If ya missed it: Saturday's show @ Sleepwalk
Introducing the King of All Stage Banter...
Sup everybody,
This past Saturday Miracle Sweepstakes played a fun last minute show at Sleepwalk in Bushwick. Unlike last time, we did play “Bad Bee.” But more on that later.
Opening the night was our pal Jeremy Good Job, who hopped on the bill Monday, and apparently wrote most of his set during the week. Tru Trickheads may recall that Doug, Ian and I backed Jeremy up at Windjammer back in March, but as this show was so last minute that MS didn’t even practice for it, Jeremy flew solo this time out. My favorite song was “Penis Gun,” which I unfortunately didn’t get a clip of, but a close runner up was this one (“Email About John”?) which Annie captured:
After Jeremy was Castrated Caligula, who Hit played with at Cobra Club a couple months ago. They were great, and provided free fedoras for the crowd, which everyone was too afraid to wear, despite the fact that they were the crowd at a Miracle Sweepstakes show. Their bassist Will also traded me this Frank Santoro graphic novel for the flyer:
Then our asses were up. As I mentioned, this show was last minute, so we didn’t have a proper band practice beforehand. But we did have a spirited discussion about our stage presence, which many would call “nonexistent.” Thankfully for me, the discussion veered away from “Craig should talk more” and landed on “Doug should play Howard Stern clips through his looper pedal.”
This was to be a three tuning set, so we’d need all the Howard and Ozzy we could get. First up were the drop B songs, including the one we wrote just for the metal show earlier in the month. In hindsight… not a metal song:
But I do think it would pass the Howard workout test, which he gets into here:
Could you work out to “Axeman’s Delight”? I dunno, I think you could, it has a vague “Good Times Bad Times” kinda feel and it’s about the most heightened state of being in all of rock ‘n’ roll — having no parts written and not being fluent enough on your instrument to make them up on the spot, but winging it anyway:
Setlist:
Rapture
New Drop B
Axeman’s Delight
O-Pine
Lambchop
All This Way to Come Back Now
Bad Bee
Mary, Where Are You?
As Ozzy sings on “I Just Want You” off of 1996’s Ozzmosis, “There are no indisputable truths/And there ain’t no fountain of youth/Each night when the day is through/I don’t ask much.” Everyone seemed to have fun, and that’s all ya can really hope for. As I listen to the song now, I close my eyes and picture Howard, all those years ago, in the personal gym of his palatial mansion out in the Hamptons, pumping iron while Zakk Wylde’s rotary-drenched solo ascends heavenward. Who knows what’s beyond the “invisible seams” that separate this world from the next, or what “uncriminal crimes” or “unkillable thrills” we’ll have to explain to open that “unlockable door.” All we know is the fun we’re having now.
Keep Poundin’,
Craig