Announcement:
Saturday, September 22, 9 PM. Duke's, in Oakland, on South Millvale Street, between Center and Baum. Across from the Pep Boys. Between the Gulf station and the Thai restaurant that used to be a pizza place. Come on over for a short set of pulsing Toxic Spores, now in a new, alcohol-enhanced environment.

The lineup also includes Mr & Mr$ Funky (Ironic good-timey rock'n'roll, man), their new project The City Slickers (Jimmy Reed/Johnny "Guitar" Watson blues rock with a razor-sharp edge), and the guitar-drums improv duo Clutter.

Mingle with a handful of 60-year-old career drinkers! Marvel at the authentically aged interior! Pay the $1 cover! (Only one! Measly! Dollar!) This Saturday (tomorrow night) at Duke's.

Coming up Thursday the 27th: Toxic Spores at MIT...and perhaps an additional set of interesting stuff.

Report:
This one went well, actually. Duke's is a divey little bar without an actual stage. Instead, there's a room behind the bar with a bunch of tables, and that's where we played, right down on the floor at the same level as the audience. And in this case, largely due to friends of the other bands showing up, there was an audience.

First up were the City Slickers, Mr. & Mr$ Funky's R&B/Blues rock band. In addition to Mr. Funky on rhythm guitar and vocals and Mr$ Funky on bass, they had local arts and entertainment paper editor Marty Levine on drums and smokin' lead guitarist Kevin Kelly, formerly of the local band the Pep Boys. Incredibly nice guy and a very impressive player.

I did a really short set (20 min.) designed for a bar audience--it had a pulse (the music and the audience) and some amusing samples ("They SNAP! They glisten...they have tightness!"). I got some enthusiastic feedback--I stuck to the theory that I could pretty much do anything I wanted, as long as I kept things changing and didn't run too long. I got the set on MD by using my binaurals clipped to my bag out in the audience, and got two guys making comments about the set while it was going on. ("Kinda like Throbbing Gristle." "It's acid music for computer geeks." "It's nice to see something different than the same old thing." "It's kinda ambient." "I could see it for sitting around the house, but I don't know about a show...") Pretty amusing. I think the amusement value of the samples helped, but I was also kind of stoked, and it was a high-energy set.

Mr. Funky's comment: "Maurice! You're on fire, man!"

Mr. & Mr$ Funky were entertaining as always, treating the crowd to their modern tales of love, loss, engagement, and indifference. CLUTTER turned into a trio (they invited a bassist) and put in a 45 minute improv set that varied from sparse to melodic to noisily dense. Nice textures and good folks, too.

Overall, a successful gig. We were paid in beer.