#2010

Wu-Tang Finally Make It to Dallas (Dec/2011)

The Wu-Tang Clan – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX – December 10th

Ok so I knew what I was getting myself into by going to this show. Its well documented here in my blog about my love/hate relationship with the Wu-Tang Clan, between the brilliance of the recordings to the bafflingly dysfunction in the production of their live show. Its become part of the landscape, “Who’s gonna show up? – Will Meth be there?, Man no way the RZA will show”. These quotes are for real and and on everyone’s mind. What bothers me is that is doesn’t seem to bother people enough to stop supporting them so they will have to do something about it. Or maybe their just hopefuls like me that maybe this time is the one that works.
On bended knees and hats in hand they released a press statement promising that this tour would be the one where they finally get their shit together and that every living member would make the show.
…and the it started…no less than two weeks after this commitment, the RZA backed out of the tour and by the time the tour had started, so did Method Man.
I was already committed to going and I kinda wanted to make up for missing Inspectah Deck a few weeks previous.

But once the beat for Bring Da Ruckus started up, all that ceased to matter. And the crowd — steaming and sweating, nut-to-butt, mostly white and easily the most jam-packed I’ve ever seen the Granada — shouted along with every word. It was a mess in the same way the best parties are.

Another highlight was a cameo by Erykah Badu, who stepped on stage long enough to soak in the roar of approval from the crowd but sadly didn’t touch the mic. Still, the moment was enough to add to the love-fest, family reunion vibe. As did the appearance from Young Dirty Bastard, son of the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who led the group through verses of Shimmy Shimmy Ya and Baby I Got Your Money in tribute to his father. Which might be why the group’s sorta-sincere cover of the O’Jays Family Reunion went over so well.

Setlist:  

Bring da Ruckus
Shame on a Nigga
Clan in da Front
Da Mystery of Chessboxin’
Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta Fuck Wit
Reunited
One Blood Under W
Triumph
Ice Cream (Raekwon)
Bring the Pain
Family Reunion (The Ojays cover)

Tribute to Old Dirty Bastard – 

Shimmy Shimmy Ya
Got Your Money

Liquid Swords (GZA/Genius)
Duel of the Iron Mic (GZA/Genius)
The Fourth Chamber
Protect Ya Neck
Da Rockwilder
C.R.E.A.M. 

All in all it was a pretty freaking good show, especially compared to some of the bullshit I’ve seen them pull in the past. And for real, only an ingrate wouldn’t be completely satisfied with the version of Wu that rocked the house for an hour and a half.

TrickyKid Top LPs of 2010

Here it is! –
As I disclaim every year, I’m not so arrogant that I believe that what we like/listen to is somehow the “Top LPS” of the year or as if I’ve heard every album that’s come out this year – This is simply the stuff that we listened to the most or got the majority of our attention this year.
So much good stuff – In a year seemingly doomed from the start & with so much loss & confusion in an infuriating political climate we looked to these artists for solace, joy & comfort more than ever.

The following genres still have their own lists again this year –

Hip-Hop

R&B/Dance

Not to exclude them or make them somehow lesser than, just the opposite I did it to isolate and bring attention to them because looking at 40 album covers tend to blend all together at some point.
I hope you enjoy this, alot of these Year End lists I see tend to be dripping with agenda to show you how knowledgeable that are (or aren’t) This is just a fun list intended for use of reflection and sharing.
So without further ado… – I give you –

TrickyKid Top 12 LPs of 2010
Electronic  –
10) The Sugarbabes – Sweet 7
9) Four Ten/There is Love in You
8 RJD2 – The Colloussus
7) Hot Chip – One Life Stand
6) Gorillaz – Plastic Beach/The Fall
5) Chemical Brothers – Furthur
4) Die Antwoord – $O$
3) The Knife – Tomorrow in a Year
2) LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
1) Massive Attack – Heligioland
Hip Hop
9) DJ Muggs
8) Big Boi

7) Ice Cube

6) Cypress Hill/B Real – Rise Up

5) Del – It Ain’t Legal Yet
4) Atmosphere
3 Wu Tang –
Inspectah Deck – Maifesto

Meth/Ghost/Raekwon – Wu Massacre

Raekwon – Only Built Part 2

Masta Killa

Ghost – Apollo Kids

2) Slum Village – Villa Manifesto
1) The Roots – How I Got Over
20) Tom Petty
19) Grinderman 2
18) Gogol Bordello
17) Sade
16) Ratt – Infestation
15) Floored by Four – Self-Titled
14) Julliana Hatfield – Peace and Love
13) Helmet – Seeing Eye Dog
12) Deftones – Diamond Eyes
11) The Sword – Warp Riders
10) The Company Band – The Company Band
9) Les Savy Fav – Root for Ruin
8) Iron Maiden – The final Frontier
7) Slayer – World Painted Blood
6) The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards
5) David Byrne & Fatboy Slim – Here Lies Love
4) Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – I learned the hard way
3) Prince – 20Ten
2) The Pretty Reckless – Light Me Up

1) Tricky – Mixed Race

 

Massive Attack Returns to the States (Nov/2010)

Ok so I roll right out of October, and a really fun Halloween, right into the next day of November and more fun for the entire first week. Let’s go –

Massive Attack – Palladium Ballroom – Dallas, TX – November 1st

Finally Massive Attack has a new record and have hit Dallas on their first regular US Tour.

Thievery Corporation opened the show with a deafening wall of sound. I mean just painful, and not to the band’s ability or even awareness of the matter, meaning like it was so loud that it seemed like something was desperately wrong with the soundman. I mean this wasn’t just loud, this was panic. I love this band and was looking forward to seeing them again, but whoever was running sound killed this flat. I even went out to smoke to get away from the assault and the bass was rattling the windows and metal trimmings that without exaggeration I thought they were gonna crack. I literally was tempted to try and alert someone that this was not going well and needed to be fixed.

1997’s Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi established them as American trip-hop frontrunners, but they’ve since expanded into different terrain. Their most recent effort – 2008’s Radio Retaliation – had a more political bent, gliding across Afro-Beat, and Brazilian lounge and New York house with cameos from Femi Kuti, Seu Jorge, and Louis Vega. It’s a shame I couldn’t have seen more if it.

It was with great anticipation that I attended this show. Such a rare band that is completely original and the show itself extremely rare. Since the band’s formation in 1991 they have visited Dallas exactly once, and that was four years ago and it was only as a pick-up date for their appearance at the Austin City Limits festival the next day. Even Massive Attack releases are rare as this year’s Heligioland is their first in seven years.

Besides the two core members, Robert Del Naja, and Daddy G, they band’s songs have a revolving door of different singers on almost every track, thus making it difficult to tour. Sure, I could have consulted the internet to find out who the other touring singers were, but I wanted to be surprised.

Massive Attack piece together an entire world of foul dreams, cold air and unsolved crimes. Del Naja sings with a distorted demonic whisper; Daddy G’s mumbling voice is full of murderous revelation. Martina Topley-Bird had opened some shows for them this year and I had my fingers crossed as she emerges with a feathery black sash and a painted-on gray mask.

And you really can’t have a MA show without reggae legend, Horace Andy, who sings the bulk of the key tracks off what is considered their best record, 1998’s Mezzanine.

Each singer introduced by Del Naja, and then he turned the show over to them and each time, each one led you down a wondrous dark path. Losing themselves in the music, it even prompted Del Naja (who acts as master of ceremonies as well) to quip “We may be dark and introspective, but we are really up here, and we are glad that you are too”.

A series of epileptic LED lights added political subtext, displaying a string of sobering statistics: the number of radio stations broadcasting Rush Limbaugh, the number of plastic bottles dumped each day in Mexico, the total cost of the drug war. If you were there, you now know that Cuba has a slightly better life expectancy rating than the United States.

You can see their traces in the DNA of everyone from the Gorillaz to the musicians of Low End Theory to the London post-dubstep parade. One of the greatest bands to emerge from the blurry nimbus between digital and analog, just masterful.

Setlist:

United Snakes
Babel
Risingson
Girl I Love You
Future Proof
Teardrop
Mezzanine
Angel
Inertia Creeps
You Were Just Leaving (new unreleased song)
Splitting the Atom
Safe from Harm
Encore:
Atlas Air

Rush’s Time Machine Tour (2010)

Rush – Starplex Amphitheater – Dallas, TX – September 26th

Editor’s Note: – Much of this entry first appeared in my article for Jam Magazine here –

This tour is unusual to the normal “touring patterns” that this band follows. You will see a methodical pattern emerging throughout this review of the band’s work ethic, which is not lost and completely celebrated by their legion of fanatical followers. Typically the band tours the States briefly after releasing an LP, historically playing five songs off it (always including the obligatory instrumental), while leaning heavy on recent material and then the rest is up for grabs from their vast catalog that now spans five decades.

This was different as earlier this year they announced they were working on the follow -up to 2007’s Snakes and Arrows and even oddly gave you a taste of two songs they had already recorded. The new LP had artwork and even a name Clockwork Angels. So this was their first preview tour, but if they only had two songs finished, what were they gonna play? For all of their combined age, Rush is not an oldies act, and live and die by that reputation.

The answer came with the announcement that in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their most commercially successful LP – 1981’s Moving Pictures that they would perform the album in its entirety. Hey, why not? They normally play half of the record anyway and some of the songs we have never heard live, namely The Camera Eye which frontman Geddy Lee had famously complained of its length and complexity as to having no previous interest in performing it.

The tour was billed as The Time Machine Tour and once you got there you saw how that concept was played out. The show begins as their tours normally do with a comedic film introduction with that tour’s motif and as much silliness as they can play off of. (For all of their intensity, this band is equally known for their humor). This one was rather long and was set out to fictionally explain the real history of Rush, or according to the film, Rash as they were originally called. A TIME MACHINE is produced and over the course of a freak accident the young band in the film is transported to you NOW, and live and playing the Spirit of Radio!

Off to a great start, and with no real new LP to promote it created the excitement that just about anything could come next. This is where the time machine motif comes in: As the giant video screen with rolling dates would slowly come to a stop on a random year and then the next song would start. And here is what came: Though fun and unpredictable, and knowing them as I do, the choices made sense, even though they wouldn’t have been my first choices, I still take exception to the pacing of the songs. Meaning that if you are someone that was totally turned off to their mid/late 80’s heavy keyboard sound, you were in big trouble that first hour.Previous experience revealed a pattern: Most of these songs were singles or concert staples at some point or another: After Spirit of Radio they followed it with four songs in a row from their weakest period Time Stand Still, Presto (easily the rarest song of the evening) Stick it Out and Leave that Thing Alone (two stinkers from 1993’s Counterparts, an otherwise rather strong record).

Then hopefully you were into their last record Snakes and Arrows as here came two in a row from it. Also taking one of the previous mentioned songs from the forthcoming LP for a walk called Brought up to Believe. Than back to 80’s keys with Marathon and Subdivisions. Very strange I thought.

Intermission time: and everyone had to know that the Moving Pictures performance would start the 2nd set but they did something cool anyway, as the rolling numbers were moving slowly during the break, creeping to 1981. When it got there an alarm went off signaling the end of intermission as the next film started. You know what came next: the film ends simultaneously as Tom Sawyer begins and off the races we go.
They finish the piece and then after Neil Peart’s drum solo which is always a tour highlight, to appease the fans of the older material; the clock started rolling to the older years. But again they didn’t exactly dust off any old gems, they played what you think they would, 2112, the Temples of Syrinx, etc.

Though Geddy didn’t sing as well as he had in recent tours and the band looked a bit geezer -ish in their film close -ups, I’m still not complaining as the show was executed perfectly and what a joy that in 2010 they can still fill a place this big and remain relevant as ever. Because Rush is not really a band as it is three individuals. Just seeing Geddy, Alex and Neil in the flesh and doing their thing is such a pleasure to be a part of.

Jagermeister Music Tour 2010 w/ Slayer, Megadeth & Anthrax

Exodus – The Prophet Bar – Dallas, TX – September 7th

So on a day off between the Amandla and The Moistboyz tours,  Ryan and I thought we would have some fun and go see Exodus. I personally hadn’t seen them since my senior year of High School, and Ryan, who has kept up with their output for most of that time, had been really excited about their new sound. He played me their last two records in full and I would have to say I agree that they really evolved into something that’s kept them alive and exciting, instead of dormant and repetitive. That mixed with some good ol nostalgia was enough to get us to go. Ryan has become increasingly choosy, so when he’s excited about a show, it’s hard not to be as well.
I hadn’t been here I think since it was the Prophet Bar, I remember coming here when it was the Gypsy Tea Room, but the staff here now are really hard to take. It seemed like everyone in line in front of us their was a problem with something, and then when we get up there its no different. I just went and found Eric, my good friend and Exodus’ Tour Manager and he straightened everything out.
Not a big crowd (probably less than 200 people) and the first person I see is Fred Flintstone (from the Rock N America entry) it was his birthday, so I get him a quick shot and then Ryan and I take our spot.
Now this band has been together for almost 30 years and has survived the death of two singers, and a few other lineup changes, but had a great mixture of the old sound with the new.

