Radio Bean Birthday Party Part 3, November 2, 2013
Words by Tim Lewis.
With a full work day, and a good night’s sleep behind me, it’s time to finish the story of the Radio Bean birthday party. When I left off, The Honky Tonk band had just exited the stage…
A new band called Dripline came on next. With Eric Segalstad on guitar, and the rest of the band consisting of bass, drums, and keys, they opened with a piano intro and Aya Inoue singing some soaring vocals. All three songs found a nice dance groove, then got a bit liquid trancey and became really fun. The first one was really good, but sadly was the only one with Aya. The second two started out OK, but each had a switch where it just suddenly got really good. I think they have a bit of work to do, but they might really have something there!
Vedora came on next and just killed it. It’s weird for me to not know their songs, having seen them so many times, but I really like all of the third generation songs. They played a great trio of powerful, yet melodic songs. Every moment was fantastic and I was in heaven. They were set to wrap it up, but were told they could play another. They went back to the second generation of their songs, and played a killer Sober. I live for sets like this.
Nest up the room was cleared a bit to make way for Brass Balagan. Many people, in red jumpsuits, playing many instruments (most brass but not all of them), made a joyful presence and lovely sound. At one point they decided that since it was the Bean’s 13th birthday, that it had become a man. They put Lee Anderson in a chair and crowd surfed him to the front, while playing Havah Nagilah. They presented him with a yamaka, and mazel tov, our coffee house is all grown up.
Up next a prognosticator brought predictions for the coming year. Unfortunately the room was loud and I missed most of what he said.
The Eames Brothers were supposed to go on next, but were running late. A pick up band with Brett Hughes on drums, Eric Segalstad on guitar, and Matthew Hastings on bass jammed out a long blues rock instrumental. I think Lee Anderson and Joe Adler had a turn on vocals at times. It was pretty fun, and did a good job filling the space. A guy who played as a human beat box followed for a couple of songs. The drummer for Dripline joined in on the second song, and gave it an edge. It was fun, but i was starting to crave the real stuff.
After the long delay, The Eames Brothers finally made it. They set up quick and jammed out three blues rock songs. Their singing and playing were great and they were really fun.
Swale came on next, but were sadly missing drummer Jeremy Frederick. Eric Olsen played some sweet guitar, and Amanda played keys and sang Lou Reed‘s Perfect Day. It was just gorgeous, and my heart was filled with joy. For the next song, Frank sat in on drums, James Belizia joined on guitar, Rebekah Whitehurst grabbed the bass, and Lee Anderson played harmonica. They locked into an epic jam of Sister Ray and let it play for a few hours, or so. Eric had a great feel for the vocals, and jammed hard on guitar. Amanda played keys for a while, got up and played tambourine for a while and then played some more keys. It was nothing but bliss. Really, really, really long bliss.
The energy stayed super high as Joe Adler and the Rangers of Danger hit the stage. With several girls to help out, they opened with a fun Many A Girl. They followed with a blistering version of the Mime that rocked hard. Eric Segalstad and Bob Wagner traded lead guitar licks and the band were spot on. At one point Joe wandered into the crowd still playing the card deck guitar. Eric followed and they looked like they were having the time of their lives as the band kept the groove tight. They finally wandered back to the stage and wrapped up the song. Up next was Many A Girl reprise and they caught a great groove and had many of us singing Back of a sail, back of a sail, tomorrow’s on the back of a sail, over and over, until the intensity was so great that it knocked Joe and Eric to the ground, as the band jammed out the finish. I just love rock and roll!
The energy stayed at peak intensity as Blue Button took the stage. Their raw punk rock really got the crowd going. They opened with the Nerve, and it was sting breakingly intense. Eric needed another guitar, and Brett Hughes lent him his. It was funny to watch a punk band with a guitar that looks like it belongs in a honky tonk band, but it mattered not, Eric made it scream with rock. They played a couple of songs that I did not know, the closer may have been Jupiter. They played a killer version of Fucking Burning Bridges. Only a couple of people in the crowd wanted to mosh, so while it was not quite the usual pit, the audience swirled around like a mass of moving flesh. They rocked us hard and we loved them for it.
After that, I was done. I wanted to stay for cake at midnight, and it was only 10-15 minutes away, but after a 7 hours stretch of music, I had nothing left.
I slipped out the Dino Duende door, into the cool night air. A mix of exhaustion and bliss carried me through the short walk home Thanks for the usual awesome party Radio Bean!! Let’s do it again next year, shall we?
This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.