Odds and Sods for Monday, April 13, 2009

Oh man, when I don't blog for a week, I really fall behind. Where the hell do I start?

I guess I will do this in no particular order. Let's see, the most spectacular event of the week music wise had to be Saturday night, and mind you, this is competing with Wednesday night when we saw Jeff Beck. More on that in a minute. But oh man, Saturday night we were treated to Drum Trek, a/k/a Drum Nerd (me) Paradise.

Here we have the genius, Pavel Fajt...



who did this totally, totally amazing solo set including a brief interlude using sticks on his head...then ended the set with three drummers, including the equally brilliant Eric Slick...



and the insanely talented Mike Pride



who did an opening set with another amazing legend, Jim Meneses.



It was just such an interesting night - four superb drummers, each bringing something totally different to the table; wild percussion on things other than drums I can't even begin to describe...just a brilliant evening.

By the way, if you are an Eric Slick fan and live in the Philadelphia area, he is going to be playing many, many gigs with some really awesome bands during the next several weeks. But of course most important and first up is his upcoming...well, starting tomorrow, tour with the Adrian Belew Power Trio.

Those shows are as follows, but of course I will have a lot more to say on the subject tomorrow:

Wed 04/15/09 Newport, KY Southgate House

Thu 04/16/09 St. Louis, MO Blueberry Hill's Duck Room

Fri 04/17/09 Milwaukee, WI Shank Hall

Sat 04/18/09 Schaumburg, IL Prairie Center For The Arts

Sun 04/19/09 Chicago, IL Old Town School Of Folk Music

As soon as he gets home on Monday, April 20, though, Eric is playing a totally wild show as a double drummer with Bodega at World Cafe Live along with Julie's significant other's band, Cheers Elephant...and if you haven't bought that CD yet, you are really missing out on something spectacular, and I'm not just saying that because Julie produced it...you can buy it here.

Back to Eric...and then he's got Shred Fest on May 3 at the Rotunda...

I'm not even scratching the surface here...I think he's busy like every night of April and May...fingers crossed there's more ABPT in June and July, though.

So let's see. What else. Oh yeah, we saw Jeff Beck at the Electric Factory last Wednesday. What can I say about a legend? Beautiful, unique, and pretty fucking spectacular music. And absolutely nothing at all like the Adrian Belew Power Trio, which is a common misconception since he has curly haired 23 year old Tal Wilkenfeld on bass and a real Zappa drummer in Vinnie Colaiuta. Tal and Julie are absolutely nothing alike, nor do they even remotely look alike, except for the hair. Don't get me wrong...Tal is fucking awesome. In reading her bio, she was originally a jazz guitarist and it shows in her playing. Julie is more of a rocker. In my fantasy world I would love to see a Julie v. Tal bass-off. But there would be no losers, that's for sure. Win/win all the way. Vinnie's an interesting drummer and again, nothing at all like Eric, even though Eric cut his teeth on Zappa music. So it was great to see them and of course I had to entertain the thought that Jeff and the ABPT should do a tour together...then I find out Jeff is already planning one with my pal Eric Clapton (sob)...so I am going to run around lighting candles and doing the chant thing...maybe they'll include the Power Trio. Hey, it could happen! All three bands are just so very different except for one thing - they all contain Guitar God legends.

Okay, I'll stop. But a girl can dream, can't she?

There's so much more I want to say but it's 8:00 p.m., I am all alone, and Mr. Jack Daniels is calling my name. I'm also blasting "Heartbeat" (on my Player here) and singing along. Consider yourself lucky you are not here. Though I still stand by my statement to Julie and Eric who refuse to allow me to sing out loud...I fucking rock...you guys are tone deaf.

Later,
xo

P.S. I am failing in my role as aspiring cookbook/travel writer because I forgot to mention that before we saw Jeff Beck, we had dinner at Modo Mio. Here's what we ate, and I'm quoting Julie, who was kind enough to email me back now from her rehearsals in Nashville because I knew she'd nail this:

"We all started with complimentary crostini bites - gorgonzola, fig, and rosemary
then house baked bread with the evoo topped with a dollop of lemon scented ricotta
Next, mussels red, lasagne, striped bass fillet in red wine mustard sauce with brussel sprouts; sausage something or other, prosciutto wrapped pork loin topped with a fried egg and caper sauce; tomato and buffalo mozzarella bruscetta, and a crispy melrose pepper stuffed with chick pea polenta and mantasio cheese); grilled octopus salad with white beans, raisins, and black olives; sugar snap peas with tomato and mint; and whole fish topped with fennel spiced breadcrumbs.

Dessert - raspberry sabayon, chocolate torte, creme caramel."

You can pretty much figure out who ate what. Eric is a vegetarian, Julie is a pescetarian, and I eat everything.

Let me add that dinner was INCREDIBLE and I highly recommend this restaurant. Though I could have done without Chef Peter's description of the night's special: Roasted lamb skull hollowed out and filled with fried potatoes. Now if that doesn't make me want to switch teams to vegan, nothing does. And what an awful thing to do to my absolute favorite food, fried potatoes. But you gotta give him credit - he's a hell of a creative chef. Definitely check this place out but if you order the lamb skull, please do not tell me.