…and speaking of nostalgia, one of the first concerts I ever went to was the Headbanger’s Ball Tour w/ Exodus/Helloween/Anthrax (and John Tempesta’s first night on the drums) with my childhood friend Steve. The show was at the Fair Park Coliseum, so being around the Cotton Bowl and the Fairgrounds, and I remember my sister dropping us off. Well this was at the height of slam dancing at shows that was now referred to as moshing and the creation of a mosh pit. Like at that age, getting the t-shirt is as much if not more important than seeing the band, it seemed creating and participating in one of these mosh pits was just as crucial. We had seen it on TV and talked shit about how when its our turn we were gonna fuck shit up.
Secretly I was terrified of this, and never really thought for some reason that I would have to face that, or maybe thought that Steve also harbored some fears about it. However the minute we arrived he spots the pit in full swing, and makes a beeline for it. I was shitting myself, thinking “how the fuck am I gonna get out of this without looking like a total pussy?”.
Exodus had a hit song at the time called the Toxic Waltz (as everyone at the time seemingly was trying to claim this practice as their own by re-naming it).
Steve was a intimidating force and wasn’t a small kid, where as, I barely weighed 100 lbs at the time, and was kinda the target of alot of his outbursts because of it, so I had no choice to jump in.
When I did, I realized that, sure it was pretty violent, but not nearly as horrifying as I had feared and was pretty communal. I went on to spend quite a few nights in this type of environment eagerly as well, but since have grown a bit weary (and older) of the real violence that its kinda become.
But on this night, even though along time has passed I was wondering if they were gonna play it as the hit. And sure enough they did, and I have no idea what came over me, because now I would be the last person to do this, but as the first notes hit, I took of my glasses and handed them and my wallet to Ryan, who looked simultaneously shocked/supportive of this and into the pit I went.
Now because of the lack of attendance, it was one of those really lame ones, where only like 4 people are participating, but just to get myself to do it was enough for me (and enough to leave with a bleeding foot). Good times.

Megadeth/Slayer/Anthrax – Starplex Amphitheater – Dallas, TX – September 24th 

Ok so this was three days of seeing shows in a row, and quite a diverse mix. I had been greatly anticipating this show for a number of reasons. One other the obvious, was as I mentioned in the Exodus post, that when I was a teenager, the Thrash Metal movement was my freaking life. When I was 15, back when the only way to hear about upcoming shows was via radio announcement, our jaws hit the ground when we heard that a tour was gonna start in Dallas called Clash of the Titans – that featured Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth (and a little unknown band at the time called Alice in Chains)
The only band that was missing was Metallica as people were already referring to this elite group as the Big Four. Metallica had moved way ahead of the pack and was set for world domination with the upcoming Black Album and really had nothing to gain by making the collective association (and as time would tell with Nirvana’s Nevermind coming out later that year) and everything to lose. Though the other three bands were at the height of their popularity and at the top of their game they had not reached the ability to play venues this large individually, but collectively it was a not-to-miss event. A friend and I even camped out for tickets and got us and our whole crew front row seats.
The fact that this exact same concert (sans Alice in Chains naturally) was happening again in the exact same location and city as the first time around was enough to get me in the building. Not to mention to add to the festivities, Slayer was gonna do arguably their best LP Seasons in the Abyss in its entirety. as well as Megadeth giving the same treatment to their Rust in Peace LP. Also, Anthrax, who had barely toured with the Joey Belladonna reunited lineup in 2005 (and skipped Texas altogether) were now back with Joey after several severe missteps.
It wasn’t without some brouhaha however – after all this time, why can’t we get all four of the Big Four? – This tour was born after some obscenely large, nostalgia fueled offers were made to do a Big Four tour of festivals in Eastern Europe, were the four bands actually performed all in one show for 7 dates. The Bulgaria date was even simulcasted where you could see it via closed circuit at a local theater (and Ryan and I did exactly that…see April 2010 entry). 
Make no mistake about it this was a Metallica production and I’m sure a hedged bet to see if would be a good idea to bring this tour Stateside, and the film’s ticket receipts would be the proverbial proof pudding. Apparently it didn’t do that well, cause Metallica decided not to pursue it any further, but the other 3 bands, fueled by all the new interest and high-profile activity, brought the tour stateside with just the three of them as the Jagermeister Tour.It was an early start time and I was meeting singer-dude at the show and I was running late. I couldn’t find parking anywhere but thankfully when I did, as I was crossing the street, he saw me and picked me up. We still missed the first two songs from Anthrax but if he hadn’t seen me we would have missed most of them and they were the main band I wanted to see since Joey was back and I’ve seen the other two bands probably 20 times each since I was a teenager.

It was sad to see how much peer-ship Anthrax has lost over the years. Though they will always be apart of this legendary club, they are really only riding a residual wave, as they have been treading water for years, through a series of poor lineup changes, mediocre albums and down-right baffling career choices. At the first Clash of the Titans the bands went in this order:

Slayer
Anthrax
Megadeth

with all bands having basically equal stage time and production. This time around, Anthrax’s backline was pushed all the way to the front
and might as well have been playing a small club with how much stage room they were given. Their name wasn’t even printed on the tickets, their logo pushed into almost obscurity under the tours namesake and now that guitarist/face-of-the-band Scott Ian is a professional poker player, they had to wear Ultimate Bet gear, likely just to pay for the tour, fucking sad for sure.
But they made good with the short time they had, and if nothing else, it was really great to see them and Joey again.

 Setlist –

Caught in a Mosh
Got the Time (Joe Jackson cover)
Madhouse
Antisocial
Indians
Only
Metal Thrashing Mad
I Am the Law

Next up was Megadeth, who I loved as a kid and seem to still see every couple of years, however haven’t owned anything they have released since Countdown to Extinction. Leader Dave Mustaine who is known for a being difficult to work with and am sure was a long-holdout for any Big Four type of event due to his long, over-stated issues with Metallica, always seem to have a new lineup every couple of years. You don’t even really pay attention anymore, and if you had your choice bassist Dave Elefson will be there too, but as long as Mustaine walks out, its a Megadeth show. And let me tell you something, as much as you wanna hate Mustaine, and as much as you want to hear that in-spite of Elefson’s presence that they walked out there with two other faceless jobbers and embarrassed themselves, its the exact opposite. They stole this show, and this new lineup is their best in the band’s 25 + year history.
They fucking killed – Just walked out and played so intensely, and spot on, with zero bullshit. Even their newer, lesser known material did nothing to stop their momentum that just took off as they started the show with Rust in Peace from start to finish.

Setlist –

Holy Wars… The Punishment Due
Hangar 18
Take No Prisoners
Five Magics
Poison Was the Cure
Lucretia
Tornado of Souls
Dawn Patrol
Rust in Peace… Polaris

 Encore:

Trust
Head Crusher
A Tout Le Monde
Symphony of Destruction
Peace Sells

Next up is the indefatigable Slayer – who I also tend to see about once a year or so. Now, nothing can be said that can detract from the sheer brutality of this band, but the last few times I have seen them, it seemed to be a bit phoned it (as much as this band is capable of such a thing). But tonight we were benefiting, if nothing else, from perhaps maybe a little bit of competitiveness, cause after Megadeth blew things wide open, here comes Slayer with both barrels.
They did just two numbers, both off their newest record World Painted Blood before Tom Araya, asks the crowd in his most sadistic voice “Are you ready?” as we all knew that signaled that the entire Seasons in the Abyss LP was about to begin.

 Setlist –

World Painted Blood
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Blood Red
Spirit in Black
Expendable Youth
Dead Skin Mask
Hallowed Point
Skeletons of Society
Temptation
Born of Fire
Seasons in the Abyss

Encore: 

 South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Aggressive Perfector
Angel of Death

Between Megadeth and Slayer, I walked out to the lawn area to see Ryan, who was sitting out there by himself (by choice, my man is very specific about his comfort) and shared our excitement, and were texting each other a bunch during Slayer’s set. Maybe one day the States will get to see all four of the Big Four together?

Rawking w/ The Pixies, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings & more (Sept 2010)

The Pixies – Verizon Theatre – Dallas, TX – September 19th 2010

(Editor’s Note: – Much of this entry first appeared in my article for Jam Magazine here -)

 There is just something about the Pixies that just breeds a special type of giddy excitement. It would be arrogant of me to even try to explain why, but I will have no problem expressing how it feels.
a) This was their first show in Dallas in six years, and only their second since their much maligned breakup almost 20 years ago.
b) The occasion of this tour is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their landmark LP Doolittle which they were set to perform in its entirety, including the litany of b-sides that were associated with the project.
c) It’s the fucking Pixies!!

So with that sense that you were seeing something rare and special and finally getting your hands on something that you have long been denied, the eruption from the crowd (clearly made up mostly of a generation that never got to see them originally) was deafening when they took stage. In true Pixies spirit of unpredictability they started with the b-sides, beginning with Dancing the Manta Ray. Kim Deal in all her ridiculously likable awkwardness would go to the mic every few songs and shout “More b-sides!”

And I couldn’t be happier by this announcement because not only were actually seeing the Pixies; we were given a chance to hear songs like Weird at my School, Manta Ray, and Bailey’s Walk. However these seemed like warm-ups or maybe it was just lack of recognition from the audience because as soon as that undeniable opening riff of Debaser started the place really came alive and those that were previously sitting were now on their feet. I’ve always found the real excitement in live performance was the surprise of not knowing what was coming next, however there was a comfort knowing that you were gonna hear No. 13 Baby and when you were gonna hear it.

After the sing-alongs of their biggest hits Where is my Mind? and Gigantic , Deal again takes to the mic with that little coda she does at the end where she address the other members individually telling them that she wanted a chance to tell them goodnight in case she doesn’t get a chance to later. So as they were all telling each other goodnight a la The Waltons , she then faces the crowd and says ” Goodnight everybody“.

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – Southside Music Hall – Dallas, TX – September 23rd

Editor’s Note: – Much of this entry first appeared in my article for Jam Magazine here –

If you’ve seen Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings live, then it’s my bet you’ll do what you can to catch them the next time they swing through your town in a blaze of horn-heavy deep-funk and soul-revival splendor. They are that good.

Sharon Jones is a soul-singing dynamo, and the Dap-Kings are just ridiculously tight and professional players of authentic soul, funk, and gospel. Chanteuse and band are greatly complemented, their dapper restraint the perfect backdrop for her no-nonsense, incendiary stage presence.

There were no bells or whistles in terms of stage set, just a black backdrop with the initials SJDK in white lettering-ßall the fire was in the performers themselves. Jones owned the stage, strutting her way around it in a short, sequenced, mint-green dress, the band behind her in dark-colored suits that just permeated the room with hip sophistication.

 
They played an explosive set consisting of a good deal of songs off their latest release, ILearned the Hard Way. Sharon Jones would hoist members of the audience up on stage throughout the course of the night, which was a success most of the time, but sometimes was more awkward than anything. A few of the guys she brought up on stage to serenade did nothing but sway around nervously with an embarrassed smile on their face, but at one point she called six or seven women up on stage and the eclectic mix of personalities all were getting down appropriately and gelled into a kind of funky chorus line as Sharon Jones went wild in front of them.

The unequivocal highlight of the show was Sharon Jones and her irrepressible, never-ending energy, which along with the amount of sweat dripping from trumpet-player Dave Guy constituted the two seemingly supernatural phenomena of the night. Her intensity never came close to waning, and, to be honest, the audience wasn’t up to task. The crowd should have been a full-bore, sweat-dripping dance party, and though there were people dancing, it was fairly restrained for all that Sharon Jones was putting out. That would have been the ideal situation, but realistically it would have taken the bartenders slipping something extra in the drinks for anyone to even think about having a chance to keep up with the “dynamite” queen of funk and soul.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings restore my faith in a band’s ability to preserve a type of music while still making it sound timeless. The ensemble has it all: Virtuoso talent, songs that hearken the golden days of soul music, a catalog that has its own classy edge. They played 100 Days, 100 Nights for the encore and left the stage for good to another round of wild applause. Just the real deal.
Sadly we missed openers Grace Potter & The Nocturnals who are also killer.

TrickyKid – Ween – Texas….The Oneness (Summer/2010)

Ok so this was one of those mini-tours that have been the M.O. as of late in the Ween camp where just do 3-4 shows in a row and that’s that. After a crazy night in Tulsa that I might blog about at another time (I’m just focusing on the Texas theme here) headed to my hometown of Dallas, TX for a sold out show at the House of Blues.

