HELLO CLEVELAND HEIGHTS!

Wow.

What a blast I had in Cleveland Sunday night at the Pansy Division show. I needed until today to recover sufficiently to write this post. Where to begin? What can I tell you? More importantly, what CAN'T I tell you? ;)

Unlike Detroit last October, Paulie and I made sure we arrived at the Grog Shop early so as not to miss anything. And with three other bands opening for them (Three?!) there was plenty of time to spare. From the moment PD got there, we were privileged to spend mucho quality time with them.

After playing roadie and helping them carry their equipment inside, we got to tag along with Patrick, Jon and Luis as they went down the street for sandwiches. (Apparently Chris wasn't hungry.) I kicked myself for not having a tape recorder handy, but nonetheless I gently went into interview mode for the purpose of this here post.

One mystery was cleared up for me when I asked Jon about the song "Blurry Down Below" from the new album. Was it about STDs? Leprosy? Nukes? He explained that it was actually a sort of a sci-fi scenario, about waking up and finding your genitals blurred out much like televised nudity. Think Kafka meets Jackass, I guess.

Another revealing bit of info came as they passed around a write-up on the band in a local paper. The article made mention of Jon's "penis-shaped guitar", to which Jon responded (and I have to paraphrase) "What penis-shaped guitar? I don't have a guitar shaped like a penis. My penis IS shaped like a guitar, though."

Later, back at the Grog Shop, as the other acts played, a guy in the crowd came up to me and handed me a tiny light bulb and said "The tall blond guy [Chris] in your band was looking for a bulb, one of the other bands found it. You're in the band, right?" I told him no, but that I'm friends with them, so I'd see that he got it back. Little did I know how prophetic his question would prove.

Now, during the encore at the Detroit show, several of us requested the song "Flower". For those of you who haven't heard it, the song includes a run-on lyric that goes for about a minute and a half. On the record Jon obviously recorded it in sections which were then edited together. But he was unable to sing it live, so instead they played the song off the CD and lip-synched it as a joke. But since then, after a bit of practice I figured out how to breathe sufficiently to be able to sing it. I told Jon earlier in the evening that if they wanted me to, I could come up on stage and sing it. Jon said "We'll see," and I didn't really expect it to happen.

They played a 16-song set and came back for 2 songs as an encore. Next thing I know Jon tells the crowd "We have a friend here who says he can sing this one..." and before you can say "Star Search" I am on stage performing with Pansy Division!

I half-jokingly asked Jon earlier if they could slow it down for me if we do it. Big mistake. Normally I take 1 breath per line, but they slowed it down to the point where I had to take 2 breaths per line. I muddled through though, AND I stayed in key, something I've been conscious of since Paulie once told me I was off-key on it. I actually ran out of breath on the last two or three words of the very last line, but the crowd didn't seem to care. They went nuts, the band was pleasantly shocked and awed that I made it through, and Paulie was never more proud of me. He got pics of it too which I will scan and post online as soon as I possibly can.

So that was a dream fulfilled for me. Another one was sort of fulfilled as well, but discretion forbids me from writing about it here. Sorry, folks, you'll just have to use your imaginations. ;)

Anyway sorry for the delay of this recap but I'm still coming down off the high. Not to mention my voice is still recovering. But that's really from singing along and shouting throughout the show, not from singing "Flower". So I would imagine once my voice is back at 100% I'll be hitting the local karaoke scene. I really felt in my element up there on stage. Perhaps if PD ever needs a new vocalist...

P.S. One thing's for sure, PD needs a new lead guitarist. Patrick dropped the bombshell on us that this was his final tour with PD (his last show with them is tonight in fact) to concentrate on his own band, Dirty Power. I've added a link to the DP page at right. They've got a video premiering on MTV soon and it will also be viewable on their site soon. Check them out, they fuckin' kick some serious ass!