Raw and Wry, Rags to Riches

Once upon a time, it was a good night if there was one interesting happening on any given evening.

No more.

Plenty of nights I end up having to choose from several very appealing options.

Like last Tuesday night, I had my pick of a lauded dance documentary, the Oberon Quartet or the Listening Room.

And there was no way to do more than one.

Tonight I had the same dilemma: Ghost Light Afterparty or Live at Ipanema.

I never miss either (well, unless I'm in another country).

So off I went to Ipanema to meet a friend for dessert (banana coconut cake), see friends and hear Dead Professional.

That would be one half of the Cinnamon Band and the purveyor of wry and raw pop songs and elemental rock and roll riffs using a cheapo guitar and rudimentary drum loops.

Just the thing on a Sunday night.

Using two mics for different effects, he delivered wry, raw and elemental to a rapt crowd.

Rapt, that is, except for the table closest to Dead Pro, who proceeded to try to talk louder than the man with the cheapo guitar and the drum loops.

Le sigh.

Explaining that it was only his second show, he said, "So I'll be back" and launched into "Bad Memory."

At one point, he started a song, singing, "Don't be cruel," before stopping and saying, "Let's come back to that one."

It was a nice segue into an unexpected cover of T Rex's "Main Man."

Then it was back to cruelty and the unfinished song, with the evocative lyric, "Don't keep on twisting the knife if you're not gonna cut me loose."

It was an understandably short set, but I'm counting on him being back.

The bonus was a short set meant that there was still time to get to the GLAP, where tonight's theme was "rags to riches."

I don't know where they come up with this stuff.

Walking in at intermission to find a lobby full of people eating pizza, I ran into Princess Di for the second time today, along with neighbors who hadn't been able to get hold of me to invite me to their Mardi Gras party.

They insisted that next year I just show up on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday, with or without an invitation.

You don't have to tell me twice.

I asked about what I'd missed, only to be told that it was a chill, coffeehouse-style evening for a change.

Perhaps it fit the set at Richmond Triangle Players tonight, one with stained glass windows and a massive wooden door.

Once the second half started, host Maggie began by saying, "Keeping the theme loose, I'm going to do an Elvis song. At least I think Elvis was the first one to sing it."

Let the record show she proceeded to do a killer version of "Can't Help Falling" with Scott accompanying her on guitar while Audra held her phone so he could read the music.

Starlet Knight took the stage, saying she'd had way too much bourbon (someone in the back yelled, "No such thing!").

Mid-song, she paused and said, "This is where the key change would be but I'm not going to do it."

That garnered major applause.

Matthew got up to impress us with Barry Manilow's "Weekend in New England" with Ben, sporting a mohawk, dramatically playing the keyboard for him.

"He's such a drama queen," Matt joked when he finished.

In a roomful of drama queens, who would even notice, much less care?

Aaron and Matt sang a song after announcing that it would mean a whole lot more to them than us.

At GLAP you just let people do what they need to do.

Carla and Matt did "Somewhere Out There" from "An American Tail," that classic piece of cinematography.

I was reassured to know that the cheese factor was as high as usual.

Matt stopped the room cold with his rendition of "Waiting for Life to Begin," saying that song had gotten him through some not so merry moments and even some sad orgasms.

Sara sang a song from Les Miz, but the best part was when she finished and shared that, "I spat on myself in the middle of the dramatic moment."

One reason I like to sit in the first or second row is because I like to see people spit when they perform. True story.

Ben of the Mohawk gave us a Tammy Wynette song, "Till I Can Make It on My Own," segueing nicely into Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" and causing a mass singalong.

Honestly, I had no idea so many people knew the words to that chestnut.

When it came time for raffle prizes, a friend won tickets to "Riding the Bull" and luckily for me, he and his lovely wife already had tickets for it, so they graciously handed them off to me.

See, you meet the nicest people at the GLAP.

Gray was called up to sing and Maggie praised her costume, saying, "Gray got entrance applause just walking in tonight."

It may have been the curlers made of cans in her hair, it may have been the smeared lipstick and blackened tooth or maybe even the ruffled white panties she flashed for us.

All at once, Starlet Knight volunteered to give the farewell song and even promised to do the requisite key change this time.

Boy, the time goes so quickly when you come in halfway through the festivities.

But I'd also made it to both can't-miss events, so the win was mine.

Who's got time to wait for life to begin?