Ween – August 27th – House of Blues – Dallas, TX  

 We pull up to the ol’ HOB in downtown Dallas, after checking into the W Hotel across the street, which for this camp is way too freaking fancy and not the vibe at all. The last time I was here with Ween was in 2007 and I snuck over to see Rush right before the show.
Actually had an opener for once on this leg, as the Meat Puppets  who were great every night. After they were done Kurt Kirkwood, Claude and I are standing outside smoking and I swear every person that walks by is someone I haven’t seen in 10 years, so every 5 minutes is another High School reunion.
We chill out upstairs for a bit, and Aaron is showing us a video of this crazy talented girl from Austin that sent him a video message via Facebook of her singing What Deaner Was Talking About. And says that he was so impressed that he invited her to come sing tomorrow night when we get to Austin. Someone is about to shit themselves.
Finally its showtime and the band hits stage –

During the show sidestage, I was joined by a motley little crew – as one of my best friends (and hands down the best guitar player I have ever seen) Neil and his fiancée came (I’m DJ’n their wedding next week) as well as my buddy Ziggy who I had hired to pass out fliers to the crowd promoting Claude’s upcoming Amandla dates here in Texas in a few weeks.
The band played a great (and long) show –

Pork Roll Egg And Cheese
Exactly Where I’m At
Spinal Meningitis
Gabrielle
Transdermal Celebration
Wavin’ My Dick In The Wind
Mr. Richard Smoker
Take Me Away
Bananas and Blow
Buckingham Green
Did You See Me?
Tick
Wayne’s Pet Youngin’
Sketches of Winkle
Object
What Deaner Was Talkin’ About
Roses Are Free
She’s Your Baby
Learnin’ To Live
My Own Bare Hands
Your Party
Let’s Dance (David Bowie cover)
Pandy Fackler
Ocean Man
Polka Dot Tail
The Mollusk

Encore:

Fiesta
You Fucked Up
Touch My Tooter
Homo Rainbow

Afterwards, we all headed to the upstairs dressing room sans Neil and his gal as they had to bail before the last song.
We hang up there for awhile before Gabe (Claude’s drum tech) comes with the van to take everyone to the hotel. We get there and everyone comes to Claude’s room. Mickey, Dreiwitz, this really hot, tattooed MMA fighter (that’s designing the cover for the Amandla record) and her boyfriend, and about 10 others. I plug in my Ipod, crank up the Prince and the party is in full swing. So much so that less than an hour into it, security is knocking on the door telling us to get out. Mickey is insisting that we all go to his room and keep rawking. You would think this kid had never seen a mini-bar before haha, he was like a kid in a candy store! – Asking for drink orders and just having a great time and things were starting to get a little out of hand. Not long, once again hotel security is bouncing us from the room. Some people we had just met invited us to their room as they had a large suite so we all proceeded to go there, only once we get there, they can’t gain entry as apparently their friends had locked them out. So upstairs to the pool it is (which Mickey turns into a race!)
Everyone jumps into the pool with their clothes on, on the 20th floor of the W Hotel at 5am. Everyone that is, except for me, Claude and a few others. This one girl was innocently chatting Claude up when he calls for my attention and insists that I meet her. I realize soon that she’s the girl who’s room we tried to enter but could not.
We have a nice conversation, but its clear that this girl is quite intoxicated, so much so that she is in total crisis mode of how she is going to get back into her room as just the task of going down to the lobby and asking for a new key was too much to undertake (in her opinion) in her current condition. So she asks for my help and I oblige her. This is where shit gets downright comical. I walk her down to the lobby and she is holding on to me for support but if I was the clerk I would have thought that someone was holding this girl at gunpoint. The whole thing felt so suspicious, and he was asking her basic questions to verify her identity to which she was so fucked up, she temporarily didn’t know the answers to. I was just trying to improvise as everytime he would ask her a question, I would try to answer, though I had no clue what the answers really were. This girl’s eyes were about to roll back in her head, but somehow, the clerk, exasperated, gave up and gave us the key.
We go back up to her room, when she discovers that now, she has lost her purse. This girl is a disaster I’m thinking! but she was nice and I wanted to make sure she made it to her room ok. We finally get there, to discover a small, but pretty wild party in full swing, and their room was RIDICULOUS, I’d never seen anything like it, their balcony, no shit was larger than the previous entire room. I didn’t stay long, as it was really late, and had to get to Austin the next day. This crew was going as well, so we all exchanged numbers with plans to meet up in Austin.

Ween – August 28th – Stubb’s BBQ – Austin,TX  

So in a flash, cause I don’t even remember the ride,make it to Austin, and before I can say poof the Meat Puppets are already onstage.

Since this was the last night, I had picked up a rental car cause I was gonna stay in Austin for a few days as Amandla was going to have rehearsals here before that tour starts in a few days.
Ween at Stubb’s has become more than a concert, as it is a right of passage – it really does boil down to this. Their is something about the Austin sensibility and the Ween irreverence that have conjoined as one and they are bigger in this town than anywhere else they play, even in their own hometown. They have several live albums that were recorded here, as no fan base for this band in any other city is more rabid. Its really just become a part of the landscape, an exclamation point at the end of the sentence, so it goes without saying that their is a certain pressure when playing here, that at the same time is met with an overwhelming excitement that seems to relieve it.

My buddy Sam who is from Austin but now lives in Los Angeles and where I stay when I’m out West came as well. Tonight my hetero-lifemate Matt and his friend were on Amandla flier detail, and speaking of Sam, I hadn’t seen him since April when I took him to Coachella, where he introduced me to a friend of his, and when he couldn’t go the second day (technically the 3rd) I gave his pass to her and we hung out all day and had a great time.
The band takes stage and the place goes absolutely batshit! The special-ness was in the air and you could feel it.

To get to this perspective, you have to walk upstairs in this tunnel that is literally pitch black, can’t see your hand in front of your face. and then their is a small opening that people crowd to be able to see. Right next to us was this girl, that was overtly excited and I quickly learned why as THIS was the girl that Aaron had shown us the video of last night in Dallas. He calls her out to sing Freedom of ’76 which she nails perfectly! A great moment for her and yet another notch in the annals of storytelling of Ween at Stubb’s. The anticipation for a “moment” was high and here it was.

The HIV Song
The Golden Eel
Baby Bitch Play
Bananas and Blow
Piss Up A Rope
Learnin’ To Live
With My Own Bare Hands
Take Me Away
Transdermal Celebration
Gabrielle
Stroker Ace
Voodoo Lady
Kiss (Prince cover)
Mutilated Lips
Buckingham Green
Booze Me Up & Get Me High
Touch My Tooter
Mr. Richard Smoker
Johnny On The Spot
Even If You Don’t
Freedom of ’76 (with Sarah Jones)
Let’s Dance (David Bowie cover)
Your Party
Woman & Man
The Mollusk
Spinal Meningitis

Encore:

Fiesta
Sorry Charlie
Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover)
Roses Are Free

The end of the show comes, and its right at midnight which meant it was now Claude’s birthday, and I thought Glenn was gonna play him out with some Happy Birthday on the keyboards, but he didn’t do it (or forgot).
We goof off for a bit with some of the dudes in the Moistboyz who are hanging, before heading off to the Parish. The guy that owns it, is a good friend of ours and promised to keep it open for us for Claude’s birthday.
So we make the trek and I text everyone to meet us there and while sloshing thru the madness of 6th street Saturday night, I run into a girl I hadn’t seen in years and her friends who I didn’t even know were into Ween, let alone so much so that they had come all the way down from Dallas to see this show. I tell her where we are going and why and invite them to join us. This was a good decision as they basically were the party and the ones that administered Claude’s birthday spankings.
They close us down, but Claude wants to keep rawking. These 5 dudes had been up on his nuts all night, one of them looked like David Cross, they were offering us all this awesome shit, to any sober person, sounded like a pile of bullshit. Claude was in no shape to make these deciphers so as they are giving us all these directions I”m yeah, yeahing them trying to lose them, but David Cross insists on riding with us to ensure that we don’t lose them (namely him). We get to my rental car and I give Claude his birthday present, a bad ass Miles Davis boxset.
Come to find out Cross and his friends live way out past Parmer and the awesome night of hi-jinx they promised, turned into us sitting around this dilapidated apartment drinking actual moonshine mixed with apple juice out of mason jars, while this dude is breaking off a large piece of hash to pass around. Thankfully for Claude I don’t partake as he would not have had a ride home this evening.
I wanted to leave the minute we got there but Claude was enjoying himself and it was his birthday so I let it go. Finally at almost 6am, I made a move for the door as we headed back downtown for the hotel. He and I had one of our deep conversations that can only seem to take place in those wee hours at night.

Claude Coleman Jr’s Birthday Bash – Lustre Pearl – Austin, TX – August 29th

So after trying to recover from the debauchery of the last 3 nights, we get an early start on the action as Mr. Coleman is celebrating his birthday (which is actually today, though we got a head start last night) today at this fun little spot in Austin, that has a great courtyard in the back with ping pong tables and stuff. Drewitz and crew came on thru as well as the Moistboyz and we enjoyed a lazy day catching a day buzz, playing ping pong and telling great stories.

We have a fun day, and laughing and quoting Eastbound & Down, but now we are hungry.  Matt and I are the only ones it appears ready to eat. He suggests this ill little Indian place across the street.
He and I go to eat, and then their is another spot on the way that he wants to stop off and have a drink,  We hang out there waaaayyy too long before Claude calls me and asks where I am. I tell Matt we gotta split and that takes forever, and then we make it across the street and retrieve Claude.
I tell him whether he likes it or not, that we are going dancing and that’s that. The last several times I’ve been in Austin, Matt has taken me to Barbarella where consistently, we have had the most unforgettable times so naturally I wanted to go there. He warned that Sunday night it would be super dead and it was. So we opted for the Elysium where it was 80s Goth Night haha, you should have seen Claude’s face.
I tried to hang with him at the bar, but he just seemed to be in a funk and a bit loaded. Fuck it, Matt and I hit the dance floor. It gets close to closing time, when Matt suggests that we hit Barbarella right before closing. We grab Claude and get over and we are the ONLY people there. So a request won’t be hard to get right? I tell the DJ to rawk Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall as it was also MJs birthday today and I know that all 3 of us love that song. The minute the first beat hits, I can’t fucking believe Claude after refusing to dance, comes running out on the dance floor and starts finally loosening up for his birthday. We got the DJ to do whatever we wanted after that – we ran Hall & Oates You Make my Dreams and tons of other favorites and had the occasional straggler that mosied on in out there with us till the place closed down.
Now sometimes Claude gets these bizarre ideas in his head that you can’t talk him out of. His fierce independent streak and stubbornness will having you throwing your hands up in defeat, as we were leaving the club he his fucking fixated on getting some money out of an ATM – why? I have no idea, it was after two and nowhere to go but to call it a night. So we stroll towards 6th St, and he spots one in front of Emo’s. As Matt and I are just chatting while he’s getting his money, I hear him cursing at the machine like Yosemite Sam, so I look over to discover Claude urinating on the ATM machine in retaliation!!

Ok I gotta get this kid to bed before anything else happens. We make it to the car and he’s screaming that he’s hungry so we hit the Taco Cabana off Guadalupe and head to drop him off at the hotel (I’m staying at Matt’s tonight) when we get to the hotel, he has no idea why we are there and suspects that we have another party to get to and seems disappointed to be at the hotel. I finally get his ass inside and say goodnight. We go back to Matt’s place and hang, play records, watch Beverly Hills Cop and just have a general fucking blast. At the end of the evening, Matt goes outside to get his cat in for the night, when he comes rushing in like he just saw Jason fucking Vorhees, with his face flushed, he says “your not gonna believe what the fuck I just found outside in the woods!!” and holds THIS up –

Amandla – September 3rd  – Double Wide – Dallas, TX

So Chip and “Pistol” Pete Kaufmann, who round out Amandla, came into Austin for a few days of rehearsals, while I retreated to Dallas, to attend and DJ a friend’s wedding and chill for a few days before the next leg began. I meet the gang at the venue for soundcheck. I was excited about tonight because now it was just the four of us and it always feels special. I had put this whole tour together and it was starting tonight in my hometown with all my friends there and I enlisted some great people to join us. Opening were Here Holy Spain and Record Hop, two of my faves and who’s members are some of my best friends.

First was the ‘Spain who killed as always –

followed by Record Hop whose drummer Tony Wann is one of the best I’ve ever seen and is also one of my oldest and dearest friends, so having us all together was a great moment for me.

That vibe continued as Claude, started the set with a really nice shout-out to me, and extended genuine gratitude about our friendship and the work I had done to get us all here.
Then he got the show rolling and it was a great start and was happy that so many people had come out to support and see what I have been talking about for almost four years.

