Saturday, June 14, 2003: Club Dada
Sometimes, it's
good for a band to take a short break. When U2 seemed on the verge
of breaking up after Rattle and Hum, they took a year off and
emerged with the groundbreaking Achtung Baby. When the Beatles
almost killed each during the Get Back sessions, they spent
some time apart and then re-formed to make the classic Abbey Road
LP. And when Lindsey Buckingham decided to go his own way from the
other members of Fleetwood Mac in 1987, the band waited sixteen long
years to re-unite and release the amazing Say You Will CD last
month.(By the way, check out "Thrown Down" for one
of the best songs you will ever hear in your life.)
Of course, "short
breaks" sometimes really fuck things up. Ask The Police, who have
still officially never broken up. Maybe you can check with the Talking
Heads or The Smiths, who both took "breaks" and then never actually
got back together. You're taking a chance when you take some time
off, so I have to admit that I was a little worried when Diamondbag
decided to take a short sanity break after almost two years of solid
gigging. Sure, chances were that we would come back refreshed and
ready to play-but there was always the chance that we'd <GASP>
call it a sequined career.
Well, I'm happy
to report that any doubts about our future were answered with authority
last Saturday night at Club Dada. It had been almost two and a half
months since the five of us had been in the same room together, so
obviously I was a bit more tense than usual before the show. I suppose
it didn't help that Jay was nowhere to be found when it was time for
us to set up after the opening set from the Dead Thang. After a few
frantic calls to Jay's house and cell phone, we still had no word
from our humble guitarist-and it was time to start hauling our gear
on stage. Uh oh.
As we were loading
our stuff, Jon finally got in touch with Jay. It seems that our little
Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep, and had frantically awoken about
20 minutes before show time. You see what happens when your significant
other (i.e., Angela) goes out of town for the weekend? I suppose it
didn't help that poor Jay was in some significant pain after some
mid-week oral surgery, and I'm sure the Vicodins had nothing to do
with his pre-set coma either. But it all worked out, as Jay stumbled
frantically into the club just in time to haul his guitar amp on stage
and plug in for the set-opening "America."
And a fine set it
was! We were only scheduled to play for an hour, so that means the
audience was guaranteed to hear nothing but the hits. Sure, we love
to throw curve balls in there every now and then, but you really have
to give the people what they want when you only have an hour. After
all, we're annoying enough on normal terms, but if we played a gig
without "Sweet Caroline" or "Cherry Cherry".tell ya what, you'd probably
find my bullet-filled body on the banks of the Trinity the next morning.
Happily, we obliged and played all of the tunes everybody loves to
sing along to. And sing along they did-the crowd really seemed to
enjoy the show, and the show-closing "Sweet Caroline" practically
put the place into a frenzy. Jon really cut loose on the guitar, especially
during "Solitary Man" (with a bit of REM's "The One I Love" thrown
if for good measure) and "Holly Holy." It felt really great to be
on-stage again, even if our guitar player was stoned on painkillers
and our drummer's new buzz cut makes him look exactly like G. Gordon
Liddy. Our eleven-song set was seemingly over once it began, and I
hope I speak for the other Diamondbaggers when I say that I can't
wait until the next show at the Lakewood Bar and Grill on July 5th.
Special thanks go
out to Sandy for spending her birthday with us, and to my Mom for
putting up with the smoke, the booze, and her son in sequins. It was
also great to have our dear friend Kim at one of our shows for the
first time, and I get the impression she'll be back again real soon.
And we hope you will too, now that Diamondbag has officially survived
"The Break." As the thank-God-they're-still-on-a-break Starship once
sang, "Nothing's gonna stop us now."
You have been warned.
Set List
America
Kentucky Woman
Forever In Blue Jeans
Cracklin' Rosie
Cherry Cherry
Love On the Rocks
Walk On Water
Solitary Man
Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon
Holly Holy
Sweet Caroline
