At some point during night two of An Under Cover Weekend, a buzz started growing in the audience. Whispers -- okay, some loud drunken non-whispers -- and stares in the general direction of one particular attendee began to grow. I had several people come up to me and incredulously exclaim their excitement and disbelief over the sighting.
Yes, local celebrity Becky, Queen of Carpet, was in attendance at the show.
The absurdity of the situation almost -- almost -- overshadowed the rest of the night, which was pretty amazing. Like night one, all five bands pretty much ruled. (For some GREAT night one coverage, go over to Dividing by Zero Will Get You Nowhere.)
Fattback -- wigs and dorky sunglasses and all -- did the Cars proud, with vocals that were dead-on for Ric Ocasek and Co.and suitably cheesy synths. I've never seen Fattback before, and now I really want to.
The Feed? Well, seriously, the Feed slayed as the Clash. Absolutely slayed. Dave Grelle played the piano for the songs (a nice twist): including hits such as "This Is Radio Clash," "London Calling" (of course) and "Train in Vain." And others. Seriously, this set tied Shame Club for sheer power and impressiveness.
Ghost in Light -- who brought a friend in to play keyboards, nice touch -- went for the uber-Cure fans and did album tracks such as "Plainsong" and "The Kiss." Which, yes, ruled, as did "A Forest" and Chandler Evans' vocal-lead "Love Song." Credit the vocal delay on El Evans' vocals. And the makeup.
The Bureau did what they seemed to be born to do: cover Duran Duran. Ruffly shirts, white suit coats, makeup, dual keyboards. The coolest part of the set might have been the entrance of their sax player on "Rio." He walked through the crowd, while playing, and hopped onstage, without missing a beat. "Hungry Like the Wolf" was also a highlight, as was "Girls on Film."
And the 7 Shot Screamers finished the night as the Beatles -- Ringo Starr songs only. Mike Leahy sang and drummed -- true to Ringo fashion -- and "Yellow Submarine" of course brought the house down, complete with sound effects and all.
I'm really tired. I hope this makes some sense. But I haven't had this much fun in ages at a show. So glad to see a ton of people out there. So glad this happened. Must sleep.