We had 230 people thru the door and was a great night. I get everyone back to the hotel and say goodnight – first night down. Here is a great poster of the event designed by John Paul Hossley –

Amandla – September 4th  – Haileys – Denton, TX

 Claude and Pete showed up at my house (Chip was hanging with a friend and was meeting us in Denton later tonight) early enough. We had a fun day of lounging around, watching documentaries on the Police, napping and when they woke up, treated them to one hell of a meal. They were in my family’s home in my hometown and I wanted to give them a meal they would remember, so I rustled up a righteous crawfish boil, complete with shrimp, potatoes, corn and sausage, the works. We then slept that off and headed to Denton.
Ok, so I had pretty big hopes for this show, as since Denton suffers from Austin envy, and Austin worships Ween, their was a good chance that their was gonna be alot of love at this show. It was a Saturday night, no one in Denton owns a fucking car so I know that they were not at the show last night in Dallas, so this was gonna be good right? Dead fucking wrong, and the temptation to burn this place to the ground was almost too irresistible. One fuckup after another by this place and suddenly I would go into a trance a la Drew Barrymore in fucking Firestarter. Let’s go thru everything that went wrong with this show and this club –

1) They didn’t do anything to promote this – not even put the name on the marquee, on their website – nothing.
2)  The soundguy was TWO HOURS LATE!!
3) Out of spite or some other agenda, someone here had told our openers that the show was canceled.

This was only the beginning of the insanity – let’s start with securing the openers:
Before the Ween tour started I flew into Fort Worth a few weeks back for a memorial for an old, dear friend of mine, Kelly Parker, whose influence on the local music scene here had become legendary over the years, so it was a who’s who of musicians at his remembrance. I run into an old acquaintance, Quincy from a popular local band Dovehunter and offer him the slot right their on the spot. He calls me a few later, very excited about doing the show etc, only to call me just a few days before the show to tell me that they can’t do it. In his defense, he had referred several people to me to pick up the slack. After going thru no less than five more confirmations, then cancellations, I get a call from Daniel Huffman who’s all keyed up about doing the show with his new outfit, The New Fumes.  I meet him  at the Amandla Dallas gig, where he tells me (the night before the show) that he can’t do it as, his new project isn’t quite ready yet, but he too has some sure-fire replacements. Regina Challew calls me up by Daniel’s recommendation and is interested in playing. I had remembered seeing Regina play with Ruby and a few local favorites like Captain Audio, who became the Secret Machines of Captain Audio, and then without her, just the Secret Machines, who went on to global acclaim (a point that I’m not so sure she has entirely reconciled). Anyway, hey it was somebody and someone I had heard of so I told her to bring it on.

As I was having a smoke outside, she arrives, with this girl in-tow and Regina was really cool too, so my mood began to lighten. I helped them load in, and they were not only commiserative of the misgivings of the club but also supportive of my intent to burn it to the ground. So sisters-in-arms as it were and we certainly had plenty of time to hang and shoot the shit as I previously mentioned the soundman’s unacceptable tardiness.

After waiting over two fucking hours after the show was supposed to start the soundman finally arrives and the show starts with one of the dudes from Dovehunter doing a cool, noisy little solo thing.

It was now Regina’s turn and Jenn was going to sing backup on a few songs. Regina does a couple of numbers that I thought were cool and then Jenn joins her but I couldn’t hear her voice…like at all…so the next time its her turn to sing I listened intently and still nothing. She comes up to me after, while Regina is still onstage playing and says, “I don’t think that mic was on at all”. I head to the soundbooth to confront this tardy motherfucker and drum…roll…please…, the motherfucker was SLEEPING!!! – I am not kidding and gawd I wish I had taken a picture. I was filled was visions of arson and pillage. I went to retrieve the production manager/bartender and led him to what we saw so he could see firsthand that the guy was asleep. He wasn’t embarrassed, made no apology and even seemed amused that this had happened. Burn Motherfucker Burn.

So it was finally our turn to get up there, as it was well after midnight and their was seriously something like 20 people there. Claude is good at making sleepers like this pretty fun and uses them as just a live practice. He’s got that in-between-song stand up comedian thing down flat and its easier with a small intimate group, and the ones that were there, were very appreciative.

Pic of Amandla in Denton

Then after the show, the club does NOTHING to offer us any sort of compensation for them dropping the ball so hard on us, not one dime. We all head back to Fort Worth to crash.

Amandla – September 5th – Rudyard’s – Houston, TX – 

Just when I think last night’s shit couldn’t get any worse, the depression was just starting to get deep. We wake up, and my family treats us all to wonderful brunch. It was great to see Claude talking music with my mom and them laughing together. Chip was still at a friend’s house. Now Houston is my least favorite city in Texas (and one of my least fave in America) so going there is never really anything anticipatory. We also had a few planning issues as the car Claude had rented for the drive up from Austin and to do the tour in was too small to fit everyone in with the equipment I had rented. So I had to call down to Houston and secure some more equipment so we could all make the trek. While I was busy with this, their was some confusion as to when we were going to pick up Chip as we really couldn’t until the equipment was secured. Once that was done I drove 90 mins round trip to retrieve him, and let me tell you the ride back was pretty tense. He had been waiting for almost 2 hrs in some pretty severe heat, so I don’t blame his temper.
So we are all together and are off to Houston. This ride wasn’t much more comfortable than the ride with Chip, I guess last night’s bullshit was still ringing,
We get to Houston and get checked in and head to the venue – to discover that they had not used any of the posters I had sent (I actually found them behind the bar) and they had booked two DEATH METAL bands to go on before us, one of whose equipment we were gonna be using.
This place we discover is largely a restaurant and the owner, at the very least, treated us to dinner, which we knew was going to be the only highlight of the evening. During dinner I look in the paper to see that they had made a mistake and listed us as playing here tomorrow night – I can’t catch a fucking break.
And now we had to sit through two shitty Metal bands (one had a really insane name that I wish I could remember).
By the time Amandla gets on their is less than 15 people in the room, most of whom I recruited from downstairs to come watch. Just depressing.

Their were two cute foreign exchange students that sat with me during the show. They could barely speak English and were only being polite but we had fun talking with them after the show. The one that could speak a bit of English was from Peru, and the other I think from Korea, who couldn’t speak any English, and had just arrived in the States, and now she’s hanging with these freaks. So we sat and had the kind of conversation you would expect, observations about the difference in our cultures, etc. Some people showed up and recognized Claude and some said they thought we were playing tomorrow and others didn’t know we were playing at all, which I have no choice to take some responsibility for. We get back to the hotel after unsuccessfully trying to find something to eat and crash.

Amandla – September 6th  – Beauty Bar- Austin, TX 

Ok so this should be an easy day as its a quick jaunt over to Austin and though sadly its the last day of a holiday weekend and everyone has to be at work tomorrow, we were still hoping for a bit of a turnout. Also our buddy Nick Oliveri (QOTSA/Kyuss/The Dwarves/Mondo Generator) was meeting us in Austin too. He’s going to join us for the Moistboyz run we are doing next week.
We get to Austin and get loaded in – I was hoping for a guest tonight, as I had been in contact with Jenn from the Denton show pretty much non-stop from a few nights ago and she said she might come down for the show to see me, but called and said she was unable to make it.
Since we were just here with Ween, I knew the show was fresh in alot of people’s minds so I was confident that we would have a good show tonight.
I forget the openers’ names, but they were good and really cool, and the staff at the Beauty Bar treated us really well, (Matt also works here too). Their was still the situation with the bass amp, and thankfully our buddy Jeff Pinkus from the Butthole Surfers (who is also joining the Moistboyz trek) came thru.
Check out the photo below – I hope that the gravity of two brothers playing in a funk band with a bass amp that says Honky (Pinkus’ other band) on it, isn’t lost on anyone.

This was a good show and was well attended by a very enthusiastic crowd – Austin freaking loves Ween, so it was good to see. Sara Jones, the girl from the Ween show the other night got up and sang Little Jimmy with Claude and it was another great moment. Great having Oliveri, Pinkus, Guy and my main man Steven, all from the Moistboyz there along with about 100 others. Glad that this little jaunt had ended as well as it began.
After the show Sara Jones had invited us to come party at her place – remember the dude I was talking about the night of the Austin Ween show at Claude’s little birthday thing that got in the car with us to ensure that we were gonna hang with him and his friends? Well apparently that dude (as he constantly reminded us) had done a gig on bass for the Moistboyz at some point and he was on us again tonight like white on rice. We went to go drop some stuff off at the hotel first before following Sara to her place and I look over and this dude is following us on his motorcycle…creepy.
We get to Sara’s, who is a gracious host and treats us to some great Scotch. Claude was taken aback as he knows that sipping on straight liquor ain’t really my scene, but this shit was good and he and I had a good time.
The night ends with Chip getting sick and us trying to stay out of the rain and shaking motorcycle dude loose, who even followed us back to the hotel. Chip and Pete were catching a plane back to New Jersey in a few hours, out of San Antonio so we had to get a car service that would pick them up and take them that far. We say goodbye, and tell Claude I will see him in a few days back in Fort Worth.

The Moistboyz  – September 9th – Lola’s – Ft Worth, TX 

Ok so I went to Fort Worth for a few days while the band was rehearsing to complete this trifecta of Ween-goodness and to get ready for opening night. Boy this was fucking easy, when I pulled up to Lola’s I found out the show was already sold out to the max (where were you fuckers the other night in Denton?).
And let me tell you something, the brownest of the brown were out for this show, and the place was fucking moist. Their had been a tornado reported in the area earlier but it did nothing to detract from nor compare to the tornado inside.
I hadn’t really seen Oliveri in almost three years, so it was great that we had a chance to catch up and have some great laughs.
Anyway, its now showtime, and the place is fucking packed. These fuckers are rowdy and ready for the band to bring the ruckus, and that’s exactly what they do.

However, Claude, who is notoriously one of the hardest hitting drummers in the game, is playing on this set that I think his Ween drum tech, Gabe had brought down, but I don’t know where the hardware came from, but the hats were not in good shape and were constantly coming apart (sometimes several times in a song) and suddenly I’m on stage detail putting them back together. Claude and I shared a funny moment when I’m fixing one part of the set, he’s trashing the other and then back again, like an episode of I Love Lucy. I was having to do it from the front of the stage that was packed so it made it a little difficult. Also theirs a dude, that I can oddly say that I equally know and don’t know at the foot of the stage being totally annoying. Meaning that, this kid and I have because of growing up in the same small town, interested in the music scene, crossed paths at least 3 times a year for the past 15 years.
Well here is how our rapport usually goes: (this is largely pre move to NYC)
I go to a show – I see him from across the room.
I prepare for his eventual hello and do my best to keep it brief and spare myself his ramblings.
I resign myself that I have no real control over this matter and its only in the fate of the level of alcohol he has consumed that evening.
I spend good portion of show with him talking in my ear, only to later wonder what keeps me from telling him to fuck off.

On this evening his alcohol consumption made this task easier to do, but even more painful to endure, especially when this little snot was actually taunting Guy. If you have seen Guy, let alone know him, its almost immediately clear that this is an unwise thing to do especially for this little piss-ant who I’m praying that his folly I’ve been the victim of for over ten years will suddenly come to a crashing halt by one swift impalement from Guy’s mic stand.
Well Bozo the Clown takes it upon himself to try to take Steven’s boom mic stand and address the band. I was standing right next to him and immediately diffused the situation, again somehow without my fists (or Guys’) coming into play.

The show was a fun, raucous affair and the after-party was even more of a cluster-fuck.
Some guys at the show had promised us some after-hours speakeasy kinda shit, that turned into a convoy circling downtown Fort Worth on a wild fucking goose chase, that almost ended in a fight, us against them.
When we finally made it to a friend of Oliveri’s, it was the funniest yet most pathetic thing you could picture. All of us sitting on the porch of this rundown house eating Jack N The Box tacos out of the sack, and this really heavy-set girl that was as drunk and country and she was fat was the entertainment. Apparently she had taken a real liking to Pinkus, who is one of the funniest motherfuckers I know, and the laughter was uproarious. Just those weird things that happen on tour. Claude found a book on Astrology that he and I were taking turns improving the words from and inserting our own prophecies in hilarious detail much to the delight of our closely knit court. Good times.

The Moistboyz  – September 10th – Red Eyed Fly- Austin, TX  

So the crew get to Austin first thing in the morning but I don’t get there till late afternoon. I went back to my family’s house last night, to get some sleep and to retain a bit of my sanity. I meet up with the gang and we decide on Stubb’s for dinner which is across the street. Oliveri and I had another great talk and we all had a great meal and told a bunch of fun stories. We make it to soundcheck and immediately the club is giving us shit about the guest list and a slew of other unnecessary things. Austin is one of the most hospitable towns and not to mention largely the hometown of 3 of these 5 guys, so I had no idea where this shit was coming from, and they basically gave us an ultimatum that they cut our list or our pay, so their were a lot of people we invited that we had to embarrassingly tell that we didn’t have a list.
The bartender wouldn’t even give us drinks, and I was standing right next to the stage and he didn’t trust that I was giving the drinks to the band, just that kind of shit all night from these dudes.
But the place was another sell out and the full house was ready to rawk, and you could tell this being hometown for Stephen that he was ready to make an impression.

