March 15 , 2003 - The Thirsty Mind - South Hadley, MA
HENNING: Never before can I remember the first warm day of spring being as universally heralded as this one. Tweasers have removed the long festering splinter of winter from all of us. New Englanders threw open their windows this weekend like it was the end of a long war in a battle-torn country. Strangely, it is probably the beginning of a war in a battle-torn country, and while we were out laughing at the melting snow and starring at the sun, people across the world were spending their last coins for shovels to dig wells and guns to shoot bombs. Don't read the news, don't read the news. Just go back up into the studio and make more music. Go out to the coffee shop and play a show. It's a sign of intelligence to be able to hold two opposing thoughts in your head at the same time, but sometimes the world is just too much. It's a human gift to put the thought of others out of your head while eating your own breakfast. If we couldn't we would all go mad. Don't watch the news, don't watch the news. Just keep writing songs about girls. Last night, friends stood with candles, vigilantly thinking of the looming suffering abroad. I went out for dinner and ice-cream. Nobody that I know is in favor of what "our" country is about to do, but here we go. I am embarrassed. I am embarrassed by being so inactive and silent, and I am embarrassed to be from the US. I wasn't embarrassed to be singing and playing on Saturday night, though. I was transported as always, and we were in a warm room with friends and family, children and teens, and young and old adults. We all sat around listening to music and drawing. Drinking tea and coffee and talking. There were four lovely young ladies from Connecticut who had earlier spent the day at a peace rally (one of them still donned a slogon covered T-shirt), but there were also babies dancing and giggling and one enterprising young kid selling home-made books about ferry boats. Home-made books about ferry boats!! Why would I ever watch the news again?!?! I have never given a second thought to the Dixie Chicks (my god, just consider that name), but suddenly, I felt this admiration for one of them who spoke out about President Bush during a concert in England. To have an admired voice of country music say something negative about a republican president was just incredible. A few thoughts popped into my head and the most convincing one (keep in mind that I know nothing about this band) was that these three (is it three?) southern belles ventured out of the country and they suddenly got a new perspective on the world. Face it, the biggest patriots that you will ever meet are the ones that have never set foot in another country. Their eyes were opened and she wanted to share it with the world. Good for her! It must have been incredibly difficult to speak out while knowing her position in America as role model. I was inspired by her. Soon afterwards it seems that idiots across the country started calling radio stations demanding that they stop playing the music of the Dixie Chicks. These closed-minded ignorant sad-sacks are burning CDs. Well, Miss Dixie has now apologized for saying that she was embarrassed that Bush was from Texas. I don't blame her. This is a country full of mindless reactionaries. Her life may have been in danger. If I had a bunch of pissed-off thick fools chasing me with their pick-up trucks, I would say pretty much anything that they wanted me to say. Like she did. When you live in Northampton, Massachusetts and you spend most of your time with artists, "intellectuals", and free-spirits, it's very easy to forget that the rest of the country has different outlooks. Reading about the outrage over one sentence uttered by a woman who calls herself a Dixie Chick at one show in England, is a horrible reminder of what is actually going on in the country. Shouldn't have read the news. Don't read the news. When we arrived at the Thirsty Mind, the girl who was working there, told us that there would hardly be anybody out tonight since it was spring break at Mt. Holyoke College (across the street.) This was pretty much just as I feared. But, I knew a few people who said they were going to come and I was excited for a nice intimate show. Twenty minutes later, the place was packed. People couldn't find anywhere to sit. There were so many familiar faces and unfamiliar faces and all of them seemed happy to be there. The Bourgeois Heroes were there, for god's sake. It was so nice and we were relieved and energized. It took a few songs for me to get somewhat warmed up and as I was looking around thinking about how lucky we were to have all these nice people listening, I often forgot the lyrics to the songs I was singing. It's a sign of intelligence to be able to hold two thoughts in your head at