Rolling Cef Concert Reviews

Wednesday, March 17, 1999

Wednesday night started with dinner at a pub called Wylie's, where Nagib and I enjoyed a pint and some wings. One of the festival bands, Swamp Boogie Queen had a couple hot women handing out promotional flyers at the pub for a show on Thursday night. Got my attention. The first band we caught Wednesday night was Tin Hat Trio from San Francisco. I hadn't seen this group before, except for their accordion player who plays for Jim Campilongo. I also saw the accordion player on my flight out to Austin, so I figured I should go see the band and say hello. The music turned out to be pretty good. It's an eclectic style with accordion, acoustic guitar and violin. After heading out on a quest for green beer on this St. Paddy's Day 1999, we come up empty and head off to catch the next band, Naked Barbies at Maggie Mae's. Since I've been attending many of the Barbies' shows lately in SF, some members of the band are getting to know my face. I'm standing by one of the entrances before the set, and Patty, the lead singer, walks by. I stop her (not physically) and say hello. By coincidence, I had seen a clip of an interview with her on public television the night before, so I told her that and she was surprised, and said, "They actually show that?" She ran off to do the show, and it was probably the best show that I've ever seen them do.

Thursday, March 18, 1999

My pal Brian arrived Thursday night, and since things went pretty good on Wednesday, I decide to begin the night again at Wylie's pub. A heavy downpour started while we were at Wylie's, but we only had to cross the street to see Swamp Boogie Queen at Steamboat. This was a great blues rock band, fronted by a girl who had the best stomach I've ever seen. She belted out the tunes and strutted around on stage like Robert Plant or Chris Robinson. Not sure where to head next, I asked this blonde from Virginia for suggestions. She didn't really know much about the bands, but her friend had circled a group called Mover, so we went to check them out at Fat Tuesday (without the women). A couple of songs were ok, but after that it got kind of boring. We took off for Steamboat again to catch Soulhat. This was another great musical choice because these guys kicked ass. They're basically another great sounding groove band like Sister 7.

Friday, March 19, 1999

Friday evening, we started off at Waterloo Brewing Co. for some grub and to catch the band, Red Elvises. These guys were pretty funny. They're four Russian guys who play rockabilly and surf. After that show, we headed to Stubb's to see the Supersuckers. They played one of the loudest shows that I've been to in a while. I only really enjoyed the last three songs where they mixed in some country with the punk rock. Duff McKagan also sat in on bass for one song. When we left Stubb's, we headed off to Flintonics where Tom Wilson from Junkhouse was performing. I went up to the bar to get a couple of beers and there's Tom in a suit and tie with short curly hair and a closely trimmed goatee. I happen to walk up as people are getting introduced, and Tom shakes my hand too. I say to him straight off, "What the fuck happened to all your hair?" He just laughed it off. I watched him play a great set. Later, I made it to Antone's to see an awesome band, called Cadillac Voodoo Choir, who sounded a lot like The Black Crowes. The lead singer looked like Steven Tyler's bastard son.

Saturday, March 20, 1999

The first act we saw on Saturday was Chris Mills, who I met in San Francisco a week earlier. He played a great set of country-ish folk-rock tunes at the Continental Club. After that, we headed to the Caucus Club to see a swing band from Calgary that my uncle knows, called the Dino Martinis. They played a great set, including a swing version of an Alanis Morrissette song, as well as a Motorhead cover. After that we headed to Waterloo Brewing for the Chris Duarte show. Duarte played an awesome blues set. I got in bed by 3 am and woke up at 6 am to catch the plane home.

Looking forward to next year!

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