Wednesday February 27, 2008
Star Bar
Atlanta, GA
Now over to Frank (Oven Mittens) DeFreese for the
blow-by-blow of our Wednesday night adventure in Atlanta and the deft
mind-rambles of a scratching man...
Star Bar & Other Stories
Current mood: Itchy
My turn do do a
show report? It hasn't even been a year yet and I was really trying to put it
off until later than that.
Star Bar was virgin territory for us (Much thanks to our new Internationally Pop
Pals from The Pinx for bringing us in). Star Bar is a really fun place and it
didn't hurt that my effigy (Ignignok) was prominently perched above the bar
flipping the bird to all those who rock not (as do I to humanity in general).
I was actually a few precious inches of succulent human flesh away from not
playing the show at all since two days earlier I was smote with my first and
worst case of poison ivy or maybe it was poison oak...I dunno, whichever one is
the bad one. I had been up for almost 2 days. The few naps that I was able to
snatch from the jaws of agony were rudely interrupted by my own scratching which
only made it feel marginally better for a few seconds before getting worse than
ever before.
I had to wear oven mittens to bed.
I should have gone to see Dr. Kip @ Nuci's, but instead I went amp-shopping with
Joe. The upside to that is, aside from Joe's acquisition of a functional peice
of gear that he can actually play music through, there was a bitchin' thrift
store nearby! If you check out the pics from the Star Bar show, you'll see a
funky-ass pair of rather fetching trousers that I picked up. Joe's new amp is
pretty cool as well.
So on SHOW DAY, I was in so much agony, that
the prospect of living until sunset was unbearable. So I called every
dermatologist in the phone book until I found one that would agree to either
treat or euthanize me, long as it was TODAY!!!.
I don't know if any of you played "Rock Star" as a child. It's kind of like
Guitar Hero only way better. You put on make-up and squirt lighter fluid on your
pleather pants and play air guitar until either the flames went out or your
pants melted.
The sensation of a poison oak allergy is not unlike a slow, constant, itchy
sensation of melting pleather searing one's flesh.
So much so that the pain and agony of being an uninsured musician having to foot
the whole bill was finally eclipsed by sheer pain and agony so I finally
relented and went to the doctor.
At least all the nurses all had fun drawing straws to see who got to give me a
cortizone shot in the ass.
It was the sweetest pain ever!
Now I can see where all those nurse fetishes come from (Not to mention that song
"Hurts So Good" by that guy who did "Jackie & Diane" as well as several other
Farm-Aid era classics).
SO...THE SHOW!
It was actually alot of fun and kept my mind off the mindless urge to claw my
own flesh. We did a standard set of our own classix, you know those darling
chestnuts we all somewhat know to varying degrees of competency. One thing I
will say about the whole poison oak thing. It somewhat helps one spazz-out on
stage and Chris & Joe were rippin' it loose as well. We got a great crowd
response but I couldn't tell you how it sounded. About 1/2 way through, The Pinx
sent Jager shots onstage to augment our free pitchers of Star Bar's mystery
"Cheap Stuff".
My playing actually seemed to improve or at least my perception of my playing
seemed to improve.
Chris, of course, declined. So a few songs later, I drank his. Then my playing
went into the shit-can (I was already on about $100 of medication) but in return
for what it took from me in musical agility, it gaveth back in the ability to
jump around like a complete jackass, semi-devoid of pain, so maybe no one
noticed.
Then I had to put my oven mits back on.
Atlanta, GA Set List
(with Chris’ totally biased ratings for the evening!)
1. The Only Way****
2. Sometimes I'm Sam****
3. Sadder Day****
4. Rage On****
5. Towel Cape Song****
6. Scared Of Myself**
7. I Won't Stand Still****
8. Phony****
9. Taking Its Toll**
10. Give Up Town****
