And I feel so damn nostalgic…. DBT at The Fillmore Part 2

Part Deux: Click HERE for Part I

P.S. If you haven't read this yet, do so now: Monster

Here is the last paragraph from where we left off:

We climb aboard and it’s all black leather interior, LCDs playing a Waylon Jennings concert, and Cooley sittin' in the front being... well... Cooley. Rich and I introduce ourselves and take a seat. After some initial pleasantries my phone rings and I remember that I've got 2 tickets I'm suppose to give to Mark G. from the Yahoo list. Mark was in the process of following the band from New Mexico to Seattle. Mark freakin' rocks! I'm gonna do that someday. Anyway, I excused myself and made for the bus door. Before I stepped out I asked if there was a secret knock I needed to get back in. Two will do......

When I returned to the bus I sat down across from Cooley and looked at him, and I got kinda pissed. Of all the traveling and drinking and Rockin’ Cooley does he looked too damn good at his age. I decided then and there that living the Rock n’ Roll lifestyle still can’t age you like sitting in front of a computer 9 hours a day, doing the bidding of some idiot or a group of idiots.

Captain Kerr hopped on the bus and informed Cooley that the rest of the band was doing sound check. Cooley replied, "I've really got to find somebody to do soundcheck for me". But being the true trooper that he is, he headed inside and we followed.

It was really weird to be in The Fillmore before opening. But weirder yet was having DBT play a couple of songs to just Jenn, Rich and I. We got to hear Goodbye and Daylight.

After soundcheck we headed up to DBT's dressing room and hung out with the crew and band members while we watched Son Volts sound check.

Moving forward with this diatribe, I’m going to break up the weekend into sections:

Time with Cooley.

The moments with Cooley over the weekend were quite memorable as you can easily imagine. We chatted about back home, Phoenix heat (the "dry heat ain't as hot" myth was agreed to be a bunch of shit), Motown session singers, Baxendale guitars, and taking a dump in a Hefty Garbage Bag sometimes out of necessity but other times because it’s damn funny. Cooley is a prankster extraordinaire. And careful what you say around him... it might end up in a song. Now that I know the story behind "Marry Me" it's even a better song than I first tought.

The crew members just got cool new shoulder walkie-talkies. Jenn had told us earlier in the day that Cooley had been taking advantage of this new tech feature of the band to do some serious razzing. I got to witness this first hand after the Friday night show. We’re sitting in the balcony above the stage and next to DBT’s dressing room when Cooley, Patterson and The Matador come out and plop down next to us. One of the crew members had hooked a couple of groupie fishes and was batting them around in the dressing room like a cat playing with mice. Cooley gets a glint in his eye and grabs The Matador’s mike and pauses with a smile. I look at him and tell him that he’s in the Fillmore and that this better be good. Now I can’t remember the exact wording but this is Cooley so you know it was parsed in Cooley’s incredible verbage but he calls out on the mike to the crew member trying to get his groove on that they’ve found that cream they’ve been looking for and that it should take care of that incredibly bad ball rash said crew member has. “Me and Cooley we just laughed so hard be both fell down”.

Not only does Cooley do the “cool” part of his name proud, he’s a warm, engaging an all around nice fucker.

Time with Jason.

Story #1

Being a fan and immersing myself in the songs and lyrics, I have often said to myself "If I ever got the chance I'd ask Patterson/Cooley/Jason/Shonna/Brad about "X".... Well, my friends, if you ever have those thoughts, write them down. Of the gazillion things I've ever thought of to ask the band, they all flew out of my head the moment I had the chance. The d'errrrrr factor really grabs hold. However, after the Friday show Jason comes out of the dressing room and sits down with Jenn, Rich and I. I remembered one question I’ve always wanted to ask him. Since Jason studied literature at the U. of Memphis, I’ve always wanted to ask him who his favorite author/book was. His response was surprising as I expected some great southern gothic writer. His response was Salman Rushdie. We then got into a bit of a conversation about Islam and the comparison to Christian fundies in this country. Jason is a special one, let me tell you. He was tops in his high school class and had he finished college (thank god he did not) would have assuredly been Summa Cum Laude. Whip-fucking-smart.

Story #2

As I was awaiting Jenn to escort me through the side door on Saturday night, Jason comes out of the bus and says "Hey Jason". I greet him back and while contemplating my hangover from Friday that I'd yet to drink away I said, "I don't know how you guys do it every night". He laughs and takes a couple of steps then stops and turns around and says, "We can do it every night because we love it". Right there was an Almost Famous moment or even a Mean Joe Green Coke commercial moment (Hey kid, catch). Time just kinda stopped for a millisecond and all the life issues we all continuously run in the back of minds, unconsciously, disappeared and I was left with one clear nugget of knowledge. Damned whipper snapper giving me in-sight on life.

Jason's a hell of a guy who's always willing to strike up a conversation. He's destined for a lot a great things.

EZB and Shonna time. AKA, SwamperDeux
Now, the EZB remains a mystery, wrapped in a secret, dipped in secret sauce. Jenn told me that he’s as sharp as Cooley with the observations but he saves them up. He’ll be quite for a long time then BOOM, a nugget. So while I don’t have any personal stories to relate about the EZB, I can comment that he’s one of the best drummers on any stage any where.

The first time I saw Shonna I was standing at the door of the dressing room watching Son Volt do sound check. I feel someone walk up and stand beside me. I look over… then I look down and here is this wee lass with blonde hair. That’s my first impression of Shonna. She is freakin’ tiny compared to seeing her on stage and in photos. She’s as sweet as pumpkin pie and Jason is damn lucky.

I have one more installment coming.

Here are some pictures from The Rock Show.