Wednesday, March 24, 2004

My most memorable live music experiences: Soul Asylum played at Springfest 1989.  I was black and blue for three weeks afterwards, partly from pogo dancing and partly from being hit in the head with a vodka bottle.  My friend from Madagascar tried to get us all to stop pogo dancing because it was freaking him out.  They played "That's when I reach for my revolver" during which I had a moment of stop action reality where I was bouncing off of people, bounding around the dance floor with no effort, barely touching the floor, barely inside my body. Hank Williams Tribute night at the 400 bar.  The best entry was the lead singer of Trailer Trash up there belting out hank songs with his cowboy hat and cowboy boots.  Wowee was I ever drunk. Greg Brown played at the "Alternative Energy Fair" in Forest Lake in 1991.  About 16 people attended.  He got up on stage, looked around and said, "What if they had an Alternative Energy Fair and nobody came?"  It was a beautiful night and Greg did not disappoint. Union Station at Winnipeg Folk Festival.  Alison Krauss is something else.   Years later, while working at Pillsbury, I saw a poster for Union Station in someone's office and stopped to say how much I liked them.  The owner looked at me blankly and said  that he only had the poster as part of a promotion they were doing. Mandy Rogers and the Treefrogs singing "I never get your love" in my backyard.  My introduction to the Twin Cities music scene was seeing The Wallets at the St. Paul Armoury in 1985.  The Blue Up also played.  One hundred kids with flannel shirts tied around their waists. Lonnie Brooks playing at Wilebski's Blues Saloon in Frogtown.  1986.  I made the faux pas of telling the people I was with that he sounded like the Rolling Stones.  "The Rolling Stones sound like him", I was assured. Paul Cebar and the Milwaukeans playing at the Cabooze.  I accidently got in a shoving match with some woman over who was going to stand where, but other than that, it was very enjoyable. Run Westy Run at the Cabooze.  I was there with Sean McCarthy who I worked with at Ciattis.   Sean is worthy of a whole seperate post.   Their lead singer was so cool, whipping himself around the mike stand and stuff.  I used to be into that sort of thing. Fugazi at the Heart of the Beast theatre.  The room was packed and hot with no room to dance so the crowd just kind of mashed itself first against one wall and then against the other.  A black kid was pulled out of the audience for fighting and brought up on stage.  Some poor fool taunted him from the audience and the removed kid took a spectacular dive over eight rows of fans and brought his fist down on the guy's face with a POP that was heard across a room packed with 200 noisy people.  That almost shut the show down.  Good thing it didn't.   I really worked something out of my system that night.   9:02:31 PM    comment []

Notice by Steve Kowit This evening, the sturdy Levis I wore every day for over a year & which seemed to the end in perfect condition, suddenly tore. How or why I don't know, but there it was - a big rip at the crotch. A month ago my friend Nick walked off a racquetball court, showered, got into his street clothes, & halfway home collapsed & died. Take heed you who read this & drop to your knees now & again like the poet Christopher Smart & kiss the earth & be joyful & make much of your time & be kindly to everyone, even to those who do not deserve it. For although you may not belive it will happen, you too will one day be gone. I, whose Levis ripped at the crotch for no reason, assure you that such is the case. Pass it on. 8:07:59 PM    comment []