A banana pudding debt

The gig at the Scoot started a little awry, but then managed itself back into a bitchin’ good time.

Here’s what I remember, in no particular order:

• I was late to the sound check. I hate being late.
• The bartenders were surly. Super surly. (me: “Hi, I’m Dave!” bartender: blank stare.) Later, I’m told this is standard ‘bartender meets band’ patter.
• Fuck those guys.
• We went to Gene’s beforehand, with about 30 friends and family, for something like a rehearsal dinner or maybe a bachelor party. I had the fried chicken; Mel had the pork chop. It was all damned awesome. It got late, and we had to leave before we had dessert.
• The universe owes me one serving of Gene’s banana pudding.
• Our across-the-street neighbor, Stefanie was smart enough to stay late and have the banana pudding, which she later described in full detail, one morning, standing in the middle of El Paso St.
• Gene gave us food to take home. Five huge pork chops, all wrapped up.
• Gene is God.
• If Gene isn’t God, he knows God personally, and they talk about food regularly.
• Peter Elliott and the Sellouts opened. Originally, we asked Peter to headline, but he asked to open, “but I’ll do whatever you want, it’s your wedding.” It sounded like a trick, and the band was split on this idea, but we ultimately let him go first.
• About half way through his set, Peter sounded so good I was sure he was trying to permanently demoralize me from playing.
• I enjoyed his set anyway, particularly his slower songs.
• About half-way through the set, Billy Steve walked in, but without his eyebrows. It was great to see him.
• Originally, I bought a great shirt to get married in: all Western and hand-stitched, with a drunk skeleton embroidered on the back. Then Mel had a dress custom-made – a beautiful, fancy, pink dress that makes her look like a glass of champagne. That shirt didn’t cut it for the wedding after that, so I wore it to the gig.
• I was jittery when I was setting up. Then the Choir started playing.
• Damn, the Choir sounds good.
• I opened the set with a longish monologue about how Mel and I were enjoying our last night of living in sin, how we were walking a tightrope between the people who represented right and good for us — our parents; Matt, my Marxist spiritual adviser, and the man who married Mel and I; and Cheryl, our lawyer from Alaska — and the people who represented wine, women, and the fast decision — Peter Elliott, rollergirls, our friends from the better part of half-a-dozen rock bands. “The road to temptation is clearly laid out before us, and the hand of the righteous is looking a little busy.”
• The people who could hear me seemed to enjoy it.
• I should project into the mic more. “Eat the mic, ” Nathan said. “Eat the mic,” Billy Steve wrote.
• Dan played the shit out of “Abel.” It was scary.
• About ten days before the gig, Mel suggested that her brother, TJ, play with us at the Scoot. I had only heard him scratch out “Back in Black” on an acoustic guitar one Christmas, so I was … cautious, yet optimistic about this idea. We played “Fade Away,” a Buddy Holly tune, because a) it’s got the righteous Bo Diddley beat, and b) it’s got two chords and lots of space for jamming.
• TJ killed it. It was easily the best part of the set.
• David Jewell took some amazing pictures of the band, one of which is at the top of this article. I’ve gotta post the others to my Flickr account.
• There was dancing! … I’ve never played to dancing people before, and, it turns out, that’s a whole ‘nother level of fun.
• If you’re picking people to send into a crowd with a tip jar, you could do a lot worse than Belle Starr and Erin. Thank you both!
• After it was over, Cheryl’s boyfriend, Kirk, said to me, “What are you, some kind of super-secret rock star?” It was flattering, and it made me think of Secret Squirrel, but with a guitar.
• It was great to have the bar stocked with friends and family. The clapping, the whooping, the love.

If you’re keeping track, the set list:

• Gospel / Reason to Believe
• Two Lanes
• Abel Had It Coming
• Passenger Side
• Happy Birthday, Mrs. K
• Fade Away
• Box Car
• I Miss Crime
• Gone Greyhound

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