Transperformance Thoughts

My jaw hurts. My jaw hurt three years ago at this same time also. Do you know why? I do. It's because when I try to sing like either Tom Petty or Ray Davies, it hurts my jaw. I know I am doing something wrong, voice teachers would have a field day with me. But I don't have a voice teacher (obviously) and I doubt very much that Tom or Ray did either.

So here we are with aching jaws.

It was wonderful being the Kinks this year, their songs are so good and the ones we chose are so well-known and happy and upbeat that they were perfect for that outdoorsy crowd. The only problem with the Kinks (and I'll bet you more than one record label bigwig was banging his head against a wall about it) is that they don't really have an image.

Before the day of the show, lots of people, including me and my bandmates, asked, "how do you dress up to look like the Kinks". The answer really was, it doesn't matter because nobody has a preconceived image of them anyway. Last year, being Blondie was a no-brainer as far as costumes, and Tom Petty was pretty easy, and the Monkees? Forget about it. Where's my hat?

But the Kinks, well, we pretty much had to rely entirely on the music. That's why it didn't really matter so much that my Ray Davies wig was on Ken's head, or that we just kind of sported some jackets and ties. The songs speak for themselves.

Everyone did a really good job this year at the show. There was one act that didn't really seem to get the concept and didn't really seem to actually play any songs by the band that they were being, but besides that it was solid all around.

Highlights for me include:

- Us' 11-year-old keyboard player singing Oasis' "Champagne Supernova"
- Ken playing with seven acts.
- Jose Ayerve completely channeling the stage presence of Michael Hutchence
- Having the aged hippie in the audience point to me during the Plastic Ono Band set and say "That's Klaus Voorman!".
- The Drunk Stuntmen playing the Allman Brothers songs better than the Allman Brothers.
- Winterpills with Dave Trenholm and Ken Maiuri as a perfect Carpenters. Especially Flora's pant suit.

See you next year.