I'm Heavy Duty!

Two years ago to the day I posted Les Rita Mitsouko‘s The No Comprendo. A record that is pure French-weirdo-pop genius. I love this song “Marcia Baila” and tragically it’s not on Comprendo, the only album of theirs that I have. I thought I should share it with you.

Keep up with Les Rita Mitsouko at their site.

All together under one (small) roof at the Orange Peel in Asheville…

"One Two (tickets) Oh My God!" We got in to see the Beastie Boys.

How ridiculously lucky can you get? This show was at a club that only holds a little over 900 people. It was announced only a day before tickets went on sale, and week before the show. I started loading the ticket page on a couple different computers right before 4 PM, along with a lot of other people. For the most part the site would not load at all after 4. Then, when it did I would get an error when I tried to buy tickets. About 10 minutes later it started saying “SOLD OUT.” I could not believe it. Took a minute to complain/tweet about it. Then, went back at it. Finally, I got through! And it was NOT sold out. Yes!

I wanted to go pretty bad, and my son Mars even more so. Mary said he got so nervous when I was trying to score tickets he couldn’t watch. He went to play his drums for a bit. That didn’t help my concentration.

I got the tickets. You want a shirt, bring money.

We got there over an hour in advance, and the line was already long. The cool thing is it appears the promoters and club did everything they could to keep it fair, and minimize ticket scalping. You could only buy two. Everybody’s tickets were “will call,” even if you got the few they had at the box office. You had to bring the card you used for the purchase and another picture ID. Once you got your tickets you had to go straight into the club. Despite all that I heard people in line with an extra ticket were getting offered crazy money.

I had no idea Biz Markie was going to be there. He DJ’d for about 20 minutes and it was awesome! He totally owned the crowd. His set went through a ton of old school hip hop from the ’80s and ’90s. And somewhat to my surprise the crowd was extra hip hop literate. The Biz kept fading the mix to let the crowd a capella through lines of Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J, even some Bob Marley, and bunch of other stuff I can’t remember. Massively entertaining. “If you remember that one, I know you’ll remember this…”

Of course, he couldn’t finish without giving us a little from “Just a Friend.” Make SURE to watch this video again.

When the Beastie Boys finally came out it was to Biz Markie doing “The Biz vs. The Nuge” (Check Your Head). Perfect.

And I couldn’t believe they had Money Mark with them. Money Mark’s records get played as much as anything in my collection. He’s been a hero of mine for years. Later in the set Mike D asked Mark to come out from behind the keyboards to play “Mark on the Bus.” Brilliant. (Clip from a different show.)

And what about the Beastie Boys? Well, I don’t how it could have been any better. They were fun, funny and funky. They played everything from their earliest punk stuff to a couple brand new songs with something from just about every record, save for License to Ill. I loved every bit of it, but I was especially glad they did a bunch of their instrumentals like “Pow” and “Ricky’s Theme.”

Mix Master Mike put on an impressive show and really turned it out with a scratching solo to open the encore. They finished strong with “Sabotage” and it was time to go home.

A couple other highlights include AdRock giving the crowd dance lessons for the “Jerry Lewis” and the “Funky Penguin.” He’s got skills. And I’ll never forget Biz Markie joining the band to sing Elton John’s “Benny and the Jets.” The Biz took his shirt off and every person in the house pulled out their camera phone to capture the big man going natural.

But wait! There’s more. Thank you Flip owners.

“Sure Shot”

This one is for my beautiful wife Mary who loves musicals, especially the Sound of Music.

What a lay-off. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without posting. But The Ramones got me going again. I finally saw The Story of The Ramones the other day. To my surprise, by the time it was over I had more respect for the band and the music. I wasn’t aware of Joey’s legitimate OCD issues. Knowing that makes a lot of the lyrics that I once thought goofy seem rather poignant now.

I’ve seen The Ramones no less than ten times. Too bad the year in the dates on both of these tickets got torn off. But as some rock star in the movie said, I can’t recall who, you would walk into their shows and you would have to ask yourself what year it was. Year after year everything was essentially the same. But we kept going because that meant a good show was guaranteed.

I’ll post some records next.

Check out the movie: The Story of The Ramones at Wikipedia

“Groovie Movie” is the most life-affirming nine minutes of video I have ever seen. This is a short flim that takes hilarious look at the hot dance of the time, the Jitterbug. I had the benefit of seeing it on TCM in higher resolution. It’s harder to see the humorous facial expressions in this YouTube clip, but most the vibe comes through. It really gets going after the five minute mark, but watch the whole thing. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

My favorite dancer is the brunette because of her willingness to be completely silly. Check out those funny faces she makes and those wacky-jerky moves she throws in there. And that jumper dress she’s wearing is the business! Please ladies, consider running that look today.  Other highlights the below-the-glass-floor footage so you can see those flying feet, and the frequent use of one of my favorite jive terms, “solid.”

“Solid, Papa!”