BONUS TRACK!

Show report by C.M. Bligablum: Nautical Almanac, Chuck Bettis, Black Stool, Vertonen.

Blake had one of his sharper beat-oriented sets I've ever heard. Black Stool was all kinds of fun. Played all the tracks from the CDR (Elvis later handed me one on his way out the door) to much delight from the audience. Chauncey and Cansa looked rapturous. Chuck Bettis did the most "typical" laptoppery I've ever heard. Sounded like every single TV Pow show I've ever fallen asleep to. Everybody in the club was talking over this thoroughly dull set. I tried to listen, but then some other folks started talking me up too! Nautical hit the stage, as they've been doing on this tour, with Twig starting solo. When he's gotten sufficiently worked up, Carly comes to his rescue with great music! At one point, Carly stopped playing and asked, "So, why did you all talk through Chuck's set? Is it because he's the only out-of-towner on the bill?" Responses varied wildly, but most of them were along the lines of "It was really boring." Carly smiled ruefully...she seemed to understand what we meant. She left the stage not too long after, a very short set (as she passed, I asked "This is because of that Chuck thing, right?" and she laughed a bit), leaving poor Twig stranded up there. Nobody would let him leave! We kept goading him, grabbing him, yelling at him, "MORE MORE MORE!" He started mocking us ("ooh, please don't leave, I need to be entertained, what else will I do tonight without someone being funny for me?"), and then himself ("Where are you Carly? Without you and your music, I'm just a clown on stage."), and as this went on for minutes at a time, it took on a sort of Andy Kaufman quality. Eventually, a couple of guys I know by face from shows went on stage and started trying to plug Carly's stuff back in. She stalked up there, and we thought she was going to kick 'em in the ass. Instead, she turned everything on and showed them what buttons to push. The results weren't great, but the show kept going. Soon, Twig got sick of holding the mic and tried to hand it off to people in the audience. I eagerly grabbed it and started letting out some of my "caged gagging animal" noises while sort of humping the stage. Didn't get much response. I handed it off to Chauncey, and he wowed the audience (and kept the groove going) with a more rhythmic voice thing that reminds me of the "ehehehehehehehee" sound in the interlude of Pink Floyd's "One Of These Days." Twig starts playing Carly's equipment and the two groove out for a while. Then CansaFis jumps on Twig's equipment and they have a little sorta Krautrocky jam for a while. It all comes to a halt when Chauncy starts rubbing his belly with the mic, which brings disdainful cries from the audience for some reason ("I don't know who been on this mic, this thing smell awful."). Finally, Twig's allowed to go and we all buy merch and drink. Les & I close down the bar, drinking Jameson's and listening to the Led Zeppelin box with the bartenders.