Excellent Customer Service

A kid just came into the lobby asking where the restrooms were. He was wearing a t-shirt that read "Juggalo Radio is FRESH!" on the front. I actually managed to answer his question without bursting out laughing. It was difficult, I could tell I was about to lose it as soon as I read his shirt - I am, without a doubt, the greatest front desk person in the world.

Hot boogie…denied!

Okay, so some of you may have seen (or experienced) the snowstorm we had here in the Denver area. It wasn’t bad here in town (despite the Chicken Little like predictions of a huge blizzard), but I guess the plains really got pounded. I had been excited for over a month to catch The Dirtbombs (and the Black Lips, who are touring with them) last night at the Larimer Lounge. Understandably, I was a bit skeptical that the show would happen – the snow would have made it difficult to get into town, and nobody could blame a band for bypassing
D-town altogether in these circumstances. Around 6pm I gave the bar a call, to see if the show was still on. The incredibly rude girl on the other end barked “Yes! All of the bands are already here!” in response to my question, so I thanked her for her friendly customer service and prepared to go out later (it was still snowing last night, but just barely, and the roads were clear).

So, I get to the club around 10pm – their website showed piss-poor local act Machine Gun Blues playing at 9pm, and I wanted to be sure and see as little of them as possible. Walking up to the entrance, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of any signs of an out of town band – no vans or rental trucks with out of state plates were parked outside of the club. At the door, the schedule showed Machine Gun Blues at 11pm, with the Dirtbombs playing at 12pm. Hmmmmm…one band has been dropped, the start time has been moved back 2 hours, and the door charge had been bumped up $2 from what the website had advertised. I asked the doorman a few questions about all of the changes, and he was incredibly evasive in responding. Eventually, I got out of him “well, the two bands are touring together, so somebody should be here in time to play by midnight.” I looked into the club to see if I could see my buddy Mr. Falconyeti, and I didn’t, so I bailed. I was pissed off that I had been lied to over the phone, and that the doorman wasn’t being entirely truthful as well. I was also angry over the fact that if I had known the facts, I could have caught the Hellacopters at the Bluebird – as it was, it was too late to head over and catch their full set. I felt like I had been robbed of a night of hot boogie, and I wasn’t too happy about it.

I did get an email from my friend this morning – we must’ve just missed each other, as he also showed up around 10. Trusting sort that he is, he believed that the Dirtbombs were already “in the house,” and paid to go in. After being subjected to a horrific hour long set by Machine Gun Blues, he was eventually treated to a great set by the Dirtbombs… at 1am. I felt bad when I heard that I had missed him, as I really gave him the hard sell on the show, and unlike me he has a life! Still, he said the Dirtbombs were awesome and he was impressed. I still feel like I owe the guy a few beers!

Oh, and the picture above? That’s just how awesome I can imagine the Dirtbombs were last night…and I missed it!

What took ‘em so long?

I ran into our neighborhood Target last week to pick up a birthday card for my mom. If you can believe it, they actually have greeting cards with Dick Cheney on the front holding a rifle! I think it read “Have a blast on your birthday” or something like that. Wow, that was fast! No, I didn’t get it – I doubt my overly conservative mother would have found it to be very funny…although it would have been amusing to see her reaction.

I also bought some pants from the clearance rack at that same Target a few days later. The last price marked had been around $12, so I was surprised when the checker rang them up and said “That’ll be $6.66, please!” $6.66??!!?? Oh my…I’ve just purchased the cargo pants of the beast!

Takin' it to the streets!

I was looking through local arts weekly Westword last night, hoping to find something to do on Thursday evening - Thursday is the last day of my work week, so it's more or less my "Friday night." Every now and then, I'll luck into a good show. The Walnut Room, a fairly new venue that I've never visited before, listed the following act:

Black Water
A Tribute to the Doobie Brothers

Needless to say, I started laughing out loud - a tribute to the Doobies??!!?? Wow... From their website, it doesn't appear that they do a "full on" tribute, with costumes and everything. Then again, what costumes would you need? Maybe a few long hair wigs and some fake mustaches, but that's about it. Too bad I didn't have more notice, I'd love to round up a couple of friends - together we'd dress up as Raj, Dwayne, and Rerun. Then we'd get caught bootlegging the Doobie Brothers tribute act, just like in that episode of What's Happening!! Hey HEY Hey!!!

