Dec 3 at Last Concert Cafe

Friday night at Last Concert Cafe had been a bit of mis-communication on the part of the good people at Last Concert Cafe. When we (PLUMP) booked the gig, the booking guy (for whom we will now call by the alias of "Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat" for the purposes of this story) said, "By the way, there is a private party happening at the Cafe on Friday night. They will be outside from 7ish to about 10. " I then replied, "How about we load-in** at 10 pm?" Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat says, "That sounds great".

**"Load-in" is a term that we in the entertainment industry use to convey the time in which the band will show up and load/carry all musical instruments/amps/pa/etc. from the band's motor vehicle(s) to the stage area of the venue.

So, as planned, we show up at 10 pm. The guy taking the door (let's call him Karl Mecklenberg) is already outside with the cash register and table set up from which he will be collecting money from people at the door.

Karl Mecklenberg says, "What has been taking so long? Where have you been?".

There are people in the venue saying, " What has been taking so long? Where have you been?"

I say, "We agreed with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat that we would show up at 10 pm because of the private party that was going on earlier this evening."

Karl Mecklenberg says, " The private party is tomorrow night".

I said, "Well, we can only go by what Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat tells us".

And Karl Mecklenberg says, "Well, Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat got it wrong tonight".

In the course of our setting up, some people that had shown up early to see PLUMP got frustrated and left. For that we are sorry. But please know that we did not show up late on purpose.

Now, Last Concert Cafe had a big white tent (roughly 20 feet x 40 feet) set up in the outdoor patio area. This tent had a "parkay" floor underneath. The tent and "parkay" floor were presumably set up for the private party that we now know will be held tomorrow. The tent/flooring situation was interesting--I had never seen this before at the Cafe. Indeed, it looked like a mighty fine dance floor.

As this gig was taking place in the jolly month of December, presumably a number of people had attended some sort of Christmas party prior to coming to Last Concert Cafe to watch PLUMP. There was one girl in particular (who is very close to the band) who did indeed attend a Christmas party before arriving at the Cafe. We will call this girl, "Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor" for the purposes of this story. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was shit-faced. Very, very, very, very drunk. As we were finishing setting up, she was cajoling and taunting us to start. And start we did. She danced to the music as hard as she could. She demanded that we play the song "Violent Pussy". We did. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor danced as long as she could. I think she lasted about 5 songs. Maybe six. The best part was during song #4 (Via Satellite) when Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was speed walking in circles on the parkay floor under the tent, arm-in-arm with another girl very close to the band (we will call her Barbarella). Barbarella and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor were going round and round shrieking, laughing, and having a good time. The next song, or at the very least the next time I looked up, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (SCJSDOC--I really must abbreviate from now on--the entire nickname is simply taking too darn long to type) was still walking around in circles on the parkay floor under the tent with Barbarella, but clearly SCJSDOC was leaning very heavily on Barbarella. Barbarella was supporting most of SCJSDOC. It looked to me like those instances when someone has OD'd, and a friend is frantically walking the ODer around and around the living room, trying to keep said person from passing out before the ambulance arrives. SCJSDOC and Barbarella were kind of staggering around. Still in circles. It was awesome. I guess it really could have been some sort of advanced syncronized dance, but I really don't think that was the case. SCJSDOC was losing steam as the song went on. Their circles were smaller and smaller, and their rate was slower and slower. The next song (song #6 for those keeping score), SCJSDOC was sitting in a chair, passed out, her head leaning on Barbarella. SCJSDOC clearly does not have much stamina in the drinking heavily and dancing in circles department.

We laughed and laughed. Later. And also at that very moment.