Friday, May 20, 2005
Birthday Bash
So I walk into the after-party at Snitch, girls are dancing on the tables and the tops of the booths, past the crowded bar and the round stage, through the velvet ropes and into the VIP lounge. A wonderful girl who's throwing the party comes up to me and says - "I'm so glad you came - Can I get you a drink?" A whiskey & coke arrives in my hand seconds later and she says - "You just missed Slash - he was here right before you got here. It's great to have you here. How was your show?" The magical part of it is - I don't think she knows who I am.
We've just come from the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash at Irving Plaza - which was awesome - it's the show I've been looking forward to for months. The show sold even before the lineup was announced - and the lineup this year was dynamite and totally fresh - the only acts that came back from last year were the Bagpipers and you guessed it the Lucky Devil Circus Sideshow. I get to the venue early for soundcheck in the mid-afternoon and I've never seen Irving Plaza - or any rock venue so clean. The hardwood floors are shining and the carpet on stage is spotless. Which reminds me - I need to test the confetti cannon.
We needed a new finale for the show and I want to set off a bomb - but Irving Plaza wouldn't allow any fire or pyro effects. But my buddy Dirt from the Modern Gypsies has just developed this new prototype cannon that shoots pounds of confetti. Dirt can't come perform with us - but says we can use the cannon in it's first ever unveiling for the public. Cool - Very Cool.
But I've just loaded it up and I want to test it out before the show. And the club is sparkling clean - so when Ekaterina arrives we go out to the corner and plug into the nest of wires in the bottom of a streetlamp post. and there on the corner of Irving Place and 15th St. - we blast off the cannon. Confetti goes flying - but then it stops. I've overloaded it and it jammed. So I load it up again with just under a pound of confetti and figure it's cool.
The bands are soundchecking one after another and I'm loading our gear in. I go to squeeze into the tiny dressing room right beside the stage - and the stage manager says, "No you're upstairs this year." So I go up the narrow stairs beside the stage to the big dressing room, where The Saints are rapidly emptying the beer fridge, and on into the red room.
I just painted my hammer and drill silver before I left the house and so I put them out on the windowsill to dry. I get out my swords and the watermelon, my straight jacket and the cannon. The Saints soundcheck sounds awesome as more and more people make their way into the venue for the moster lineup of 10 bands.
Then it happens - Marky Ramone comes out and sits behind the drum kit - looking across the stage it's a who's who of rock and roll history - and out comes Ronnie Spector. She starts singing and everybody stops loading in, running cable, and tuning their guitars. The bartenders, the stage managers, and all the bands find their way out in front of the stage to watch them soundcheck like our own private show.
Magic Brian shows up along with Caution Mike and Chvad S.B. our camera crew. We run through our acrobatics in the balcony and then hit the beer cooler in the dressing room.
Showtime - Harry and the Slashtones hit the stage and we're all amped up. Brian and I get into our straight jackets then down the stairs into the wings to get chained together with 70 feet of steel chain and blindfolded so Ekaterina can drag us out onstage as the air raid sirens ring through the monster speakers. In her cute Russian accent she says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the Lucky Devil Circus Sideshow. My name is Ekaterina and I want to introduce you to Magic Brian and Tyler Fyre." She rips our blindfolds off and the roar of 1,000 people is barely drowned out by "I Wana Be Sedated."
Now we're really amped up - The Suffrajetts take the stage and we're getting the swords and the watermelon ready.
By now Matt Pinfield from MTV is here and he introduces us. After swallowing the big sword - I cut a watermelon in half off Brian's neck and it smashes down onto the stage. They go nuts and I introduce The Waldo's with Walter Lure from the Heartbreakers who played on three Ramones albums and toured the world with The Damned, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols.
I'm watching the show from the balcony off the dressing room and then The Bouncing Souls came on - and they just kick ass. A huge mosh pit breaks out in the middle of the audience and we're right on top of it looking straight down into the mouth of madness. They play their last song and a guy crawls up on stage and starts singing along - A ginormous security guy comes out and pushes him off into the crowd - then another and another and another - until the stage manager comes out and tells the security guy to chill because it's hopeless - so the stage fills up as packed as it is in the front row. They're all singing along and bouncing up and down from the stage to the back of the room in one of the greatest rockstar finales I've ever seen.
Now The Saints are up and then us. But there's trouble in Paradise - John the stage manager pulls me aside and says - we may have to cut the confetti cannon because the club wants a cleanup fee. That's our finale - so I say - look I packed it light - under a pound of confetti - it won't be that bad. Before we go on he comes back and says, "Pack it heavy - we're paying for it - so blow out all the confetti you can fit in it." Hell yes, we'll do even better than that.
I bring The Saints off stage and introduce Ekaterina who comes out bending twisting and stripping - contorting into positions that would make a cat cringe - she's killing them - and they love it. Brian and I walk out put the confetti cannon in her hands and hoist her up in the air cheerleader style - she hits the trigger and the air fills with a whiteout flurry of confetti. When the canon has blown it's load - Brian and I grab two buckets of confetti and feed it into the cannon covering the first fifteen rows, the stage and after the show I saw some up in the balcony.
It's as good as it gets - the crowd is screaming up through a wall of confetti - we throw out T-Shirts and thongs to the crowd who leap up and snatch them out of the air - and then it happens - the moment I've been waiting for since i got the lineup. I introduce Ronnie Spector - who used to dance at The Peppermint Lounge where she met her bandmates and formed The Ronnettes, before she married legendary rock producer Phil Spector who recorded all the great Doo Wop records of the era, Ronnie Spector who was backed by The Beatles and The Beach Boys, who had songs written for her by George Harrison and Brian Wilson. Now Ladies and Gentlemen - Ronnie Spector with Marky Ramone and the Friends of Joey Ramone.