Embarrassing update: Believe it or not, we actually saw the Doobie Brothers tribute act. The li’l woman wanted to try the pizza at the Walnut Room, so we thought “what the hell” and went. The pizza was pretty good, and Black Water was about what you’d expect – some old dudes playing Doobie Brothers tunes. Surprisingly enough, they didn’t just stick with “the hits,” but played quite a few album tracks. They even did stuff from recent albums (“this is from their 2000 release Sibling Rivalry – does anyone here have that one?”). We only saw their first set, so maybe the second set was more hits heavy (one guy kept yelling for China Grove, and they told him he’d have to wait until the next set). They also did an Allman Brothers number (“this is from a different brother act”), maybe they did some Chambers Brothers or Hudson Brothers tunes later in the evening. The showroom at the Walnut Room was actually really nice – terrific sound and lights, and pretty comfy as well. Maybe they’ll actually have someone I want to see there someday!

Back in the Saddle?

I really think I’ve grown too accustomed to staying in over the weekend. Part of it is probably the financial aspect of it, and part of it is the lack of anything being enticing enough to get me out of the house. We received a Netflix subscription for Christmas, which has made it all too easy to spend an evening sitting in front of the television. The longer I don’t go out, the harder it is to get myself excited about leaving the house.

On Thursday, I was debating going to see Stereolab at the Gothic. My buddy JT had even called, checking in to see if I was interested. I told him I didn’t feel like going out, and started to settle for another evening in. A few minutes later the li’l woman gave me a look, and she could tell I was in one of my agitated, indecisive moods. “Get out of the house,” she advised. I thought about it a few seconds, gave my friend a call, and I was out the door. I’m only marginally familiar with Stereolab’s music (I have two CD’s, Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, both pretty good), so I only knew a few of the songs that were played. While not an overly exciting live act, Stereolab put on a decent show and the tunes sounded really good – maybe a little more aggressive than what I’ve heard on records.

After the show, we decided to go out and have a beer at an establishment that didn’t serve overpriced drinks in undersized plastic cups (the Gothic may be one of the best live venues in town, but their bar is pretty crappy and expensive). We decided on the 3 Kings Tavern, which is D-town’s latest attempt at a hipster bar. I had been there once before on its opening night to catch the Orangu-Tones, a pretty cool local garage rock act in the vein of the Wailers. The joint was fairly busy for a Thursday, with a DJ spinning a pretty schizophrenic mix of tunes (I enjoyed the KISS and Joan Jett, and the Dickies are always a kick, but does anyone really want to hear Night Ranger and Styx nowadays? Did they ever??!!??). My only issue was that their ad in the paper promised “cheap drinks,” but their only drink special was on PBR. In my opinion, PBR should always be (and usually is) cheap because it doesn’t have any flavor – in other words, I’d call the “cheap drinks” claim a case of false advertising. Other than that, we both agreed that the 3 Kings was a pretty cool place to have a few cold brews after a show.

On Saturday, after totin’ the Noosh out for burgers, I made a game time decision and headed over to the Hi-Dive to catch Exene Cervenka and the Original Sinners. I got there to find the place packed and in time to see the last couple of tunes by openers Seven Shot Screamers, who were entertaining but nothing exceptional (they also turned out to be the majority of Exene’s backing band). The evening found Exene in great spirits, performing for an excited crowd, with tunes not too far from her past work in X and the Knitters. I’m fairly sure most of the material was new – they did do 2 X tunes (Year One and Because I Do), a terrific Gun Club cover (Ghost on the Highway), and I recognized one tune from her short lived band Auntie Christ. A good show and worth the sleep I missed before heading into work on Sunday morning. Hmmmm, maybe I’m getting used to going out again…

Number One with a MRRRROOOWWWWW…

A had an unusual dream about a week ago. In the dream, I had just gotten home from Wax Trax. I was clutching an album that I had special ordered, which I opened up and put on my turntable. I put the needle on the record, and the sound of a cat howling emerged from the speakers. Confused, I glanced at the speakers. Then I looked at the album cover and thought “I paid money for this??!!??”…

At this point I woke up, and our crazy old cat Sky Pilot was wandering the hall and howling. She does this on a pretty regular basis. Actually, she sounds better than the majority of the crap that was honored at this year’s Grammy awards. But that’s not saying a whole lot.

Well, we’ve reached March and so far 2006 has been a slow year for live music. I’ve only made it out to three shows so far this year – good for my bank account, bad for my sanity. We found ourselves back in Seattle over the President’s Day weekend for family reasons, and I managed to catch a doozie of a show – Zolar X! These aliens have regrouped, and are doing some touring to support last year’s Timeless collection (one my fave reissues of 2004). Their show was pretty terrific – great songs, huge metallic amps cases with blinking lights, goofy spacesuits, and the singer even introduced tunes in a strange alien language! Great warm-up sets from the Squirrels, the Sacred Truths, and Space Creatures from the Year 3000 made for a very fun night out. Hopefully Zolar X will get around to recording some new tunes, and maybe do some more extensive touring – we could use a little of that kind of excitement here in Mootown.

RIP – Jack Wild, Don Knotts, Darren McGavin, Dennis Weaver, Gordon Parks, and Grampa Bill