Pic of Moistboyz in Austin

Some friends of mine from Dallas had come down to see Sleep, who were playing a few blocks away and came over after to hang with me. All night long my phone was doing weird shit, and at one point it just froze, produced a weird screen I’d never seen before that I couldn’t alter no matter what I tried. I had half of the club and everyone in the band trying to solve this fucking mystery with no results.
Afterwards again we all went in a different direction with most going to Pinkus’ place. I was exhausted and went to Matt’s place for a party.
Look at how disabling nostalgia can be –

The Moistboyz  – September 11th – Numbers – Houston, TX  

This show was a crazy sell out and a befitting end to a short but sweet little run – for Claude and I, it concluded a month of shows in Texas with three different bands, tons of friends, lots of laughs – and years off our lives.

Photos –

Roy Turner
Jeff Barringer
Nicole Laca
Matthew Beamesderfer

Rock In America Festival (2010)

Now this little adventure started out very hectic and dysfunctional.  The first day of the festival wasn’t until Friday, but I flew into Dallas for a pre-party with Ratt and the Scorpions. The plan was to leave for OKC the next day but things didn’t go quite as planned. What started out as a Rocklahoma-revisited idea turned into something else entirely. If you have read some of the other posts you know that I’ve got a little crew or musicians and we have made two very successful jaunts to Tulsa the last two years for their Rocklahoma spectacle. Well instead of having to wait a whole other year, here was this thing called Rock N America that promised a more 80s centric lineup than this past years updated Rocklahoma and it was closer being in OKC. So let’s rawk right? Well..sorta.

Pre-Party w/ The Scorpions and RATT – Verizon Theater – Dallas, TX – July 21st

   If I have a flight first thing in the morning, I can’t sleep so I just stay up cause I’m a night person by nature. So on the morning of July 21st as I was leaving NYC at 10am I had already been awake for 24hrs. Between the subway ride from my apt in Brooklyn to Laguardia Airport, to several delays, flying to DFW, taking buses and trains to get home was another 8 hrs. I walked in the door at 5pm and hadn’t eaten and I was there 10mins before my crew was honking outside to take me to the concert. Hungry and tired as fuck I wasn’t quite ready to rock but once we got there I soon got over that. Now with all respect to my crew their were some headaches to get over. Bass-dude, my normal johnny-on-the-spot (and who picked me up) wasn’t gonna make it to OKC this weekend because of work and it was also undetermined if his wife was gonna make it to the pre-party due to illness. That’s fine, he let me know plenty of time in advance he wasn’t making it to OKC and obviously his wife couldn’t for-see her health issues.
Now singer-dude, who is impossible not to love, however has the most unreliable and infuriating judgment and is incapable of any sense of urgency was pushing it. I got 4 comp tkts to the show and was originally taking Singer/Bass dudes and bass dudes’ wife (originally as a kind of get-out-jail-free card so he could go to OKC in the first place). When word got out that she wasn’t gonna make it Singer-Dude took it upon himself to offer the tkt to anyone that was gonna do something for him (namely drive him and pay for drinks/parking) so his selfishness kinda put me in a position.
So me and bass-dude meet up with singer and his uninvited chauffeur. I give everyone their tickets and we go in. Chauffeur guy is fucking insufferable. A guy with less self-awareness you will be hard pressed to find. Just a walking caricature of all that is super not cool. I give this guy a 3rd row seat for free and when the gesture was made by bass-dude to reward me with a beer he actually threw a tantrum. This tantrum lasted the whole evening, he literally complained the whole time.
We get to our seats and look for drummer-dude who rounds out our Rocklahoma crew, just in time as RATT is starting

Now it should be that I could say that I’ve haven’t seen RATT since I was a kid but this coming Sunday in OKC will have been my 4th RATT show in a year haha. And THIS performance was easily the worst, (and in the running for one of the worst I’ve ever seen by anyone). Their wasn’t an ounce of camaraderie among them, not even with good ol’ Carlos Cavazo now on board. It felt like you had just walked in on your parents fighting and them trying to act like everything is cool. Just the most uninspired thing ever from a band that is known for turning in half-baked performances. What’s wrong with this band? Why can’t they ever get it together? Do it right or give it up.
In-spite of their sucky-ness and the Chauffeur’s complaints, their is just something happens when we are all together, and we were laughing our asses off and generally having a good time. Doesn’t my face seem to say “Does this asshole EVER stop complaining?”:

 

Up next was the Scorpions who I’ve never really seen. I saw the end of Rock You Like a Hurricane when they opened for Motley Crue over 10 years ago but that was it. Not necessarily one of my faves, but in the name of Rock, necessary just the same.
The Scorps come out and dude, its immediately obvious why this band has lasted as long as they have, they were so surprisingly spectacular, and my jaw was on the ground. Just so top notch, and everything was executed so flawlessly. I had wondered how they had fared since losing their long-time drummer Herman Rarebell, and hell his replacement, James Kottak, was the highlight of the show!
Promoted as the final tour of their long, storied career, what a way to go out and totally on top of their game at the height of their command of their powers. I was crazy impressed:

 

 So now with the show over, the plan was the Singer-Dude was gonna get me back home, and of course naturally, when something is left to his charge, things don’t quite pan out exactly. Bass-Dude was my link to the sane world, and now I’m in the car with complainer Chauffeur, who of course drives a Hummer. A symbol of over-compensation if I ever did see one. We were plotting what we wanted to do as I was to Ft. Worth and they are in Dallas. Going to a party or a bar was on the table but this life-sucker actually expected me to sleep on his couch and get home anyway I could the next day depending on the geography of where we decided to after-party. I was all about saying fuck-off to both and going home. We ended up at a bar and had an ok time, except that the Chauffeur was scheming to leave us there. Where does he find these primates?

Rock In America Festival – Day 1 (sorta) – Oklahoma City, OK – July 23rd

Ok so the dysfunction continues…as Singer-Dude was responsible for us getting there (we have a deal, I take care of the tickets/laminates etc, they take care of the lodging) and this has worked for the past two festivals in Tulsa. What I didn’t know was that it was because Bass-dude was in charge of it all and now that he was no longer on board, I was on a sinking ship.
I was pissed because I had flown all the way from NYC for this and was told that it was all taken care of and nothing had been done. In fact now he wasn’t even going. I told him that my transportation and accommodations were still his responsibility. He parlayed that into some Facebook contest that made it sound like the laminates were HIS and the winners would have to take me too per the fine print.
Can you fucking believe this dude? – I was clueless to all this and thought the people I was going with were friends of his, they had a ride and no tickets, I had tickets and no ride so the barter system was in our favor right? Wrong – they were leaving right after the Scorpions show from Dallas on Wed. Remember when I went to bed that night I had been up for over 42 hrs, no way after that I was hopping into a car with total strangers to go to OKC 2 days early.
So I wanted to leave on Fri per the original plan, and told him that he would have to pay for a bus/train tkt after all I had been put out. He fought me on this, continued this ridiculous FB contest to make himself look connected and at the zero hour finally relented and bought me a one way train tkt, that when I got there I found wasn’t all the way to OKC and I had to pay 20 more bucks to extend it. A scammer down to the last detail.
So thanks to this arrangement I didn’t reach OKC till almost 10pm as the last band of the day, Twisted Sister had already taken stage. I still had to get from the train station to the festival hotel to meet the people I was gonna be staying with and riding back with. I used my brain and called the hotel and told them I was with the performers and they sent a shuttle for me (saving me a $50 cab ride).
Though I missed all the bands the first day that’s not to say that I didn’t have fun, because the party was just about to get started and I had NO idea haha.

I’m at the hotel waiting by the indoor pool talking to some of the bands when my hosts finally arrive. We meet and they tell me about the day. To further the complications, the couple we will call Barney and Betty, who I thought I was staying with, it actually turns out that I’m staying with their friends Fred and Wilma, who in turn are actually staying as guests of Bert and Ernie. So I guess this makes me the Grouch.
It was a bit after 11pm when we all hooked up and what should have turned into an hour (2 max) and then retire to our rooms to get ready for a big day tomorrow, turned into a clusterfuck odyssey of total madness that stretched till 6am, that if I hadn’t been so entertained by what I’m about to unfold, I would have lost my mind completely.
First and one thing I thought was really cool that can’t happen at Rocklahoma (at least on the campgrounds) was that since all the bands are staying here and their is a tiny little convention room, it allows itself for late night jams/shows scheduled or otherwise.
So though I missed the entire first day and had no prior knowledge of this suddenly I’m in this tiny little room where you would expect toddler pageants to be held, watching L.A. Guns

 

After they played their drummer, Chad Stewart, (who apparently is in most of the bands this weekend….is their a shortage of drummers?) stayed behind the drumset as he was in also in the next band that played, Motochrist, who were pretty good. Their songs where real quick and fast like punk songs, but with a certain sleaze factor, they almost reminded me of the Dwarves (more on this later).

 

 

Come to find out, we weren’t even staying in this hotel and what took so long was that were waiting for Wilma to find Fred, who had the keys to the car, that was our transportation to our actual hotel. How did I get myself into this mess? haha – The nights ends with Wilma staggering naked thru the halls until she finds Fred and we finally make it to our hotel as the sun is coming up, and I find a corner of this roach trap while Fred is still raging loudly well past 9am.

Rock In America Festival – Day 2 – Oklahoma City, OK – July 24th

Ok so on almost no sleep I head to the campgrounds with Bert and Ernie to get an early start to see all the bands and to make up for what I missed yesterday. This might have been a bit misguided as the first band of the day, Steelheart, were just gawd awful.

 

I was pretty super unimpressed with the set-up, as I know that this was 80s Metal in Oklahoma, but even by those standards, this had a real back-yard feel (which was actually kind of cool). The place held approx 5k people all on a hill facing downward, amphitheater style.
One of the things that I also enjoy at these things is seeing the old 80s Hair bands, still trying to get that old look together and see how it holds up, and I equally love it when they abandon it completely where you would not know what band was playing just by looking at them (wait is THAT Cinderella?). A good example of this was up next was Firehouse. By the time they were doing their thing back when I was waist deep in the bloodletting of Slayer, so I only know a few of their radio hits, but by the looks of them you would think you were watching your dad singing karaoke at the family picnic.

 

They actually were not too bad at all, they still had their sound, the singer still carried the notes and they seemed like they were in pretty good touring shape. Next, I had a bunch of press to do so I headed over to the press tent, that was actually just an area blocked off by Port-A-Shitters. The first band to come in was that band Motochrist (featuring the drummer of L.A. Guns AND Faster Pussycat) that I had seen last night at the hotel after-party. Remember how I said that oddly they reminded me of the Dwarves? Well ironically, Chad Stewart was wearing a freaking Dwarves shirt today haha, so I went up to him to tell him the story and the odd coincidence when he informs me that its actually no coincidence because Marc Diamond of the Dwarves is in the band! Some reporter I am eh? Really did my research this time. We talked for a bit as we have some of the same friends. Dave Catching really does know everyone.

Next the guys from Cinderella come in – now I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but I will always have a special place for this band as they were the first band I ever saw live. Opening for David Lee Roth when I was 12, the memories of that night still influence me. I had just seen them at Rocklahoma and they were ok despite some sound issues and I was looking forward to seeing them later today.
Singer Tom Keifer was either profoundly stoned or is just a space cadet by nature He came stumbling in, and from the waist up he had his rock gear on. But he was wearing jogging sweats and Keds on his lower half and could barely hold the microphone. This is going to be interesting I thought.

 

Next up was something I thought rather silly. As impressed as I was by their performance the other night in Dallas, the Scorpions press event was kinda ridiculous. You would have the thought the fucking president was coming in. The fact that it was lost on everyone but me that they had security detail 12 people deep to lead them into a corral encased by portable toilets is about as perfect of a description as I can give you of the madness that surrounded me.

 

I bailed on this horseshit almost immediately, and I wanted to see the Michael Schenker Group, whom I’ve never seen.  And I made the right choice too, because when they hit stage the place really started to come alive, and for good reason because they were so freaking good and the best performance I saw all weekend. He ran thru a bunch of the UFO stuff and he had Carmine Appice on drums. Its a rarity that he was even in America so that was cool and the band I was looking most forward to seeing.

 

Now it was time for Cinderella and I was hoping that Keifer’s buzz from earlier had finally worn off so they could rawk. This was a good set from them and much better than the sound-problem riddled show from Rocklahoma a few months back. Eric Brittingham was so unrecognizable, I wasn’t sure that it was him. I guess he gained some self-awareness over the years haha.

