Did anyone mention that this could…I don’t know…come off as homosexual innuendo?

Or am I reading too much into this?

Simeon, the singer/ electronic music guy performed alone. He is now silver haired and frail after recovering from having his neck broken in a car accident. He didn’t have a roadie. Someone helped him drag out his rig to the center of the stage, but he set it up and set up a video camera, projector and screen.

Since the drummer for the Silver Apples, Danny Taylor, passed away in 2005, Simeon used a drum machine. I was wondering if he’d use another drummer, but it’d be hard filling Taylor’s shoes (he was a former drummer for Jimi Hendrix).

It was a great show. The oddest thing about it was that the music, since he used a drum machine, sounded less bizzare than the recordings from the 60’s. He played my favorite song of his, “Program,” right at the beginning (the song is the earliest song I know of to use sampling…they didn’t even have a word for it then), but it was still profoundly odd and futuristic, and I had a blast.

Simeon enjoyed himself as well. I was personally offended that he wasn’t playing a larger venue and that the place wasn’t packed full, but he seemed genuinely pleased that this many people had showed up and were cheering him on. He smiled, and talked to the audience (when people kept yelling out for him to play ‘Ruby’ he said, “Hey, I didn’t bring a banjo!”).

There were three other bands. People are all gaga about Warhammer 48k. They were intense, loud and creative and intense (and their drummer is solid), but they didn’t make the biggest impression on me of the opening bands.

Skarekrau Radio did.

There were 13 of them on stage. Two drummers, one percussionist. Two or three horn players. Guitar, bass, drums. Metal Antlers. Two singers, a woman, dressed oddly, and a man dressed in tuxedo tails and a thong. There was a guy playing the cymbals with a drumstick…he was weaing leotard bottoms. The saxophone player wasn’t wearing any clothes at all. The naked sax guy leapt off of the stage at one point and flailed around on the ground (at first I thought he was really high, then I thought he was just performing, but he continued to do this throughout every band afterwards, so I returned to my original conclusion). The lead singer (?) spent most of the time offstage in the audience performing to the band.

The guy in the leotard pants ran around licking people in the audience (myself included–I had nowhere to run), while the band skronked and banged on things and yelled strange poetry out. I couldn’t understand a single thing they said.

It was pretty rad.

Their website looks like it was put together by loonies. Warning! It plays a grating sound loop when you click on it! You’ve been warned!

Here’s a performance of them from 2003. It doesn’t feature any nudity, and it’s a lot less intense, since they’re not licking you or yelling in your face. If you watch it long enough, the noise actually does coalesce into a song of sorts. But it should give you some sort of idea.

A shooting on the South Side Friday night left a 32-year-old man in critical condition.
The man got off his bicycle in the 6300 block of South Mozart Street about 5:40 p.m. and began a discussion with three other people, according to police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli. One of the men then shot the 32-year-old in the spine.

After being shot the man rode his bicycle home and his sister took him to the hospital.

He was taken to Stroger Hospital in “stable” but critical condition, police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.

No shooter is in custody as of 4:40 p.m. Saturday. Wentworth Area detectives were investigating.

From the Chicago Sun-Times

But it isn’t cold. it’s 8 degrees out. And that’s warm, this week. Yesterday, the wind chill was down to something like -16. That’s cold. No, allow me to reiterate. That’s COLD. If you have been unfortunate (I’ll explain) enough to never have experienced cold like that, well allow me to explain.

First off, if you live in one of these climates, you understand the importance of layers. Wearing a warm coat is vital, of course, but it is only one step. There needs to be at least a layer or two of sweaters/fleeces that you can ad to or subtract as the need may arise.

Scarves are a necessity. Hats as well. No one tries to walk around without a hat, ’cause not only is that silly, it’s stupid. You lose much of your body heat from your head.

When it’s this cold, the moment you step outside, your nosehair freezes. That’s a disconcerting feeling. It’s possible that if you are bundled up properly, and the wind isn’t blowing, you won’t notice how cold it is, unles your nosehairs freeze. That’s the true thermostat, I believe.

