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.
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