127 Shows Later, H Is for Hellgate Closes Up Shop
It's with a very substantial amount of sadness that I, Jamie Hellgate, write the news that H Is for Hellgate is in its final days. Jon, our drummer, has accepted a job overseas and with his departure, Ben and I have decided to put H Is for Hellgate to rest. There is a small chance that Jon's plans will fall through and the band could stay together, but it's not likely and we won't have the final word for a couple of weeks so we are considering this the end.
It's very probable that Ben and I will work together again on another project, but as of right now, there is nothing specific planned. In the meantime, Ben will continue the "Hooray" legacy with We Wrote the Book On Connectors while I work with the ex-Hungry Pines ladies on a new band (name pending) on the drums.
Our last show will be Thursday, July 23rd at the Comet Tavern in Seattle. If you can, please come down and celebrate with us. I promise to play some of the older songs a little less begrudgingly than usual. Also, we'll have the Hellgate Club Issue 2 CDs available for free with the last three songs we wrote which I recorded in my garage a couple weeks ago.
127 shows
2 semi-national tours
7 mini-tours
2 albums
1 incomplete album
30 songs
1 line-up change
Last night I compiled some of the funny bits from the volumes of footage that David took over our first two years. I realized that Jon has all the footage from this last six months and has already edited it into the February 2009 tour videos available for viewing on our YouTube site.
Thank yous and sappy things to follow the final show. I just don't want to dish it all out now in case one country bombs another and Jon has to (gets to!) stay.