If the wind starts a blowing, then you will know if you’ve properly bundled up. Improper layering will expose you for the fool that you are, and the wind will cut into your cuffs, under the bottom of the coat. No scarf? Down the neck it goes. Very unpleasant.

Why would anyone view this as beneficial? Why shouldn’t we all move to California, where youth is eternal and the weather unchanging?

There is a sense of community here. We’re all in this together, is the general feeling, and I would be willing to be that the incidence of violent crime against strangers is lower when it is this cold. You see, the first feeling you get when you see other people is empathy. ‘Damn, he looks cold. Poor guy.” “Jesus, that’s the coat she’s wearing?” “Hang on, busdriver! Someone else is running for the bus! Don’t strand them out in the cold!”

Other people feel the same for you, too.

I value that. There’s a reason that people in the Midwest are known for their friendliness. It’s because we’re all in this together, all of us waiters, cops, construction workers, bankers, aldermen, IT people.

During the winter, we’re all equals.

I didn’t do my radio show tonight. I need the keys to the studio, but Chris has them. I suppose that I could have uploaded some sort of show on to the server, but I just could get the effort up. At least I did something useful tonight: one load of laundry. After that, it was being bored at video games, being bored at the television, and being bored at the computer. I could have tried being bored at reading, but that didn’t occur to me until it was too late.

Normally, if I have a night off, I tend to wander the city. Not so tongiht. Currently, the temperature is 0 degrees, but it feels like -10 (thanks, weather.com!). I’m not going anywhere in that.

At some point, I feel like I will find a voice for this blog, and turn it into compelling reading. Tonight isn’t that time. Maybe tomorrow?

Here’s the deal. There’s a band. A full rock band. If you’re lucky, it’s the Hootenaners, led by brother and sister John and Laurie Miller. Guitar(s). Bass. Drums. Maybe even a keyboard if you’re lucky. Laurie plays lead guitar, and she can hold her own on all of those wanky hair metal guitar solos. She was sick as a dog two weeks ago, and still managed to rule.

So you’ve got the band. They’re turned up to 11. It’s loud. You get the mic, on a mic stand, just as if they’re your band. You ge the lyrics on a piece of paper. No TV here.

And then the rock.

LBK has it’s own cult following. Some of these people have nicknames, like Big Mike, who dresses like John Cusack in High Fidelity, is very tall, and excels at punk. There’s a tall, skinny blonde guy with glasses, who sits by himself, doesn’t really ever talk to anyone, but can actually pull off Journey or the Darnkess (and hitting all of those high notes is no mean feat). And there’s that girl that always reminds me of Chrissy Hynde (sp) of the Pretenders, who always brings the house down.

I like to think that I’m not easily ignored myself. I’ve been going to LBK for a few years now, on and off, although I had two blocks of time that I went weekly. Yes, beer was consumed, sometimes in great quantities, but it wasn’t the drinking that was the goal of the outings.

There’s a community of sorts. I have a group of friends that go to Mothers on Thursdays, and you should see how good they are. Youll get a lot of yuppie scum down there, and then Christine would get on stage, and blow them away with her version of Get Your Hands off My Woman. Some douchebag in a backwards white baseball cap would ruin a perfectly good Scorpions song. At that point Emi would get on the stage and bustout with Killing in the Name, and show him what fucking rock and roll is all about.

We’ve even lost friends. The last song I performed at Mothers, back when I used to go there, was Round and Round, by Ratt. I didn’t know the song that well, so Lewis volunteered to come up and sing it with me. I lost my job shortly after that, and wasn’t able to make it back for LBK there, and I found out the he passed away unexpectedly not too long after that. I haven’t been back since. Too many memories.

But I’ve started again at Quenchers. It’s every Thursday night at 10:30, and while I can’t say that I’ll be there every week, I’m going to be there tonight. I’ve got an iTunes playlist of all the songs that I might want to do, and I’m going to go and practice in the shower now. I’m thinking about Maneater by Hall and Oates.

Hope to see you there.