Never use a cruelty when a joke will do in its place

I realized that I forgot to post about my show last Friday. Me an' the boys ventured up to the cultural center of Whatcom County, Bellingham, for our big show at the legendary 3B Tavern. (Anyone familiar with Estrus Records has probably been there or at least heard of it.) Traffic heading up there sucked assx0rs, and I managed to burn my leg - a leaking Zippo in my left front pocket allowed a decent amount of lighter fluid to leech into my skin, causing a pretty nasty welt, and the bizarre sensation of my skin being on fire when it wasn't. Anyhoo, skin lesions aside, we got up there, and per the usual, had to wait around for several hours before the action began.

The downtime wasn't without its advantages, however. It gave us time to imbibe several of the free band beers, and to chat with the folks from the other bands. I had heard varying reports on the demeanor of one Kim Warnick (of Fastbacks fame), but truth is she's probably one of the nicest people (in a band) I've ever met. She's been road tested and fan approved, and was totally cool. Ben, Visqueen's drummist, was also a very nice fella. I didn't get to meet Rachel, as she didn't even show up until showtime.

The Alien Crime Syndicate guys showed up a little before we went on, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that my homeslice Mike is now playing gee-tar for them. (I bought an amp from the shop where Mike used to work, and then about a week later, our bands ended up playing at the Capitol Hill Block Party. Then he got a job at my work. Koo-koo!) So, we all shot the shiz for a while until it was time to start.

We were on first, and despite a couple of technical difficulties, we wrecked the place. Seriously. We were firing on all cylendars. I was bleeding from the fingers by the time we stopped. It was our last show with Jesse from Flowmotion filling in on bass, and it was a fitting exit.

ACS was on next, and they totally won me over with their stage presence. They are consummate showmen, and have the rock star thing down.

Finally, Visqueen took the stage, and bowled everyone over with a wave of pop (in a good way) rawk. Rachel had the crowd in the palm of her hand. Totally awesome.

Hopefully we'll get to play with these folks again. We're going to check out Orbit Audio tomorrow. Orbit is the place co-operated by Joe from ACS, and there's been some talk of having us record some material there. We'll see about that...

Well, not exactly.

Here's the deal. In a previous post, I mentioned that Johnny Rotten's dad was from the same town in Ireland that my dad was from. (That town is called Tuam, in Co. Galway).

Anyway, while having lunch with my pops yesterday, I asked him if he knew the Lydon family. Indeed he did - they basically lived around the corner from the O'Briens (my family). He remembered the name of the road and everything. Apparently my aunt Eleanor used to pal around with one of the Lydon girls (which would have been one of little Johny's aunts).

The plot thickens...

Last night: Ended up at Machiavelli, where I 1) caught up with Suzette, 2) ran into Jordan & Sara...Jordan & Andy apparently have gone their separate ways, 3) had a little conversation with Shawn Smith (of Satchel/Brad/Pigeonhed fame), 4) had my stool stolen by Marc Olsen (not the guy from the Jayhawks, but the local singer-songwriter guy who used to be in Sage), 5) got hit on by a woman who had been sitting at the bar by herself most of the night...I tried to be polite, and when I informed her that I was involved, she quickly exited the premises. Then I sat there and talked to Suzette until nearly 4 AM.

I woke up at 11 this morning, in bed, with all of my clothes and my shoes still on. Heh.

Today: fun and frolic on Broadway, and a birthday party at Kalthoff Manor for the Kalthoff child.

The girl is off tonight for an all-grrrls event at a downtown hotel.

Tomorrow: the girl comes and gets me at 9, and we go do yoga. This should be interesting. I'm looking forward to it - I would like to get in shape - really. I think. Yeah, I do. So with that, I'm going to finish my beer and go to bed :)

I just had a nice conversation with one Mr. John Richards, also known as John In The Morning, disk jockey extrodinaire on your favorite radio station and mine, KEXP. John is subbing for Don, the program director while he's on vacation. We spoke mainly of bands, bad bands that send their bad CDs to the station, bad goth bands that have their friends constantly harass DJs to get said bad goth band's CD played, and holier-than-thou local papers that publish poorly written and researched articles on the station. I also recommended some CDs to him to be considered for airplay (see my last post).

Anyhow, John is a very nice guy. I'm hoping to get to talk to him again next week, and maybe pick his brain about more stuff.

Got some new CDs from the station, including Trust No One by Dave Navarro.
Yep, that Dave Navarro - his first solo effort (I think). Interesting that both he and Perry Ferell have new records out...hmmmm...