In the disco

Fred Armisen gets his due in the NYT. I was lucky enough to see him perform as the opener for Jeff Tweedy at the Great American Music Hall a few years ago -- it's the show documented in I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. We weren't expecting a comic as an opener, but oh wow, did we enjoy Fericito.

I see that he's a fan of Les Savy Fav, who you'd probably remember if you ever saw them play. They had -- have? -- a highly confrontational frontman who jumps around like a lunatic, messes with people in the crowd, and plays with the lighting cans in the club, the microphone stands, or whatever else is available. I was never terribly into their music -- a cousin of math-rock or prog-rock that didn't have much emotional range, as I recall -- but as singer schtick goes, well, I guess you could do worse. High-energy stuff.

One time I saw Les Savy Fav at Fletcher's in Baltimore, opening for someone I actually cared about. I was leaning -- really squatting -- against a post fairly near the stage in the mostly empty club. The singer jumped over the monitors and started getting in people's faces, and eventually decided to play like he was going to choke me against the post with the mic cord. As soon as it got close to my neck, I just grabbed it and held on. He had about four feet of mic cord to play with, and was forced to stand in place and sing for once. I remember him looking back at me as if to say, "Oh man, how long are you going to make me do this? Okay, you got me." I made the poor bastard suffer for a minute or two, and he never got in my face again that night.

[Heads-up: I know you're all itching to comment on this stuff, so I thought I'd let you know that I added a word verification step to the commenting function. I've been getting a lot of random spam comments lately, and I'm just trying to keep that stuff away from here. Sorry for the inconvenience.]


FMFM: Merle Haggard's A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World