art of the jam 55

art o' the jam qualifies for aarp membership (metaphorically speaking) with maybe the best night o' toonage we've seen at the li'l wreck room in better 'n a yr of wednesday nights. and that covers a whole lotta law.

it was velvet jive bassist rob marruffo's berfday celebration, so his pal jam-meister lee allen wanted to kick thangs off at 8pm -- unheard of in muso-time, but y'know. rather than a "jam" per se, the night was shaping up as a mammoth extravaganza with a card that included impulse of will (the wednesday night jamcats, to you), velvet jive, the kynd buds (lee 'n' rob's college band with lee's li'l bro lance -- who was driving in from faraway canyon, tx, for the occasion -- on gtr), blues gtrist-singer texas slim (a.k.a. robin), and stoogeaphilia playing another "stooges at midnight" set.

i got off work around 6:30, rolled in the house around 7 and was out the door 10 minutes later with wizard o' sound andre edmonson in tow. in place of my usual roland cube 60 "amplet," i was carrying matt hembree's peavey classic 50 -- a more suitable rig for stoogerama. while the roland's surprisingly dark 'n' warm and plenty adequate for the wreck stage with andre manning the board, stoogeaphilia calls for a li'l more power 'n' volume, and the peavey surprisingly provides it -- a crunchy li'l amp with a lot more balls 'n' mids than i'd expect.

while andre did some tweaking with the stage lighting, i shot the shit with happy hour bartender michael contreras and black dog tavern impresario tad gaither (in whose room stoogeaphilia now has a regular monthly gig which hembree has dubbed "i wanna be your [black] dog thursdays"), and contemplated taking a nap. after timely pause, the musos began rolling in: berfday boy rob, along with his velvet jive bandmates jimmy (drums) and casey (gtr) and texas slim (who could pass for jimmy's twin, altho they're unrelated), the jam-meister and his bro.

the stage looked like gtr center with its array of amplifiers: besides my borrowed peavey and lee's monolithic bass rig, there was his brother's line 6 amp and pedalboard, casey's red knob fender and vox board (plus a coupla extra analog stompboxes), and rob's ampeg. it was also a _night of stratocasters_: besides lance allen's les paul and texas slim's flying v, there were _four_ of leo fender's toilet seats onstage during the course of the night, between my indonesian squier, casey's, villain vanguard axe-slinger bryce harp's, and ph7 / stoogeaphilia git-fiddler steffin "razor" ratliff's.

things started out with a little sound check improv action, with the velvet jive cats, the jam-meister, his bro and me, leading into jam standard "manic depression." sounded 'n' felt good. then lee played a set with jimmy, casey, and texas slim that included "sunshine of your love" and a coupla freddie king toons showcasing robin / slim. with rob taking over on bass 'n' voxxx, velvet jive played a set that featured their usual complement of zappa covers (i got to sit in on "magic fingers," and only regret that they didn't get to play "village of the sun," which casey told me they'd just broken in). dig those three-part harmonies. i was also onstage for the jamcats' "theme" (that'd be funkadelic's "standing on the verge"), with jam godfather / gideons frontman carl pack providing backing voxxx before he sang lead on his usual feature, "come together."

after winding up their now-regular wednesday stint at fred's, drummer josh clark and the aforementioned gtrist bryce harp fell by to blow off some steam. josh played a groovy drum 'n' bass duet with the jam-meister and got some sparks flying on a full-band feature with bryce on gtr, the details of which are hazy in my already-shakey memory because by this time, the other stoogeaphiliacs had begun to arrive and i'd had a coupla shots. then the kynd buds, an aggro whose original incarnation boasted two gtrs _and_ two basses but no singer. this particular night, it boiled down to the velvet jive riddim boyzzz with lee 'n' his bro on gtrs, and _three_ singers. they played aggressively, but with precision, on material that included fishbone's "servitude." me-thinks / stoogeaphilia frontguy ray liberio joined 'em for a moment to sing black sabbath's "fairies wear boots."

as the kynd buds vacated the stage, stoogeaphilia took it over and immediately inundated the wreck in waves of feedback, which persisted even as dre was soundchecking jon teague's drums and ray's voxxx. i hadn't had time to make out a setlist, so jon, ray 'n' i did so on the fly at the bar. steffin's obviously feeling more comfortable with the material (next time out, he's gonna take on the role of the saxophone on "funhouse," 'cos he doesn't think it sounds crazy enough right now) and fills out the sound nicely with little ornamental flourishes, washes of feedback, and in-yr-face solos. matt had his shirt off almost from the git-go, and was doing all these crazy hendrix-style moves with his bass. (he's gonna try combining his minidisc recording of the set with dre's board mix to come up with a "total stooge experience.") teague has become my fave drummer to play with.

after the first coupla songs, my eyes were stinging with running sweat, but it didn't matter. this is the only band i've ever been in where i get endorphin-high at _practice_. on a gig, an out-of-body experience is almost a guarantee. my favorite moment came during "tv eye" (which wasn't on the list but just seemed like _the right thing to do_), when ray walked to the bar to get a beer, leaving the band hammering away in A. by the end of the song, jon's snare head was trashed and matt was snapping bass strings with his fingers. i love this shit -- reminds me of why i started playing music (besides trying to get girls and having an excuse to get out of my parents' house to party).

afterward, regular jam supporters paul 'n' nicole told me they were surprised when they arrived and couldn't find a place to sit. i went home spent 'n' blissed. all 'n all, a great night. i told lee that marruffo needs to have another berfday again soon.