"Good Night Springton...There Will Be No Oncores!"

What I learned this past weekend:

Hippies, like the Amish, should not be entrusted with the task of setting up a sound-stage...

Sy and I went (with a couple of friends in tow) to the Bike-in-at the-Bell, which is an outdoor festival organized by people whom some might refer to as "biketards". Now, when I say organized, I'm using that word in its most liberal sense, and when I say liberal, I'm using that word as another way of saying clusterf*@%.

I arranged this whole outing in order to see my new favorite local band, Best Friends Forever, unseating my previous favorite local band, February, in the process...which is just as well, seeing as they've been defunct for about four years now.

The show opened with a trio called Ladyslipper. They played a few songs, five or six I think, before the singer announced, "We are Ladyslipper, and we have no power." We weren't sure if he meant that the power to the amps and stacks had gone out, or if this was just a general observation of the bands socio-political standing.

They (Ladyslipper) were competent enough; in fact, I was quite impressed with the drummer. I suppose the singer/guitarist was OK, but what I'll remember most about him isn't his hard-driving riffs or his gravelly voice, but the sight of him striking out while trying to arrange a three-way with a couple of girls in the crowd after his set had ended. Ouch!

Following Ladyslipper, a tap dancing trio called the Shim-Sham Shufflers took the stage. I have only one piece of advice for them: if tapdancing is your "thing", maybe you shouldn't have the music blaring so loudly that it drowns out any noise those little metal plate thingies on the soles of your shoes make. Put a microphone down on the floor of the stage or something, for goshsakes!

Finally, BFF took the stage. They opened up with a cover of a Steely Dan song:



Now I can't get that damn song out of my head. They were able to play three more songs before the power went out again, and that was all we got. Four songs. Man, that sucks. It was real fun while it lasted though...they had great stage banter and the least awkward crowd interaction I think I've ever experienced.

They're going out on tour now, and won't be back in my area until late August, so maybe I'll have to go see them again then. Check out their MySpace page for tour info...I guarantee a good time if you catch their show.*



*Not a guarantee.