My second full gig with The Mad Laugh was last Friday, 9/24/04, at a place called Club Babylon at 32nd & Classen in Oklahoma City. We had a great time and sounded very good. Pushed the envelope a little bit by branching off into a couple of extended jams, but everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Club Babylon is in a building that was once an Episcopalian church, and in the early 80's the same location was called The Bowery. A lot of up-and-coming "underground"/"alternative" bands of that time played shows at the Bowery. I'll never forget calling them one night back in 1984 to confirm a rumour I'd heard that REM was playing there the next week. Back then I was a HUGE REM fan, so it broke my heart when the guy on the other end of the line told me that the REM show was LAST WEEK. That was the first time REM came through Oklahoma, in support of their sophomore album Reckoning. I have no doubt it was a classic show, and afterwards I resolved to make The Bowery my club of choice, but it closed down before I could patronize them.

So basically I was on the same stage last Friday night that Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe performed on 20 years before. I thought that was pretty cool.

We were the headlining band, supported by a quartet whose name I never really caught (someone told me they were called Helen Celtic) and Ghosts of the Monkshood.

This first band was, in my opinion, quite a disappointment (though I have to say that many in the audience seemed to enjoy their sound). They were doing this cacophonious hybrid of fusion jazz and PiL. They had no vocalist, and the lead instrument was a trombone. Very intriguing concept, I admit, but the problem was that none of these guys seemed talented enough on his instrument to pull something like this off. Their noodlings never really gelled, and when they kicked out a cover of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" they lost me. It had already dawned on me that these guys were into fusion, but their other songs benefitted from being their own (ie unrecognizable to anyone but themselves and people who have heard them), so when they busted out "Chameleon" they showed just how inept they were. Sloppy and rushed, with little regard to the original version's structure, the trombone player tended to bust out the various melodies haphazardly, at his own discretion to bookend a series of amateurish improv solos. Oh well...I doubt any of the people who were grooving to it had ever heard Hancock's original. Maybe they'll improve, and I have to give them credit for getting out in front of people and uncompromisingly doing your own thing, even though it's like nothing anyone has ever heard before.

Ghosts of the Monkshood are doing their own thing, as well, but the difference is that the Ghosts' thing is just SO much more interesting and enjoyable. THeir performance had a few rough spots compared to the last time I saw them at the Green Door, but for the most part they were jaw-droppingly awesome. These guys looked like "the next big thing" during a couple of the songs. A seriously hard act to follow...They've got one song that reminds me a lot of Jeff Buckley in the vocalist's histrionic upper-register caterwauling. Other songs that put me in mind of Pink Floyd and that Feelies feel is still intact, what with the side man pounding on his snare & cymbal kit. By the way, if you've kept up with this blog for a while you might remember me venting my anger at this very same sideman, who I felt had been rude and condescending when I offered him a compliment at the Green Door show. Friday night I had another opportunity to speak with him in the dressing room, and he was considerably more social. He turned out to be a pretty cool guy, though I still think he's a little strange. Nothing wrong with that...in fact, his demeanour is one of the Ghosts' strong points, along with the strong vocal harmonies, the intriguing arrangements and the guitarist/vocalists unique fashion sense (I wish my digital camera wasn't on the fritz, as I'd love to have snapped a picture of these guys and you'd see what a dresser he was)...

Don't really have much to say about our performance, other than I think we warranted our head-lining status. It was great fun and we were called back for an encore. Lots of compliments. Many people said the band sounded tight, and that's very encouraging in light of how few times I have been able to rehearse with them.

We did the song I wrote last week, and it seemed to go over pretty well. I'm not so sure I should be the one singing it, though, but Jason hasn't learned the lyrics yet, so I guess I'll have to do it until he does.

Next show is this coming Saturday, 10/9/04, at Hooters, NW Expressway in OKC. I think we're playing with 20 Seconds To Vegas that night, so it should be a DOOZY!!!