The heat is off

I was starting to worry about how I'd keep up with daily blogging over this upcoming long weekend to keep in NaBloPoMo contention, but I missed a day early in the month (Saturday 11/8), so I'm off the hook, and don't have to feel any pressure to blog every day.   Blogging every day but one is like guessing 42 out of 43 Presidents in a U.S. Presidential quiz  correctly, missing Martin van Buren. Close but no biscuit. 

I made one of my rare ventures into clubland last night to see the Bye Bye Blackbirds and the Family Arsenal at the Bottom Of The Hill. There was also a third band on the bill (The Crazies Will Destroy You), but they didn't start until after 11pm, so I don't know what they were like. Might be the best band in the history of music for all I know.

The Family Arsenal have shared a few bills with the Blackbirds, and provide a good yin to their yang. Their sound can best be described as Shelter Records circa 1976. They should be produced by Leon Russell and appearing on a package tour with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (before they broke) and the Dwight Twilley Band. Paul Tyler even sounds like a perfect Petty/Twilley hybrid, and they even cover the DTB in their set. If they were a drink, they'd be bottom shelf bourbon and coke, in other words, the perfect band for the Bottom of the Hill. I don't get out to the BOTH that much anymore, but it's still probably my favorite live music venue in the entire world.

This was the first BBBs show in support of their new album, which means that they started with a bunch of new songs that weren't from it, but then played a few from Houses & Homes and its predecessor Honeymoon, and ending with a rollicking version of the (GP-era) Byrds classic "One Hundred Years From Now" with the Family Arsenal's Paul Tyler on third guitar. The wall of Telecasters was disrupted because one of the guitarists didn't have one, but it was close enough for Tuesday night at the Bottom of the Hill.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Don't eat too much, and go out and buy something on Buy Nothing Day just to mess with the system. I probably won't post tomorrow, because I don't have to anymore. Whutevah..I do whut I want!