Last night, I went up to Philadelphia to hang out with Joey O, which we decided to do because he had a couple free tickets to see Henry Rollins speak at the Electric Factory. I always end up going to Philly about once a year for some reason or another, and hadn't been there since April, so I guess it was about time for my annual visit. When I was driving up there, I thought back and figured out that I'd been to the Electric Factory 3 or 4 times when I was a teenager, but the last time had been about 7 years ago, which kinda blew my mind and made me feel old.
Joey used to work at Philly's alt-rock station Y100, which abruptly flipped formats and fired its staff a year ago. But he and several other ex-employees have kind of admirably and stubbornly kept it alive as Y100Rocks.com, and internet-only station, which now operates out of a "bunker" above a record store. So on Saturday we met up at the record store, browsed the used bins for a while, and then we went upstairs and Joey DJed for a bit. It's all run off a computer with playlist formulas and stuff, it's kind of cool and complicated, and can operate unmanned, or if a DJ is on duty, they can talk between songs and pick out what to play. So Joey and I talked on the air for a bit and I got to pick out a few songs, and I got to be heard on the radio by a few dozen people that happened to be listening on a Saturday night, that was kind of cool. The new White Stripes single that sounds exactly like their last single came on, so afterwards on the air I told the story about how my friends Tom and Jim were in the video and Jack White called Tom an asshole in the NME. After messing around on the radio for about an hour, we went and got some greasy pizza slices at one of those places that seem to be on every single corner in Philadelphia that make me kind of envious of Philly, and then went to the Electric Factory to see Rollins.
I'm not a big fan of any of Hank's music, but I've always liked his weird spoken word career. I've seen a couple of his talking gigs in Baltimore before, and of the albums I've heard, Think Tank is my favorite. I just like the fact that this straight edge punk icon grew up, got a little famous and got to be in some Hollywood movies, still makes pissed off records that sound the same every couple years, and has travelled the world more times than probably you or me ever will, gets to just go tell stories about his insane life and talk about how full of shit he is. If he counts as a standup comedian, he'd probably be one of my favorites working today. Last night wasn't as good as one of the shows I saw in Baltimore, but there were definitely some good stories in there. I think the single funniest moment, though, was at the beginning, when he came out on stage, right on time, and started to talk and kind of ease into it, but there were mic problems, and he'd just kind of interrupt himself being friendly and making jokes and suddenly turn to the soundman and go THIS IS A DISASTER, and then go back to telling a story, and then suddenly THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE, until the guy fixed the sound. I don't really blame him for being pissed, since usually soundmen at those venues have to deal with a dozen different mics and amps, and all he had to do was make one guy's mic sound good, but it was still funny how Hank reacted. He told some good stories about his USO tours and riding the Trans Siberian Express, but the best stuff was the random 20 minute tangents about Ted Nugent or deer hunting that he'd suddenly steer back into the story he was telling before.
After the show ended and Joey dropped me off at my car, I drove out of Philly listening to their hip hop stations, and was pleasantly surprised to hear them bumping a lot of Baltimore music. First Young Leek's "Jiggle It," then suddenly a whole half hour set of Baltimore club music, after a set of dancehall. And then I flipped over to the other station, and they were playing club music too! I know club music is kinda blowing up in the press, but damn, Philly, I didn't know you got down like that! Showing Bmore love on the radio and everything. So that was definitely the highlight of my drive home.
Joey used to work at Philly's alt-rock station Y100, which abruptly flipped formats and fired its staff a year ago. But he and several other ex-employees have kind of admirably and stubbornly kept it alive as Y100Rocks.com, and internet-only station, which now operates out of a "bunker" above a record store. So on Saturday we met up at the record store, browsed the used bins for a while, and then we went upstairs and Joey DJed for a bit. It's all run off a computer with playlist formulas and stuff, it's kind of cool and complicated, and can operate unmanned, or if a DJ is on duty, they can talk between songs and pick out what to play. So Joey and I talked on the air for a bit and I got to pick out a few songs, and I got to be heard on the radio by a few dozen people that happened to be listening on a Saturday night, that was kind of cool. The new White Stripes single that sounds exactly like their last single came on, so afterwards on the air I told the story about how my friends Tom and Jim were in the video and Jack White called Tom an asshole in the NME. After messing around on the radio for about an hour, we went and got some greasy pizza slices at one of those places that seem to be on every single corner in Philadelphia that make me kind of envious of Philly, and then went to the Electric Factory to see Rollins.
I'm not a big fan of any of Hank's music, but I've always liked his weird spoken word career. I've seen a couple of his talking gigs in Baltimore before, and of the albums I've heard, Think Tank is my favorite. I just like the fact that this straight edge punk icon grew up, got a little famous and got to be in some Hollywood movies, still makes pissed off records that sound the same every couple years, and has travelled the world more times than probably you or me ever will, gets to just go tell stories about his insane life and talk about how full of shit he is. If he counts as a standup comedian, he'd probably be one of my favorites working today. Last night wasn't as good as one of the shows I saw in Baltimore, but there were definitely some good stories in there. I think the single funniest moment, though, was at the beginning, when he came out on stage, right on time, and started to talk and kind of ease into it, but there were mic problems, and he'd just kind of interrupt himself being friendly and making jokes and suddenly turn to the soundman and go THIS IS A DISASTER, and then go back to telling a story, and then suddenly THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE, until the guy fixed the sound. I don't really blame him for being pissed, since usually soundmen at those venues have to deal with a dozen different mics and amps, and all he had to do was make one guy's mic sound good, but it was still funny how Hank reacted. He told some good stories about his USO tours and riding the Trans Siberian Express, but the best stuff was the random 20 minute tangents about Ted Nugent or deer hunting that he'd suddenly steer back into the story he was telling before.
After the show ended and Joey dropped me off at my car, I drove out of Philly listening to their hip hop stations, and was pleasantly surprised to hear them bumping a lot of Baltimore music. First Young Leek's "Jiggle It," then suddenly a whole half hour set of Baltimore club music, after a set of dancehall. And then I flipped over to the other station, and they were playing club music too! I know club music is kinda blowing up in the press, but damn, Philly, I didn't know you got down like that! Showing Bmore love on the radio and everything. So that was definitely the highlight of my drive home.
Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, story time
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on Sunday, February 19, 2006 at 2:19 PM.
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