Ivy Room
The last night of my one week vacation (that started out with "new years eve") was spent in Albany at The Ivy Room. It is a bar on San Pablo Ave down the street from Albany Bowl. The local drunks congregate now and then to witness some truly fine shows and partake of the cheap drinks (i.e. $3 pitchers of Miller High Life). I have been to the Ivy Room on one other occasion so I knew that a good show was in store. I grudgingly made it a point to get out of Sunset and the awesome Thai restaurant that Laurie took Tamara and I and two other friends to that evening. Thanks to Katie for footing the bill (oh, and why didn't you call when you were in town? mmm hmm). The Pra Ram was fab-o. I got us across the bridge in the nick of time to catch the Giblet Dribblers.
I picked up Mike and through the door we was. "Time to get a gun, that's what I been thinkin', I could afford one, if I did just a little less drinkin'" So goes one of the songs from The Giblet Dribblers. They were the band I saw on my first visit to the Ivy Room in July 2000 (in case you are keeping track). The drummer stands up, the bass player sits, the lead singer wears western boots, and there is a banjo player in every song. Sounds like good shit already don't it? Yep. If twanging tunes get your rocks off, this group is your, uh, (...evocative metaphor that would fit here?) "proverbial rock getter off'er???" Good fun, and sporting a new "look" that their image consultants forced on the band, to play up to the demographics of the East Bay "neighborhood bar scene". Check out their website linked at the bottom of this page.
The Mother Truckers came next. To be honest I wasn't impressed with the name, and was thinking that we would cut after two songs and get a case of Pabst and make love to it back at Mike's. After one song, I was hooked. This outfit does a professional level type of country music. Slick sounding and tight is the order of business for this group. But underneath all the musicianship and perfect harmonies, lurks the wit and sarcasm that save the group from "Music Row" blandness. Imagine hearing on country radio, a song lamenting the absence of the writers death, a song that contemplates the numerous ways to hasten the end in lieu of going to work. Maybe you would have heard that in the old days, in some clever whitewashed fashion from Bocefus and the like, but not any longer (Dixie Chics be damned!). This is the closest I can come to exemplifying the "saving grace" of the Mother Truckers. I bought a CD and was surprised at the friendliness of such a talented singer (the one playing ukelele in the pics below). If I could sing half that good I would be the world's biggest fucking primadonna, oh lord, don't even get me started. I was also very impressed with the lead guitar work, "big ups" as some would say.
What a great way to end a vacation, in a cool dive among a friendly crowd with some of the best bands I have seen in a long time. Enjoy the pics.
The two pics above are of the Giblet Dribblers - Taken by Mitch Carter
These Mother Trucker pics (not at the Ivy Room) were taken by Laura Sensabaugh, I found them on the web and she let me use them - see her site link below
back to Repeat and Fade home
See more of Laura's photos of other bands here
The Giblet Dribblers website
The Mother Truckers Website