn't happen for ANY of the bands that had played before us. 

Now, lets disregard the fact that the whole Battle of the Bands winner is chosen based on the amount of tickets they sell to see their band, regardless of their music. Righteous Love feels as though we were able to connect with the people that were there. Not through any sort of "Pretentious Intentions", but merely based on the universal language everyone can understand, music. 

We are a new indie band, no one is down our throats about writing and recording new music and pushing their meticulous agenda. We do it because we want to and we love to. It felt incredible to be able to share these songs that we had worked out in the solitude of our garage practice space with complete strangers and have them love it. Sharing art is quite the task, especially when your "A" string breaks in the middle of your first song in a 5 song set list. You start to see good come out of your competition. I was lent a terrible Ibanez guitar, luckily in standard tuning. It was rough having to play a really detailed guitar riff on a random guitar that I had never experienced prior. It was a let down, for me atleast. "Anywhere but Here" didn't sound like I wanted it to, at all. But thats okay. It still worked and people loved it. 

After having to play "Anywhere But Here" on that junky Ibanez I had an angel come to my rescue. Chad, I don't know your last name but you were my saving grace and I bow to you. Angel Chad changed my "A" string and got me back to playing my Telecaster. After that minor setback the rest of the set list went swimmingly. I just couldn't wait to get out of there and lose the Battle of the Bands. 

Thanks for reading.

-Tolik Sirotinsky

Righteous Love