Everyone talks about big in Japan or signing to a major or groupies in the limo, but the rock dream which drives most of the serious musicians I know is a lot more straightforward: make just enough doing music so that you don’t have to do anything else. This modest goal is tantalizingly just out of reach for most of the members of this city’s little scene. In fact, out of maybe 300 bands I imagine are gigging at any given time in the county, only a couple of dozen can be said to free and clear of non-tuneful day jobs. And nearly all those gainfully self-employed musicos are in cover bands.
I dug hard to find a guy who writes his own songs, remains outside of the big music-making industry cities and makes a semi-decent living. And to count him, I had to bend the rules a bit.
Here’s John Flute, and you know him as the house entertainment at Singleton’s strip bar on Church Street. This paper’s done plenty of stories on him over the years, plus his tiny face is in ads next to tasseled boobs in the Singleton’s ad every week in our back pages. Five nights a week John plays piano in the lounge and backs any performer who’d rather work with a live accompanist than tapes. There aren’t many of those, but John says he keeps the gig because he’s old pals with the owner, Tony Little. His other claim’s a little harder to swallow: “I bring in my own crowd, not just the guys who come to hear the strippers.”
That’s five nights a week, but accounts for less than half of Flute’s income (though one suspects the Singleton’s perks are swell). One Saturday night a month, Flute plays with the Postures, the R&B cover band at Hamilton’s. That’s mostly covers, sure, but fans of the band know that the first set (before the rowdies arrive) is almost all originals. In the mornings and afternoons he hangs around Radio-K, which airs his parodies of current pop hits during its classic rock block from noon to 1 p.m.
“They’re all real jobs. Gotta show up on time, be ready to work,” Flute stipulates. “But don’t think I’m complaining.” Just last week at Singleton’s he says he found a new riff while backing a stripper, and by the end of the night he had most of a song. He’s been known to try out his Radio-K material at the club too, “only they like me to swear when I’m singing at the club, so I have to tone it down for the radio.” At Singleton’s, apparently it’s enough just to say “fuck” anytime the original song says “love”; brings the house down. For the radio, it has to be much subtler, like “screw” or “snuggle” or something.
“All I know is I get to be creative all the time.”

Man the Beast and THE VIP Party-Tossers and Wild Wild Women bend Hamilton’s beyond recognition Saturday. Expect as much action under the tables as on the stage… Likewise, the Bullfinch is getting down and dirty with New Faces on the Barroom Floor, Bottle Fatigue and Where to, Dream Boat? (featuring the Filstrups from Here We Go Again)…. Even Dollaire’s is on the trashy tip with Cheap Luggage, Lousy in Slacks, Moosehorn and Bar Guide… Cut out of the action: Face in the Finish, which in its short existence has never NOT opened for their similarly monikered pal band News Faces on the Barroom Floor, couldn’t do this gig (which would’ve been their Dollaire’s debut) because of, get this—a high school marching band gig. Yeah, the sax is needed elsewhere….