Sept 3rd 2003 - El Rio - San Francisco, CA

"VARIETY PACK!" #7

It's a little tough to have a cool night going with lots of friend, in a really cool bar, and not be able to play. But Clevergirl is on hiatus until VP #8 while we get Amie, our new keyboardist, up to speed. Meanwhile, we just get to hang out and watch the show with a little less pressure than usual. And that's...ok.

It wasn't a vacation for all of us, however. Rosie played this one with our friend Renee and the band of cronies she put together and named RYP. Soulful, rock? That sounds stupid, but maybe we'll ask her how she likes to describe it. It's not stupid. And Renee leads it all with her amazing voice. She's one of the lead singers of Stymie and the Pimp Jonz Luv Orchestra, so you know what we're saying when we say she can SING!! We ain't lying.

After RYP, we had our good friends Two Gallants play. They've been on a big long US tour for two months, and now they're back, and everyone who's been jonesin' for their garagy twang fix was satiated. Thank GOD you're back Tyson and Adam. It's been too long!! The new tune was beautiful. Karen teared up briefly. And that's not good for her cool-factor. So don't be singin' those sad songs around her too much. She needs to maintain. Ya know what we're sayin' g's?

But really, it was great to have you play, and great to hang out again.

Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that in between bands, we had Reuben Maness show his latest Mr.Stinky episode on the back wall in two installments. Mr.Stinky has played several VPs before. Sometimes he gets his 13 brothers and sisters on stage and dresses them up as sheep as he sings songs. Sometimes he shows us movies. But he's always a treat. And one often finds him or herself laughing at "banana-muffin-muffin-banana". Check out his cable access show. It's on at 10:30 pm, but we forgot which day of the week. Look it up on google.

Bringing up the rear, was the local trio called Tartufi. Sometimes we're so in the know, and other times great bands seem to blossom and flower under our own noses, and we don't even notice. Luckily there is a guy named Hernan that secretly connects the SF music scene together with his magic web. He's the sound guy at El Rio and always does a fantastic job of making all the bands for VP sound great. But he's very quiet and unassuming, but always makes a point of introducing people at these shows that may be able to collaborate musically or otherwise. It's very cool.

Why do we bring this up? Well he is the reason Tartufi played this Variety Pack. He recommended them highly at the last one, where he introduced us to Lynn, the guitarist, for the first time. We've learned that his judgement is pretty dead on, and so we booked them sight-unseen. Sure enough, what a great band! Simone and Lynne leading it up front with guitar, bass and doubled up vocals. They just got Gavin, their new drummer on, and it was a great mix. Garagy, poppy, dancy and free. They really enjoy themselves on stage, get crazy with the distortion and engage the crowd. Oh, yeah, we're not the only ones who like them. They had a crowd. A really sweet crowd actually. Supportive and all that. It was cool. Glad to meet ya, Tartufi. I'm sure we'll meet again soon.

Thanks as always, to Hernan and El Rio for making our VPs a blast.

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