Rock Lotto

Last Friday night was the second annual Rock Lotto organized by Moe! Staiano. It was a benefit for Dax Pierson. I was assigned to Michael Mellender and Matthias Bossi from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Vicky Grossi from Bitches Brew to form a one-time-only rock band. The name of the band was Hammer Girth. I think. It was a last-minute name.

K came down from Portland to hear the Rock Lotto. He recruited his buddies Danielle and Angie (DnA) who came down from Davis. (Again, K exhibits exemplary fan behavior -- not only coming to the show but bringing friends!)

Had there been an award given out for Most Obnoxious, Hammer Girth would definitely have won it. We did an extended dissonant rhythmic vamp with no resolution. By the time it had gone on for ten minutes or so, the crowd was howling in protest and ready to start throwing chairs at us. It was great. :) We had the most visceral crowd reaction of any band there. Danielle told K she thought she'd just been part of an evil social experiment.

All the bands were creative. It's amazing the array of musics that result when you tell people from the creative music scene to play Rock. I was really impressed with the band led by Jessie Quattro. She is a very compelling front-being and Dan Rathbun, Moe!, and the guitar player (whose name escapes me and I apologize) gave her tight backup.

I got to re-connect with Rebecca Seeman, who was a grad school classmate of mine. She is now the choral director at USF. It was really great to catch up and hear what she's been up to.