Re: Portland, Me Show – Aug 27

[sarsaparilly]

The doors at The Skinny (a reformed x rated movie theater, uh huh) in Portland Maine were s’posed to open at 9 for the J mascis solo acoustic performance. I arrived a wee bit early and was leery about hangin’ in front. I walked up and down congress street, taking a gander at some menu’s and then observing the dance studio diagonally across from the skinny, where couples young and old were cuttin’ a rug( portland has, well, changed more than I could imagine since I lived and or spent time there). Lights went on outside the door of the skinny at 9:00 and I booked back across the street to wait and ultimately merge into a sorta line, a mass of us surged through the doors into the lobby like it was really urgent to get in the building immediately, it was rather impossible to not just flow with the crowd, finally got my name checked on the list and a had a charming hassle over my i.d., yes I really am that old, dude was checkin’ the birthdate, of course. Walked straight through the bar and eyed the scene quickly, dark very dark, excellent for lurking. as i left the bar I navigated down a few steps and then the floor began to slope down to the stage (member it was a porn theater, oh yes the memories oozed from that floor). So my point is there is a crazy element of drunken stumbling even by the most sober person trying to negotiate this walk toward the stage. Couches and booth style stuff to sit or lounge on either side of room and pretty good view from everywhere, given you are tall enough or willing to perch. I sat down, to the right facing the stage and blended into the shadows, a bunch of guys on stage playing their instruments,check check checkin’. Found a brownie of some kind sittin ‘ there all forlorn and forgotten next to me and considered eatin’ it, decided p’rably was not the smartest idea I had that day and thought about offering it to J instead. Strange crowd, young, mostly real young and some older fans and well I felt real comfy there in the dark, a very sweet young’un (blonde and purty) asked to sit down next to me(HOW POLITE)and as we discovered within seconds we were both natives of vacationland chatted each other very enjoyably up. The rumors were flyin’ ‘bout who was gonna open and if J was gonna sit in on drums…
The first band started playin’ and introduced themselves as the warblers(spelling?) and as far as I am concerned they rocked but I think mebbe the band themselves thought the audience was not so into ‘em cuz there were some strange reactions and comments from the crowd, again only my perception, but the warblers seemed to lag the last three songs. Time passed in that strange through the lookin’ glass fashion as it tends to in maine, ever been there? Then ya know what I mean. and eventually two folks climbed on stage, a guitar and a flute duo, they were cool but only played I guess three songs when J joined ‘em on the drums. THEN they ROCKED so thoroughly!!! And I really would buy their c.d. if they had one, and not just for myself but for other people too, cuz the (as yet undesignated)band was that good.
And of course finally J gets onstage, and he does his thing to get ready and i reckon I had been standing since before j got on the drums with the band in the middle and was way sick of most of the crowd and their brilliant beer repartee so I scooted over to the far side and shit, I had the best view ever ‘ceptin’ I could not see J’s wicked incomparable guitar handiwork full on but appreciated it nonetheless. So J sang and spit and played and the drunk people really got into the dancing and singin’ along and poundin’ beer bottles like they are some kind of percussion instrument. It was fun to be a fan and watch everyone really lettin’ it all hang out and j was just unbelievably mesmerizing, the whole night was the stuff, ya know, that keeps ya up hummin’ and thinkin’ and considerin’ sleepin’ under the stars…

<small>[ 07-29-2002, 02:34 AM: Message edited by: sarsaparilly ]</small>