Return from Viva, pt. 2

[clevermanka]

For the rockabillies here, my review of VLV (some of it copied from my post to the rockabilly Yahoo! list.

Stardevils: Great show. Phenomenal energy that complemented instead of competed with fantastic sound. Lotta bands have fun stage antics that seem to be an apology for lackluster musical or songwriting abilities. Not so these guys. Some fun, innovative songs and one of the best stage shows I've seen. Also great to see a range of ages on stage together. Note to Tom Ingram: Put These Guys On The Main Stage Next Year. They deserve it.

Go Cat Go tribute: Wonderful show. I have to hand it to Eddie Clendenning for just getting up there and doing what he was asked: Sing and Play. The show wasn't about him, but he put his heart into it. A perfect combination of confidence and respect. Good job.

Something has got to be done about the screwed up check in system. Why are the people who buy tickets early punished by being in the longest line and then faced with a woman who can't read the teeny print on the badly designed spreadsheets? Ridiculous system. Another note to Tom Ingram: While standing in line, my friends came up with about 57 ways to improve the checkin system. Email me if you want to hear them. I'll edit out the obscene bits.

Ronny Weiser deserves a medal for hosting the meet-n-greet on Wednesday. This is always a great time. However, after missing this party for twoyears in a row, I noticed that instead of an informal jam session, now it's more of a mini-lineup show. Honestly, I preferred the jam session. Maybe it's not as organized and there's some dead air time, but I love seeing folks getting up to play together on the fly. Not only is it entertaining, but I think it better shows the talent of people who can sound great with no rehearsal. Plus, I've paid to see most of these bands at some point in the weekender. I miss the unstructured jam session.

The Jiving Competition: I'm in awe. Wow. Don't know if any of the people who competed are on this list, but if you are, great job. I think the trio shoulda come in second, but I guess since he was dancing with two girls he couldn't show off any of his fancier moves.

Speaking of the Jiving Competition, did anyone get a video of the winners victory dance? I'd be happy to paypal you some bucks to mail me a video of that. Email me offlist, thanks.

Martí Brom was amazing, of course. When is she not amazing? And god, she looks so incredibly hot! That woman is a marvel. She did a lot of stuff off the new album (that I bought but forgot to have autographed) and I really liked it. I wish I could see her more often. She tours Japan but not the midwest. Sigh.

I feel kind of dumb saying "Deke was great!" because he always puts on one of the best shows of any weekender and that's not exactly news. Also, since he's a friend maybe I'm a little biased. But damn that man is talented! I really like the sparse, pared down lineup he's got right now: Jimmy Sutton on bass and Chris Sugarballs Sprague on drums. They sound great together and I'm happy to hear this is the lineup that'll be touring soon. (Locals: They'll be in KC later this month)



Now the non RAB stuff:

I finally got myself some cowboy boots! Found a pair of red, black, and white Dan Posts and a pair of black Tony Lamas with white embroidery (fancy!). The two pairs together rang up (with tax!) for waaaaay under $300. I was really happy! We saw the same pair of Dan Posts at another store for $170--about $50 more than what I paid. So yeah, I'm gloating a little. I forgot to buy toecaps, though, so now I'm afraid to wear them until I can get down to Vanderbilt's this weekend. I'm a notoriously bad scuffer. Also in the shoe department: Found some darling Naturalizer sandal wedges. They are a bit stiff and need some softening before I wear them with bare feet but oh they're cute! And of course I can't find a photo of the style online. Grr.

We hit some thrift stores with friends but didn't find a whole lot. I did come home with a light green cotton mandarin duster, a travel-size bonnet hair dryer (for henna sessions), and something else that I'm not at liberty to disclose until kijjohnson decides if she wants it or not.

I'm the worst at buying travel presents for friends, but a couple cute monkey item cried out to be brought home for stuology. The rest of you lost out. Sorry. I'm a bad friend.

Overall, I did better at this weekender than I ever have. I stayed up until about 2:00 or so every morning, and was up by 7:30 (yes, a.m.!) usually, with an hour or so nap in the afternoons. Not bad! Got a lot of stuff done that way, including some dance lessons from Miss Wolff. 0verdrive and I took the first jive class, then some of the local RAB gals took the stroll class. I was definitely not ready for the level 2 jive class on Saturday, but hopefully with some practice we'll be ready next year.

The big bummer of the weekend: 0verdrive really wanted to try out our new dance moves, but I forgot to pack my Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate tablets, so I was really hurting by Saturday. It figures that the one time the boy is feeling uninhibited and in a dancing mood, I'm stiff and in pain. That was a little disappointing. A lot disappointing. =(

It was really nice to see that VLV has turned into less of a nazi fashion show. People still dress up and look sharp, but there isn't that hostile "I'm so rockabilly" vibe that seemed to be so pervasive the first few years. Or maybe I'm just more comfortable in the scene and by this point I don't give a rat's ass if people know I bought my denim capris from Newport News.

A couple people mentioned that they'd heard negative reviews of the weekender, but I really enjoyed myself this year. I've discovered the trick for me is to pick three or four bands a day that I really want to see (always including a couple I've never heard before), and limit myself to that. Otherwise, I get burned out. Four bands a day is enough for me. I know some folks can run a rockabilly marathon but apparently I am not that Hardcore.


And finally, photos!

Photos of the weekender
Photos of the dresses I made

I'm going to leave it up to 0verdrive to post pictures of the cars since it took me two hours to get these downloaded, resized, and then uploaded again to our server.