Rock Gods #31: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

You’ve heard about the big rock dick who wouldn’t sing at hits daughter’s wedding without a contact (though he didn’t seem to hardware about warbling ad lib and ad nauseum on talk shows).

Well, our scene doesn’t grow jerks nearly that large (poor climate– we’re in the shadow of a bigger city), but here’s a lightweight contender for your consideration:

Guess who won’t appear at the benefit show for cancer survivor Crutch (yeah, we know) unless he gets to do a solo set that’s twice as long as any other band on the bill—and even if he’s granted that aggrandising plum, won’t commit to a measly two- song reunion set with his old bandmates?

Plus he tried to pull that old demand about how he might work for free this one time, but he’d need to charge something so he could pay his sideman. (yes, we just said “solo set,” but Lord high-and-mighty here can’t play a lick, even in his rare sober moments, so never travels without real musicians, whom he apparently insists on retaining for benefits even though, in a brief and surly ‘phone conversation with him last week, he couldn’t remember their names.

Turns out those sidemen guys have telephones too, are pretty to track down, and were shocked when we asked them about the payment plan because they’d agreed all along to play the gig for free. (We’ve got all these conversations on tape, and we’re having them notarized.)

Hope we haven’t screwed the whole reunion deal now with these revelations, but we doubt it would have happened anyway.

Here’s another good place to spend your time and money, with passionate musicians of all stripes:

Turns out that big local Europop/punk festival of sorts at Campbell’s Saturday from 4-8 p.m. (clearing out before the dance party) will be passing the hat for starving refugees somewhere in Eastern Europe. So promises The Bishop, an immigrant from those climes himself, who’ll be sharing the bill with The Trial, Cosette, The Grave and The Barricade. It’s a CD release for the The Bishop’s new disc Between Americans, which is getting national distro on the Gulf Screen label …