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TUESDAY, MARCH 14TH --- $10:
7:00 DEE POP'S 50th BIRTHDAY BASH!
Featuring:
THE ANNABEL CHONGS
BUSH TETRAS
FREEDOM LAND
MIGHTY FINE
DON FIORINO & ANDY HAAS
FAITH
MIKE "IQ" JONES
MOD ROCKETS
MIA THEODORATUS
NORA & TRIBAL SOUNDZ

CB's 313 Gallery

Gotta admit that I didn't see the entire show (started knocking off during the Bush Tetras set even though it was at the shank of the evening [10:30] because I was whipped from a hard day at the salt mines) and a number of technical glitches were hampering the affairs a bit (actually a LOT, but who's complainin'?), though what I was able to decipher outta the buffering and shutoffs was more than fine entertainment even for a jaded putz like myself. And for a guy who was celebrating the big Five-Oh last night, Pop looks fitter than a fiddle especially for one who has probably lived TEN lives to my one though really, what kinda birthday celebration was this given that Pop himself was sitting in on the drums throughout most of the sets this evening! I mean, dontcha think the old feller shoulda just kicked up his feet and enjoyed more of that delicious chocolate cake with white icing that the cybercast camera was lingering over between sets??? Maybe playing his ass off was the only way Pop wanted it, and if so let us congratulate this oldster for having more energy and innovation'n a classroom fulla lazybone kiddie who can't wait to come home after school just so's they can plop right smack dab in front of the computer!

The festivities started off with what looked to be yet anudder all-gal (although I didn't catch the drummer, who mighta been Pop himself!) punk band (albeit dressed snazzily with sixties ironed hair the kind Miriam Linna used to wear and might still) who did an ample job of recreating late-seventies popunk hysteria and better than way too many others out there in musicland. And hey, I'm not gonna say anything bad about 'em, for they sorta sounded more Max's Kansas City than CBGB, or at least as far as 1979 booking values went and that does make for a nice once-in-awhile change of pace.

Then there was this guy who followed these missies who not only created a lotta interesting electronic noize with his gizmos but even got a buncha kidz (who were running around playing tag earlier inna evening) to contribute some soon-to-be-electronicized vocalese to the goings on! After that came the Annabelle Chongs, a band who's had some advance publicity because Pop plays drums for 'em (along with a dozen other aggregates out there!) and they performed an interesting pseudo-Velvets rock not that different from a thousand others though they were fortunate enough to sound a lot more engaging than other Velvets wannabes out there even though I don't think I'd buy any records of theirs anyway (if they had any, that is). Maybe I would, but its like there wasn't any really soul-throbbing new (or old) exciting avenues created by their music, not that rock & roll necessarily has to do that, but right now I'm looking for that new hook.

Mia Theadoratus and her harp, accompanied by Pop on drums and a female vocalist followed proving that maybe they could be just the hook I'm looking for, making this wonderful middle-easternesque sound that reminded me of a rough workout for a group that could have immense inward-turned energy potentials. Mia...take a hint and use your harp/talents to form a band in the early-Velvet Underground fashion without all the cheap emotions utilized by alternative musicians these days and with the deep soul and artistic vision espoused by everyone from Wayne McGuire to Bobby Abrams. THEN you'll have an aggregate that can wipe all those modern-day lamesters off the map so's maybe we can get back to ROCKIN' (with that deep, edge-sound vibrating quality) again and for good! And remember, when you do put this group together...think 1966!

After Mia's as-expected brief set came fellow Hanuman Ensemble members Don Fiorino and Andy Haas (also 2/3rds of the Tertiary Trio) playing a wild avant-jazz once again with Dee on tubs. Haas performed on what looked (and sounded) like a curved soprano saxophone while Fiorino seemed to alternate between a banjo and laptop steel guitar and both were making some of the most angular sounds to come out of that evening, or the gallery stage in quite some time as well. Then this guy who sang while accompanying himself on bass guitar showed up...interesting enough (kinda sparse minimalism very much in vogue w/early eighties sound-to-silence space) but with the computer clicking off every three or so minutes by this time I can't say that it was easy enough to judge his act. After that...the Bush Tetras. I gotta admit that I never liked these bozos ever since I heard their recordings back in the dawn of the eighties (when my tastes were beginning to shy away from the tame, art-funk direction NYC rock was moving towards, edging closer and closer to the hard-edged musics that certain punk and even heavy metal on punk turf groups were heading in the time), but last night they sounded pretty on-target with a more heavy and hard funk/punk riffage that reminded me of stuff like Adele Bertei's Bloods which didn't thrill me that much back then either, but maybe there was a lotta water under the bridge since then and just about ANYTHING from that era sounds swell in retrospect, or at least loads better'n the Journey and REO Speedwagon that dolts like Chuck Eddy were trying to push on us as being the real All-American whole wheat for the massholes!

Got tommy tuckered out during the Tetras' set so I missed out on Freedom Land (formerly Freedomland I surmise, name changed perhaps due to the current flicker???) who were the main reason I tuned in last night!!!! Hey Dee, if you guys make a return appearance on one of the CBGB stages, how about going on earlier before lights out???