once. We got somewhat experimental with the songs and it was fun. It felt very free and casual and relaxed. Ken was kind of freaking me out because after ever song when I suggested the next one he said, "let's do something perkier!!" We had used up all of our upbeat songs, but even earlier when I suggested the most upbeat ones he said, "let's do something perkier!!" I just didn't know what to do. He said something about being in a car accident earlier but he had to run off right after the show to play with King Radio and I didn't even get a chance to ask him about that. There were three people there taking pictures and two people in School for the Dead shirts. I put out a pile of CDs and a cup for money, suggesting a price of 10 dollars to the audience. At the end of the show at least 5 cds were gone and there was eleven dollars total in the cup. I found that pretty funny. I always say, I would rather people have the cd then not have it. It's expensive being in a band. Especially when you sell your merchandise for less money than it takes to make it and you make less money for playing a show than the money it cost for gas to get to the show. But, it's so much fun that it just doesn't really seem to matter. It's hard to ask for money to do something that you would do anyway. Besides, if there is anything the people of the world need to do right now it's to sit in a warm cozy coffee shop listening to music, drawing, and talking to each other. I'd do it every night if I could. TONY: Us rock musicians are always looking to extend that "high" we get from performing just after the show. Usually this has led to drugs, drink, groupies, partying of all sorts. For me and Henning, we got to pore over the activity sheets last Saturday night. I'd like to share with you all some of the findings after perusing the data. Every single activity sheet featured "hairstyles" drawn in for the four English gents (aka The Beatles). This idea came from Laurie McNamara. Originally her idea was to have caricatures of the STFD-ers to draw new hairstyles on, which is a better idea but I am no kinda visual artist- I could manage to do The Beatles from mastering it back in childhood so that's what I did for the template. First prize goes to Philip "David Bowie" Price's rendition, in which he turned John into the elf who wants to be a dentist in the "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" cartoon, Paul into the screamer in the "Edvard Munch" painting, George into watermelon comedian Gallagher and Ringo into some funny lookin' guy only Philip knows. First prize in the Draw-the-band competition goes to Philip's date for the evening, Miss Debbie "Roxanne" Way, in which the artiste has rendered SFTD as a five-piece band of unicorns, complete with rainbow. As for the Mad Lib, I found it interesting to see what celebrities our audience members hate. Usual suspects Britney Spears and Cher both earned nods (both names showed up in the casting section as well) but actress Tara Reid was far and away the most despised person. A surprising dis went to Andie MacDowell (what's there to hate about her? I ain't sayin' I love her but who knows enough about her to hate her????). Ferryboat expert/entrepreneur Sal turned in the most inexplicable one- Abe Lincoln!!??!!? The casting segment of the activity page (another Laurie Mac idea) was a rousing success as well. Some interesting choices... For one thing, Janeane Garofalo (spelled many different ways) is a shoo-in to make the cast- question is, who would she portray? Two people say she should play Ken, two others threw in votes for Henning and Brian. There wasn't very much agreement overall in cast selections. Almost all of the repeats came in my own casting. I got 2 votes for Noah Wyle, 2 for Hugh Grant, 2 for Uma Thurman and 2 for Renee Zellweger. One thing is for sure, though- with 3 votes for Minnie Driver to portray Brian, someone oughta get in touch with her agent. In other news, Sal thinks his mum should play Ken in the movie. Personally, I was tickled by some of the responses to play me- my own wife has always thought David Hyde Pierce resembled me, apparently so does someone else. I also can see Owen Wilson, James Spader and Daryl Hannah and Renee Zellweger. All blondes, some with big noses, so that makes sense. The funniest thing was seeing the name Hilary Duff to play me, suggested by one of Philip's daughters. See, I wouldn't have known who this person was unless I had just flipped through a magazine on celebrity hairstyles on Henning's coffee table during dinner just hours before. For those who don't know, Hilary Duff is this precociously cute blonde teenage actress who has her own show on either Nickelodoen or Disney and is also in a new kids' movie alled "Agent Cody Banks." Oh yeah, Philip, just in case you didn't know, Ana and Thea would've