The Best Concert Experience Ever.. NJC

[Blair Fraipont]

I have to share this experience with others. It took place on Super Bowl Sunday and missing the game didn't even come into my mind as the excitement of seeing this group was building within me for a week. I went with my good New York buddy, Litza.
It was a group called The Three Terrors and consisted of Stephen Merrit of the Magnetic Fields and two of the male singers from 69 Love songs, Dudley (The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side) and L.D. (All my little Words, Bitter Tears). They perform only once or twice a year and when they do, each show has a certain theme. This year they were playing at the Bowery Ballroom ( I was overly excited to finally have a reason to go there. For years, favorite bands or artists leave their mark at this infamous spot) and the theme for this years performance was Intoxication!!
Yes, they performed two sets of songs either about drinking, smoking, or other rarely documented songs about chemical altering substances.
There was an opening act, a belly dancer, who I swore was a man or tranny, but Litza corrected me, No, those were female child bearing hips! The belly dancer was accompanied by two men dressed up as U.N. inspectors who were probably there to inspect any Un-American activity. It was a gas. The belly dancer gave them some exotic cocktail in a martini glass and they both passed out. At the end of her set, the belly dancer threw candy, glitter, and artificial dollars with her face on the bills onto the audience.

She deserved and received a huge round of applause and now it was time for the stage to be set for The Three Terrors!! There were so many different musical instruments I was squirming with anticipation for the show to begin. There was a baby grand piano, a synthesizer, guitars, guitars, guitars, a banjo, shakers, finger cymbals, a toy piano, a little wind up toy-jug bear, ukelelee (sp?), a large vase-like wine jug which was hit on the top with a soft plastic covered hammer, and more that I cannot recall at this moment.

Litza and I were right up front enthralled by the transformation of the stage to a seemingly esoteric musicians garage sale. The band came on to an uproarious rise from the audience. Stephen Merritt and LD were both wearing pajamas and Dudley the Cute guy was decked out in some sort of fur vest and a headband with a feather. LD later joked that Dudley was wearing a Merkin vest and Dudley replied, No, it is chunchilla.

They began with a salvation army stomp-folky number, One Toke over the line, followed by a Tom Lehrer song about a 1920s drug seller, Old Dope Peddlar they would sing the songs together and LD, Dudley and Stephen would all have their solo numbers. They did everything from Love is the Drug by Roxy Music to Mothers Little Helper to Sugar Town by Nancy Sinatra and dug as far back as the 16th century for some sort of drinking madrigal, We Be Soldiers Three. Throughout the show there was so much in between song banter!! I love when performers are giddy and full of life. LD, DUdley and Stephen Merritt all openly joked with each other and even with audience members. And because of this the show felt very relaxed, open and freeing as compared to other performers who may seem stiff or inclined to play and get off the stage as soon as possible.

Well, after the second set they came back for an encore of Initials from the Hair soundtrack and then the Belly Dancer and a stage hand began to hall large cases of Rolling Rock Beer unto the stage!! There was about 5 or 6 of these which the Belly dancer and Dudley and a stage hand began pouring the beer into specialized Three Terrors plastic cups and passing them to the audience! And as they were doing this the band and Stephen Merritt started singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Before you could say intoxication the entire audience was singing along to this usually tiring song. The beer seemingly never ended. 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall was constantly changing, which made singing it so much fun, first it was a cherry, bright sing-a-long and then became a slowed down maudlin number then, picking itself off its feet becoming a rousing number once more. People were forgetting numbers and even Stephen Merrit went from 65 bottles back to 69!
And as we hit 69, 59, 49 and so on, He would halt the audience, shout, CHORD CHANGE! and the audience would stumble into another chord. It was great. But the best part was to come. All night the singers were passing a big bottle of Courvosier back and forth, Stephen Merritt in his frog croak of a voice said, Its good for the singers throat and tongue-in-cheek- Pass the Couvosier. Well, about down to 25 bottles of beer, with Couvosier in hand, Stephen Merrit poured the remnants of it into Litza's and mine own glasses. What a thrill, especially for Litza who has been a staunch fan of Mr. Merrit since the mid 90s.
The concert finally ended and Litza and myself slightly tipsy and elated exited the Bowery Ballroom into the snowy New York Sunday night.

Blair
NP: Heavn is A billion Light Years away, Stevie Wonder





_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail