Life has just settled down to the point where I can sit for a bit and contemplate it, but let me just say thanks, John & Tovah Olson: AMERICAN TAPES 900 (this last Saturday, March 23) was FULLY, TOTALLY to die for. I was a little worried that a combo of sobriety/exhaustion/gnar overkill would do me in early in the day (and granted, I did bail early-ish), but all in all, it was a beautiful day.

Rundown of my high points (any jammers not repped, take heart; I didn’t see a bad set):

• ORPHANAGE RATS. Young bucks (not to be confused w/newcomers) Sam Hooker and Knox Mitchell ripped in a neanderthal style that set new gnar standards, and they actually played multiple “songs”, to boot. Even Olson, who I’ve seen play a piece of amplified sheet metal strapped to his chest in a fashion that would suggest he’d been on opium for a week while playing a recorder or something with his other hand, was in awe of their gunkiness. Tapes beyond mangled+glue-lipped sax blurt (well, squeal)=one of my new favorite bands of the year.
• TARA & TOVAH DUO SET. Tara Connelly (The Haunting) and Tovah Olson (Dead Machines, Jasons, etc) in super-organic mode… super-simple setup, abeit one I couldn’t totally decode. Mic+ball+rusty coffee can+whatever, it don’t matter, it ruled. They coulda done it for hours, but that would’ve been rude (yet still welcome).
• NACE/NYOUKIS/OLSON. Now THAT there is a drooler for any fan of AM spew, amirite? Shit, I’m still salivating like Pavlov’s fucking dogs. Bill Nace on prepared guitar, John Olson on reeds, Dylan Nyoukis on voice. Dylan’s daughter Elkka ran from the room with ears plugged… you’d think she’d be used to it by now. I recorded 30 seconds of this set on my phone, and it’s the best ringtone I’ve ever had.
• GHOULS. Strange Brew Michelle and Dour (Exhumed Corpse) together sound like a mashup of their two solo gigs, but I ain’t complainin’. Dunno if I buy the conceit of them being a “goth” band, but them drones are (almost) as dark as Dour’s wardrobe, so maybe.
• ELKKA NYOUKIS. StrangeBrewHour and I were trying to play a game with homegirl, but she kept trying to turn the two of us against each other and changing the rules of play as she went along, thus making hers the most inscrutable impromptu performance of the whole gig. By which I mean: what an adorable little girl.
• COLD TURKEY “LAST GIG”. I dunno if AC’s just dropping the moniker or what… I’d worry that he was dying, but I’m pretty sure dude’s immortal, so hakuna matata. Anyway, killer set; he kept cuttin’ it short, but everyone wanted more. Dour called it “Weird Chaos Jazz”, which everyone in earshot thought was gangbusters (it was).
• DILLOWAY. Aaaaah, no big surprise. Sounded good outside in the dark, though.
• SEX POLICE. Never gone through such a variety of emotions during a Stooges cover; usually my default reaction is “oh, C’MON…”, but I couldn’t possibly sustain that ‘tude for a super-extended bass/vocal version of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” that turned into a zone-out meditation more in line with “We Will Fall”. Wait, what?

Low point: not seeing Blood Stereo. I mean, I coulda got a different ride outta Detroit (thanks, Thom Elliott!!!), I guess, but I had only slept like 3 hours or less the night prior, so an early ride home was hard to turn down. Kinda like the 4 xl-6xl(!) camo thermal t-shirts I bought at the party store. Good gig.