 

Now time for the headliners’ the Scorpions. Though they duplicated the show I saw just a few days ago, it was a real pleasure to see it again. Something really special happened, that I felt unworthy of, as I appreciated it, it didn’t mean a fraction to me of what this would have meant to some Finnish rock historian and even some of the fans around me who looked to be in tears. What caused this reaction was that for a brief few songs, Michael Schenker joined his brother onstage as did Herman Rarebell on drums, reuniting them all for the first time onstage together in 30 years.

 

Now it was time to find Bert and Ernie where we would most likely meet up with Fred and Wilma back at the Rock Hotel. We get everyone together and when we get to the Garden Hotel, it looks like the scene in Rockstar where he rides the motorcycle down the hallway. People and debauch just everywhere. We go into the little conference room again tonight for the after-party performances to check out this band that Barney and Betty, my original suitors were actually there working with, whom I had met last night called Dirty Penny.
They were freaking awesome! Totally what I dig, that real nasty, sleazy vibe, but these were young dudes (who were attracting the hottest girls) so they put a fresh, fun spin on it and totally fucking rawked. Probably the best time I had all weekend was during this show. Even John Corabi who was watching sidestage came out and did a song with them. I’m always interested in the bands that the girls wanna fuck.

 

I had met a ton of new people today and was having a great time talking with everyone.  I’m by no means a heavy drinker, but I don’t know if someone raided several mini-bars but somehow about 5 mini-bottles of Jack Daniels made their way into my pockets. A band I had hung out with last night and now tonight too were these crazy Italians (from Italy, not Jersey) called Rising Wind. Don’t see alot of metalers from Italy and they were really cool guys. So I’m having fun with the RW guys when one of them borrowed my phone and somehow my phone found its way into the hands of Meth Face.
At the time I discovered this, I was talking with some friends of Fred and Wilma, who in an act of total spontaneity had just arrived from Dallas at 3:30am. Wilma gave me the heads up they were coming because it was going to be my ability to get them into the festival tomorrow that was going to secure their passage from Dallas to here. I assured her I could, and was anticipating their arrival.
I stopped my attempts of retrieving my phone for a bit to greet them when they arrived.  Nothing against my present company but I wasn’t prepared. I was expecting Thelma and Louise and what I got was Paris and Nicole.
Had it not been for Paris, all eyes would have been on Nicole, as they are both stunning girls.
However instead of being as bitchy as she was hot, she was actually even cooler, and something of a kindred spirit as we became instant friends and had a great time laughing and making jokes that seemed lost on everyone else. So you can imagine my embarrassment when I had to excuse myself to retrieve my phone from an insane, naked meth addict.
The party raged again till close to 6am when we finally made it back to our hotel.

Rock In America Festival – Day 3 – Oklahoma City, OK – July 25th

Ok so I’m used to hustling hard, but it was really starting to catch up to me and I don’t normally drink alot at all and probably drank more whiskey the previous evening than I did for most of the 1990s combined. I was hurting, just in that mode where you are awake and nothing is gonna help you but more sleep. Due to Ernie’s passiveness he was unable to secure a late checkout, so as early as 11am I found myself back at the Rock Hotel barely able to stand. We are in the foyer and its pretty quiet with places to sit and chill so I take full advantage. Paris and Nicole made their way down and the five of us are just hanging for a bit before I fell asleep right there in the chair.
When I woke up, it was just me and Ernie and I had that feeling that I might have slept alot longer than I had intended but that wasn’t the case. He told me that they all had to get over to the festival early as they were working with Dirty Penny who were the first band on the sidestage today. We still had a few hours and I wished I had used them to get even more sleep.
Then something even more crazy coincidental happened. I’m having a nice talk with Ernie and we are kinda bonding over some of our guilty pleasures. He’s a nice guy and I enjoyed him, but he has no self-awareness for just how nerdy he is, so our conversation was frequently paused, so he could get a quick picture with what was seemingly everyone that walked by at a ratio of a pic about every 5 mins. The punchline to this is that everytime he did it I wasn’t involved but as we were leaving to go he ran into the guys in Lizzy Borden  and was pissing himself for me to take a photo with his camera, and he hands me this like wind-up 35mm fossil with no flash, and it was even unwound haha! Go into your mom’s kitchen right now, she has 3 of these in a junk drawer somewhere.
The fact that this camera belonged in a fucking museum was not lost on these dudes and I was super embarrassed.
On the way to festival we are having a good time talking and somehow the conversation turns to professional wrestling when this dude literally loses his shit. I mean he looks like a wrestling fan but this dude is fanatical and that I have given him a forum to talk about his favorite thing in the world is the equivalent of a stampede coming my way. While he was kicking my ass relentlessly with this incredibly long story about the Freebirds (he was so into it, that he managed to get us lost more than once on the way to the festival that was less than 3 miles away, for being unable to concentrate on anything else) suddenly it hit me – Aha! – He had said something that sounded verbatim to something that one of my oldest friends has said to me many times. In the annals of my old friend’s storytelling, their is one fave he likes to tell (and I enjoy hearing no matter how many times I’ve heard it) and so I’ve heard this story dozens of times during our 15 years as friends. In my friend’s story he unfolds this tale about this dude he once knew whose acts of nerdom revolving around professional wrestling, were so extreme, that they bared the repeatings I’ve enjoyed so many times over the years and have become legend. In all the times this story has come up, he never mentioned the dude’s name, when it hits me – ERNIE IS THE GUY FROM MY FREIND’S STORY!!! It has to be him! I snuck away to the bathroom to call him and sure enough he confirmed that indeed this was the guy!!
So we finally get to the campgrounds and thankfully I have no press today, so I’m just gonna relax and enjoy the spoils of backstage and have a great time. I had missed Dirty Penny because of the rain, and the first band of the day on the main stage was Warrant. The rain had really kept the people away as when they went on their were seriously less than 100 people there. I was never a Warrant fan, and you would think with a different singer that it would reek of illegitimacy, and I wouldn’t know this if I hadn’t seen them at Rocklahoma but the new singer, Robert Mason is waaaay better than the other dude.

 

Up next was Slaughter, who I only saw a few songs of. It was chow time in the artist mess hall, and of course I love Up All Night and Fly to the Angels but the rain was a real damper and the dining hall was the perfect escape. So I took Paris and Nicole over there with me to eat. It was fun as these two seemingly like girls as much as I do, so it was like sitting around with a bunch of dudes totally objectifying the rawker girls walking by, except it was with two of the hottest girls there. Good times.

 

 

After we got our beers we were gonna head to the mainstage to see Lita Ford. I’d never seen Lita before and I’m a Runaways fanatic so I wanted to get that one in. Something happened on the way over that I feel was a direct result of something I as just talking with Trunk about. Now in defense of the security in this place, the girls didn’t have backstage clearance, they just had the media passes I’d given them (and Nicole had already lost hers as well) but it was the last day, it was raining, the place was kind of a joke to begin with, and these girls are smoldering hot, and nothing against the girls but in their limited 19 yrs they had already grown accustom to the benefits of such. So it was with that confidence that I told them not to worry and I would handle it if we got stopped.
Before I got those words out of my mouth, they are being worked over by some very unreasonable security that made it instantly out of my hands.

So I hit the beer truck one more time (remember beer in OK has HALF the alcohol content as anywhere else) and go check out Lita Ford.
I was glad to be there and having a great time, but it was not because of Lita, who was having an off night and seemed like she knew it too. A bunch of funny stuff happened as I looked over and low and behold, not even scheduled to perform at anytime this weekend was Vince Neil like a foot in front of me. It was cartoonish as he was standing there with a blond bombshell on each arm, like this is how you would find Vince on any given Sunday.

I stuck around and had a funny chat with Herman Rarebell, the old Scorpions drummer.
Now up next came what turned out to be the worst thing I saw all weekend and one of the most embarassing things ever. I assumed this dubious honor would fall to RATT after their series of atrocities, but Dokken beat them all in the stink nugget dept. I was a huge Dokken fan back in the day and hadn’t seen them in over 10 years so I was ready to rawk. I mean this dude really can no longer sing, like at all, and have no idea why he chooses to embarrass himself like this. I guess he made some really bad business decisions back in their heyday and he has to forge on for the cash, but this is freaking joke. Even lamer is that somehow because he admits he can’t sing he get this pass for being honorable and everyone seems ok with it. Dude if you can’t perform, I don’t give a shit what your intentions are.
He also has to have the worst between song banter on record. It’s like he doesn’t know what to say so he goes on these long cringe-inducing tangents.Even more interesting was the former guitarist George Lynch was standing next to me as his band the Lynch Mob was going on the sidestage next, fueling rumors of a one-time reunion. That shit never came and I don’t blame Lynch for not wanting to be onstage with this dude.

 

Was it time for RATT, the final act of the festival already? – I was in such sleep dep mode that I was incapable of retaining anymore music and mentally this had been over an hour ago when RATT started.  Believe it or not, they were not that bad (for them) and certainly nowhere near as hideous as they were in Dallas last week. I realized that I had been backstage this whole time and wanted to peruse the crowd and see some of the stuff on the grounds I hadn’t had the chance to see yet, so I used this time as I could still see and hear RATT.

 

Ernie made an earlier departure so I now had to find Fred and Wilma and get our plan together and ended up watching the last few songs of RATT with them before we headed back to the Rock Hotel for the final after party.
We get there and I’m partially wondering if we will see any debauch this evening but mainly too tired to care. I’m hanging with Jessica again when I see Paris and Nicole, and we all go inside for the after-party. Those Italian guys Rising Wind, I’ve been hanging with all weekend were playing in that little conference room. These guys were so cool, I really hoped they would be good and they were. They did kind of a douche move in the beginning as the singer made some silly late dramatic entrance and wearing a white belt and the latest from Hot Topic, but they quickly made me forget about that and totally fucking rocked. Kind of an Iron Maiden sound that kicked ass.
Barney came out and even sang on one song with them.

 

It’s about half way through the Rising Wind set that rumors start flying around about a secret late-night slot. First it’s said to be Don Dokken (who I actually already saw retire to his room) then it comes down that its gonna be George Lynch.
Now THIS was so the real deal – It was interesting to see Lynch in such a candid environment and attire. You could tell that this guy was probably never the flashy rocker type as he looked more like a jock that could play guitar really freaking well. What made it so special
other than the spontaneity, intimate setting and late hour, was just how it really was just 3 dudes who just wanted to play and a feverish crowd that appreciated it.

 

It was truly a jam session and everyone wanted in – this was not rehearsed, and they were just doing covers that they thought of just seconds before they played them. Bobby Blotzer of RATT eagerly jumped on the drums and getting to see this from behind the stage was really cool. Jessica and I just kept kinda looking at each other like “Holy Shit!” Sadly all good things must come to an end, because not only did all the musicians want in, but when it was made kinda clear that they would let just about anyone from the crowd sing as well, this horde of drunks were not shy and passive about sharing the stage with one of their heroes, and that was the show’s undoing. Just belligerent drunk guys with zero touch of reality and had seen the movie Rockstar way too many times got up there not realizing its not gonna go down like it does in your dreams. One guy was just all over Lynch trying to live out some fantasy and he was tripping all over his rig until Lynch’s tech finally had to toss the guy. After about the fifth time with five singers doing this to him, and then frat boys literally fighting over the mic, Lynch had enough and called it an evening. Sucks that people couldn’t let something this cool go on longer.
They did get thru Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love, N.I.B. and Into the Fire before all was said and done.
It was now close to 4am and their was yet another band about to go on, but we had all had it and were still planning on driving back to Dallas shortly. I slept almost the whole way home as I rode with Fred and Wilma who graciously made sure I got home safe.
All in all it was a crazy fucking weekend I won’t soon forget.

Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival 2010

So the fun weekend continued after returning from Jones Beach as well as the Hip Hop. On Sunday, my new Spanish Ladyfare and I went out to Prospect Park for some fun. We started out at the Prospect Park Zoo, which I also had never been to and wanted to check out. I hadn’t realized how freaking huge this park was as I couldn’t find the Zoo and nobody could tell me the right way. We finally get there, and had a nice day. The zoo is small but unique and intimate and bit more interactive.

