The Living Rockumentary

Because I've been asked, and because we all wanna see the photos (right? the text is the veggies, the photos the baakalaaavaaaa...aaaa), here's the story of the Aloha Steamtrain reunion show.

After the final AST show in October '02, and after his marriage to the always-charming Amanda (a marriage which is going strong in Chapel Hill--I just seen it first hand), and their move away from the Valley, there was definitely a void in the scene. As Dylan would say "We sit here stranded, though we're all doing our best to deny it". No, I exaggerate just for an excuse to incorporate a Dylan song that's on right now.
We weren't exactly lefy high and dry, since Ning, Ken, Joe and I had at least 3 other bands to take up the space. We finished mixing the final album, with no real plan. It seemed moot.
Occassionally, Ning or I would happen upon an old AST gig diary entry, or photo, and the void would make its presence known--oh yeah... dancing women, sweaty bodies, cymbals and screams ringing in your ears the next morning, dumb-ass low brow improv-humor.
Could we pull it off one more time?
I talked with Ning, emailed Russ--let's get some cover art for the CD, press a limited amount, play one big show, sell them. Russ gets a vacation from work, gets to see some friends, and we get to rock before we're totally forgotten.
Russ arrives at Bradley International (on the A side?) on a Friday night. 2 hours late. Makes me late for a practice, and my car is beginning a problem that will eventually cost $1500 (it's only money, right? Don't tell me otherwise. Jesus loves you.) Bad, bad omens. Oman! But here he comes, and Henning and I are happy to see him.
I went late to Figments practice, and Russ went to Hugo's to begin a solid week of vintage Russ revelling.
The Red Sox played a big part in the spirit of the week. The first night was game game 3 vs. the Yankess where they lost 19-8 while I was impersonating Neil Diamond opening for Russ impersonating Elvis Presley. Music is my life, not sports...
...unless the Red Sox are winning, which they started to do 2 days later. Russ and I watched game 6 at Hugo's in the company of some friendly strangers, and game 7 at Hugo's with Joe Boyle. What fun! What a shot in the arm! And being at Hugo's with Russ seemed like a timeless thing--how old were we? Who's the president? All fun.
The Steamtrain had a couple practices at Rub Wrongways Studio, and the day of the gig we went to The Elevens in the afternoon and did a full, loud soundcheck/practice. "We back!" I kept shouting into the mic, and it was never not funny.
This was followed by a group dinner at the Brewery. We ate in the upstairs section, which I hadn't been in a long time, and which plays a part in AST history--Halloween and New Years gigs there were always a 3 set crazy fest.
I went home to focus my energy and decide what to wear.
Arriving at The Elevens, the World Series was on, and opener Jose Ayerve was about to start. The TV remained on. I was doing 4 things at once:
watching Jose, watching the game, making the set list, and carrying on conversations. Spanish For Hitchhiking went on and were awesome as always. The game was still on.
We had the new SMILE playing between sets, which put me in a good psychedelic/absurd state of mind.
The show was not as well attended as our final show, but packed enough and still we saw many faces we hadn't seen in a while. The folks danced. The Sox finally won the game, they finally turned off the TV. In fact, they won just as we began a song, which made about 30 people cheer in the back of the room and gave the humorous effect of people REALLY BEING PSYCHED that we were playing whatever song it was.
The show was absolutely a blast. Dave Hower (my fave local drummist) said that AST music seems to be the outlet where I can show all I can do. Lots of people noted the permanent smiles on the band's face. It's fun music to play, we were all, I'm sure, having various memories and flashbacks, and we also knew that the next day we didn't have to go somewhere to play 3 sets for 12 people. There were no worries about mailing lists, making money blah blah. It was just, here kids--dig this show, buy a CD (they're great!) and think about this: are you better off than you were 2 year ago?

Kudos to Max Germer (when's his Album Art site going up?) for another awsome CD cover.
Thanks to WRNX and WRSI for promoting the show. Thanks to all who came to the show. Nostalgia is a great place to visit, but keep on walking and don't look anyone in the eye while you're there.