Thursday, September 01, 2005

icicle & the kid....

...to' it up at fred's tonight. it was weird seeing john "johnny icicle" seibman (gtr/vox), david "kid" daniel (bass/vox), and eric martin (drums) together again -- like being caught in a timewarp. these cats haven't lost many steps since 1980something, however, no matter what kid says. seibman, who's starting to look more than a little like the "happy little clouds" painting guy from pbs, even plays the same jazzmaster i saw him play with the fort worth cats in 1979 (with lotsa reverb).

yrs after i fraudulently gained entree to a fort worth cats show by masquerading as a journo, i did a legit interview with seibman for a story about the legendary velvet underground shows at the end of cole in dallas for a story that i was never able to place. seibman went to the show, but didn't dig the velvets so much: "i dug ppl that could _play_, like james brown's band." (that didn't prevent kid from singing the velvets' "what goes on," however.)

if i hadn't known they'd only had one rehearsal, i wouldn't a thunk it. they mixed things up nicely, moving between vocals and instrumentals, slow and fast toons, with seibman and daniel alternating on lead vox. hearing 'em essay forgotten classics like jody reynolds' "endless sleep" and roky erickson's "i walked with a zombie" took me back to the hop and tootsie's ca. '79, and i finally got to hear kid sing "be bop a lula."

(my general state of dissolution at the ass-end of the '70s was such that i don't have real strong memories of any of the backlne cats looked, only seibman and mike neal. for some reason, my memory substitutes the vision of a much huskier guy i usedta work with for the real kid daniel, who along with eric martin has to be one of the skinniest middle-aged men anywhere -- not a lot of profile on either of those guys.)

only somewhat non-snazz moment was a long, rambling jam seibman introduced as "spitball scalped a baby" (nice beefheart ref, john, altho the toon they played wasn't the same as the sax-and-drum duet don used it for, thank gawd), which served as a reminder that perhaps the '60s ended for a reason.

it was a school night, so we couldn't hang out for the second set (when i'll bet they played "get it of your chest," a fave of mine from fort worth cats days), but i'm hoping they'll do it when they play the wreck room this saturday, september 3rd, opening for shtick-rockers honchie (whom i haven't seen in a coupla yrs but are always entertaining). ya mo be there. maybe you too?

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