cheech

I had a fantastic time at the show last night!

DEERHOOF iz awwsome.

The Casual Dots are also very good. They played a batch of punky-surfy instrumentals, with maybe a little Gang of Kinney style in the other songs, plus a great doo-wop cover (I would say the title, but as usual when the singer said it the mic was too bass-y to understand).

I talked to Kathi Wilcox after the show. I always had this 1991-Flipside-reviews image of Bikini Kill members as angry. This is utter b.s. as Kathi was very nice and talked to me for 10 or 15 minutes. I finally got a chance to solve one of my Big Rock Mysteries-- was the song title "Do You Wanna Donuts?" a morphing of the chorus from "Do You Wanna Go Nuts?" The answer is - no. She said the Frumpies had some lyric/ concept (it was loud, I couldn't make out exactly what she meant) of "The Donuts Nation." I asked her why the DC City Paper made it out like The Casual Dots were a bunch of listless slackers; she said she had noticed that tone in the article, and didn't know what it was all about. I noted that most bands are a two steps away from breaking up so the article seemed absurd. I asked her if she liked Deerhoof; she lovvves Deerhoof, especially the latest albums.

I bought Reveille at the concession stand from Satomi. I told her I was undecided between it and the first album, so she recommended it, and how could I go against that??

DEERHOOF live kicks so much azz you will not believe your mind, and they are such good players, and I think they're maybe a lil crazy too, although that's conjectural. Satomi is kinda like Gene Simmons if Gene was a 4'10 Japanese girl with a Hohner bass who wrote much better, shorter, crazier songs... not much of a stretch.... and I had a hard time believing Greg Saunier was a great drummer, even with their MP3s as evidence, cuz I thought "Okay, he does it in the studio, but how can a guy sound that good live with only a snare, a ride cymbal, and a bass drum??" I'm now a total fascistic believer! He is like some creation of Keith Moon, Bill Bruford, and the Tasmanian Devil.... he's not of our planet.... he does more with 3 pieces than an entire orchestra of kettle-drumming Neil Pearts... he does a darned good job.

And they're really good players. They have a couple songs that are meant to be loose; the rest are tighter than thinkable or doable... yet they think and do.

I guess tonight I get to see Tryst's band rock Bal'mer... hpefully, will get a chance to write to everyone (and do more Douglas Adams) tomorrow, so keep a lookout!