Well saw Ozric Tentacles at their last show of the US tour. It was at the The Funk Box in the Federal Hill section of Baltimore. I had been to this place about 9 years ago, when the club was called 8X10. The neighborhood at the time was not as nice as it is today. This section of town has gone under a revitalization like what Mayor Reed has down to Second Street. Had I known it was a cool place to hang out I would have gone down earlier in the day.
I actually stopped at The Wharf Rat on Anne street to have a few brews, and retrieve my mug. I had originally got the mug two summers ago when I was dating Erica. I figured I would be down their a few times a month and would get some use out of it. Well I was wrong, Erica and I didn't last. Go figure. So I have only been down two times since I got the mug, so I figured I should just take it home.
The Wharf Rat is a cool place in Fels point. The specialize in Oliver's brews (Wharf Rat at Camden Yards). The couple of times that I have been there someone has had their pet with them. Saturday was not an exception. A dude named Mike brought his dog in. It was well behaved, and pretty much kept to himself. That was until a woman brought in her two pugs. Nothing real exciting happened other than the pugs going "YIP YIP YIP" every once in awhile.
I got directions from Mike on how to get to The Funk Box from where I was at. Wasn't too hard to find. I got their about 7:30pm with the doors opening at 8:00pm.
Once inside the club didn't quite look like what I had remembered the 8x10. Well they had completely gutted the building and redid it. It had a second horseshoe floor that was more like a balcony.
Before the opening act I was able to chat with Brandi, the Ozric's tour manager. She was telling me about how they had to have someone at the circuit breaker during the philly show to reset it, cuz the band was blowing it every couple of minutes.
The opening act was Bill Burke. He was a solo musician that played an instrument called a Warr Guitar. He had some midi stuff and sequencers so he was able to play some pretty FRIPPY stuff. Way cool.
During the break between the opening act I got to chat with Jasper, their sound guy. We was discussing how cool it was to hear the DJ spinning some Eat Static.
The Ozrics came on shortly after 10:00pm, and once again they rocked. They really seemed into the show, John being a bit more vocal than he has been all tour. The improvs and jams were alot spacier and really got the crowd, which I estimate at about 250, going. There were alot of young people and more cute girls than any Ozric show I have been too. I got to dance with a few young honies, and one of them even got me high, Schweet!!
The show was over by 12:30ish and I was going to wait around to see if the band came out, but there were alot of other people hanging out and it was getting late. I decided I could wait until next spring, when they will tour again to chat with them. I had a drive home and wanted to get it started.
I had to stop on the way home to put the top up, good thing I did, because about 10 seconds after I get on the road again I run into a thunderstorm. It was coming down pretty heavy, and was starting to get hard to see. I was using the tail lights of the vehicles in front of me to help out.
I finally got home around 3:00am and didn't get to sleep until 4:00am. I drifted off to sleep listening to Stars End
posted by Evil Bastard @ 5:18 PM