Then we walked over the Bandshell for a highly anticipated Hip-Hop show that kinda capped off this great week of celebrating Hip-Hop and Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival – The J Dilla Seminar – July 6th

     So I was excited that I had been hired by AOL to cover the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. As a life-long fan of hip hop and being hired to write about it, in the city of its birth was nothing but exhilarating for me. Today was the first day of the festival and the event that I chose to cover today was a seminar lead by Q-Tip about the life of J Dilla. Held in a library in Cobble Hill by my old apartment, The seminar started with a group called the J Dilla Ensemble, which was lead by a young-ish music teacher/superfan and his students from Boston, doing Dilla pieces via keys, drums, bass, guitar, and a few horns. And this hopelessly white girl would occasionaly sing, and she was good.
I think I benefited from the fact that it was advertised in two sections and the first was to feature a few lesser known panelists and then the later one with Q-Tip and Dilla’s mom, Ma Dukes, but when I got there they had switched it, so not alot of people were there for the first section, and then a ton of people showed up after realizing that they had missed Q-Tip. Since I got there early and wanted to cover the whole thing I sat in the front row about 3 feet from Tip. He was very intense, and spoke very carefully and thoughtfully. You could tell that the pain of the loss of Dilla was still very real and obvious to Q-Tip. He told alot of first-hand stories that I had never heard before, and as the enigma that is J Dilla, its so largely undocumented, so I was inspired and happy that this was being held. It was largely to promote the J Dilla Foundation that supplies inner-city kids with music education.
The second half was another panel after a short film. This time Ma Dukes again, but with a few guys from Slum Village and then the teacher from before. You could tell that the teacher, was like a Star Wars geek standing next to George Lucas. He held it together okay, but you could tell he wanted to break out haha.
The seminar was done well, with a great reception of food/beer and it was an incredibly inspirational day.Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival – Salute the DJ w/ Rob Swift – Music Hall of Williamsburg – July 8th

Another event I was covering for the Festival, and one I was much anticipating. As a DJ myself, I was excited about the focus and loved the idea of a DJ-cenntric event, not to mention but one of my all time heroes, Rob Swift was gonna bless the 1s and 2s. I get there and I’m hanging out with the crew from Brooklyn Bodega who are producing the festival. Great group of people, a smarter, more ambitious and passionate lot your not likely to find, especially about Hip-Hop. They have been gracious to have me on their radio program a few times in the last couple of years. So I’m enjoying talking with them, but this is not only my least favorite venue in Brooklyn, its one of my least fave in the entire fucking world. Between their aggressive, asshole security out front, you have to deal with the smug, elitist that work the Will Call window. I usually feel sorry for the people that work that gig, but here they seem to enjoy telling people that shows are sold out, or that their tickets are not there etc. Its always a hassle here, and this time was no exception. Not only were they giving the freaking producers of the event, they were even blocking some performers from entering! – What is it with these fucks?
I finally get it settled and get in, and in time to see Rhettmatic from the Beat Junkies getting down.

 

 

The place is packed and their is such a good vibe here. Their is nothing like a good Hip-Hop show. You will see every race, gender, creed etc. all dancing together, laughing and having a great time. I’m not there 10 mins when two older black women are dragging me, a skinny white boy, out on the floor. Just the real deal in every way and such a good time.
And then here comes my man Rob Swift – This cat is one of my biggest influences and inspirations and really my introdcution into turntabilsim. If you see him rawk hardcore, you will know why. It’s mind-boggling and its happening right in front of you. 

 

 

 The show ends at 2am and I thank all of the staff at Brooklyn Bodega and got invited to after-hours but I had been in meetings all day and was exhausted so I called it a night.OkayAfrica w/ The Roots and Talib Kweli – Prospect Park – Brooklyn, NY – July 11th

The Roots headlined the OkayAfrica World Cup 2010 Finals party to celebrate the first time in its 80-year history the tournament will take place on African soil. With a kick-off by Sahr Ngaujah, the star of the hit Broadway musical Fela!, the show featured performances by artists from all corners of the Diaspora, including host Talib Kweli (Brooklyn), Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew (Sierra Leone) former Trickykid Alumni-  Blitz the Ambassador (Ghana), and many others. Musically omnivorous hip-hop icons The Roots honor the fresh music of Africa by jamming throughout the whole day with surprise guests and capping it all off with a killer closing set.

    

We had a blast, and it was such a great environment, let alone the show. Their was a suggested donation but it was basically a free show and something like lover 10k showed up, just droves of people everywhere. Their was such a mix of diversity in performers and in the audience and a proud moment for the people of Africa. They had food tents set up everywhere, and instead of like hot dogs and pretzels, we ended up buying a whole roasted chicken, salad and dessert haha. Good meal and unforgettable music. After the show we walked around the park some more, and ended up just falling asleep in the grass under a tree. A wonderful day.    Private Screening of Basquiat: The Radiant Child hosted by DJ Spooky – Salt Space – NYC – July 12th

 

    So since our phones didn’t work, and because of the language barrier anyway, talking on the phone or texting wasn’t an option for me and the Spanish Armada.
Its so interesting to me that her and I for two weeks, never once communicated by phone, we just set everything up via email, the day before, and we never had one misstep, where as people that I communicate with all the time by means of phone and text, we miscommunicate all the time. So she actually finds in on the street this time, surprising me from behind. A few blocks from a private art gallery that I had received an invite to. Tonight’s event was a private, advance screening of a documentary that Mike D‘s wife, Tamra Davis had made about Basquiat called The Radiant Child, hosted by my friend and whom sent me the invite, DJ Spooky.
We get inside, and the Gallery is really small and only able to seat about 40 people. Now a quick disclaimer, I don’t claim to know really anything about art, art history or really anything about the business of art and its movers and shakers. I do know what I like however, and I’ve never been one to hold Basquiat in any higher esteem than anyone else. I’ve also never subscribed to the sexiness of his legend nor really understood its warrant. Having said that, it was a real trip to be in the same room with all of these people that were a part of that late 1970’s/early 1980’s downtown music/art scene of NYC. Since they were all interviewed or featured in the documentary, it was a reunion of sorts and suddenly the place was moving like a Studio 54 thirty-year reunion.
DJ Spooky did a brief set and introduced the film and moderated a Q&A after the film with Tamra and a few of the other cast members.

 

The film was done very well, and I enjoyed it, but it only confused me more as to the appeal of this guy and wonder if he were still alive if we would be talking about him at all. I know this sounds terribly dismissive, but based on the film, it really seemed like he was just this manipulative, druggie loser, that was able to dupe people that were so full of their own shit, that they wanted to be near what was happening so they enabled him. Ultimately his own demons caught up with him, so instead of his early death seen as this tragedy, it really seemed like the imminent result of that kind of lifestyle.
Afterwards we went and got some Chinese takeout and ate in that little park right off 23rd St. While walking to the subway, we saw all the kids in Iron Maiden shirts coming from their show at Madison Square Garden across town. Maybe one day I will actually see that band.

The Second Coming of Faith No More (Spring/Summer2010)

Well I was coming off a pretty crazy weekend already with my layover in Dallas for a few days. And now I was going right into the San Francisco trip. I had some business in town, and also had been offered a few DJ gigs that were not really all that important but they were at the same time as a string of hometown shows from my favorite band in the world Faith No More. To dork out for a sec, the importance of these shows if you are into it, was huge. First off, just a chance to see them in San Francisco, let alone at the Warfield, but as you may already know, that this was reunion tour – not in the KISS/Cher variety that go on forever, but in a dignified we are gonna do a few shows and that’s that sorta way. To further up the ante these were the first American shows since they reformed over a year ago. The looming question of after awhile (in true FNM fashion) was well ARE they gonna be in the States? The answer was, kinda. They were gonna do a three night stand at the Warfield in their hometown, followed by a high-profile show at Coachella, then two shows in Brooklyn, NY and one in Philly…then goodbye. So only 6 shows in 4 cities, well I already had tickets to Coachella and I live in NYC so why not catch them all? haha I know I’m a dork
So that was the plan but American Airlines had other plans for me sadly. I had tickets to all three shows, and was leaving the morning of the first show when I get to the airport to see that their are a ton of canceled flights. What followed was an excruciating day of sitting at the airport watching my tickets become worthless and an awareness that everyone that travels have zero self-awareness. So all of that anticipation was shot down and back to my family’s home I trot. Try again tomorrow?
So, the next day I get a First Class seat (that was nice) and make my way to San Francisco with a quick layover in Los Angeles. I’m not a big drinker, but I also grew up poor so when someone is offering you free champagne, the fact that it’s ten ‘o clock in the morning is of no consequence to me. I get to LAX and am waiting for the next flight to SF when the ill-advised decision of drinking champagne with airline breakfast was probably a mistake, not to mention I hadn’t got any sleep the night before. Point being, I was probably quite the sight as I was so desperate to fall asleep, even just for a second that I was willing to do all of those positions that you do on airports that make you look homeless. As I’m sitting there in a half-slumper, somebody mentions FNM and it gets my attention and they ask me if I’m going. As odd as that was, the person to my left hears my voice and asks “hey…are you Roy Turner?” – WTF? I thought, and as I confusingly nodded, he reminded me of who he was and come to find out he was an old friend I hadn’t had any contact with in over 12 years. At one time I was close with his brother, who as I find out lives in SF and he was going there to visit him with the sole purpose that they could catch these shows together. We have a nice talk and exchange numbers and I looked forward to seeing him and his brother the next day. Small fucking world eh?

Faith No More – April 13th – 14th  – Warfield – San Francisco, CA

I get to SF and other than the obvious I’m very excited – I adore SF as its one of my favorite cities in the world and I’ve even seriously considered living here, and if and when I ever retire, I just might. The promoter put me up in this shithole downtown but it was within walking distance of the club and the Warfield. Again I love this town but the homeless situation is so out of control here and I live in freaking NYC and I’m shocked how everytime I come here it seems worse. I couldn’t walk a half a block without someone aggressively asking me for something.
I secure the hotel and call a few friends and let them know I’m in town. I already had plans to go to the show tonight with an old friend from Texas who lives here and let her know that I would meet her at the show. I get something to eat, walk by the ol’ OFarrell Theater, and head to the Warfield.
I see my friend straight-away and we excitedly catch up and head in to the show were openers Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine had already started doing their thing. How appropriate I thought, another weird and local legend to get things started.

Jello was as awesome as The Dead Kennedy’s without him are embarrassing. Now I know this motherfucker is crazy and I don’t always agree with everything he says, but they killed. Biafra had the whole School of Medicine thing going with the lab coat, and covered in blood and the band was just super tight, and as I looked closer I knew why. I recognized a familiar face from Ween-world in Andrew Weiss on bass and his brother Eric on drums. I called Claude from Ween right after to tell him what I was seeing, it was incredible. Of course they tore thru California Uber Alles, and Holiday in Cambodia and the crowd went nuts.
Neil Hamburger acted as the MC and this meant he told a few of his jokes, and then introduced each act. His act is pretty fascinating: he tells some of the most offensive jokes possible, and the crowd tends to react strongly to him. Sometimes people cheer the rape and drug addiction humor; sometimes, people boo and throw things at him. It’s interesting to watch a crowd respond to him that has never seen him before, but I don’t know why anyone would actually buy a ticket to see his own show. If everyone in the audience is in on the joke, there is no joke.
 What came next literally defies description – even by Faith No More standards of weirdness and perversity – but keeping the San Francisco vaudeville spirit going
was something called the Barbary Coast Cloggers. Fred Schneider of the B-52s in his wildest, homosexual dreams could not come up with a concept that was this gay. All I could think of was Roddy Bottum watching videos of them on YouTube and thinking “they must open for us!!”. Though a supporter, I’m not a member of the gay community but I don’t think even my gay friends have ventured into clogging. Think square dancing with the loudest country and western outfits ever. It was the opposite of vulgar, very upbeat and fun and the dancers were so queer they seemed to shoot rainbows out of their faces.
As I watched their first number, with my mouth wide open in a giant smile, I worried about the crowd reaction, but when the song finished, only half a breath passed before the audience broke into spontaneous, overwhelming applause. It was amazing. I looked over at my friend and said “This is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, and Faith No More hasn’t even started!”
But now that time was upon us – I was finally seeing Faith No More in San Francisco and these were their first shows in the States in over 12 years. I had been lucky to see their first show back period over a year ago when I was in London at that was really something.
After all we had already seen, their was the definite anything goes vibe that is usually prevalent when these guys are involved. Given what was at stake I had a feeling that the set-list could be full of surprises. Starting with Midnight Cowboy and then right into The Real Thing you would have thought Slayer was onstage. A more fanatical crowd I have yet to see, and the music doesn’t exactly inspire the whole moshing thing in my mind, but it is chaotic and the place completely lost their shit, like the whole time.
A band known for also their odd choices of songs to cover, I was wondering what this would hold or how it would be different than London, or how the shows would differ setlist wise over the three nights, as I had confidence that they would change it up a bit each night and make each one special and they did just that.
Some of the rarities were: Michael Jackson‘s Ben and they finally did their cover of Sparks‘ This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.
Here’s the full setlist:Midnight Cowboy (John Barry cover)
The Real Thing
Land of Sunshine
Be Aggressive
Evidence
Surprise! You’re Dead!
Last Cup of Sorrow
Ricochet
Ben (Michael Jackson cover)
Midlife Crisis (included a section of Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke)
Epic
I Started a Joke (Bee Gees cover)
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Ashes to Ashes
Just a ManEncore 1 :Stripsearch (w/ Chariots of Fire)
We Care a LotEncore 2 :

This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us (Sparks cover)
Pristina

A freaking incredible show and one of the best shows I’ve ever seen period. What a weird, long strange trip, even for them.

