"She Destroyed My Will To Live"

(April 09, 2005)

Jeez, I can't quite make the jump over to LiveJournal. It's weird writing into that GUI. Like putting on somebody else's shoes. Which will never happen. Ever. Did I mention that my JoeyBear bought me bowling shoes? So that I can go bowling too? See, I'd gone bowling a few times, which by "bowling" it meant he and his friends bowled while I sat off to the side, sipping Midori Sours and cheering, lest some alien bacterial compound from thousands of stinky sweaty stranger feet work its way into my body via a bowling shoe that's been briefly spritzed. Like I'ma wear that shoe. Right.

So yeah, I can't make the jump to LiveJournal. I would switch if I were ready to re-design the Diary. You know, new host, new design, whole new reinvented me. But I'm not ready to put the time into that, and I can't figure out how to change the LiveJournal template even if I did want to. Feh, I'll figure something out.

Recently I hosted this thing, a singer/songwriter benefit. I didn't book it, this great violin player did. She used to be in one of my fave local bands. A real sweetie, smart and talented too. Out of the blue a few months ago she asked me to be the host and "keep things moving" thru the night. "I'm the Ex-Lax of the Singer/Songwriter night," I told Michelle via Instant Message during the day. Usually the person booking the show will host it, but this girl wanted someone at ease with it, besides which, she ended up playing her violin in almost every band! And it is true that I've done it a million times at this point, and getting performers to the stage and getting them OFF again in time is second nature.

But what a weird night. Hoooo! Not the booker's fault or anything. She booked a good, eclectic bill and there was, I think, SOME crossover appreciation. As in, fans of one act became fans of another.

I just wasn't one of them. I gained no new favorite bands last night.

Ad Frank opened the show, followed by Rick Berlin. I love both of those guys, each for different reasons but at the core of my appreciation is a passion, honesty and risk-taking with which they each infuse their music. They did short sets. Too short, because after Rick left the stage and up until like about 12:30 when Corin Ashley's new band played I was a proverbial fish out of water.

I saw, in order, what I am pretty sure was a clinically depressed Christian girl scout, an accomplished jazz singer, a twangy western band, a lite country trio that I swear did the same song five times in a row. Then Corin Ashley and Dave Aaronoff's new project (Dirty Ticket) which is no Pills but is pretty good. Great songwriter, great singer, great bass player, that Corin.

So, good stuff at the beginning, good stuff at the end, and all through the middle I was in a kind of numbed, plastered-smile fugue state, hoping I didn't accidentally say, "Wow, THAT sure sucked!" at any time. The clinically depressed girl scout, she actually had a decent draw. The room filled up for her, and emptied when she was done...church group? Therapy group? Fans? One of the other performers told me later, "She destroyed my will to live."

The violin player who booked it knew something I didn't know, because without that clinically depressed girl scout on the bill, the benefit would not have raised as much money as it did. But damn...I mean DAMN. Saccharine songs about love that rhymed "girl" and "world," (which Joe says is breaking a cardinal rule), choruses like "Pleasure is back, pleasure is good", breathy vanilla vocals, sparse, leggy and disjointed arrangements, confusing random elements thrown in haphazardly (a crooning Spanish singer, a wildly out of place guitar solo?) and above all, a permeating sense of superiority. This band thought they were the shit. DAMN. It's going to take me awhile to get over that set.

Anyway. All for a good cause...but I don't know that I'll say yes again to hosting something I don't have a hand in booking.