My number 12, I think.

Twelfth Consecutive Transperformance--Cripes. Yipes.
First one with no Henning...kind of sad. But we've been doing a lot of music lately, so I'll be hard pressed to even notice his absence.
Oh no I didn't.

Brian, how many bands have you portrayed in all those transperformances?
I don't know. There's probably a list of all the past themes somewhere, but even if I had it in front of me, I'd still not get all the acts.
But I've gotten to be many of my favorite bands: Velvet Underground, XTC, Beatles, Monkees...and I've gotten to be acts I don't feel one way or another about (and no that wasn't a reference to the Fawns doing Blondie, although it would have been clever if it was. It's more a reference to the Moody Blues and the Guess Who. But know what? Because I had no expectations for those, they ended up being two of my faves. I was told just the other day that there was a shooting star or a meteor shower or something durng the Steamtrain-as-Moody Blues. Trippy! ).

Why aren't any Henning-related bands doing it this year? Well, School For the Dead and the Fawns are both pop-song-oriented bands who like to keep their colors bright and their whites white and their hands and teeth and hair clean and smelling fresh.
None of these things were very important at Woodstock.
I'm not sure I would have enjoyed Woodstock. I can barely say the word "camping".
Anyway...

This year, in Henning's absence, I've gone ahead and decided to do two really grown up things: I'm donating my drum set as the house kit for the show and I'm growing my own facial hair.
I'm arriving with a mustache, playing the Grateful Dead (drummer Bill Kreutzmann), then will shave after that and do the Hendrix bit (drummer Mitch Mitchell) clean shaven. Now that's something. I think Ken Maiuri said he's doing something similar. Now that's something.

So who'm I doin' these thin's wit?
The Grateful Dead--billed as Bruce Mandaro and Friends. Bruce Mandaro is a very talented guitar player who did quite well in a band called Slipknot! (named after a Dead tune) , who then got their name taken away by the late 90's metal band of the same name. After that, they were The Knot.
So Bruce Mandaro and friends. Who are the friends? Scotty Hall (Drunk Stuntmen), Ernie Wilson (Big Bad Bollocks), Dave Houghton and Jason Smith (Fancy Trash) and me.
The Dead did not play well at Woodstock, due to a stage sinking into the muddy ground, bad grounding causing electrical shocks, and oh yeah, maybe perhaps they were just a wee bit high.
We're doing 3 songs in 12 minutes. Bite size portions of a Dead set.

And the Hendrix thing. Truth be told, Hendrix didn't really do that great of a show either at Woodstock. He played to "only" about 40,000 people (there had been 600, 000) because they were the last act on the last day, which really was the morning after the festival was supposed to be over.
He gave the band the off the cuff name "Gypsy Love and Flowers". It wasn't the Experience. Noel Redding had quit/was sacked a couple months before and Hendrix had extra percussionists and a rhythm guitar. I think they only did a gig or two with this extended (and unneeded) lineup.
So we're doing more of a Hendrix Experience thing--the trio. Don't go causing a fuss. It's F. Alex Johnson, Ken Maiuri and me. It will blow the unicorns out of the rivers of Jupiter's moons. I mean, you'll be sure to enjoy it. Now I gotta go shave into a mustache.

Here are clips of the acts we're Transperforming:

Hendrix

Dead




Transperformance 19: LookStock Lineup for Tuesday, August 25

4:00 – 4:10 – The Armenti Family Band and Klezamir as Country Joe Arlo

4:15 – 4:25 – Rick Murnane as John B. Sebastian

4:30 – 4:40 – The Mike Hooker Experience as Canned Heat

4:45 – 4:55 – The Dukes as Joe Cocker

5:00 – 5:10 – The Primate Fiasco as Woodstock Dixieland Medley

5:10 – 5:15 – Florence Community Band as Sha Na Na

5:15 – 5:25 – Rocker Panel, featuring Tom Kovar, as Ten Years After

5:25 – 5:30 – Florence Community Band as Sha Na Na

5:30 – 5:35 – Mayor Clare Higgins as Melanie

5:40 – 5:50 – Dad, Come Home! as The Band

5:55 – 6:05 – Peter Blanchette and Kenny Butler as Ravi Shankar

6:10 – 6:20 – Viva Quetzal as Santana

6:25 – 6:35 – The Nields as Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez

6:40 – 6:50 – King Radio as Blood, Sweat & Tears

6:55 – 7:05 – Evelyn Harris as Janis Joplin

7:10 – 7:20 – Moonlight and Morning Star & Miro Sprague as

Sly and the Family Stone

7:25 – 7:35 – Young@Heart as Jefferson Airplane

7:40 – 7:50 – Fistah as the Who

7:55 – 8:05 – Bruce Mandaro and Friends as Grateful Dead

8:10 – 8:20 – winterpills as Creedence Clearwater Revival

8:25 – 8:35 – F. Alex Johnson as Jimi Hendrix

8:40 – 8:50 – Rusty Belle as Mountain

8:55 – 9:05 – Page 6 as Crosby, Stills and Nash

9:10 – 9:20 – The Charlie Braun Band as Richie Havens