At the (Smog) show last year, there were a few precious indie kids with their woven purses and whatnot sitting on the floor at the beginning of the set. I don't think I need to explain why this drives me crazy, but I was hoping that Bill would make some mention of it.

Sure enough, next song, Bill's like "What are all of you guys doing sitting down? You should stand up!" and not in a righteous way or anything, just in that wry tone of his. So they reply "Well, we're comfortable.." or something like that. Then the girl in his band said "Well, we're standing up!" and that got them on their feet pretty fast.

ha! forgot about that. then again, I was in back with the merch...

ps. it was really fucking hot in Tucson.

Oh wow..yeah..I think I bought _doctor came at dawn_ or something. No. I bought the green I Love Smog t-shirt.

It was _fucking_ hot. That was a year ago already, during monsoon season, when it's not only hot as balls, but humid. At least it's not Mississippi.

garble wrote:Has anyone seen Calvin Johnson play solo?
I saw him and it was great. All kinds of hilarious tangents, Q & A sessions, and 'sensual' posturing. He talked to us about playing in cemetaries, van accidents, and coloring inside/outside/over the lines. I can't remember any specifics, but I highly recommend him for a stage banter title.

Then he would turn around and go stand in the back corner of the stage to try and remember the chords to his next song.

Yes, I saw him... it was entertaining, but also kind of boring. I really like awkward moments, and this show was chock full of 'em. He layed down on the quarter-pipe (yes, the show was held in a mini indoor skate park) and talked about movies for about 20 minutes. The best part of the show, IMO, was when Wolf Colonel wanted people to come and stand in a line with him and sing along to this kumbaya-style song and no one really wanted to (cause everything was so awkward). A couple people went up 'cause they felt bad that no one else was, and that made things even more awkward. And then after he was done he threw his guitar down and stormed out of the room in a pouty fit. Unbearable awkwardidity. I thought it was great.

mtar

Re: Rotten Tanx post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Jul20.html

The beginning of his set was definately awkward as hell: before playing he seemed to stare each person in the crowd right in the eye for 30 seconds. After that, not so much. But surely a character.

Additionally:

"Ah, Matthew, a college town. You know what that means? Young co-eds in too small striped t-shirts." -C. Johnson

Speedo from Rocket From the Crypt always does a hilarious job at this. A couple repeated faves are mentioning how the band's instruments would have stayed in tune better if we as an audience would bathe and maintain general hygeine, how the barrier is not to protect us [the band] from you [the audience] but to protect you [the audience] from us [RFTC], and thanking us for putting this next song straight to Number One.

His most memorable to me was last year when they had to replace a bass string. He instructed us all to turn around, stick our arms out straight, and start massaging the person now in front of us. 1000 people giving/getting massages at a rock show ... what a moment.

I was once in a band who was playing a industry only showcase in London at the Camden Splash club. It was in summer 1996
It was a very tense affair. We were playing with three other bands who were professional incarnate. We, for some reason were the last band on. The other bands were really quite good which put even more pressure on us. I remember Adam Ant was in the audience near the bar (which was in full view from the stage) with his girlfriend. After i think our second song ( i was the bass player but i sung backing) i said something along the lines of "Fuckin' ell Adam, put on a bit of weight, didn't recognise you there!" intending it to be a funny putdown which would (in my stressed out mind) break the ice with the stone cold industry lackies. He really freaked out shouting abuse at me, the rest of the band looked at me like i was a total retard (which i admit, i was)
It totally ruined the gig and everyone who spoke to our manager afterwards said "great band, but the bass player's a bit of a wanker"
It wasn't until a couple of years ago when I heard of Adam's major mental illness and him throwing part of a motorcycle engine through the window of a pub and threatning people with a replica gun that made me think i'd had a lucky escape.
I still want to apologise to him now and i'm really not the wanker i sounded!

Ah, fuck him. It's Adam Ant for gods sake.

I keep forgetting to post about this, but someone mentioned Def Leppard in another thread, and it jogged the memory.

I read this in some article or something: Apparently, during an early tour (probably Pyromania or earlier) many years ago, Def Leppard got in a lot of trouble because Joe Elliot said something along the lines of "Last night we played in El Paso, Texas; that place with all those GREASY MEXICANS!". I think the show he said this at might have also been somewhere in Texas, and I'm pretty sure there was a big blow-up about it. I think he later claimed that he was trying to do some Cheech and Chong schtick or something. I was too young at the time to know anything about it happening, but if anyone knows anything about this, or better yet, has a recording of this show), I'm curious. I don't even like Def Leppard, but as I've said over and over, funny stage banter is one of my favorite things, so I'd like to hear this.