Sunday, February 20, 2011

Being Turned On at the Camel

Guy: What do you want a shot of?
Girl: Um...uh...uhhhhhh...I want a shot of whatever.

Luckily, there were also musicians and Beatles fans in attendance at The Camel tonight in addition to shot seekers.

It was a late-starting show because of an earlier comedy show. It was after 11 when Lightfoot from DC took the stage, mentioning that it was their drummer's last night with the band before he leaves to seek fame and fortune in Hollywood. Seriously.

Fuzzy Baby followed them and made everything right with the world again. There's just something about the sound of a tuba and songs about instruments mating that makes a person appreciate the pleasures of Saturday night.

It was about 12:45 when Prabir and the Goldrush finally gathered their forces for the billed "I'd Love to Turn You On" show to include any number of Beatles' covers.

They did some original stuff first, including a kick-ass new song, before going back to the music of a band who broke up at least a decade before most of the people in the room were even alive. Just an observation, mind you.

It wasn't enough that they they were covering the Fab Four; they also had special guests join them throughout the evening. People like horn man Lucas Fritz, bar wench Melanie Rasnic, guitar player Kevin Wade Inge (of Horsehead) and Gallery 5 director Amanda Robinson all added to the musical mix.

When the tuning up portion of the show dragged on, Prabir explained, "All the songs we're doing, the Beatles never did live. Now we know why."

A sampling of what got covered: "Got to Get You into my Life," notable for Lucas' horn, a truncated "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,"and "I am the Walrus," brilliantly executed on Kevin's guitar and with the audience helping out on the coo-coo-ca-choos, "Fixing a Hole," a personal favorite already, totally unexpected tonight and now memorable for Amanda's version, "Eleanor Rigby," always beautiful because of Matt's bass playing and a rip-roaring take on "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" again by the awesome Amanda.

When the set closed, Prabir invited all the musical guests as well as Justin and Molly of Fuzzy Baby back up on stage for the final song. I was expecting "All You Need is Love" but instead we got the perennial Generation Z favorite "Bohemian Rhapsody."

We may have started in the 60s tonight, but we finished squarely in the 70s with the whole room singing along and swaying unevenly.

Proof positive that the Beatles' music lives on...and old Queen never dies, especially in a room full of people doing shots of whatever.

Guy: Here.
Girl: What is it? Doesn't matter. I don't care.

2 comments:

  1. glad you tied in bar talk. i overheard SO MANY people last night talk about how drunk they were...WHILE they were drinking..that's like pointing out a forest fire and not doing anything about it.

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  2. Don't look at me; I abstained last night. That's probably why I kept getting knocked into by the drunk dancers.

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