Catching up: Previously in the life of a writer-musician-photog....

Well, since I last blogged, my amplifier blew up, my artsy little black dress turned out to be a little more see-through than I thought, but otherwise we had a fine coupla of sets at the Circle A café. It was a good place for, as our friend Dave referred to it, our punkadelia. (How many punk bands do you know cover CountryLife-era Roxy Music?). Completely friendly crowd whose appreciation for loud, in-your-face music in a small room belies their age: many were thirty and forty somethings like us who still cringe when somebody tells them to "turn it down." Then it was a lovely way to wrap up as Da Brainz and I spun tunes for folks.

It was also (probably predictably so) an exercise on being on the other side of the camera lens. Andy Aeros Kaiser put it best when he commented that it was like a baby's first steps -- there were seemingly a room full of cameras going off at every moment. Annie Chase fought with the limitations of a digital camera's shutter lag and still got memorable moments. Brian joined the others in attempting available light, and giving up, did a good job with flash anyway. And I should have expected that somebody would do the kinds of things I do to get the shot : crawling all over (above and below) the stage, lying prone below the guitarist to get the rockstar pose, standing on charis to get that odd angle. That somebody turned out to be wiseacre Bob Jorin. I have to decide if he was influenced by me or simply satirizing me. I suspect, as I've written about other such dualities, a little of both. Kaiser, no slouch himself in the smartass department, shot film with a classic Pentax K1000, so you're just going to have to wait to see what he came up with. And Marlavous Marla should be posting her stuff soon. It was fun to see how several different pairs of (albeit friendly) eyes saw us.

Of course I mugged it. We all did. Like I said, this is a comfort zone for all of us, Miles, Andy and myself, and while it hasn't happened to me in a while, I still remember how not to get freaked out when a lens is pointing at me. Or a microphone, for that matter. We told stories, we worked the crowd, we gave away product, we got some laughs and we got some claps.

Thanks, everybody who came, for welcoming us back so warmly. As I told you all, this wasn't a reunion show. We're back, working on setting up more gigs, and we're available for weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Friday morning I detoxed with a massage and a facial, hung out with my kids who have seen precious little of me these past two weeks. I ventured out Friday night to Marlavous' Karaoke at the Bavarian Inn, where this evening's special guest stars turned out to be a pair of Brians I've not seen since St Patrick's Day: Brian Kurzinski, who turned in a terrific Frank Sinatra, and Brian Wurch, who flattened me as he became a wasted Jim Morrison crooning "Riders on the Storm." The two took turns being Bobby Darin for (what else) "Mack the Knife." Wurch is still recruiting for MOMBOB2 -- a Battle of the Bands that covers several genres, so sign up now.

I was going to hit Linneman's Saturday night, but I was already exhausted from massive bike riding and recovering from the surreality that is Marlavous' Karaoke, so I rejoiced in the fact that the tulips did not get killed from the frost. But still, I really wanted to know what the opening band for the Uptown Savages -- "The Huge Beaumonts" was going to be about. Did anybody go? Reports? Reviews?

Anyway, here's some set lists you may or may not be interested in:


My band, Loblolly, did this:
Is It So
You're Getting Really Weird on Me
Face
Going Nowhere
Andy's Stolen Lighters
Running out of Reasons
Tell You a Story
Novemeber Man
Deal

Set II
White Flight Suburban Nightmare
Burning Feet
Out of the Blue (b. ferry, p. manzanera)
I Can't Play Poker For Shit
Tell me About Your Perfect Smelling Dreams
She Just Wants to Sleep
Prowl
I'm Just Annoyed
The Beat Goes On (s.bono)

Then Darrell played us off the stage with the theme from the Mickey Mouse Club, and about a half hour later, I took over the turntables with this:

Wreckless Eric, "Veronica" (my theme song)
Patti Smith, "Are You Experienced"
The Pixies, "Tame"
Cream, "Falstaff Beer Commercial"
Ten Years After, "One of These Days"
Rose Royce, "Car Wash"
The Ultras, "Nice Face"
Frank Black, "You Can't Break A Heart and Have It"
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, "She Cracked"
David Bowie, "Boys Keep Swinging"
The Chambers Brothers, "Time Has Come Today"

Then Darrell played a bunch of great 60s stuff, and then I came back with this:

The Cramps, "TV Set"
The Vertebrats, "Mystery of Love" and "The Brat"
Mott The Hoople, "Violence"
Tonio K, "The Funky Western Civilization"
Siouxsie and the Banshees, "The Passenger"
New York Dolls, "Personality Crisis"
Psychedelic Furs, "Flowers"
Roxy Music, "Both Ends Burning"

And then, as both of my ends were burning out, I let Darrell finish off the night with his mix.