Night 2

  Without giving anything away, I had told them a bit about the weirdness (and awesomeness) of last night’s vaudeville-style show. What surreal form of entertainment were we in store for tonight? The first act was called the White Trash Débutantes, I’m only assuming are from San Francisco, who did what you would think a band with that moniker would do, and alot of covers. Without too much calculation I’m sure FNM wanted something local, fun and legit.

Next in the “wild card” slot was yet another one of those things that could only happen at a FNM show, where when you tell your friends about it later, they shriek in laughter and go “gawd I wish I was there” but in the moment all you can do is shake your head and laugh and think: “What the fuck?”. 
That moment came with the fucking El Camino High School Cheerleaders came out to do routines. About 20 high school girls in full cheer regalia marched onto the stage. A pulsing techno number boomed its way through the theater, and the girls danced, made pyramids, leaped and bounded across the stage.
Now it was that time once again, the place seemed way more packed than the night before and we had trouble getting down to the floor. Neil Hamburger had been keeping his in-between-acts sets mercifully short; He tried to incite the crowd to bellow out “Smash Mouth!” repeatedly, and about 30 attempts at this went on before Hamburger suddenly stopped, paused for the smallest of moments, and growled out, “Ladies and gentlemen… FAITH NO MORE!” The resulting cheer, especially when the band was joined by Mike Patton — tonight clad in deep red, still sporting his cane — was almost earsplitting.
Starting with the Peaches and Herb cover, the appropriate Reunited like they did in London last year, and then when they finished that and went into From Out of Nowhere the place exploded into an absolute frenzy as we did right along with them. Looking at my friends as the crowd tore us apart with that smile of “See you after the show dude”.

Their were a few changes in the setlist for this show but the real surprise came, when they started the opening keyboard line to As the Worm Turns, when Patton was about to sing the first verse, he runs offstage, as he is simultaneously replaced by…Chuck Mosley – Holy shit, that crackhead who was the original singer before Patton took his place? Yes that one. How historic? to wrap up the history of this band to completion, didn’t see that one coming, and to be honest wasn’t even sure that Mosely was still alive. Now, not to be a cynic and who can really compete with Patton anyway, and I was excited by this gesture, he kinda overstayed as the planned four-song Mosely set was probably about two too many. Mosely was in bad shape, but not embarrassingly so, and it was awesome to hear some rare stuff and even kinda cool to hear the original sing it.
Patton returned and they did the Chariots of Fire/Stripsearch from the night before, but not before verbalizing what was on everyone’s mind as Mosely exited by saying into the mic “Chuck fucking Mosley?” but with great appreciation and a shared awestruck. Mosely returns at the end to close the set with Patton to trade off with Introduce Yourself. How insanely historic and totally fitting to end this never-to-be-repeated hometown swing. Just a honor to be a part of it.

Here is the setlist:

Reunited (Peaches and Herb cover)
From Out of Nowhere
Land of Sunshine
Caffeine
Evidence
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Chinese Arithmetic (with a bit of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face)
Last Cup of Sorrow
Cuckoo for Caca
Ben (Michael Jackson cover)
Ashes to Ashes
Midlife Crisis
Digging the Grave
King For A Day
Epic
Just a ManEncore 1 – Chuck Mosley on vocals

As the Worm Turns
Death March
We Care A Lot
Mark BowenEncore 2 – Mike Patton on vocals

Chariots of Fire / Stripsearch
Introduce Yourself (with Chuck Mosely)

So I met back up with Brothers Mitchell after the show outside, and we excitedly recanted the night’s events and surprises. I invited them to join me as my friend Gina, whom I went to the first night with, she was only a few blocks away and had invited me to a dance party with this DJ that was gonna be playing Coachella, whose name escapes me. The boys agreed and we headed uphill the 10 blocks or so, catching up and totally high from the night. Hipsters be damned, the minute we saw the velvet rope, we had doubts. I stayed and talked with them so more before they decided to bail. I thought I would go in and hang for few songs and say goodbye to Gina since I was leaving in the morning. Got totally raked over the coals by these pretentious doublefucks at the door and considered leaving. Finally made it in, and had a great time dancing and laughing with Gina before calling it a night and walking back to my hotel. On to Los Angeles in the morning.

 

Faith No More – Williamsburg Waterfront – Brooklyn, NY – July 2nd & 5th

So I’m finally back home in Brooklyn, after an almost month long adventure. NYC in the Summer time is so fantastic and I don’t care where I am or what I am doing I make it a priority to be back here for the 4th of July. It’s my favorite time to be in NYC. I love, love, love, the holidays in NYC for sure (though I despise the cold).

There is just something majestic about NYC in the Summer, the rooftop parties, and all the Summer fashion that the girl’s wear, and the outdoor bazaars and the parks are so alive with activity, I love it. My first night back, I go to my haunt (and sometimes DJ residency) Lit, for a party with VHS or Beta. I had’nt talked to those dudes since my Astralwerks days, so it was a fun first night back. But the next night continued my year long hard on for my all time favorite band:

This show was historic for a battery of reasons, for one, it was the first (and possibly the only) shows in NYC for FNM in over 12 years. Also it was the first of a series of shows at the awe-inspiring Williamsburg Waterfront, from Jelly NYC that replace their famed Summer Concert Series to this new area instead of Mccarren Pool. And if the shows I saw in San Francisco are of any indication, tonight was gonna be something special.
It was the first of two shows at this location with a show in Philly in between them, and the only scheduled shows other than the ones in SF and LA.
It felt like a pilgrimage making my way down there because after you got off the subway, and walked a few blocks down, their was no reason anyone would be down there if they were going to the show, so suddenly you were walking amongst like-minded people exclusively.
I get there, and check in and the FNM organization (i.e. Roddy Bottum) were gracious to leave me a VIP pass.
I get to my area and Rahzel was already on. The amount of bass he was able to produce was impressive, and his beats shook the speakers. . He somehow managed to do the verse and chorus of a song simultaneously. He spent a lot of time talking about hip-hop, the importance of women not getting impregnated by poor men, and why dudes should be sure to keep themselves wrapped. Some of the talking got old, but it was fun when he brought his youngest son up and told the crowd about him. His son alternated between looking like he was going to laugh and cry.

 

Next was Neil Hamburger, who I familiar with before I saw the SF shows and then got real familar with because of those shows, did the same as before as more of an extended introduction with his anti-humor thing. A big part of his act is chastising the hecklers that he knows he’s going to get. A lot of his taunts at the audience were funnier than his jokes, per usual.  He did that same joke he did in SF with the threatening that the band wouldn’t come out till the crowd yelled Smashmouth a hundred times.

It was still light out when Faith No More finally hit stage, but the crowd went freaking crazy. And that’s good as I’ve been to too many good shows in this town, only to watch the jaded, too-cool crowd just stand there. This time they were ready, as was I, and opening with From Out of Nowhere , after they did their now customary cover of Peaches & Herb cover Reunited was perfect.
What was not perfect was the way the “beer-drinkers” were sectioned far off from the rest of the audience. It seemed there were many unnecessary barricades, and all the grass near the stage was sectioned off, removing the only comfortable option for anyone who wanted to sit and watch the show. And did there really need to be separate lines for beer tickets and beer?
Mike Patton instructed the crowd several times to turn around and check out the incredible view by enviously saying “You fuckers live here!”

An unbelievable show in such an amazing setting on a perfect night. Weather was great, band was incredible. I’ve seen a few of these now, and they didn’t play anything too different from the other ones, but it didn’t matter, they could have played whatever they wanted, and that’s exactly what they do, and makes them so great. They play again on Monday and I’m just as excited about that one too.

Here’s the setlist:

Reunited (Peaches & Herb cover)
From Out of Nowhere
Land of Sunshine
Caffeine
Evidence
Surprise! You’re Dead!
Last Cup of Sorrow
Cuckoo for Caca
Easy (Commodores cover)
Midlife Crisis
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Ashes to Ashes
I Started a Joke (Bee Gees cover)
King for a Day
Epic
Just a Man

Encore:

Stripsearch (w/ Chariots of Fire)
Be Aggressive

Encore 2:

We Care a Lot

Faith No More (night 2) – Williamsburg Waterfront – Brooklyn, NY – July 5th

Here is a tweet from my Twitter feed to start the day:

“Oh Faith No More again? Tonight? Don’t mind if I do – this could perhaps be the last American performance of this band ever.”
But it was another Tweet by Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum, who in his ever helpful ways, sent this Tweet – that serendipitously changed everything:
“Faith No More play Brooklyn tonight (NO L TRAIN)”
Now normally this wouldn’t mean much, Brooklynites are accustomed to that piece of shit L train never running properly, but and I don’t believe in fate or that things happen for any particular reason, the cause of this would result in re-route, that would yield a meeting with another stranded concert-goer of epic proportions.
The detour was ridiculous even by NYC standards and took me to parts of Brooklyn that I didn’t even know existed on trains that I didn’t know still ran.
I was coming down the steps from an above ground J train to locate what I was told would be a shuttle bus that would take me sorta to the venue, at this point now surrounded by obvious other Faith No More fans, when this striking woman was making the same confused gesticulations that I was and actually in sync.
Clearly we were both looking for the same thing, but now I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Without a thought and I couldn’t even tell you why, I just looked at her and with a smile on my face said “Where is this fucking bus?!” – She smiled and I suggested we cross the street to find it. After some seriously comedic trial and error, we finally locate the bus and learn that we have to make two transfers. It was clear that we were both alone so we kinda formed our own little crew with immediate rapport. From her accent and minimal English, I learned that she was from Barcelona and was in NYC for the first time, having just arrived a few days ago and would be here for a month on an internship to the consulate of Spain.
We get to Will Call, and she already has her ticket, and of course their’s a problem with my ticket. She waited a great while patiently with me and I didn’t want the fun to end, so as I could hear the openers going on, I told her to go ahead and I would find her inside. What was I thinking?? as she walked away, I’ll never find her in this mob” Is what I was thinking regretably. Oh well, I tried to comfort myself with, I only knew her for an hour, sucks I didn’t get her number, hope I find her, but for now let’s focus on what will probably be the last time I ever see my favorite band of all time, as they finally locate my ticket just as I’m hearing the opening notes to their cover of Midnight Cowboy.

 

So like a fanboy teenager, I run as fast as I can to get situated. This time I didn’t have the luxury of the whole VIP nonsense, which was fine because I had planned to really flame out and go to the front and just be 14 again for one last time for as long as I could.
Now this band of course doesn’t have the sound or image of a band that you would equate with having crazy moshpits, and the like, but let me tell you this was my 6th of the reunion shows and 10th of their shows overall and they have some of the most brutal shit to handle at their shows.
I was in total bring-it-on mode, and made my way to the front.

This lasted for about half of the set, before I was so winded and close to puking, and so sick of people stepping on my feet and looking down and seeing my jeans ripped and my shoes a mangled, unrecognizable shape. Yes I am getting old haha.
Totally worth it – here is another one of my Tweets to capture the moment:
“After seeing 6 of these reunion shows 2night might have been the best – FINALLY As the Worm Turns w/Patton”

Their was just something about this show and I feel sorta high from it even after all these months removed.
Here is the setlist:

Midnight Cowboy (John Barry cover)
The Real Thing
Be Aggressive
Land of Sunshine
The Crab Song
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Last Cup of Sorrow
Chinese Arithmetic (w/ Rahzel)
Easy (The Commodores cover)
Midlife Crisis
Digging the Grave
Ashes to Ashes
Ben (Michael Jackson cover)
King for a Day
Epic
Just a ManEncore:
I Started a Joke (Bee Gees cover)
As the Worm Turns
We Care a Lot (w/ Rahzel)

Encore 2:
Stripsearch

So after the last note ended, I just didn’t wanna leave right away, and soak in what had just happened, take in the great view one more time, and then fall into my usual love of people watching. Then it occured to me, “wait a minute, that Spanish girl, I never found her” – Knowing that it was futile, and sorta silly to be furiously looking for a stranger and what would be the result even if I found her, but I had to satisfy the notion of at least trying. So I went and stood by the exit (like a loser) logically everyone must pass thru here, if she hasn’t already. And like in the movies, just as I was about to give up, she taps me on the shoulder from behind.
This was a good sign as she could have walked on by after seeing me and I would never have known. Both really excited about the show we had just seen and in desperate need for hydration, I ask her if she wants to grab a drink. She agrees, and we go to the Charleston and talk for what must have been hours.
We realize early that communicating through our phones isn’t really an option so we exchange email addresses with the promise to get together again in a few days. We get on the train together and her stop was before mine, so I offer her a hug to say goodbye. What is it between me and this girl? The second she was gone, I began to wonder if I have seen too many movies.