preferred to have been named "Scart" and "Elyssa" respectively. That's "Scart" pronounced like "ssss-cart." Last time we played The Thirsty Mind, it was a treat for all of us to play to a house full of college-age kids for a change. This time, our demographic skewed much, much younger. We had Sal McNamara in the house again, as well as Ethan Loewenstein, who was there to see his mum sing in public for the first time, Timmy T brought his two kids, Shelly brought our daughter Hannah, plus there were a few other kids running around, not to mention George Lenker, who's really just a kid at heart, but ain't he? He spent the entire time over in the corner by the counter, standing. As if he was watching a band by the bar. Anyway, whenever I looked over at him, he was beaming, taking in the show. Always makes for a good show if you can find somebody in the audience who's just grinning throughout. Like you can do no wrong. (Same thing happened when I played with The Maggies at The Academy of Music last year with Ray Mason in the orchestra pit, smiling through our whole performance). Also very inspiring was seeing Hannah bouncing up and down during the songs, clapping, and every once in a while sneaking up on Mary Jo to caress her soft sweater sleeve. There was another little girl, about Hannah's age, also there (whose name was Madison) and this was her very first musical performance. Hannah's was actually The Aloha Steamtrain at the Taste of Northampton last summer. I also couldn't help but wonder if I'll ever be taking in a rock & roll show on a Saturday night alongside a teenage Hannah like Philip was with his two daughters. Sunrise, sunset. Anyway, the performance of the evening suffered a few sputters to get on track, and then once we were on track, we went and drove all over the road anyway, shaking up arrangements here and there, just 'cause. Our opening number, Rock & Roll Camper was woefully slow-tempoed (and it's no BPM raver in its usual form) but other than a slog through Candy Cane (my own suggestion, natch), it was all our uptempo stuff. Ken, fresh from his car accident and under the gun to go play a second show with King Radio two hours from our start time, was just begging for "perky" material at the end of every song. Music is Ken's drug of choice as we all know and Saturday night he was itching for speed. Perhaps, Ken, it's time to book and play a Ribboncandy show. I'm down. Some highlights- we all seemed to want to screw around with Pick A Gripe this evening. It wasn't planned like that but that was our subconscious collective idea. I got aggressive with the F chord strumming, Brian got all Art Blakey-like, Ken decided he was going to play some strange harmonies to Henning's lead vocal, it was just like we were yanking one of those three-foot long Subway party subs back and forth, tearing bites off it at random. Whatever the hell that means. Ken's image of the elbowing was better but hey, I'm a litle peckish typing this here, I can't help it. It also finally occurred to me to start singing live the harmony vocals that I added to the recording of Uncomfortable. Sounds good. Remind me to keep doing that. I don't know which was funnier- the mistake Ken made in Sitcom Theme, accidentally playing the final chord several measures before it was due, thereby making my harmony sound all wonky or the fact that Ken denied making a mistake afterwards. It's just that he never makes them and I caught one and had to tell Max about it as soon as the song was done. An overhearing Ken denied it, albeit with a guilty-as-charged grin on his face, unable to look me in the eye, like a petulant kid trying to pull one over on his parents. Speaking of parents, Sam Loewenstein of The Parents joined us on two songs, the smoove Jive Driving (which SFTD only played once, and that was before I joined the band)and the jaunty Teenage Summer, an Adam Greenberg composition that I co-opted by writing lyrics for a second verse and bumblingly unwittingly changing the feel of the song. Also changed the key for a female voice to manage it better. Either way, this new version of it, though quite different from The Greenbergs' version, is delightful in itself. If possible, I'd like to play it again in the future just for the hell of it sometime. KEN: i'm thankful that this computer screen can't film/photograph me as i type this, because i look like HELL. feel like it, too. i've got the worst headache i've had in years (mary jo, why didn't i take you up on your advil offer?? advil, take me away!!). it hurts so much that my eyes are constantly trying to unfocus, because even looking at the keyboard causes pressure pain and makes me wince, i feel it in the back of my skull. so i'll write about tonight's gig while it's still in the front of my skull, before it gets edged out by the migraine meanies. it