DMZ Reunion

You're Gonna Miss Me

This is the second show I've been to recently at Church. The first being the 30th anniversary of my beloved Axe. I was a lot more comfortable going out this time, it'd been only a couple of months instead of six years. I parked in the lot behind the bar. There was not another human in sight. Or so it seemed. As I turned from the car I saw a long hulking shadow begin to emerge from between the cars in the darkest part of the lot sporting the business end of a burning cigarette, glowing in the night. Oh Christ!!! It was Rico. Lurking and lurching around in the blackness, smoking a butt. "Jesus, I was trying to be fashionably late and you show up even later. Bastard!" We went in. Or rather, I went in. He ran into the Psycho bassist on the sidewalk and stopped to finish his cigarette and chat. No, not A psycho bassist, THE Psycho bassist. A couple of puffs later, the bass player from Hixx showed up. I was sensing a pattern here. Pattern? Get it? It's a bass joke. Look it up. The first people I saw once I was past the door were Blowfish and Miss Lynn, they were digging the sounds and it was nice to catch up with them again. I've decided if I go anywhere now and Blowfish and Miss Lynn aren't there, I'm not staying. They are that reliable a barometer. As a matter of fact, they should cut out the middle man and run their own club.

I'd left the yammering on the sidewalk for the hammering in Church. The New Frustrations were already playing. I really like them. They sound so clean and garage-y at the same time with a boatload of pop sensibility thrown in for good measure. Real catchy stuff. Later on, Tim showed me a piece that had broken off the top of his guitar, but I missed how that happend. Daang! Geezer found me in the crowd and introduced himself and he was with Jaded Jase. We all have a lot of fun wisecracking and messing around on MySpace. Check out their sites to hear the music they make. The one problem with these nights out is that there is never enough time to catch up with everyone. After making a sloppy lopsided round of the place, I finally set up camp with Frank Dehler and his lovely wife, The Bride of Frank. I love Frank, he is an inspiration. Looking back, I realize that watching Frank play with the Axe was the beginning of my love for the bass. And how can you not love someone who tells you that seeing you talking to Marsman across the room brought to mind a line from a Wallace Stevens poem, "She sang beyond the genius of the sea." It was shaping up to be a good night, so I settled onto a stool and chatted with the Dehlers and waited for DMZ to play.


photo Carol Kowalski

God forbid that things should ever go too smoothly though. I made the strategic mistake of sitting at the end of the rail that stands between the bar and the soundboard. Naturally, some drunkass guy wearing big studded belts set himself up against the post and he was talking with his buddy who must have been hard of hearing because drunkman was screaming his end of the conversation at the top of his lungs. So, he's already talking loud and then he started to accompany himself with enthusiastic and sweeping hand gestures resulting in him spilling his drink on me a little. Repeatedly. When he leaned back against the post that was sort of connecting us, his big-ass studded belt was poking me in my big ass and he kept backing into me and rubbing up against me. It was totally by accident, he was just really into his conversation with his buddy and oblivious to all else, but it was last annoyance I could tolerate at his hands so I moved over to the banquette and watched some guy taping the show on reel to reel. That was a lot more fun than it sounds. I was also conveniently set up behind the soundboard which is one of my four favorite places to be for a show, the others, in no particular order being dressing room, side of the stage or center back. When Rico came over to touch base I told him to grab his stuff and move it over because I had been forced to move from my other spot to get away from some guy who was feeling my ass for five minutes. Do you know what he said??? "Oh, it takes more than five minutes to feel YOUR ass." Then he waited with that 'hmmmm...I wonder if she's gonna kill me?' look. I was pissed because that was the funniest thing I've heard in like, well practically, EVER! My feeble retort "Well yeah, it does if you do it right!" was just reflex. It had no power. I got him back just a tiny bit a little later though when he was telling me he had a really good time running around Church and acting like a buffoon. "Oh believe me, that's no act!' Shit. It's gonna take me a really long time to get him back for that one. Someday Petroleum, your uppance will come!

DMZ was amazing. The band sounded so tight it was scary. It was kind of strange seeing Monoman without his organ in front of him. He looked like a new kind of naked. With all his jumping around and tambourine smashing I was afraid he was going to spin off his axis and into another universe or something. He had lots to say between songs and I missed out on most of it. I'm either deafer than I think I am, or the sound in that place is not so good. Jeff was hollering for more monitor and when he descended into begging for it, I felt kind of bad. I guess we're all deaf now. If anyone has any idea what he was ranting about before he bellowed "Joe Strummer is DEAD to me" I'd love to know the gist.

After the show I told Jeff they sounded fantastic and that was not easy in that place. He laughed as he pulled out a soft rectangular case from his bag. He unzipped the bag and pulled out a smaller fabric pouch which he opened. Inside that was a small case for his sunglasses. He put them in the case, and reversed the process, putting the case into the pouch and that back into the largest bag. It was like a Russian nesting doll sunglass holder. The reel to reel deck turned out to be a star of the night also. I was further entertained by Jeff trying to put the machine back into the case. Yes, surprise, the reel to reel was his. Analogman. That sounded kind of clever in my head, but it just doesn't look right written out...Anyway, he was trying to get the thing into the case which wasn't going to happen because he was trying to stow it in the top half of the case and it just would not fit in that way. I noted that aloud from the start, but he continued going at it with some confusion and much head scratching. Finally, there was no doubt in his mind that he was going about things the wrong way. The correct configuration of case and deck were achieved at last and as he snapped it shut Jeff was nice enough to note that I had been right all along and thanked me for the help. No problem man, anything for one of my rock star pals. You should have been there. I highly recommend the Marsman nights at Church. His DJ skills are superb and you'll run into lots of fun people and not all of them will touch your ass.