"stooges under the stars"

because i'm a shitty scene supporter, i missed the last weekend of "taming of the shrew" at teatro de la rosa, as well as the hochimen at the black dog and the top secret...shhh vinyl release party at the metrognome collective, but i can't feel bad about it, since the evening was spent enjoying dinner outside with family 'n' friends, and once we opened the second bottle of wine, it was apparent that we weren't going anywhere else. you gotta decide for yrself what's most important to you, and do it.

that's why it doesn't bother me that only 20 or 30 ppl showed up for the stoogeaphilia show at the rose marine. ppl have their own customs 'n' traditions for the holiday (often including cooking out and drinking beer). hell, we in the band have our own traditions too, such as eating pizza from big joe's in haltom city (conveniently located on the way to the me-thinks' practice pad where we also rehearse). i was reminded of this when we were loading out at the black dog a coupla wks ago and jon teague remarked, "damn, i wish we had a pizza!" since the kindly folks at the rose couldn't afford to pay us, we were working for burger 'n' beers, and jon doesn't eat meat, so enroute to the theater, i stopped off to pick up a coupla pies that the non-carnivores on the set could scarf.

the folks at the rose just got a brand-new p.a. system, the last pieces of which chris fisher had _just_ picked up from gtr ctr that same afternoon, so everything was working great altho there were the usual last-minute firedrills when certain parts 'n' pcs weren't on hand and adaptations had to be made. luckily, stoogeaphilia's drummer's also an experienced sound tech, and between him 'n' fish they were able to sort things out. we actually had monitors, so we at least could hear ray's sangin'. as long as i can hear ray and cue visually with jon 'n' steffin, i'm happy.

i was a little concerned going in about playing so close to a residential neighborhood, but it wound up not being a big deal. (the phrase that pays: "memorial day weekend.") we set up against the wall, blowing toward the street, rather than in the li'l amphiteater, and while the gtrs sounded extra super loud to us, sleeplab mastermind jeffa told me later that we coulda turned up! go fig.

as stoogeaphilia performances go, it was more subdued than the tranced-out catharsis that was the black dog show. i kept waiting for matt to shed clothing or go to the ground; these things he did not do. steffin even stayed on two feet for the closing "little doll" feedback apocalypse. in general, the sound was more controlled than in previous performances, without the between-song washes of feedback that are all over matt's minidisc recording from the black dog. (thisun, unfortunately, went undocumented, since he remembered to bring the mic, mic stand, and cord, but not the recorder. feh. we're hoping to get a high-quality andre edmonson audio / video recording when we play at the wreck room on june 7th and again on june 28th. while we're on that subject, we'll also be at the black dog june 29th and july 27th.) still, ppl seemed to dig it, and we didn't get any noise complaints. afterward, the rose marine folks spun 'n' danced to p-funk and fela sides as we attempted to help them drink up all the beer they'd bought.

while there were few ppl in the crowd, i was particularly pleased to see my dtr, her b-f, and her cousin (who told me later that next time we play, he'll bring out his apparently several friends from western hills high school who dig the stooges -- who'd a thunk it?); the couple with their baby who wandered over from one of the restaurants in the neighborhood and wound up sticking around for the whole shabam; the half-dozen sub-teen boys from the 'hood i saw standing up against the wall to my left for a coupla songs, checkin' it out; sam ward from ohm, lee from brother tex, and clay stinnett from ghostcar, who was driving by when he heard us starting, thought, "wtf?!?!? stooges music!!!" and stopped to listen. (at the black dog, we were honored to have ex-mazinga phaser gtrist / soul-r&b deejay extraordinaire eric hermeyer and ex-wayward girl bassplayer _dr._ dawn miller -- visiting the fort from memphis and penn state, respectively -- in da house.) we actually got invited back, so p'rhaps there'll be another early, all-ages oppo for my nephew and his posse to come hear da stoogestuff before too long.