Stompin'

photo courtesy of Old97s.com

The Old97's took the stage of the mainroom at First Avenue last night like they were stomped out of a packet of ketchup. A few months back, the Bottle Rockets opened for Lucinda Williams on the main stage and were very tight. It was like they were sober and worried about making mistakes. In contrast, the 97's bass player, Murry, told the crowd that they ciphered it was the first time the band had played outside of Texas in 2 1/2 years. There was such eagerness and energy in the set, with bobbing heads and tapping feet in the crowd, that it more than smoothed over some of the rough harmonies and broken guitars. Overall, the set was very tight and professional, and the balls out attitude made the kinks more like salt and pepper on a good dinner, rather than bad medicine before bed. It's good to get a contender for best gig of the year so early in 2004.

And, if you're in another town down their road, go get your tickets now. The Rhett Miller Show got exactly 2 (two) songs at the beginning of the encores, the rest was pure Austin, Texas, hillbilly punktry. They even threw in 3 (three) new songs that could be on their next album, slated to be released by New West Records, all real burners, with wild west guitars and girls getting left at the bar and/or murdered. New West is going to make a dumbass out of yet another big label on this one, just like they did with the Drive By Truckers.

P.S.--in case you haven't lavished love upon me and/or caustically criticized me in a while, I finally got off my lazy butt and fixed the Guest Book on the radio show's web site. Fire at will.