Chop Suey - Hurricane Katrina Victims Benefit
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| RICH'S SHOW DIARY | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Friday Oct 14, 2005 Chop Suey - Hurricane Katrina Victims Benefit |
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| Unless you count the fund raiser we did for Dickie's movie, this was our first benefit. We haven't seen Dickie's movie, or Dickie for that matter, since the show. Hmmmmm. Perhaps it has something to do with him and Tiffany breaking up. Or maybe he just hasn't made it to any of the shows we've done since. Another possibility, however slim, is that he was devoured by giant weasels. Regardless, this was our first show that benefitted someone who needed the money more than us or an aspiring Tarantino. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I'm curious - does the good karma built up doing a benefit show counteract the bad karma I acquired by pissing on the door handles of some schmuck's new car after a bachelor party? Could someone please contact the Dalai Lama, or at least Richard Gere, for a professional ruling on this matter? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I had a hunch this show would be a good one. Even as we anxiously awaited the return of Hoagie from a stress filled trip to NJ, the overall feeling was one of cautious optimism. Our last show was, to put it gently, not our best. A more accurate description would be that we never got out of first gear, fought a losing battle against our space constraints, and completely non-plussed the handful of people in attendance. After such a severe letdown, we were determined to redeem ourselves. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Contributing to the positive vibes leading up to the show was the fact that we were once again playing with The Amazombies, who are as personable as they are a killer band. I wasn't all that familiar with Redneck Girlfriend, but had heard great things. Plaster was a mystery to me. Not only had I not heard them before, but I knew that somehow I knew someone connected to them. The problem was that I couldn't remember who it was, where I knew them from, or why the name stuck in my head. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| After once again dining across the street at Piecora's, all of my questions were answered when we walked in on Plaster's set. Immediately I recognized their guitarist, Todd, from a conversation we had right before I had to deal with an unpleasant member of another band we were playing with a few months ago. Good thing Todd was there that day as a sounding board, as I was ready to rip this guy's head off and shit down his neck. Getting back on track, Plaster kicked ass. You gotta love a band that busts out a raging cover of "Symptom of the Universe" smack dab in the middle of hipster central. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Amazombies set found me up at the front of the stage, bobbing my head and humming along with their eminently tuneful songs. I found out the next day that I had jammed with their drummer, Rob, before. I totally didn't recognize him! I gotta work on that shit. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| By the time we took the stage, the crowd was HUGE, providing a great situation to introduce our new set list. Instead of opening with "Psychotherapy", which I think we'd been doing since day one, we opened with "Rockaway Beach" - just like The Ramones used to way back in the 70s. We also dialed the speed back to the 70s era Ramones, as we were starting to get (dare I say it?) too fast. Its nice to know we can blow through 24 songs in 50 minutes, but its also good to highlight the songs the way most people remember them. All of this contributed to what I feel was possibly our best show to date. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We also managed to gouge a sizeable hole in the invisible hipster wall that prevents the too-cool-for-school crowd from enjoying themselves. The crowd seemed far looser than our previous visits to Chop Suey, and the hipster hideaway in the back of the club appeared empty. Score one for the guys in the wigs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I also noticed that our female fan base, particularly our scantily clad hot female fan base, seems to be growing. There also seems to be a collective girlish sigh that arises whenever Greg takes off his jacket. Something about "perfect arms". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The recently reformed Redneck Girlfriend followed with a set that reminded me a lot of Jason and the Scorchers. That's a good thing. I've never seen so many cowboy hats on Capitol Hill before. The last one I saw was on Brian from Go Like Hell the night the two of us and Faster Pussycat closed down the Vogue. Anyhow, lets hope this smoking band doesn't call it quits again anytime soon. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thanks to all who came out and contributed to a very worthy cause, and enabled us to have a blast in the process. Also thanks to Don Slack at KEXP for his kind words about us on his radio show Swinging Doors. Most of all, I'd like to thank Hoagie for finally getting rid of the Vanagon. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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