Pulled Pork Pasttime
Earlier this month I paid $50 to see the Black Crowes at the Tabernacle. Tonight I spent about $15, heard better music, and didn’t smell - how did Mike put it? - like I’d just stepped off the set of the latest Cheech & Chong flick.
I joined Jess, Jeff, and their folks at Fat Matt’s tonight (blues+bbq joint off of Piedmont Ave). The band was T-Bone Smith, fronted by a guitar player I’ve seen a lot of on Sundays (well, practically every Sunday), a drummer I’ve seen around, and an organist that reminded me of Harry Shearer’s character from “A Mighty Wind” (the guy playing organ in the photo below was sitting in for a couple songs… and he was burning).
As much as I usually love the music there, T-Bone Smith was playing some pretty basic stuff. It’s cool to see a B-3 back on stage after The Organizers (some two, three years ago; their organist resembled Paul Schaffer), but Harry Shearer wasn’t really doing much for me. He was playing like a musician’s bassist — solid, present, but mostly in the background. Two, maybe three leslie cabinets setup, and the guy’s just keeping it in the pocket!
That said, I didn’t realize how easy he was taking it until he stepped off the bench and a new guy sat down. I don’t know who this guy was, but burning is the best word I can think of to describe his playing. He started out gently; by the end of the first song he was making that organ wail… incredible. The kind of organ playing that made me blow my co-op money on a VK-7 (organ simulator) 6 years ago. His socks were nimble on the pedalboard, filling in the bass line (no bass player), and much of the time he seemed to only need one hand to work the manuals, fluttering between notes and doing lightning fast runs up and down the scale between churning out chords of that buttery tone Hammonds are known for.
Watching with my jaw on the table I contemplated one of my long-running dreams: getting my own (real) Hammond. Could I make room for it in the house? Could I save up that much money? It would be an investment, to be sure, but a nice one would certainly increase in value over time, which would make it okay even if I didn’t play it very much… Rationalizing. I’ll probably forget about it by Tuesday.
I miss living in town. Driving on Pleasantdale just isn’t the same as Peachtree. There’s no Fat Matt’s in Tucker (the Sonny’s in Lilburn does not count), nor are there pretty girls wandering the Publixxes here. Bit heavy on the moms and families, really. (Not that I ever approached a pretty girl in a Publix anyway.) Still, in Tucker I can afford to have an actual back yard, and there’s a nice park with a jogging trail down the road. I can see about 6 stars in the night sky, up from… well… none in town. I guess that stuff counts for something. Reckon a few more years out here wouldn’t be so bad.