Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets and Dean DeLeo of Army of Anyone onstage at La Zona Rosa 1/20/07 photo by staff photographer jeff barringer |
You hear about them happening, you hope it happens when you're there, but usually you hear about it afterwards and turn green with envy because you missed it. Every once in a great while, completely unannounced, and to the surprise of the crowd and often the venue, a great band shows up at someone else's gig and wants to jam. I often talk about the Mick and Keith showing up at Antone's many years ago and jamming, and how I missed it, and how envious I was of the guys that were there and got to taste a little bit of history. It never seemed to happen at any of the shows I attended. Until tonight.
I got an invite to cover the Army of Anyone show (ex-Filter and Stone Temple Pilots members) at La Zona Rosa from the band, and when I set out on a cold, drizzly Saturday evening, I was pretty much plugged in to it being just another show, albeit by a really great band, but nothing with what could be termed "historical" significance.
When I arrived I found it was just me, Jay West and Sean Claes from Insite magazine working the photo pit, but something was odd. There was a buzz, an electricity running through the air that you could smell, taste, and feel. Asking around a bit, weird rumors abounded about surprise guests showing up at the soundcheck asking to jam with the band. Cornering a couple of my Direct Events contacts at the venue, they quickly fessed up, confirming that there were in fact to be special guests, unannounced guests, and that Army of Anyone would be jamming with the legendary, newly reformed, Meat Puppets, Curt Kirkwood, his brother Cris Kirkwood, with Ted Marcus from NYC who is the drummer on the upcoming record.
And that is exactly what happened.
Midway through their set, they stopped, invited the Puppets onstage, jammed with them on one song, then let them wail away on their own for their next. Awesome. Incredible. Historic.
After the set I got a chance to talk with both Curt and Cris and they confirmed for me a forthcoming album, a Meat Puppet documentary AND they will be appearing at Austin's upcoming SXSW 2007, although plans are very rough at this point. Look for a video interview with the Puppets real soon!
Cris, Curt, glad to have you back... you have been missed!
Watch for a review of this show by Alexis Allo soon!
Check out the full set of images in
Our Concert Photo Gallery
Please Note: This article has been corrected thanks to input from our readers. Earlier we incorrectly identified the drummer for this set as Derrick Bostrom, it was in fact Ted Marcus.
Meat Puppets onstage at La Zona Rosa 1/20/07 - photo by staff photographer jeff barringer
|