April 8, 2004 - The Lizard Lounge - Cambridge, MA - with: Bishop Allen, Senor Happy - The Boston Pop Underground
Henning Says: "Are you ready to pop?!?" I asked the crowd at the Lizard Lounge last night. We were opening the show for the second installment of the Boston Pop Underground. It was nice. The drive into Boston wasn't too great, though. It was ok, just not great. It was Brian, Tony, Lesa, and me in Brian's car. I was driving. Max and Anya went seperately from the band, like they do. Everything was going well, Brian had his Rio MP3 player (man, he loves that thing) and we were listening to a shuffling of the over 2500 songs that he has filled it with. Kinks, Dylan, Lo Fine, Robyn Hitchcock, Morrisey, The Figments, The Beach Boys, Mike Flood, Suzanne Vega, Velvet Underground, Humbert, Fountains of Wayne etc. When we came up to the Boston toll booth there was a pretty good sized traffic jam, turns out a limo had an accident (I hope Elton is ok). Traffic jam, yeah. The real pressure-maker for me, though, was that the Low Fuel light was glowing and I couldn't lose the image of us running out of gas in the middle of a traffic jam on that stretch of Mass Pike with no break down lane. It didn't happen. We were fine and we pulled into the Lizard Lounge parking lot at exactly 8:15. Then I went and parked the car a mile down the road. Inside the basement club, the little lights were glowing. Max was already there. Chris from the Space was there, which was nice, and so were my brothers. When I told them I was surprised to see them, Alvin repied, "Have we ever not come?". He had a point. Bishop Allen was kind enough to share their drums and bass amp for the evening, so we helped them bring in their stuff and then we set up on stage, or more accurately - the rug. When we started playing at 9:30 there weren't quite as many people there as I was hoping for, but it was still a very nice crowd. We played a pretty energetic set. I don't know what it is about Boston but something in the air just makes you play harder than usual. It was good, though. From where I was, everything sounded great. Tony especially stood out. Maybe I could just hear him more than usual but he played some great guitar parts and his harmonies were right on. We ended with the spaz out version of Omnivore and Brian was a fury of arms and sticks, Max was pressed up against the bass amp, smacking at the bass which was somehow up and behind his head. Bishop Allen took the stage after us and played a set of bouncy music. They were good. Brian turned to me and rhetorically joked, "Who said blonde female bassists are out of style?". In my head, I thought, "Winston Churchill?" We sat off to the side and Brian and Tony ate hamburgers - I horked a bunch of fries off Tony's plate until he just gave up and gave me the whole rest of 'em. My brother, Norbert, was explaining to me his new concept for how bands should release their music. It was kind of confusing. I thought I understood, but then when I tried to explain it to Brian on the way home, I realized that I didn't. It had something to do with an ever changing album and I think there was grapefruit involved, or a Tonka truck or something. I can't really remember. At the end of the night, after Senor Happy played their set, Andrea Kremer (who put the whole show together and has been really kind and supportive in general) gave me a Boston Pop Underground T-Shirt. I gave her a Fawns CD. It was like Christmas. There was even cake. A big Christmas cake. You know, like you have at Christmas. Cake. The ride home was pretty quick. The late night Mass Pike is like a deserted runway sometimes. I feel like I'm flying! Brian and I sat up front and I kept him awake all the way home talking about this whole deal of being in a band - about how easy it is to forget that some people are still into music and bands and not everyone is as buned-out and cynical as we sometimes get. I imagine that Tony might be crying right now since he was the only one of us who had to get up early early for work today. Sorry, Tony. Just remember, last night you were on fire. For some reason that phrase is cracking me up. Brian says: Was there a sandstorm last night? Or street cleaning? What I'm getting at is, outside my window, all 3 cars in my driveway are covered with a fine brown dust. When's it gonna rain again? Last night's Boston Pop Underground fest was a pretty good time. I always enjoy the Lizard Lounge. With the band discount, my burger and beer came to a magical $5.91 Yes, that's a magical FNO. And it was good, as a picture may or may not show. You know what else was good? Bishop Allen. They have their thing down and are very nice people. I predict a monsterous hit on a movie soundtrack or a FOX tv show. My Rio supplied the soundtrack to and from and we heard many groovy things (in the car it was Tony, El Bizeez, Ning and me). On the way home, Ning and I spoke about the state of our generation of Noho music--the class of '98 (give or take) and how we're all faring and what's next. Max says: I get the impression the band thinks I'm above them for always riding separately to gigs with my wife. And they are right. So A and I hopped in the car after a long day at work, which followed a long week at work, which preceded a late night, the drive home, another long day at work and another long drive to a gig in a faraway city (tonight in NYC with SFH). So Tony wasn't the only one crying this morning. We also hit the limo-inspired traffic jam just outside the city limits last night. My Boston-expatriate wife kicked herself for not taking 95. I was sleepy and played with the radio. We found a Cure song on WFNX and thought for a moment that the station was good again. But, of course, it isn't. After twenty minutes of driving up and down Mass Ave, we pulled in behind the Lizard Lounge and found easy parking. Upstairs we joined friends for dinner and I took frequent trips downstairs to see if anyone had shown up. Then, suddenly, the rest of the band + Lisa were there. Lisa gave me a new Fawns' button, which rocks. After a little milling around and hoping more people would show up, more people showed up. Then we were on, looking at ourselves in the mirror that faces the Lizard Lounge stage. It all sounded good to my ears, except the first song which was plagued by feedback. And we looked pretty good in the mirror. Journal Of Lies finally sounded like a real song last night, rather than a string of funny notes pretending to be a song. It's still not high on my list of Henning songs, but I'm warming to it. Omnivore was fun, as always. I enjoyed watching Brian do his thing, a studied, thoughtful Keith Moon with better hair. Then it was quick goodbyes, a scan of the green room to make sure I had everything, and away we flew down 90 (you're right, Henning, it's like flying at that time of night). Home at 12:30, up at 6:30, off to NYC at 5:30... What am I, in a rock band or something?