Drive Like Jehu, The Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI

I don't normally pull out old stuff to post here, but I was cleaning out a drawer today and found this review of Drive Like Jehu from *just* before I moved to San Diego. I thought I'd share it with you.

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Just got back from Ann Arbor - Went with Dave M., met Jeff H. & Michael C. at Schoolkids Records at about 7:00 PM. Went to see the Drive Like Jehu show. But first, we walked around looking for an air conditioned bar to have dinner in. Found one but we were denied - lobster night or some shit like that.

Finally found a good bar, The Full Moon, I believe. They musta had 50 or 60 beers in bottles, plus Guinness & Bass on tap. Dave had wings and part of a Guinness. I had the California chicken season [sic] salad and a pint of Bass, and for dessert I had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Michael had a salad and a German wheat beer. Then he and dave split a big bottle of Belgian DARK beer. Crazy stuff. No head at all. Tasted like chocolate.

Before dinner we tried to find Mr. Hadde. No Luck. walked over to his house on the 500 block of E. Ann Street, but we didn't knock.

After dinner, we were leaving and figuring out the tip (about $10 on a $42 tab) I asked the waitress how to figger out ten percent for her gratuity. She laughed. We told her we had to keep our tip karma up.

We went to Mike's car (we'd all parked in different parts of town) and began burning the fires. Mike decided to find his friend's house, so we went mobile. Got to his friend's place - shit ALL over the porch, man! Crazy. But no one was home.

'Bout 9:30 we headed for the Blind Pig for the Drive Like Jehu / Tanner / Custom Floor show. Custom floor started at about 10:30. Mike and Dave ended up shooting pinball with the bassist (a chick that mike said he was attracted to even though she wasn't really very attractive).

Both warm-up bands were incredible.

Before the show, Mike, Dave and I all had a shot of Jagermeister. Num, numb. Good stuff. Then Mike and I split a bottle of Bass and a Bell's porter. Then Mike ordered a bottle of Bass and one of Guinness - black & tans! Then we each had a Labatt's.

So eventually Drive like Jehu comes up. They were sweet. They played Here Come the Rome Plows, and a few others I recognized. The singer said after the first song, someone had to buy a shot of Jose Cuervo for the bassist (his 29th birthday) after each song. After a while no one was buying one. Mike and I were down on the floor by then and ran to buy shots. We came back and gave 'em to him. While we were at the bar, the singer came up behind us and asked if we were buying shots.

Cool huh? It gets better.

So we give him the shots and the singer asks what do we want to hear. I said track nine on the new one. He made me hum it for him. Anyways, the roadie said, "You had half of it on your shirt." I was wearing my Nine Inch Nails shirt, it says "SIN" really big. Turns out the name of the song is Sinews. The roadie's name was Pete. He told me to come to The Casbah in San Diego when I get out there.

After a while, the bassist couldn't drink anymore. I was right up there and he said, "Can you help me out with this one?" and handed me the shot. I tasted it and said, "Hey, this is WATER, man!" So he threw it in this guy's face. Then the guy dumped his water bottle all over the bassist's head. Then Mike (the bassist) threw his guitar at the guy. It landed on the floor.

After the show they had to wrestle the bassist to the ground. 15 shots of tequila will do that to ya.

OK, so here's the thing...

Mike and I went up and talked to Rick (the singer) and I told him I was movin' and asked if he would show me around. He said if he wouldn't that someone else would. Talked to him for about 5 minutes. We split, and we both said to each other, "See you in San Diego." Creepy.

We all had a blast tonight. We all spent a shitload of cash to do it, too. Jeff even bought a round. Wow, what a guy. Crazy night, too.

On the way up to Ann Arbor from Ohio, we saw two accidents, both of which happened less than 30 feet from us.

Talk about good karma.