fredfest day 2

in the last 2 days i think i've seen everybody i know in the fort and heard a buncha great music. also got to play some, altho not in a way i woulda wanted. got home from delivering my granddtr's b-day presents to a msg from jam-meister lee allen that impulse of will was gonna be making an unscheduled appearance at fredfest in place of the gideons, who had to cancel when a friend of their drummer committed suicide. (don't know the cat's name; may his soul find peace.) jumped on the phone to assemble the forces; gtrist extraordinaire ron 'the velvet hammer" geida was already on board (appearing earlier in the afternoon with jasper stone), joe "drumzilla" cruz said he'd be there, and violinist steve "vikingo" huber came out of the woodshed (prepping to audition for a higher chair in the symphony) to make the date.

got to fonky fred's in time to catch maren morris' set. hard to believe the girl is only 15; she's got some monstrous pipes 'n' writes her own songs, too. every time i see her, her performance seems more confident and self-assured. having a new lead gtrist in her band didn't hurt, either. they musta been on a roll from playing like three times at mayfest yesterday (that annual fest's organizers seem to be getting every penny's worth from their musical performers this yr, at least according to the sked i saw in the paper).

darrin kobetich said he was still a little shakey at 3pm from a jam-back-at-the-house that lasted until 4am following the electric mountain rotten apple gang's performance the previous day. overheard him and gtrist-composer-edjumikator paul boll talking about pioneering foat wuth metal band boss tweed (with whom paul played back in high school daze) during maren's set. then darrin took the stage for a solo set of alchemical acoustic inventions that included something in the jimmy page "white summer" / "black mountain side" vein and his own hammering-'n'-harmonics tour de force, "playing in the hedges."

by this time, the crowd was primed for some electricity, and they got it in the form of maybe the best set i ever saw jasper stone play. frontguy ed voyles has mos' def been through some trials 'n' tribs over the yrs, but his hootin' 'n' hollerin' persona remains undiminished, his brother treg is doing a better-'n-just okay job on bass, and jeffrey williams is kickin' things along nicely behind the deepest bass drum in the fort. after the previous day's set with barber mack, ron geida's fretboard was on fire, reeling off rapid-fire runs 'n' sounding at times like a fuel-injected fiddle.

there was a minor crisis when the gtrist from standard transmission broke his glass slide, until darrin kobetich offered to lend him one (which i don't recall hearing him use during the set; whatevah). next, the me-thinks jacked up the intensity a few notches, playing a scaled-back version of the set they delivered at the wreck room last weekend, heavy on toons from their new double e.p., with madman dancing by cadillac fraf. sir marlin von bungy somehow managed to manipulate the band's smoke machine while wielding his mirrored flying v like a weapon. the burger-'n'-beer-satiated crowd was hungry for _rawk_, and haltom city's finest didn't disappoint 'em.

then impulse of will. me-thinks drummer will risinger graciously allowed me to borrow his dr. z amp, and it only took me about 10 minutes to figure out that the reason i wasn't getting any signal was because one of my pedals wasn't plugged in. (guh. thanks, marlin.) the jam-meister only wanted "songs we can play without any mistakes" (hahaha), so we hit with abbreviated versions of a buncha jam "standards," starting with failure's "daylight," moving through chick corea's "la fiesta" (minus the "b" section) and fonky meters "cissy strut" into "maggot brain" with claudia acosta doin' spoken word stuff, and the "manic depression theme and variations." then gideons frontman carl pack (whose new dtr stormie we met for the first time earlier that day) commandeered a piece o' the stage to sing backup voxxx on "standing on the verge of getting it on."

the me-thinks' ray liberio fronted the jamcats on "war pigs" (a toon whose lyrics, my sweetie observed, appeared to resonate with older folks who might not have any idea who black sabbath were / are), then carl returned to sing (and leap off the front of the stage during) "come together." all the while, the jam-meister was driving the band hard, drumzilla was kicking up a storm, the velvet hammer was breathing fire, vikingo was inaudible by me, and i felt like i was ridin' a big wave o' sound. in the audience, wreck impresario brian forella beamed beatifically as if to say, "yeah, these are my boyzzz."

afterward, i scarfed my fredburger in about two seconds flat and we said goodbyes all around during bagg's set. (woulda dug to hear more of the denton jamband but by that time the f/x of a day spent drankin' in the sun were beginning to catch up.) kudos to jam / patio-meister lee, outlaw chef terry chandler and his great staff, and most of all, to wizard o' sound andre edmonson for making everybody sound better 'n we deserved to. if it weren't the greatest fredfest of all time, it was definitely the best one i can remember.