NEW YORK NIGHT TRAIN DOES MARDI GRAS 02/27/06

9th ready to rumble (EP)

Ms Pussycat is a Gun Girl (EP)

9th at Proteus

Peaches marches w/the 9th

3rd-rate tribute to Zinner

Twilight at One Eyed Jacks

Once again I found myself in a mad rush to a parade with Trachiotomy – but this time on foot and without the soundtrack of “Parle Gras” – but at least sans rain. And we were on our way to one of the oldest and coolest parades of the celebration, Proteus. 2006 was the first year that the 9th was invited to take its place among some of the most legendary bands and floats of the entire celebration. When we got there the 9th was assembled in the middle of a grassy esplanade getting ready to roll. I ran off with some New York friends to get a good spot for the spectacle. Taking off in front of a spectacular sunset, Proteus was more breathtaking than I had imagined. The 9th appeared fairly early in the parade and once again looked sharp – perhaps a bit tighter and more formal than on Saturday. The set and the band members were the same except that original Crash Worship member Jeff Matson’s face was peeking out of a tall teepee, the Ninth Ward Power Re-arranger was riding a weird contraption, and Peaches was their special guest gong player.

As it got later more parades were going by and it was impossible to get a taxi and the streetcar was of course out of service – and nobody’s phones had any reception. I needed to get to One Eyed Jacks in time for soundcheck but I didn’t know when that was, if my band would be there, or any of the other details. Plus I couldn’t find or get in touch with anyone. After walking a few miles downtown I finally got in touch with Trachiotomy. I met him and some of the 9th just in time to witnessed a scuffle between El Tonios and some frat guy with a funny jester hat that kept coming off of his head every time he was ready to kick some ass and going back on each time he retreated. We regrouped in the Circle Bar – giving my barking dogs a much-needed break after the hours of walking. I worked out an arrangement with Tonios for a guitar amp for later and got directions to the venue. So, after a day of lost meandering, all I had left to do was trek a mile or so, navigate the heavy parading on Canal, and I’d be the first member of my band at One Eyed Jacks.

Of course everything got screwed up. Nick from Viva l’American Death Ray Music, our singer and guitarist, was caught in the same static Mardi Gras traffic I was stuck in the night before. Tonios hadn’t made it with the amp. At least our drummer Jay Hough was there. To top it off, Quintron, who was totally exhausted from his super-human efforts of the last few days, informed me that we were scheduled to go on an hour earlier than we had been told. Nonetheless, he was super-nice about it, loaning me his bass amp – which I was a bit concerned about - but wound up sounding pretty interesting with my loaner guitar and Big Muff through it. The other catch was that, as I learned not long before showtime, the guitar I obtained didn’t have a strap. Anyway, we didn’t get on too late and the place was already sold-out and jam-packed. I took set my camera on the amp and wound up with what wound up looking like an extremely amateurish imitation of a Nick Zinner audience picture while I waited for the others to get tuned up. It was a rough but righteous show. I kept trying to anchor the side of my guitar against my hip with my right arm. Other times I either tried to stand to the left of the amp and wedge the guitar between my body and amp or squat on the ground and let it rest on my leg. Other than that, we actually played pretty well for a bunch of unrehearsed New York art fags with a drum machine and the kids rocked much harder than I had anticipated – but I think they were starved rabid and would’ve gobbled up anything put in front of them at this point.