I love the rock and roll crowds and the rock and roll energy. It's been so much fun to perform with all the great rockers we've been honored to meet - and this one I can even call home about - since it's someone my parents have heard of!
We've just come from the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash at Irving Plaza - which was awesome - it's the show I've been looking forward to for months. The show sold even before the lineup was announced - and the lineup this year was dynamite and totally fresh - the only acts that came back from last year were the Bagpipers and you guessed it the Lucky Devil Circus Sideshow. I get to the venue early for soundcheck in the mid-afternoon and I've never seen Irving Plaza - or any rock venue so clean. The hardwood floors are shining and the carpet on stage is spotless. Which reminds me - I need to test the confetti cannon.
We needed a new finale for the show and I want to set off a bomb - but Irving Plaza wouldn't allow any fire or pyro effects. But my buddy Dirt from the Modern Gypsies has just developed this new prototype cannon that shoots pounds of confetti. Dirt can't come perform with us - but says we can use the cannon in it's first ever unveiling for the public. Cool - Very Cool.
But I've just loaded it up and I want to test it out before the show. And the club is sparkling clean - so when Ekaterina arrives we go out to the corner and plug into the nest of wires in the bottom of a streetlamp post. and there on the corner of Irving Place and 15th St. - we blast off the cannon. Confetti goes flying - but then it stops. I've overloaded it and it jammed. So I load it up again with just under a pound of confetti and figure it's cool.
The bands are soundchecking one after another and I'm loading our gear in. I go to squeeze into the tiny dressing room right beside the stage - and the stage manager says, "No you're upstairs this year." So I go up the narrow stairs beside the stage to the big dressing room, where The Saints are rapidly emptying the beer fridge, and on into the red room.
I just painted my hammer and drill silver before I left the house and so I put them out on the windowsill to dry. I get out my swords and the watermelon, my straight jacket and the cannon. The Saints soundcheck sounds awesome as more and more people make their way into the venue for the moster lineup of 10 bands.
Then it happens - Marky Ramone comes out and sits behind the drum kit - looking across the stage it's a who's who of rock and roll history - and out comes Ronnie Spector. She starts singing and everybody stops loading in, running cable, and tuning their guitars. The bartenders, the stage managers, and all the bands find their way out in front of the stage to watch them soundcheck like our own private show.
Magic Brian shows up along with Caution Mike and Chvad S.B. our camera crew. We run through our acrobatics in the balcony and then hit the beer cooler in the dressing room.
Showtime - Harry and the Slashtones hit the stage and we're all amped up. Brian and I get into our straight jackets then down the stairs into the wings to get chained together with 70 feet of steel chain and blindfolded so Ekaterina can drag us out onstage as the air raid sirens ring through the monster speakers. In her cute Russian accent she says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the Lucky Devil Circus Sideshow. My name is Ekaterina and I want to introduce you to Magic Brian and Tyler Fyre." She rips our blindfolds off and the roar of 1,000 people is barely drowned out by "I Wana Be Sedated."
Now we're really amped up - The Suffrajetts take the stage and we're getting the swords and the watermelon ready.
By now Matt Pinfield from MTV is here and he introduces us. After swallowing the big sword - I cut a watermelon in half off Brian's neck and it smashes down onto the stage. They go nuts and I introduce The Waldo's with Walter Lure from the Heartbreakers who played on three Ramones albums and toured the world with The Damned, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols.
I'm watching the show from the balcony off the dressing room and then The Bouncing Souls came on - and they just kick ass. A huge mosh pit breaks out in the middle of the audience and we're right on top of it looking straight down into the mouth of madness. They play their last song and a guy crawls up on stage and starts singing along - A ginormous security guy comes out and pushes him off into the crowd - then another and another and another - until the stage manager comes out and tells the security guy to chill because it's hopeless - so the stage fills up as packed as it is in the front row. They're all singing along and bouncing up and down from the stage to the back of the room in one of the greatest rockstar finales I've ever seen.
Now The Saints are up and then us. But there's trouble in Paradise - John the stage manager pulls me aside and says - we may have to cut the confetti cannon because the club wants a cleanup fee. That's our finale - so I say - look I packed it light - under a pound of confetti - it won't be that bad. Before we go on he comes back and says, "Pack it heavy - we're paying for it - so blow out all the confetti you can fit in it." Hell yes, we'll do even better than that.
I bring The Saints off stage and introduce Ekaterina who comes out bending twisting and stripping - contorting into positions that would make a cat cringe - she's killing them - and they love it. Brian and I walk out put the confetti cannon in her hands and hoist her up in the air cheerleader style - she hits the trigger and the air fills with a whiteout flurry of confetti. When the canon has blown it's load - Brian and I grab two buckets of confetti and feed it into the cannon covering the first fifteen rows, the stage and after the show I saw some up in the balcony.
It's as good as it gets - the crowd is screaming up through a wall of confetti - we throw out T-Shirts and thongs to the crowd who leap up and snatch them out of the air - and then it happens - the moment I've been waiting for since i got the lineup. I introduce Ronnie Spector - who used to dance at The Peppermint Lounge where she met her bandmates and formed The Ronnettes, before she married legendary rock producer Phil Spector who recorded all the great Doo Wop records of the era, Ronnie Spector who was backed by The Beatles and The Beach Boys, who had songs written for her by George Harrison and Brian Wilson. Now Ladies and Gentlemen - Ronnie Spector with Marky Ramone and the Friends of Joey Ramone.
I love the rock and roll crowds and the rock and roll energy. It's been so much fun to perform with all the great rockers we've been honored to meet - and this one I can even call home about - since it's someone my parents have heard of!
