Show Journal 2002-05-31
We were warned that shows in Salem were pretty crazy but good lord I had no idea. We got to the bar and it was just a bunch of people watching basketball. I’m thinking “how fun is this going to be”? Iknowkungfu played (very well I might add) to about a handful of people. Cool to see but certainly not wild and crazy like we had heard. (They did play ‘Logan’s Run’ though and I’ve been singing it since). I’m not sure how the next band ended up on the show but they were kind of a rock/hippie/grunge mix. I’ll try to bow out gracefully and just say that it was definitely not my thing. Again the crowd was totally subdued. So about 12:30 we start to play. The first song went ok and a few people wandered in to watch us play. The second song was ok but people looked a little bored. As we played the third song we were suddenly assaulted by the CSG toilet paper machine! The device I speak of is a modified leaf blower that can shoot a roll of toilet paper in excess of 25 feet and dispense a whole roll in about 30 seconds. Man let me tell you … when the T.P. starts to fly in Salem people lose their minds! The few curious onlookers turned into about a dozen yelling, excitable and sloppy drunk fans that were throwing stuff, breaking stuff, falling over stuff and making our night enjoyable. The bar has a ceiling fan above the stage which quickly became the focal point for all toilet paper activity. When a stream of paper goes into the fan it swirls around entrapping whoever is below it in a toilet paper cocoon. During one song it wrapped around Dave’s head and he exclaimed to everyone that he felt like he was wearing a turban. Speaking of which … Dave was in rare form tonight. At one point he proclaimed “this song goes to you guys who are over there trying to pick up hogs at the bar”. I thought for sure someone was going to come over and kick his ass but then I realized … how seriously can you take someone wrapped in toilet paper? Oddly enough though a few guys sitting at the bar casually wandered over into the main room so as not to be confused with the “hog chasers” that Dave referred to. Anyway, more wildness followed and we had a great show. After us some friends of the CSG (who’s name is escaping me) played about 4 songs. After that was the mighty Catholic School Girls. Our crowd interaction almost seemed uninteresting compared to theirs. They already have a wild show and their hometown crowd makes it all the better. We only got to watch the first half of their set because we had to get back home. Thanks to CSG and ‘the Fu’ for hooking us up with the show!
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