THE ROOM WAS TIPPING

Several pages into this Kid Congo Powers oral history thing, I'm beginning to get some of that reading-on-the-internet-for-too-long feeling. Woof. Still, his most recent album, Dracula Boots, is so fucking good that I feel somewhat obligated to finish this thing tonight. A standout quote from his tenure in The Cramps:

"If something bad was happening, Ivy would snap her fingers and point and we’d have to go beat someone up. It was like being in a gang - like a juvenile delinquent band… and it was great! It was my juvenile delinquent fantasy come true."

Watching people go crazy over Congo's "Black Santa" and "Waterfall" by Quintron last night was really gratifying. At one of the last Dark Matters, I watched every person dancing leave the room the minute a surf track came on. These jams are close to my heart and it's painful to kill a dancefloor. Last night, the vibes were top notch and nobody blinked when the evening ended with "Exploration in Terror"* ("The Dark Matter Theme" Geoff called it).

It seems like Brian rarely comes to gigs so when he texted me beforehand to say that he was coming, that this Dark Matter had a "magic vibe to it," I was really pleased. A little over 500 people stopped through over the course of the night. Unbelievable. Erin, Mike Jones and Maggie were slammed at the bar; Galloway and Mike were killer doormen; Aaron, Raj and Geoff all slayed. It'll be a welcome return to Elks next month.

* Ventures in Space was the first LP I owned -- the copy I play out is the very same one I got back in junior high.