art of the jam 42

color me ambivalent

just wasn't feelin' it this week

perhaps my perception was influenced by the fact that right before i left the house,
i got to talk to my two dtrs from whom i hear once in a blue moon
about all of their trials 'n' tribs with which i woulda been trying
to help them out, if only i'd known about 'em

spent most of the night sittin' at the bar, listening to cats playing
stuff they had rehearsed (which i feel the same way about as i usedta
feel about bands that would show up at bluesjams and just play their set),
or dipping into a well of collective memory that i don't share

it was the, um, _whitest_ i think wednesday night has ever sounded
after awhile, i got bored listening
(my issue, not anybody else's)

plus i was babysitting a young cat i know
who has a _restraining order_ to keep him from drinking,
who walked in the door, handed me his car key,
proceeded to get garrruuunnnk, then disappeared after graham cut him off

(heard from him and returned his key the next day, but jayzus --
kinda ironic, in the non-alanis morissette sense,
in light of some of da other schitt
i was talking about earlier, doncha think?)

solely in my capacity as chronicler o' events, i should note:

- jerko dabelic from sunward showed up and played gtr (finally!); you could tell the jam-meister dug his spacey atmospherics on "maggot brain"

- caroline collier played some drums; she has a piece in the new fweakly about slowride, which is funny to me because "slowride" was the title that a. mariani applied to about three different music features i wrote about different bands for that rag

- justin pate came back to retrieve some gear he'd left after the darth vato show last saturday and wound up sticking around to sing a pink floyd song

- the gtrist and drummer from a band whose name i didn't catch played "strawberry letter 23," with ron geida reproducing shuggie otis' cascading gtr line in the bridge

- the same gtrist played a buncha rush songs with the jam-meister and drumzilla near the end

- i armtwisted mark neumann from bombshelter into getting up and singing "folsom prison blues" and "wicked game"

- steve huber sang his tom petty song again; he and darrin kobetich are opening for sleeplab at the wreck on march 18th

- jesse sierra hernandez from sleeplab (who sez his ol' pardner greg barr is coming out of retirement to show with jesse, fern palomo, and christopher blay on gallery night) played congas but was mostly inaudible (onstage, at least) due to the stage volume

- dave karnes (sunward, rahim, dave and daver, his own trio) and his pal daniel harville (coma rally) showed up to hang but not play

high points for me: john shook and the jam-meister doubling the line on "teen town;" ray liberio singing "war pigs" and "come together;" standing next to brian massey onstage during "maggot brain" -- in other words, the jam's "greatest hits"

observation: improvements in accuracy have led to a decrease in spontaneity
which is what drew me to this thang in the first place
perhaps it's time for me to stroll -- let some other cats take it for awhile
'n' bring some fresh ideas to the party

or maybe not
small stage the next two weeks
short sets between sxsw bands
you never know what's gonna happen on wednesday night