was very very fun! sloppy as shite, but it had its moments, like a "pick a gripe" that built throughout, thanks to brian's insistent, bullying fills -- it was like someone elbowing you in the arm, forcing you to elbow back. very cool! and "photobooth" was, always has been, and possibly always will be, the perfect SFTD song. the feel of the chords, the various parts, the harmonies, it's all excellent to me. when we kick back into the instrumental verse after the bridge -- that's just fucking bliss, i say. what pop music was made for. so i made LOTS of bum notes, tony pointed one out to me during the show and then, y'know, screw it! hit some more, have fun, take some chances. i thought our show was best when we did that. there were a few dire songs, just crawling along (like "candy cane," which will be good someday when we lock into that sad, slower groove), and i wasn't helping matters any, staring at the keyboard or floor again. last time we played the thirsty mind i cursed my hind afterwards, i didn't want to be afraid to look up. so i tried to break my own personal ice with some chatting with the audience before "sitcom theme," and the song was breezy and fun. so was "martha." philip said post-show that the STFD set acted as a "balm" for him, and i felt the same way. i know we were all thinking there might not be much of a crowd (it's spring break time), but it was almost as well-attended as last month. i noted a couple SFTD t-shirts worn by some fans, and we even got asked for our signatures by someone! crrrr-azy. i'm glad we played "jive driving," that was a nice change of pace (thanks, sam!). "greenberg's teenage summer" sounded better than it had at the practices, and i heard his solo opening set at the iron horse went really well. (later, at the brass cat, rob and brian were shaking their heads in awe. "he's got some pipes." "yeah, he hits some notes." smoke crawled around and down into our bodies as we stood and mulled this over. i bought a zine from sal (via lauri) about "the history of the martha's vineyard." keep doing zines, sal!) back at the thirsty mind, i didn't get to really say goodbye to my bandmates or see any activity pages because i had to follow the philipmobile to easthampton for the king radio show at the brass cat opening for steve westifeld (we were wedged into the corner, with the string section playing in front of us -- and people STILL couldn't hear them sometimes, i was told! it was one of the better KRw/strings shows, i thought). speaking of strings, has anyone heard sting's son's band? fiction plane? they're not so hot, BUT: the first song on their record is great. he sounds SO MUCH like his dad it makes me laugh and feel good. you'd think no one could duplicate sting's yowl when he gets up there in range, but sting jr. pretty much nails it. it's a song with a great beat and nagging hook, it's like the police meets (insert name of good modern rock band here, but i can't think of one). the rest of the album is underwhelming, but that's a fine 21st century moronic pop tune. are we going to practice monday night? in other news, i feel like i'm going to vomit. BRIAN: Last Night's Show: School for the Dead: Family Entertainment for Today's Changing Times Bloody true, then, innit? We seemed to have played a show last night. It seemed to be awesome. Friends, family, strangers, ages 1-??, all digging us digging playing. At least I was really digging playing. You know how inanimate objects kind of develop personalities? Like cars or instruments? Well, last night, I was using the "Olympia" drumset that belongs to Henning, and is kind of like a toy. It's spent the last many years as the lovably degraded practice kit. Yesterday it was a bit miffed at being passed over for my Rogers kit (when we we were recording earlier in the day). But, boy, was it in for a surprise! It got to be in front of 70 people in South Hadley, and as a result, it sent very playful vibes into my sticks, causing the whole show to be a non-stop unpredictable Mr Toad's Wild Ride! From the first song, "Rock and Roll Camper", where suddenly I had no use for the tried and true arrangement and it was suddenly very loose and dynamic. And it carried on from there. In reality, this is that weird time in between recording a song and it being released where its your last chance to fuck around with it before it becomes etched onto CD (or whatever). Like its the songs' bachelor party. That doesn't mean anything. Happy spring everyone. See E-Yo (my new stage name). MAX:	Everybody Loves Martha One Lady Dancing Uncomfortable Candy Cane The Wichita Train Whistle Sings Omnivore Pick A Gripe Rock & Roll Camper Thug Overs Soup Of The Moment Sitcom Theme The New You Ayla Photobooth Curtain Something's Taking Over Jive Driving* Teenage Summer* * w/ guest vocalist Samara Loewenstein Activity Drawings