OK, I have to admit it: I've
been overcome . . . with WORLD CUP FEVER. It's Thursday June 13, and
my band is playing our first-ever show at the Boar's Nest Greenville
Avenue. I'm always excited when we play a new bar-you never know what
will happen, and it heightens the anticipation Of course, bad things
usually happen when you play a new place for the first time, and that
was certainly true on this night. Happily, my mind was so occupied
by the United States' strong chance to advance to the round of 16
in the World Cup that I didn't worry too much when the sound man supposedly
provided by the Boars Nest failed to show up. Think about that for
a minute: we're playing in a bar we've never been to before, and now
we have to set up and run sound ourselves? We didn't even know where
to find the goddamned on/off switch. Jon is, of course, panicking.
Mike and Eric are too busy eating their tater tots to give a crap
(by the way, the Boars Nest gets the thumbs up just for having the
balls to serve tater tots in place of fries. Tater tots kick ass).
Jay of course is his usual happy "it's cool" self. And with me in
a Brad Freidel-induced soccer coma, all of the stress fell upon Jon.
Luckily, Jon is used to stress. After all, he is married and has two
kids. He was the right man for the job.
In the end, we did the best
we could during set up. After what had to be the longest vocal-mic
check in history, I think we all realized two things:1) I need to come up with something to say at soundcheck besides
"Testing 1.2.3." and 2) that we were going to sound like absolute
doggie doo, and there was nothing we could do about it. We played
our first set and actually played well-but of course, I'm pretty sure
it sounded about as pleasant to the ear as a Slim Whitman yodeling
contest. When every dog within four blocks of Greenville started howling
uncontrollably, we knew it was time to take a break and at least attempt
to fix the mess.
Lucky for us, our good buddy
Tesch appeared and did his best to man the boards for us. He saved
our asses, and he did it with a smile. He is a good man, and he has
a cool goatee. We like Tesch. I would like to give you more details
about the show itself, but honestly I can't really remember too much
about it for some reason. I do remember that I felt like an idiot
when I accidentally sang the intro to "Song Sung Blue" when we were
supposed to play "I Am.I Said," and the band laughed at me. But then
I laughed right back at them, because they play in a dorky Neil Diamond
cover band. Other than that, I really don't remember too much, so
please accept my most heartfelt apologies. I normally write these
summaries the day after a show, but I've been so busy lately that
I just didn't have time. And now I'm playing catch-up and writing
this on July 8th (happy birthday Dad), and all I really
remember about that night on June 13th are tater tots.
I love the way the grease holds the salt and ketchup together, so
you get maximum cholesterol intake in each yummy morsel. Damn I love
tater tots. I used to make fun of Sonic, but any place that has Cherry
Limeades AND tots deserves your business. Oh yeah-did I mention that
Sonic serves Frito Pie and corn dogs too? Sonic kicks almost as much
ass as Mike Teschner.
In the end, the second set
turned out pretty damn good. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves,
and as usual we were happy that we made enough money to cover our
typically grande bar tab. When I finally left the Boars Nest about
2:45 am, I had about 3 hours to kill until the U.S.-Poland match that
would determine our chances of shocking the world by advancing to
the round of 16. Tesch and Curtis had time to kill as well, so we
wound up back at my new place playing the Atari 2600 until it was
time to head for Ben's for soccer. Of course, the U.S. got spanked
3-1, but it wound up not mattering as South Korea shocked Portugal
1-0. The United States was safely into the second round, and now I
could sleep.and dream of tater tots.
Set One
Kentucky Woman
Solitary Man
Shilo
Walk On Water
Forever In Blue Jeans
If You Know What I Mean
Cracklin' Rosie
Song Sung Blue
Rock Me Gently
Sweet Caroline
Set Two
Couldn't Stand the Weather (Jon)
Teenager In Love (Jay)
America
Desiree
Cherry Cherry
I Am . . . I Said
Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon
Holly Holy
Heartlight
Longfellow Serenade
Creep
Love On the Rocks
It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show
You Don't Bring Me Flowers
