M E M O R Y L E S S N E S S

On 9/15, Liz and I went to see The Reverend Horton Heat at The Meridian. It was a good show, as always. I think I’ve seen the Rev. something like 12 or 13 times, from 1994 to present.

The band that opened up the evening (playing in the Meridian’s smaller room) was a local rockabilly outfit called The Octanes. They were good and tight. Next up, in the big room, was a band called The Phantom Rockers. They were okay, I guess, playing mostly rockabilly covers of ’80s pop tunes. The British singer made a lot of homophobic and misogynistic comments, so that was uncool. (I saw him in the bathroom after their set. He tipped the attendant $50 and said, “Now I can piss anywhere I want to.” He then went into a stall with some other dude; I think it was drug-related rather than sex-related, but who knows?). Interestingly, the Rev. thanked the next opening band (”Give it up for The Gore Gore Girls!”) and neglected to mention the Phantom Rockers. The Gore Gore Girls were pretty good, but weren’t really my style (I can’t really define what their style was/is…sort of rockabilly, I guess, but not quite).

Then came the Rev. As usual, the show was great. They didn’t play everything I wanted to hear (no “Nurture My Pig” this time), but they did do a few covers that they referred to as “the history of music.” It was totally rad. Their new drummer was great, as their drummers always are, and the Rev. of course surfed atop Jimbo’s bass. Good show all around.

Here’s the set list:

1. Big Sky
2. Baddest of the Bad
3. Five-O-Ford
4. I Can’t Surf
5. Wiggle Stick
6. 400 Bucks
7. Pride of San Jacinto
8. Callin’ In Twisted
9. Revival
10. Indigo Friends (hadn’t heard this one live before, it’s awesome)
    -The History of Music-
11. Greensleeves
12. Rock This Joint
13. That’s All Right
14. Folsom Prison Blues
15. King of the Road
16. Paranoid (sung by the drummer)
    -End History of Music-
17. Bales of Cocaine
18. Marijuana
19. It’s Martini Time
20. Jimbo Song
21. Galaxy 500
22. Bad Reputation
23. The Devil’s Chasing Me (yay)
    -Encore-
24. Cowboy Love
25. Psychobilly Freakout
26. Big Red Rocket of Love / Drum Solo / Bass Solo

Here are some excellent pictures of the show, courtesy of The Bald Heretic.

Good show, as they always are. Probably one of the top 3 Rev. shows I’ve been to.

Last night, Liz and I went to the Halloween 4 and 5 double feature. From that site:

Don’t miss an exclusive Halloween 4 & 5 Double-Feature on the big screen for one night only! Plus, a special never-before-seen bonus – Halloween: Faces of Fear – an in-depth documentary directed by Mark Cerulli featuring interviews and rare behind-the-scenes footage including “Meet the Michaels” – conversations with six of the men behind the mask. In select movie theatres on October 30th at 7:30PM (local). The $10 ticket price includes Halloween 4, Halloween 5 and the special bonus documentary.

Other than the facts that 1) they started the documentary early so we missed the first part of it and 2) there weren’t too many people there, it was a fun time. The documentary (what we saw of it) was interesting, and not just archival footage that we’d seen previously (some of it was old footage, but some of the people in it are now deceased, so that’s how it had to be). I learned some things, such as the fact that the director of part 5 is a man named Dominique (he’s French), not a woman as I’d previously thought. The crowd (small as it was) was really into both movies, too, laughing at appropriate (and inappropriate) times. It was cool.

I had seen both films several times before, but I’d forgotten how silly they are. Something about watching them on the big screen added to their silliness; maybe it was the laughter of the other moviegoers. Anyway, it was fun. Liz and I discussed how a big part of the silliness, really, is that these movies are very focused on the adventures of Jamie Lloyd, an eight (in part 4) to nine (in part five) year old girl. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that these are American films so we know that she can’t really be in peril; American filmmakers/producers don’t traditionally put children in peril. Part 5 also adds the ridiculous “thorn” symbol to the Michael Myers mythology, the symbol which plays very heavily into part 6’s plot. Donald Pleasence is, of course, the best actor in both films; the dude was an icon for a reason. He took the part of Dr. Loomis seriously (as seriously as possible in these sequels; I imagine that it was easier to do so in the original film), and that lends a lot of credibility to the Halloween films that he’s in, imo. Part 5 features a lot of people (particular Dr. Loomis) harassing Jamie (shaking her, getting in her face, yelling at her); the crowd seemed to particularly enjoy this. The children harassing her in Part 4 (”Jamie’s an orphan!”) also elicited their fair share of chuckles.

All things considered, it was a fun time. Fathom Events should have more events like this.

More Halloween-related links, courtesy of HalloweenMovies.com:
Halloween
Halloween 4
Halloween 5

Happy Halloween. It’s almost time to carve pumpkins and watch the original Halloween for the umpteenth time. Aww yeah!