My Life in the 90s
I was looking for the name of a band member from Dhamba 8 a couple of nights ago, and my Google search turned up this listing from the archives of the Daily Illini, U of Illinois' student paper.
Blind Pig: Tonight groove out with the Mighty Pranksters; Saturday it's the World Beat sounds of Dhamba 8; Sunday kick back with some jazz from Danny Deckard Combo; Don't forget the Afghan Whigs next Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 3 and 4. There are still a few tickets available for both shows. Next week is a big week with the Drovers Friday, Nov. 5; Paul Cebar and the Milwaukeeans Saturday, Nov. 6.
The Doctor and I practically lived at the Blind Pig. Looking back at these shows, we probably went to nearly every one of them. I'm sure we went to the Dhamba 8 show. I don't think we missed them any time they came to the city. We knew the drummer fairly well, and I once booked them for a benefit concert for WEFT, the radio station where I worked and volunteered during my life in Champaign-Urbana. The Drovers were guests on my radio program and friends of a friend. We saw them dozens of times while Judy was in grad school.
We also never missed a Paul Cebar show, catching him in Champaign, Chicago, even Cincinnati when he came out that way. I remember plugging the Afghan Whigs show, back when Greg Dulli was the indie rock darling of the moment. Funny that we would end up seeing shows at Sudsy Malone's, the Cincinnati bar-cum-laundromat where the Afghan Whigs played their early shows.
We probably skipped the Mighty Pranksters, a jam band with overly developed affinities for the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers. Danny Deckard, however, was their drummer, and we probably caught his set.
The memories came rushing back as I recalled all the nights dancing maniacally at the foot of the stage. I've never found a bar as great as the Blind Pig. The Pig sat behind the main street of Champaign in an area where the town had tried to create a pedestrian mall. It was kind of hidden, but had that just-discovered-around-a-corner feel for a good bar. For the first few years, it was a cramped two room place, with a tiny bar in front and the stage and dance floor through a cramped door. The bartenders grabbed their liquor from the space under the stairwell. Later, they expanded to the storefront next door, creating a larger U-shaped bar around the stairwell. Then you could see the musicians from the front windows and the place felt much larger.
The owner was an ex-pat Brit who sacrificed a lot of earning potential to bring in great music. I saw Uncle Tupelo there. Liz Phair just after Exile in Guyville came out. Gil Scott-Heron, Lonnie Brooks, a zydeco guy, maybe Warren Ceasar, who lead us out into the street in a second line.
Now, for the last ten minutes, I've been surfing around, checking out the new Blind Pig, and WEFT, the radio station where I worked. The web is just one giant scrap book, where the past is constantly updated.
Blind Pig: Tonight groove out with the Mighty Pranksters; Saturday it's the World Beat sounds of Dhamba 8; Sunday kick back with some jazz from Danny Deckard Combo; Don't forget the Afghan Whigs next Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 3 and 4. There are still a few tickets available for both shows. Next week is a big week with the Drovers Friday, Nov. 5; Paul Cebar and the Milwaukeeans Saturday, Nov. 6.
The Doctor and I practically lived at the Blind Pig. Looking back at these shows, we probably went to nearly every one of them. I'm sure we went to the Dhamba 8 show. I don't think we missed them any time they came to the city. We knew the drummer fairly well, and I once booked them for a benefit concert for WEFT, the radio station where I worked and volunteered during my life in Champaign-Urbana. The Drovers were guests on my radio program and friends of a friend. We saw them dozens of times while Judy was in grad school.
We also never missed a Paul Cebar show, catching him in Champaign, Chicago, even Cincinnati when he came out that way. I remember plugging the Afghan Whigs show, back when Greg Dulli was the indie rock darling of the moment. Funny that we would end up seeing shows at Sudsy Malone's, the Cincinnati bar-cum-laundromat where the Afghan Whigs played their early shows.
We probably skipped the Mighty Pranksters, a jam band with overly developed affinities for the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers. Danny Deckard, however, was their drummer, and we probably caught his set.
The memories came rushing back as I recalled all the nights dancing maniacally at the foot of the stage. I've never found a bar as great as the Blind Pig. The Pig sat behind the main street of Champaign in an area where the town had tried to create a pedestrian mall. It was kind of hidden, but had that just-discovered-around-a-corner feel for a good bar. For the first few years, it was a cramped two room place, with a tiny bar in front and the stage and dance floor through a cramped door. The bartenders grabbed their liquor from the space under the stairwell. Later, they expanded to the storefront next door, creating a larger U-shaped bar around the stairwell. Then you could see the musicians from the front windows and the place felt much larger.
The owner was an ex-pat Brit who sacrificed a lot of earning potential to bring in great music. I saw Uncle Tupelo there. Liz Phair just after Exile in Guyville came out. Gil Scott-Heron, Lonnie Brooks, a zydeco guy, maybe Warren Ceasar, who lead us out into the street in a second line.
Now, for the last ten minutes, I've been surfing around, checking out the new Blind Pig, and WEFT, the radio station where I worked. The web is just one giant scrap book, where the past is constantly updated.
posted by cieux autres at 10:16 AM
1 Comments:
Who ya looking for? Say's a voice from across the sea, it's me, tunji, the drummer from Dhamba 8, well one of them anyway, the Champaign one. Right now I'm in Hong Kong.
My wife, an avid web surfer (http://dacountesslife.blogspot.com/ ) sent me a link to your blog. We had just been skipping down memory lane ourselves searching out a band called the Coctails. Anyway, did you find the Cowboy Monkey in your search for the Blind Pig? It's in the same location and Ward still books it. He also handles The Highdive, (same owners). Both places have great music. http://www.cowboy-monkey.com/ http://www.thehighdive.com/
So..
Qui est Cieux Autres ? You can find me at myspace.com/babajunk
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