Two Amazingly Random Things My Drummer Said.

Hi All,

I know I promised a post with some thoughts generated by the Movie RENT, and I promise that it will happen. Tomorrow. Today I just have to post two comments that Jay, Excuse Me's drummer, said that were one, way random, and two, just go to prove further that drummers are a breed of people unto themselves. There are a plethora of drummer jokes out there and the majority of them are justified. (And yes, El Gaupo, I know a "plethora" is!)

This past Friday, we, meaning Excuse Me, go to Lily Flannagan's on Long Island. We're there to check out the venue as we are going to play there in January and, the main reason, to meet our new friends, Monkey Wrench, the only Foo Fighters tribute band in the country. We met them through MySpace.com and the helped us get the gig at Lily's for January. They asked us to come out to their gig as a special guest and play a couple of songs.

It was a fun night. I really enjoy the songs of Foo Fighters. The guys of Monkey Wrench are incredibly nice. I am so looking forward to doing gigs with them in the future and seeing their shows. That's what it's all about. You make friends with other bands, from other areas, and you do shows with them. So we played "Sunday Morning" and "Just a Girl" to quite a good response. Here's a picture.

















(Don't ask me why Nicole is making that face or odd dance move.)

At some point before we go on Jay turns to me and says. . .mind you, he hadn't even finish one beer at this point. . . "Dude, I snorted wasabi today!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, let us pause for a moment to let that one sink in.

Jay, our normally levelheaded drummer who happens to have a penchant for tattoos and mohawks, snorted, in other words inhaled up one nostril in the manner one intakes cocaine, that green paste that you get when you order sushi. Wasabi is a ground horeseradish paste that will make your eyes and nostrils run faster than someone who has washed back three-alarm chili with a six-pack of Olympia beer runs to the bathroom. I purposely eat this stuff when I am congested. Jay snorted it!!!

In the discussion, I come to find out a few enlightening facts. One, he wasn't the only person to snort wasabi today. His ex-girlfriend and her cousin joined him in this act. Two, he was sober. And three, it was the first thing that they did today as in, "Yeah, we just had woken up and decided to snort the wasabi. And man, did it burn!! The whole left side of my face felt like it was on fire! My eye was watering real bad!"

Ya, don't say!! Never in a million years has the thought crossed my mind to snort wasabi as the first thing to do in the morning. Hell, eating sushi that early in the day has never crossed my mind. Usually, the first things I do are get some coffee, go to the bathroom, curse the alarm clock, maybe try to get my ex-girlfriend (when we were dating) in the mood for morning sex and other normal morning activities. Snorting wasabi has never crossed my mind at any given point of the day.

This is just another example that shows how and why Jay is a drummer, and not another type of musician such as a trombone player.

The second random thing was said at a gig on Saturday afternoon. We played this Hurricane Katrina Benefit in Jersey City that really didn't have a great turnout. Besides the 4 poets who participated, the organizer and his wife, the restuarant owner and two waitresses, we had a audicence of. . . . .drumroll please. . .2. Got to love gigs like that.

So Jay and Nicole are playing around before the gig. I am joining them in the playful banter as I stretch my arms. At one point I look away and I hear the following come out of Jay's mouth.

"Don't tickle me or I'll fart!"

Yes, that is a sentence I didn't imagine I would hear that day as I woke up bright and early for guitar lessons. I really don't have much more to add or comment on that one. So I'll just end this post and take my bow.