Mar 26th 2003 - El Rio - San Francisco, CA

Clevergirl hosts the first "VARIETY PACK!" - a night of fun and frolic with the funnest Bay Area bands and some of the oddest, yet most beloved local (or should we say "LOCO"? ) performers.

This is the most fun I've had on a Wednesday in a while. Who's with me?

We got together with a bunch of friends, to put this night on at a favorite watering hole in SF, and it turned out lovely. A little schedule juggling was the only catch of the evening, but Tait Reed, and the Jean and Mike duet were kind enough to go a little early and keep the crowd intrigued.

The Ricky and Del Connection came all the way from Sac town to kick start the night with their flawlessly tight rocky folky set. They've been doing this gig stuff for a while, and you can tell when you're in the midst of pros. Damn.

Tait Reed...jumping in to save the night from a serious stall when the Train Wreck Riders were missing a man. Tait's "Noise Clinic" shifted everyone out of their comfort zone, and introduced early on, the idea that this was to be your not-so-average evening of entertainment. His voice, like a desperate cry for solutions, lay on top of tourtured, yet undeniably catchy riffs, as he floated from pedal tweeking, to guitar mangling, to his piece de resistance: the punk rock ukelele.

We threw Jean Spinosa (from Thunderbird Theater and SoundSafe) and Mike Hoopty on next. But they were poised and composed and quite lint-free. These two are part of Surprise Party - a four-piece performance art band that Rosie and Karen from Clevergirl are also in. But this time the duo went it alone, and showed the world that they just might be the wit behind that whole odd mess anyway. They began with a stunning John Cage-ish violin duet. Then, after a good long pause of staring at the audience in silence, as we stared back at them in silence, they cracked out the baby rattle mobiles. Like songbirds, they shook and rattled their way into our hearts. And just as we thought we couldn't take any more entertainment, out come the toy guitars and pianos! Syncopated polyrhythms and complex algorithmic chordal structures so involved that while the average non-classically trained dolt lost the beat, Mike could be seen mouthing the 1,2,3,4 for us all to follow along. Incredible really.

And speaking of counting...how 'bout those sheep??!!

Reuben Maness and his 5 sheep sure got things riled up. Who knew sheep got into so much trouble? Gun-waving, glue-sniffing, blind, dead sheep. Jeez Mr. Stinky what are you on? Well, whatever it is, keep taking it. Your 3 minute counting song put Sesame Street and Teletubbies to shame. SHAME I say!!

Well if that didn't get the audience's attention...

It's like those crazy sheep had built Clevergirl their very own landing strip, and had the Richard Nixon inagural marching band waiting for our arrival.

We took the stage when the place was full.

It was great.

The sound system was not really living up to it's potential that night. So things were really hard to hear from the stage, and the vocals were low in the house. But caveats aside, we played it like we meant it, and fed off the great many people who had joined us for the evening.

Now, if you haven't seen the Full Moon Partisans play....you really need to. Grab your beer stein, put on your waltzing shoes, and prepare to learn the words and sing along. Even if you don't know what the hell language he's speaking. Seriously, these guys get people DANCING in that German Haufbrau House way. There are no tuba players. No accordians. Just good ol' guitar, bass and drums - lots of drums. Sergey's low lazy vocals pair up with Lauren's beautifully. She bangs away at bottles, pipes and djembe, while the bass and drums give you nothing but non-stop groove. Love it, love it, love it!!

And closing the evening was the Train Wreck Riders. They located their missing man, and took the stage in the afterglow of the Full Moon Ps. Taking that drunken waltzing down south a piecefor a li'l bit o trucker punk. The folks who like the Partisans, stay for the Riders. A loyal base of dancers and singers-along (who has the lyric sheets for these bands, and where's MY copy?) crowded the stage, so that short folks like me couldn't see so well. But you don't need to see when you're jumping up and down and trying not to spill your beer.

So we always have a ton of help and support when we do shows, and this one especially was chock full of folks who did us great favors. A huge thanks to: Ricky and Del for making the trip. Tait and Jean and Mike for going on early. Reuben and the sheep for getting the schedule back on track, Full Moon Partisans for getting everyone cranked, Train Wreck Riders for letting us shift them around, Matisse for taking so many freekin' photos, it took me two nights to sort through them, Greg for surprising us with his presence and his beautiful photography, The El Rio for giving us the night, and for all of you who joined us....Especially my parents all the way from Chicago!!

We'll be doing this again. So look out for the next "VARIETY PACK!"

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