I had an awesome time in Eugene last weekend. It's funny that I moved to Portland to do more music and yet I keep heading back to the Emerald City to the South to play in various configurations with my many friends there. Go figure. I was lucky enough to land a gig opening for Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers at Sam Bond's Garage on June 6th. My regular rhythm section being unavailable that night, I enlisted my good friends Bill Barnett on bass and Tony Figoli on drums and Amy Danziger on the mello cello to work up a set for just this show. Bill of course played with me from 2002-2005 in the College Girls of Tora Bora and we have a good amount of learned material between us. This show will feature some old stuff as well as new and with the cello it sounds awesome. I love having string players! Wish I could just have my own string section all the time, would make the ultimate easy-listening soundtrack for ya'll/ Here's a Hugh Cornwell song I've been digging:
I'm a fan of late 70's power-pop, post-punk stuff. Hugh's jagged riffs and tongue-in-cheek songwriting has kind of hit the spot for me. Looking forward to seeing him live this time 'round. I wonder if he still has Clem Burke from Blondie on drums?
Shizz, after my rehearsal with Bill, Tony and Amy I grabbed a quick bite to eat with my son Cosmo and then hit a practice with the Underlings. We rocked out with our rocks out and helped open up a show for the legendary PIERCED ARROWS along with our best friend band the Soothsayers. I wish I had been able to stay and catch all of Fred and Toody's set, but of course I had to work early like a dork and couldn't quite muster the energy to rock any more after playing 3 sets of music and several beers. Here's a little pic I took of the Soothsayers:
