Saturday 26 January 2002

Man, my head feels like it's Lars Ulrich's drumkit. Woke up an hour ago, and ever since it's been, like, BAM BAM BAM, like totally constantly. All the time. But hey, it was worth it, worth every cent. What a great night. I went over to the Yorkshire House to watch some Rawk'n'Rawl, as we call it over in the states, and I was just totally blown away by tonight's show. The first guys that totally blew me away were Beef Sharky. These guys just went on stage, and went, like, "We're Beef Sharky, but most of you know that 'cause you're either friends or family". I guess I'd have to classify myself as a friend, it's so cool being friends with bands. The singer guy, he's got like red hair and glasses. Totally cool. He goes "let's ROCK", and then they just rocked. Like, really rocked. And the song rhymes "action" and "fraction" and "girl from preston", and I just have call my girlfriend Carol, because she lives in Preston, Connecticut, she'll be so blown away by that. Then they do this song, it's like Ash, but real good, and halfway through it POW there's this guitar solo, like instant Kirk Hammet from Metallica. Excellent.

And then, right, this chick, she's been just playing the bass, yeah, and get this - she sings. Like, whole songs. Really amazing. I think she's called Jennie. Man, she's great. She sings about how she ain't "eating yellow snow" - Right on, sister - let's set some ground rules right at the start. And the singer guy, he's playing keyboards on this, but he's playing it like a seal or something. Like, with flippers. Awesome. And the next song sounds like The Stereophonics playing "Peaches" by The Stranglers. I so wouldn't have thought of that. And the chick, Jennie, she starts singing about Velociraptors. I tell you, it was all soooo beautiful. I nearly had to lie down. And not only that, but this Jennnie, she plays one of those things you stick under your chin, what's that? A cello? You know, like Beethoven or one of those guys would play. But not Beethoven the dog. Blew my mind, man.

But guess what, man? This other guitar playing dude, he sings as well. Like, he's really good at it, too, and I was kind of bummed out 'cause I wanted to cheer at the end of his song, but no, the drums go into "We will Rock You", but not the bad version on "Live Killers", and then it's all like real edgy and punky, with all guitars and solos and stuff. And then it was their last song, and they told us that we were all their friends. Wow. I love those guys.

My uncle Jim used to go on about Pushkin all the time when I was a kid. Uncle Jim was a communist agitator in the '60's but he got put in prison for attempting to kidnap Gerald Ford's dog, and he kind of freaked out. We don't see much of him these days, he lives out in a shack in the middle of nowhere, and it's kind of hard to get near to it with all the fences and barbed wire and landmines and shit. I don't know what Uncle Jim would have thought about Pushking, but I kind of think he'd like them. Pushking ROCK, but not "Rock" in the way that Megadeth or the Stone Temple Pilots rock. More in the Tom Petty-kind of Rock. Like Dire Straits rock on "Making Movies". Anyway, their second song was called "Caught Red Handed". Pretty much like Uncle Jim, really. Then the next one is like Bowie playing Bruce Springsteen. But it kinda needed a bit more Bruce. BROOOCE.

And then there's this like totally excellent break, with a guy on the Trumpet, and it's like that advert for Marmite. Do you guys have that stuff over here? Man, I love marmite, so that song gets a BIG thumbs up in the Freischmeier camp. Then, right, this guitar player dude who looks like Elvis starts singing, like some kind of samba, like on the Buena Vista Social Club, like Cuban but less backward. And I'm like listening, and I realise - shit, man, these guys wrote "Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps". Man, they must be kind of pissed that they end up here. They should've made a fortune out of that song. But, man, the way they play it just totally rocked. Totally. The next one kind of reminded me of what it would be like if Morrissey had sung with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Awesome. Man, their singer dude looks just like that english surfer dude. What was his name? Yeah, Cliff Richard. Cool.

And get this, like, by now I'm just totally wasted on beer. I tell you, it's hard to beat a whole five bottles of Budweiser. But guess what? These guys, they've got a song called "Back to the Future". Man, I love that fucking film. And it starts with a bit that sounds just like "Born to be Wild". I mean, the song started with a bit that sounds like "Born to Be Wild" - I think the film starts with a dance or Michael J Fox skateboarding or something. Anyway, then there was this kind of scary bit when the stage just went totally black, and they made scary noises on their instruments. Freaky. Actually, by now the Juddmeister is getting pretty raddled, and I kind of blacked out for a bit, but nonetheless I sooooooo dug Pushking. Check them out, man. Wow, what a night. What a night.....

Judd Freischmeier