Journal, News, Guests by Jim Fitting
Thunderstorms
I love this town best when those nasty storms blow up quick and the lightning starts cracking. It is the only time that it really feels like back home here. Well, summers spent way out west at Winona off I-40 (that's Rte 66 like in the Depeche Mode song). The air would get electric and the rain would come down like bullets. I will always pine for that, like we all do for some of those precious thing past...
And then again have you ever heard of the Spadefoot Toad? They are those little ones that spend fortynine weeks a year buried in the dried mud of arroyos and lakebeds in places like northern Arizona. And when the first big rain hits in June they come out and have one hell of a party, making a crazy racket.
Which brings us to that little club on Massachussetts Avenue...
There have been so many great nights down there at Toad that I have forgotten plenty of 'em; like my ill-fated bachelor party back in '91...Oy Veh! It was only a function room back in those days, but there we were, the Sexexecs playing Coming In Loaded, and you know that's how we left it too. Mudpie, Coots and even Treat Her Right; but I'll never forget the night I drove Dave right off the stage with one little note. It was high and it was pure, feedback they might call it. Yeah in the middle of Jetblack, he left the stage and didn't come back. Well fifteen years is nothing to sneeze at. Most recently it has been Session Americana making noise down there...
And a week ago Sunday was the official fifteenth birthday party celebration and we were working it. Sure there were some talkers and familiar faces too, and by the end of the night we had two tables going. And guests? Aw shucks.
There was Jimmy Ryan playing slide mandolin on the Israelites and Honest I Do. And when he sang Hard Time, forget it...Later when Ryan Fitzsimmons sang Talk About Heaven I got so revved-up I busted my D Harp but good. That put me on the sidelines for Cripple Creek when Corey sang it right after that. Oh mama. There was So Lonely, Amelia, Coal Oil and Pop Life, and There Ain't No More Cane unless Tim Gearan is gonna sing some Buddy Holly. Well Allright, and then he tore it down too. Yankee Money, April, Timber Trouble and Burn it Down. How the hell are you gonna top that unless the Hickory Wind tells you to....
If there wasn't that little club in Porter Sq. I dunno what I'd do. I've had fights out front and shared hugs around back. Ducked in from the rain and worn boots out on that stage. Come in from the cold and cooled off on August nights. Seen some of the craziest dancers ever and then wondered where did everybody go? If tomorrow night, the lighnin' cracks and the thunder rolls (thanks Bob); I know where I can go to catch some of that crazy racket...
And then again have you ever heard of the Spadefoot Toad? They are those little ones that spend fortynine weeks a year buried in the dried mud of arroyos and lakebeds in places like northern Arizona. And when the first big rain hits in June they come out and have one hell of a party, making a crazy racket.
Which brings us to that little club on Massachussetts Avenue...
There have been so many great nights down there at Toad that I have forgotten plenty of 'em; like my ill-fated bachelor party back in '91...Oy Veh! It was only a function room back in those days, but there we were, the Sexexecs playing Coming In Loaded, and you know that's how we left it too. Mudpie, Coots and even Treat Her Right; but I'll never forget the night I drove Dave right off the stage with one little note. It was high and it was pure, feedback they might call it. Yeah in the middle of Jetblack, he left the stage and didn't come back. Well fifteen years is nothing to sneeze at. Most recently it has been Session Americana making noise down there...
And a week ago Sunday was the official fifteenth birthday party celebration and we were working it. Sure there were some talkers and familiar faces too, and by the end of the night we had two tables going. And guests? Aw shucks.
There was Jimmy Ryan playing slide mandolin on the Israelites and Honest I Do. And when he sang Hard Time, forget it...Later when Ryan Fitzsimmons sang Talk About Heaven I got so revved-up I busted my D Harp but good. That put me on the sidelines for Cripple Creek when Corey sang it right after that. Oh mama. There was So Lonely, Amelia, Coal Oil and Pop Life, and There Ain't No More Cane unless Tim Gearan is gonna sing some Buddy Holly. Well Allright, and then he tore it down too. Yankee Money, April, Timber Trouble and Burn it Down. How the hell are you gonna top that unless the Hickory Wind tells you to....
If there wasn't that little club in Porter Sq. I dunno what I'd do. I've had fights out front and shared hugs around back. Ducked in from the rain and worn boots out on that stage. Come in from the cold and cooled off on August nights. Seen some of the craziest dancers ever and then wondered where did everybody go? If tomorrow night, the lighnin' cracks and the thunder rolls (thanks Bob); I know where I can go to catch some of that crazy racket...
