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The past few days have found me doing what I love most while breathing fresh air and smiling out at faces smiling back at me (or at least in my general direction).
The same cannot be said for any members of the Boston Red Sox. But that's another story that would just ruin the spirit of this one.
Transperformance 2006.
I often cannot deal with feeling stagnant or redundant for much longer than the shortest periods of time. I get restless, and fail to see that things are being accomplished.This is why, for the last two or three years, I've gotten a bit annoyed in the weeks leading up to Transperformance. Why are we getting so excited at the fact that another year in our musical lives has gone by, and still, the only way we can play in front of a lot of people is when we impersonate others? I get all serious and downhearted and begin to see the irony. As a young lad, dreaming of one day being just like the Beatles/Velvets/Monkees/Kinks....and here I am dressing up like them year after year and playing their music. O! Cruel fate!
And then I'm on a big stage with my best friends surrounded by green, and I see Henning in a wig, and thousands of happy families dancing to my drumbeat and I could not be happier.
For some reason, this year I didn't get in that weird black mood. That mood was a result of someone taking himself too seriously. Recent personal events have seemed to have (at least temporarily) stripped me of such unsavory characteristics. I'm just going with the flow, man. And trying to keep bugs out of my new apartment. I wish the landlord/cat situation would get solved asap because I have a kitty all picked out that I just wanna bring home!
So, yeah. School for the Dead was The Kinks! Did we give the people what they wanted?
Probably not exactly. No Lola. No You Really Got Me.
Did we give the record store nerds what THEY want? Mmm, no. No Wonderboy or This Man He Weeps Tonight or Sweet Lady Geneveve.
But we walked the line and delivered a fun set. I really loved it.
Plastic Ono (as done by the Steamtrain) was fun as well. In The Mean Wyoming (1990) I used to sing Cold Turkey. I wish I still had a tape of that. Russ had a great homemade shirt and Diana had the Yoko sounds down perfectly.
Weird, then, that the highlight of it for me was as the (last minute) second percussionist for the Allman Brothers as done by the Drunk Stuntmen. I've never been a Stuntman, but I have played drums for Al Johnson's project as well as Scott Hall's. I've recorded w/ Terry Flood. So it wasn't foreign terretory for me. I love watching Stuntmen shows when I can make them. So my vantage point was awesome. Standing up only having to shake a tamborine and some shakers, beside the great JJ O'Connell who was conga-ing like a hippie, I looked out and saw the classic 4--Bow, Al, Terry and Steve, doing their thing note perfect, and a throng of dancing people in the August twilight. JJ and I exchanged huge smiles for I don't know what reason. Off further to my right, Dave was rocking behind the kit and Scott, with the ever-present Ken Maiuri were dualng on keyboards. I tried to get Ken's attention: Ken, look at us. We're on stage together playing an Allman Brothers song with the friggin' Stuntmen! What the hell kind of alternate reality is this? I kept having to remind myself that I was indeed standing in front of a lot of people, not dancing in some UMass dormroom. I had to quickly feel my chin to make sure I hadn't grown a beard. That song, "Jessica" is a very happy and energetic piece of music. In any case, getting off stage, two or three people hugged me (i was like, 'what..I was just shaking some percussion' and they were all "it doesn't matter you were great'). A utopian moment.
And the Caprpenters (Winterpills) afterwards? Forget about it! So, so awesome. Philip always delivers the goods year after year.
On to the Hardwick Fair. The oldest fair in the world. The druids of hardwick invented fairs, fire, flooring and finches. But not fried fish or french fries. More on that later.
School for the Dead played in front of a cemetary, we were surrounded on one side by an old Hardwick fire engine and on another side by a booth selling BBQ chicken (with a very long line of eager folks).
In front of us were chairs under a tent, consistently about half filled with folks watching. From the solitary elderly woman calling out for Brooks and Dunn to the trio of teenage misfit-hipsters (in fact, one had a Misfits tshirt), the audience was as general as you could imagine. And many enjoyed us while they ate their chicken.
One of the teenage kids told me that he, too, had a band. "What are you called", I asked. "The Motel matches" said he. "After the Elvis Costello song?" I asked. "Yeah" answered he. "Nice" said I. And it did indeed make me happy that somewhere out in a farm towin in central Massachusetts, a 17 year old budding musician is digging "Get Happy!", one of my favorite Elvis Costello albums. No, one of my favorite albums ever. This kid was also the one who, when Henning requested a 70's-80's TV theme to play, he and I both said "CHiPS" at the same time. Wow, maybe the kid WAS me lost in a timewarp. Again, great to know kids are digging Estrada in his prime.
So, 3 sets. 2 1/4 hours of music. 90% of the SFTD repetoir and a surprise mini set by The Fawns. We sounded great and energetic and right on.
Afterwards, Ken and I got fried food and french fries at the famous Howard's in W. Brookfield. it was great but made me tired. Glad I now know the legend that is Howard's.
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