RUN CHICKEN, RUN!

So let me try to get through this as quickly and effortlessly.

1) The place
The Paradise.

2) The people
Initially mostly non-ironic beards and sixteen year olds (how they got in to an 18+ gig I will never understand) but then drunks came out of the woodwork and by the end of Poor Willy Mason's set they were yammering away whilst sucking down their PBRs. Less fun than you would imagine.
Highlight:
White trash couple behind me.
Lady: You could totally sing better than him. He sounds like Johnny Cash.
Fella: Shut up.
NICE DATE, EH?
3) The players
Willy Mason, as it turns out, I heard of some time ago and then totally forgot about, which is a real damn shame because he's pretty good. A little dry on stage presence (didn't help the audience was talking all through a very quiet set) but he was one helluva guitar player and he had that same freight train voice like Johnny Cash.
And then came the Felice Brothers.
There was stomping. There was a washboard. Simone Felice, in what was maybe the single greatest moment of rolling with the punches I have ever witnessed, ran off to get a beer, missed the intro to the next song, ran back on stage, ran mouth first into the microphone and chipped a bloody tooth. He finishes singing the verse. He pulls out the chunk of tooth. He looks at it, shrugs, throws it over his shoulder and continues on to the chorus.
Every band member sang a song. Sometimes (see: James Felice on 'Whiskey in my Whiskey') this was great and the whole audience swelled. Sometimes (see: Christmas on whatever the hell he sang) this was kind of weird. Turns out, as revealed through some of the most awkward banter I've ever witnessed, Christmas (bassist) not only has a pretty weird sense of humor ("this is from my new band. we play techno.") but is generally a pretty weird damn guy.
Farley was decent, I have to admit. Doesn't mean I didn't want to give the kid a sedative every time he flew from one end of the stage to the other fiddle in one hand, bow in the other.
But, it was glorious nonetheless. There was stomping. There was mass audience participation. The two sixteen year olds (along with almost all of the audience) were brought up on stage for the last song. This is of note, given A) earlier in the gig a fella jumped on stage, did a dance and was quietly asked to leave the stage and B) when a fella did that at the Manic Street Preachers gig a few months back he was ripped off stage like he had a bomb strapped under his Welsh flag.


Until next time,
Reporting from Dearland,
-WF
Elvis Perkins ahead

Willy Mason - Hard Hand to Hold
Willy Mason - Where the Humans Eat
Willy Mason - When the River Moves On
The Felice Brothers - Whiskey in My Whiskey
The Felice Brothers - Frankie's Gun