It’ll Just Be For Tonight

The Fifth Annual One Night Stand at Slim’s took place Sunday, January 20th. Here’s the deal for the uninformed, (no, it’s NOT that), Dawn at Slim’s puts out the word, friends call friends and the community comes together. Well, all right, maybe it IS that. But it was for charity, I swear to God.

The basic concept is musicians play with other guys in One Night Bands, so it’s a little like cheating but only for one night. More like temping. There were near thirty local bands represented and you can bet the ones on stage made their band mates promise to show up and in some cases, make a run to the studio and bring the forgotten equipment ("you know, the foot pedal"). Since bands average five members each, (do the math) the pros out-numbered the civilians in the audience. So this night was more like a town hall meeting for the customers of The Guitar Center. Lots of industry buzz. Heard outside on a smoke break, “Drummers are always level-headed. Stupid guitar players and singers are always arguing about concepts.” Prima donnas! Can’t they just hit things with sticks? The evening was set up with thirteen fast sets. Participants got the chance to play the kind of stuff they don’t ordinarily get to play with their regular gigs. Guilty pleasures? Yeah, but think Spinal Tap and after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The cover bands, no, I’m sorry, tribute bands, did three songs each. This was all about love but strictly for laughs and pulled off with precision. Like Bernard Shaw said, comedy is serious business. The material covered was as diverse as a City Council meeting. Charlie Daniels, AC DC, Karen Carpenter and Weezer plus. Some choices were obvious, Who Cares did three Townsend songs and had the taste to pick the early stuff. Oh yeah, there was a little drinking going on and just a little profanity from the stage, but since it was mostly family it was pretty much OK. So, they even got the drunken sot bit down. Adam’s Spoon Collection (name taken from an obscure Simpson’s episode) nailed U2. Eric Davis of Make Me Famous, left his bubble sunglasses on for the rest of the evening and even got a few “Oh, sorry, Bono!” bumping through the crowd. Live the dream.

The evening’s most ambitious production was Devil’s Advocate. Adrian Roberts, lead singer for Blue Period and friends chose a Satanic theme and did three songs for St. Lucifer; Running With, Went Down to Georgia and Sympathy For. This very high energy, over the top gang really got into it with horns, glitter and red body make-up. They even had nasty dancers with tails and bat wings. Vinyl skirts were tugged down and spaghetti straps were hiked up. Adrian left the stage with a ‘thank you’ in a demonic voice right out of The Exorcist. Be careful, sweetie, you could damage your pipes doing that.

Loving the Pixies, Man is Five, featuring another Blue Periodical, keyboardist PF, maybe had it easiest with his Frank Black. The real FB had performed on that same stage the week before and did all three songs represented. Sources say PF was seen at that show taking notes. Maybe that’s why he fired the entire band for the big finish. That monkey did go to Heaven.

Azee/Cheezee did the Dirty Deed Doer’s proud. There was even a group sing along, for Christ’s sake, lead by Teal Collins of The Mothertruckers wearing a vintage AC/DC tee. Those things are worth big money these days. Tres chic.

The ten dollar ticket went to the Twin Towers Orphans Relief. Take that, you Taliban bastards. If you weren’t there, Jesus, you missed it. And for the record, this is what you missed:

1. Bitesize; Casey and Steve
2. Blue Period; Adrian Roberts, PF and Tommy Vaux
3. Brad Brooks; Brian
4. Cellophane Masses, Liam Hart
5. Creature Feature; Dave
6. Creeper Lagoon; Dan Carr
7. De’Briah; De’Briah
8. Enda; Don Aquino and Joey Clark
9. Fetish; Braden Merrick
10. Fojimoto; Jon Fojtik
11. Francis 8; Michael Tornatore
12. Freud Chicken; Matt Narron
13. Ing; Ty Gerhardt
14. JoJo; Alex Cunningham
15. Lawn Vultures; Tommy King
16. Lean; Jason Bridges and Chris Stevens
17. Luster; Jen Daunt and Kate Howser
18. Make Me Famous; Eric L. Davis and Conor Maguire
19. Mothertruckers; Josh Zee and Teal Collins
20. Oranger; Matt Harris and Jim Lindsay
21. Petrol; Graham and Michael Shaw
22. Poisin Jett Gunz; Kimba
23. Rich McCulley Band, Rich McCulley
24. Single; Frasier and Howard Myint
25. Slender; Clint Grugg
26. Spike 1000; M-Fat
27. Tokyo Marine Fire; Bob and Ken Hard
28. Unauthorized Rolling Stones; Franklin Vasquez and Jimmy Craven
29. Venus Bleeding; Jen Slatten

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