Baby Ate My Dingo - The Mapes

It was like watching superheroes come back to life, donning their costumes once again to save the world. It was like waking up to a Groundhog's Day nightmare, but not one that you would mind reliving over and over and over again. Front and center I found myself last Sat. night at the Dive, witnessing the return of the Mapes, where their chaotic, musical merry-go-round of a show reared it's ugly head once again. It's been over a year since they played, after Captain Whiskey decided to donate a kidney to cancer research, and they played soooooooo fucking good that it was hard to believe they haven't played in that long of a time. The crowd was rabid from the first note of the first song onwards, which was Your Pussy Makes Me Vomit, and after that it was all a drunken flurry of flour, marshmallows, cupcakes, hot dogs, a football pinata filled with something and an onslaught of booze, toilet water and gawd knows what else being sprayed around by water pistols the band handed out mid-set. They played basically every song that they know, except for Pigs In A Blanket, Mouf, or their Mummies cover, and they played a Civic Minded Five cover to end the set (was that the Lavin Lays Pipe song they did?), and they even included a shit load of new songs from some new album they promised is coming out sometime soon. Yeah right. Anyways, the Mapes played spectacularly, and they totally destroyed the stage at the Dive in the process, leaving John The Englishman sound guy yelling to anyone within earshot that he wasn't cleaning that 'fooking' mess up! LOL Fantastic turnout, great show, what a fucking night. I'm pretty sure everyone left the placed covered in flour. My camera was beyond fucked up and I don't care. If you weren't there, you missed out, of course, and it you were there, wasn't that shit fun??? :-) It was good seeing Clay out and about, receiving well wishes and congratulatory words, drink in hand, looking fit and happy. It was even better seeing him behind his dilapidated kit, smiling and having fun. Cheers my friend! That guys gonna be the Mayor of Las Vegas someday, wait and see.

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Not to neglect the other bands that played that night, because 2 out of 3 of them were excellent. The Seriouslys killed it in front of a mostly sedate, sober crowd, playing their bouncy Pop Punk to a very appreciative audience, and being able to hear their lyrics clearly for the first time had me grinning from ear to ear like an idiot. They're soooo cute! I'm digging the new drummer. She's really good. They're a totally different band now with her. Fantastic stuff. And Kid Puto, from Tucson, were pretty good too, sounding like a cross between Dirt and Naked Agression, with a dual male/female vocal attack that was brutal and cool to watch. They took forever to set up though, which was a drag. And that other band, King Clone, well, they were just weak, with a singer who spent most of their set facing the drummer and prancing and preening around. Wasn't cool when Jim Morrison did it, and 50 years later, guess what? It's still not cool when you're doing it. Music was pretty mediocre too. Whatever. They were the only misstep in a night full of wonderfulness. The Dive was packed with Friends and Family, lots of familiar faces, a few people who don't like me, some who tried to act invisible and were caught, and lots of laughs and smiles and good feelings. Thanks to everyone for hanging out with me, and special Thanx to the hott redhead for the lesson in gravity and water. :-)

Everything is updated. Lots of stuff coming up this week, and I'm hoping to get it all posted before I head Home to the Pow Wow this weekend. Everything is going great around these parts. Hope they are with you as well.