karmic calamity

A More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy...

We went into this one cold, didn't even plan anything even resembling a setlist, although we did print out some tabs and lyrics to remind us, in case it turned out that we couldn't remember any songs. We were a little rusty at first, and, thanks to the audience member who'd obviously had waaaay to many shots of Jaegermeister, the first set was kind of a mess. Too many distractions, and we couldn't concentrate. Even with that, we still pulled off a good version of High Heel Mary.

The second set was much better. The drunk guy had quietly taken a seat when we started playing. Well, actually, he said "whaddayawannnmeeet'dooofrrrryrrrbannnnnd?"

I told him I wanted him to sit down and be quiet, and that we were gonna play a song for him. Then we played Here Comes A Regular. After that, he left, and Killa B sat in with Greg and I (on mandolin, no less) for the rest of the set. That was fun. The second time around, things seemed to fall into place like they usually do whenever we play together. The whole experience was a little odd because Barry wasn't there, but we soldiered on as best we could, had a lot of fun, and I think we pulled off some cool versions of songs we hadn't played in quite a while.

Friday's show was Mustard's 'farewell' show, as Francois is planning a sabbatical from live performing after the latest addition to the Settles family is born. I predict that Francois will be back sooner than later. A basement monster can only remain in captivity for so long before they escape, and hit the Pit with fifteen guitars and something to prove. Speaking of guitars, Friday was also the debut of the latest addition to his guitar arsenal, a sweet black Gibson Chet Atkins that, although I wanted to paw all over it, I never made any attempt to touch or play. That's a nice guitar, and I don't ever need to be anywhere near a nice guitar... Like the Flappybats, Mustard had returned to it's original lineup for the evening as well.

Rounding out the evening, alt-country sensation Twang, also back to it's original lineup of Larry Rodgers and...Larry Rodgers, played to a packed crowd that was clamoring-- clamoring, I tell ya, to hear him cover the Dukes of Hazzard theme. Okay, well, Chuck was clamoring to hear it. Like the rest of us, Twang's first set was hindered by the drunken audience member who insisted on playing the maraca with Larry. In a remarkable show of restraint, Larry resisted the urge to sock this guy in the mush, instead calling out for "more Maraca!!" Second time around, Greg had joined Larry on guitar. Highlight of the second Twang set, for me, was Greg busting out the violin bow for an impromptu tribute to Jimmy Page during a song that wasn't even a Led Zeppelin song. In fact, I think it was a Tom Petty song...

This stuff is pure magic, I'm telling you.

After that, as things usually do, the evening degenerated into a lengthy Doors set (happens every time) and then a really sloppy "whatever happens happens and we never talk about it after it happens" set, culminating in the second worst rendition of "Do They Know It's Christmas" for an audience of, well... nobody, because anybody in the bar at that point is up there playing an instrument or screaming into the microphone. I say it's the second worst rendition because, as bad as it was, last year's version was worse. By 2007, we'll be up to just doing a "bad" rendition of that song.

And that'll be a shame.

posted by Dale Ingram @ 2:52 PM