1:04 p.m. - 2006-02-21
talkin' clams
It seems that I may have misrepresented myself somewhat in my last post of this, the Stevergo diary. In the section on Yid Vicious show attendance, I possibly sounded whiny and accusatory, which caused a couple of nice folks to post comments reassuring me that they go to shows when they're able and whatnot. While I was a little disappointed with the Groundhog Day concert attendance, I didn't mean to malign any regular or sporadic YV event attendees. I was just venting a little, that being one of the reasons for my occasional typing, and projecting my disappointment onto the YV audience for laughs. In other words, I was just being a wiseacre for my own amusement. Sometimes, in the hurly-burly of daily living, wisacreism can be misunderstood, so in the interest of clarity I'll take a moment and be sincere, and then it's back to being the smartass.
Okay, ready?
PSYCH!
No, really, here goes: We love you, YV audience people, and do heartily appreciate the support you've given us over the years. Every time you come to one of our shows, even the free ones, you honor us with your time and attention, and we try our best to honor you back with good music. Next time, instead of applauding us, take a second and applaud yourselves, dammit!
Having cleared that up, here's a little boilerplate:
What we played at Friday Happy Hour Gomeroke, or Happyoke:
We started with Supercharged, then Blunt did a song that I didn't catch the title of but I think someone said it was by a local band called Cattle Prod. Someone did Take a Little Piece of My Heart Now, Baby. Jansen did Rocky Raccoon followed by Terri doing Oh Darling. Roadhouse Blues, Bobby McGee, Blister in the Sun. Set two conststed of Gimme One Reason, Back in the USSR (those Beatle songs, they sure have the staying power, don't they?), Mack the Knife, Sweet Child O' Mine. Saw Her Standing There, Mustang Sally. Jonathan did Bargain, as per my past request, which was nice because I always thought it would be a good two-drums number and Friday was Gregg's last day here before heading back to Florida. Crosstown Traffic, Chain of Fools, with Terri and Babs singing back-up. Tonight I'm going to go back to being the only drummer, which will take some getting used to.
Then, later that night, we played a rare Theramones set in the Corral Room, sandwiched in between another band and a singer-songwriter. In between the music: COMEDIANS! There were about twenty of them, each doing a quick stand-up thing. After a while, it bacame apparent that a lot of their material was based upon the hilarious foibles of the retarded. I think in this type of comedy there's supposed to be some sort of complicated meta-thing going on where the comedian is making mean-spirited jokes in the interest of playing the ROLE of someone telling mean jokes, and this creates distance between the comedian and the material, thereby supposedly excusing whatever horrible thing the comedian says or does. I THINK that's how it's supposed to work. In any case, there was quite a bit of flop-sweat on the stage when we went to set up.
The Theramones set went okay, considering how little we ever play. We played old chestnuts such as Rockaway Beach, Swallow My Pride, Pet Cemetary, Shock Treatment, The Ocean, and plenty more. Everyone seemed to play well and have a good time and Steve sat in on the mandolin. He also brought some Watertonians, including Gregg, to the show, and we were well-served by his presence.
Next day, Saturday, my left hand was pretty well cashed, thanks to much shovelling of snow earlier in the week, then a Gomeroke, then playing theremin, which kind of takes it out of my left hand. I spent most of the day hanging around tiger-balming my achy muscles in preparation for the evening's Yid Vicious set. We were originally supposed to start right after the Klezmatics concert at the Union, but someone at the Union kind of screwed everything up and booked another band before us, insuring that we wouldn't start until eleven, by which time most of the concert-goers had left, but not the more loyal YV buffs (see above!) so we had a little bit of a crowd. A couple of the guys from the Klezmatics were there, and although they were very nice and everything I became really self-conscious. Also, I had forgotten my hi-hat. And the sound was really really very bad. And Greg the clarinet player had abandoned us for a gig that paid more money. And it was really cold out and occasionally a door would open and the cold draft would blow our music off our stands. It was that kind of night. None of us thought it was one of our better sets. On the ride home there was much clam talk.
Next day, we got a voicemail message from Reptile Palace Orchestra Bill saying that he had been hanging around with the Klezmatics guys during our set and that they had liked us. The thing that really wowed them, he said, was Kia and her horn of plenty klezmer. Apparently they don't have klezmer hornists in New York, but WE have one and we're not giving her up.
NEXT: WATERPARKS: GIANT BENDY TUBES OF WOE
