Monday, June 16, 2008

where'd you go?

After successfully breaking my website, I headed out to have more adventures. Now that the days have passed and my brain is too tired from Weekend Fun plus Mexican food overload, I have to cop out and just recap.

Thursday - Ryan's band, The Taint, played at The Blue in HB. It was a last-minute show (they didn't even get posted on the website) and although there were something like 6 bands that were scheduled, there was no crowd. The good bits were that the opening band stayed to watch, the bar staff loved them (sound guy wants to record them, the rockabilly version of Astrozombies was voted "best cover song I have ever heard in my life" by the bartender, etc.) and they actually sounded good. Plus, The Blue has a full-size stage so the guys were able to spread out a bit and Jack (drummer) had space to travel*. I also got video of Dead Man's Cove which turned out pretty ok.



After the show, we had to hurry home to move the new futon into the office and clean up the backyard in preparation for the painters (scheduled to start on Friday morning), so by the time we were done it was 2am and I dropped like a sack of rocks into bed.

Friday - The Taint played again, but this time at Alex's Bar in Long Beach. Jake, the bass player, was graduating from college (again!) so our buddy Kevin filled in on stand-up bass. If you ever have the chance to see Kevin play TAKE IT. He travels around the world playing stand-up bass so there is a good chance that he'll be in your town soon**. He is so amazing at bass... no words can describe. And he is a showman through and through. Ever seen someone play the stand-up like a guitar? NO! That's because they don't have arms that are 8 feet long like Kevin. Seriously, I love this guy.



Anyway the show got started late and then the Taint got bumped to a later slot, which turned out to be perfect. Alex's Bar has a pretty big crowd of regulars so there were quite a few people who were there and appropriately receptive (drunk) by the time the guys took the stage. It was a punk night and all the other bands were vaguely Dead Kennedys with a bit of Bad Religion thrown in, so The Taint stood out (being a subtle blend of punk, rockabilly, bozzanova, and pirate jazz) and the crowd really seemed to dig it. They also did a GG Allin cover (I Want To Fuck Myself) that was very well received. Astrozombies killed again and more than one person was Yar-Har'ing to Dead Man's Cove (the pirate song). They sold a lot of CDs (thank god! I think I personally have 200 of them sitting in the office) and signed some autographs (!!!) and had lots of people come and chat them up after the show. Oh, and they got PAID which is rare and sincerely appreciated. THANKS ALEX!

Kate came to the show (thank you!) which says something for how awesome she is. Seriously, would I do that for your husband's crazy little garage band? Um. Probably not. Even worse: she got to hear all the ridiculous stories of the dumb shit that my stupid friends did in their early 20's which I was not a part of, for the record. It's funny but kind of gross and I'm sorry that a nice lady like Kate had to hear about it (think poop jokes in the extreme). But she was gracious as always and even kind enough to laugh along with me about my former high school friends stalking me on MySpace. GOOD TIMES!

I also got to hang out with M, who I haven't seen in too long. M and I are cut from the same cloth. We're both so awesome, um, I mean sarcastic and blase and so laid back that everyone thinks you're a jerk. We haven't seen each other in person in like 2 years and we're like "it's been so long! Anyway, blah blah blah" and just picked up exactly where we left off. She's awesome. And after the show, she invited us back to her adorable little house to play with her adorable little dogs. Both dogs are the size of peanuts but twice as bouncy and so so so so sweet. I almost pocketed one on the way out, but she caught me. NEXT TIME!

In every life, a little rain must fall, so in exchange for all the awesome fun times and great crowd, we sacrificed two cars to the tow yard. God damn tow truck peoples! And let me tell you, Long Beach impound is NOT cheap. The cars were there for about an hour (not days) and it cost over $250 each to get them out of hock. WTF?!

OF COURSE there are more pictures on Flickr (newer images are at the bottom of the screen) and I also have posted several videos on YouTube (we recorded the whole show, I got the first half and Danielle filmed the second half, so hers are coming soon). 'Til then, enjoy Ryan being a total dork (singing) and some awesome bass-spinning action.





*he bangs those drums so dog-danged hard that he moves across stage, even with the cinder block in front of the kick drum
**Kevin plays a LOT of shows with Brian Jay & the Last Call Boys and can also be found stepping in for a lot of other bands, PLUS he sometimes plays at Disneyland.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding??? How could I miss the show! And thanks to your friends, I've got blackmail material for YEARS! :) Seriously. So. Much. Fun. I'm totally an official Taint groupie!

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