SATURDAY NIGHT, LIVE

Saturday night was all Trash.

That is, I went to Trash Bar to see 3 (!) bands, all of whom have some connection to the life and times of Smoke and Mirrors.

First up was Strikes Again, the band for which Mikedot plays drums. Mike is quite humble when he discusses his drumming, but I found it to be more than respectable. His beats were solid and the band just floated along on top. The music was heavy, sweaty (well, at the lead singer was), and punky. They seemed to be having fun.

Next was The Pill, an (almost) all girl four piece punk band. Why is it that if a band is a bunch of guys you don't say "They're an all guy four piece punk band"? Well, maybe YOU do, but I don't. Anyhow, they rocked, as they always do (I've seen them a few times before). Fun, 60's-ish garage with a guitarist who plays the shite out of her Fender (and uses a Silverface Deluxe Reverb, an amp very close to my heart). This is a band that could be The Next Big Thing. They were giving away free CD's so I grabbed one, and of course listening to it made we want to get them in the studio. Not a surprise, really, everything makes me want to get people into the studio.

Who was there to see the Pill but our pals Live Girls, drunk and disorderly. Ashley bought me a hotdog and brought tater-tots into the show. Thank you, Ashley. I gave them some TEDSTOCK flyers and I hope they come; I'd like another hotdog.

World War IX was band #3, with my old friend Justin Melkmann on left handed Gibson SG. This is a band I recorded quite a long time ago, back when we REALLY had no idea what we were doing, and before them I recorded Justin's (and Lynn's from The Pill) old band Jerk Alert. I always thought Jerk Alert could have made it big, but they stopped playing and their amazing lead singer started a family. Oh well.

WWIX were great, as always; lead singer Max got down and stuck his head in the kick drum at the end of a tune. "Ohhh..... don't do that" I said, but he did it anyway, and it blasted him right out and onto the floor. Good shit.

Justin has added a single distortion pedal to his setup (it looked like an orange DS1 from where I was standing). He was telling me before the show that he wanted his SG to feedback when he muted notes, and it worked. Nice job. The DS1 was my first distortion pedal, which I loaned to another friend at The Daily Show, where Justin works. Could that have been my pedal up there? Probably not.

I wandered out of Trash and back to the studio at some point. I don't know that I said goodbye to anyone (sorry), but I do know I tried to sing "Captain Smith" from George Vitray's work in progress "Robot" when I got to the studio, so I must have been having a good time.