Puppets Take Manhattan! Meat Puppets 11/4/11 @ Le Poisson Rouge

The Meat Puppets return to NYC in this edition( the 59th) of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series which takes us to "Le Poisson Rouge" at 158 Bleecker St. Doors are at 6:30- show's suppose to start at 7. The deal is, there is a "dance party" scheduled at this same venue at 11PM. Lets see how this plays out.

Never been to this venue before. Found the place at almost 7 and headed in to check the room out. You walk in and the stage is immediately at the door to your left. Bar along the back, nice cozy room here. There are tables, but those are at a 2 drink minimum-and at this place that means $24. Seats not worth that much- especially with the 11pm party-it's already 730. I've stood for way longer than this before-this day in history-fat guy passed on seat.

Chatted with Elmo Kirkwood, Curt's son, outside the place before his friends showed up. Elmo used to have a band called Kirkwood-Dellinger that broke up and for this leg of the tour, he's with the Meat Puppets as a 2nd guitarist...as I told him- " to add a little extra oomph to this party".. I went to hang by the merch table after that, chat with some fans and hopefully run into some of the 100000 people I've been telling about this show for weeks. Noticed Curt walking around outside having a conversation with someone, and Cris also walked by me outside.

Found drummer Shandon Sahm inside. We got to talking a bit before he went backstage. Then Cris came out and was taking pictures with a few folks. I didn't wanna go over there at first because I remember the first time I met him-and I woulda been pissed if someone who's already met him several times came over and ruined my glory. So when the smoke cleared I walked over, we got to talking. The show at the Gorge was brought up, and Cris says to me “You know what band I was really diggin? Mastodon!”. Where ever I go, Mastodon will follow me. So he heads backstage, and is holding the door open for me, like to come in. REALLY?!?! Is this real life right now? So I head back there to see a relaxed Curt smoking a cig, Cris goes to pluck his bass around and Curt was saying how they had to go on asap after Dex Romweber Duo(the opening act I missed, but had SEVERAL people on the line tell me that Dex was the greatest thing since sliced bread, so Sunday I'll pay attention) because they had to be off by 10. Noticed Curt's Les Paul behind me-this will be the first time I've seen them live on the east coast where he isn't using the teal Strat. Interesting. Dex came backstage as he was finished, it was a little past 8 and I told the boys to have a good set as I was to run out for a smoke before they kicked things off. Before I left, I ran into Sean Yseult, The original Bass player from White Zombie. Cool chick too.


Anyway time for the main event as around 8:30 out come the legendary Meat Puppets! Led off with “I'm a Mindless Idiot”, “Touchdown King”, “Plateau”, “The Monkey and the Snake”.. This place is rocking-the sound in here is amazing, I'm all the way in the back(of this tiny room) taping with the coat check guy behind me, who has already stated he doesn't care what the hell I film. Great. I didn't catch “Coming Down” in time to get but after that they kicked into a triple shot of “Sam”, “Lantern”(from the new record Lollipop) and a cover of “Wasted Days Wasted Nights”(Freddy Fender) -all of which are uploading to YouTube as I type these word. Lantern is a great track-glad they're playing it on this tour. And I'm so pumped about hearing Wasted Days Wasted Nights live. That was freaking amazing.

“Oh, Me” was even extra powerful with the filthy licks of Elmo Kirkwood filling out guitar parts to just let his father shred. I present example A as the 8 minute version of “Up On The Sun”, which towards the middle always gets crazy regardless, now has an added twang to it. This is my 8th time seeing the band and they get more intense every time. Lyrics get screamed louder, guitars get louder, songs get heavier-and every single second of it is magic. To go from “Up On The Sun” to “Seal Whales” seamlessly may seem somewhat challenging to the laymen yet the legends Kirkwood(and Sahm) make it look easy.

Here comes my favorite moment of the night: “Hey Baby Que Paso”...another Freddy Fender classic, and a song I've been singing to the kitchen staff a work since I saw video of them doing it at SXSW. Love that damn song. Taped it, followed by “Light” and “Open Wide”. Open Wide was insanity. Then, I was able to be the first to have a 'Live' version of the song “Orange”(off of Lollipop) on to YouTube. I'm a mad genius at work taping mad geniuses at work. “The Whistling Song” and “Shave It”-another newbie but goodie followed.

Closing in on 10PM now, and what else to do now but bust out the Perry Como? Yea that's right, my grandmother would be proud she loved Perry Como. Anyway, the song is “Where Does a Little Tear Come From?” and it's awesome. And afterward they had a little blues jam going for like a minute, and recognizing the time, and the chords sort of, I knew it was 'Backwater'- a face stomping version of Backwater finishing off at precisely 10PM. But wait, Curt puts his glasses on at this point, and we're jumping into another tune past curfew. Not one, but TWO no less. It was the Beach Boys “Sloop John B” which lead right into a blow your mind version of “Lake of Fire”, to end the night at roughly 10:10.

The mother fudging Meat Puppets-changing my life every time I see them. I don't even know how I can improve my state of mind any more than I did tonight by seeing the boys tear down NYC yet again. Wait, I know the perfect thing to top this off-How bout I see them again Sunday in Teaneck,NJ at Mexicali Live?? Two words: Hell yes.

Catch you early Monday morning-LATE!