The Great Gig in the Sky

Got a sitter and caught Uncle Timmy's band The Booker Tease at a local watering hole last night. The tunes were hot and tight as usual, the scene was, to steal a phrase from the Wife, "a little rustic".

A dog periodically ran across the front of the stage, preceded and followed by a gamut of what appeared to be extras from River's Edge, or American Movie. A large, extremely drunk fellow kept wandering into frame asking everyone he bumped into where the bathroom was. I learned he hailed from New Jersey, but now had a hotel room in North County, and so he was cool, man, he was just wondering. A fritzed out older gal who looked like a denizen of first VW vanload of Grateful Dead groupies ever to hit the road spun erratically across the dance floor for several songs before collapsing exhausted in a blissed out pile. A moist, longhaired Gentleman Junkie type in a borderline David Byrne suit occasionally spun around the floor with a vintage clad girlfriend 20 years too young for him, classing the joint up a bit.

The highlight of the evening came courtesy of one of the River's Edge fellas, dressed in layers of ratty camo and sweatshirts, who stood transfixed at the foot of the stage during, I believe, their rendition of the theme from Hang 'Em High. He seemed paralyzed by the grandeur, unable to rock, unable to walk away, trembling before the wall of sound. Eventually he found his outlet: hands extended, palms up, fingers curled as if grasping an invisible softball, shaking gently as if with palsy or religious rapture, the gesture of a supplicant offering a still beating heart to his pagan Gods.

Bone tired from a long day and realizing nothing could top that moment, we absconded for home.

The sound was solid- we took in most of the show from a weird observation booth behind the dance floor, and it was rocking. The setlist delivered, the guys were on point and I eagerly await their next happening.

My one suggestion would be a name change to The Arnold Feher Experience- A keyboardist hasn't exerted such stage presence since the heyday of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Salzburg, REPRESENT!