December 1, 2004 (77 side) Welcome to FHBS 77 (soon)

Weekly Freak 77 is coming soon. Coming to a Freak journal web log near you soon. December 1st, 2004 will be the first show as the Freak Has Been Scenes overlap lovingly each issue. The night of our 17th Annifreakinversary Bash at the Cabooze starring the east Tx funk of friends of the Freak the Greyhounds & the rootsy gutsy bowieesque rock of the David Garza Band (also from Tx). Funky funky fun night all flippantly freaky night & into the next like freakstyle. You know?!? We will freak you soon: The 77th Weekly Freak is proposed to his the streets: April 11, 2005. Then you will be sharing in our Jazz(freakin)Fest Spring Edition (featuring our Cosmic Revival: Freak's 05 JF Live Picks) as we now have also achieved the milestone of being a quarterly magazine. The JazzFest full moon info is: 04.24.05 10:06 Universal Time. Thanks for being here. Bless you all. Love Love & more love.

Aerial view of New Orleans JazzFest

Scenes from the Freak's 17th Annifreakinversary Bash @ the 'Boozer

FHBS 76 :: Missing Muses 76

The Freak’s Missing Muses 76: These were the difficult misses for the scenescaping freak. Shows you know he’d go to if at all humanly or otherwise possible. So here are some of the ones that got away: Camper Van Beethoven @ 1st Ave, Wilco @ the Orpheum, Radiators @ Pint’s Pub (Rochester, MN), Electropolis @ the Cedar, Big Wu & God Johnson @ Cabooze, Vic Chestnutt @ Turf Club, Albino! @ Cabooze, Robyn Hitchcock @ 1st Ave, Scorpions @ Xcel, Particle @ the Quest, Tears for Fears @ the State, Trampled by Turtles @ Cabooze, Radiators @ Shank Hall (Milw), Jack Brass Band @ 5 Corners, & many many more.


woody guthrie cover art by matthew doubek

December 1, 2004 (76 side)

This marked the scene of the Weekly Freak’s 17th Annifreakinversary Bash with freak friends the Greyhounds (East Texas funk & soul music) & the very entertaining David Garza band (also from Texas) at the Cabooze. [freaknote: this night was originally to be headlined by Mofro whose van broke down] The night seemed electric with many loyal fans & faithful friends there the vibe was out of sight. There was a certain purple suited freak bouncing around as he danced & mingled all night. The always entertaining Greyhounds sounded excellent as they continue to improve & find themselves musically. I particularly enjoyed it when guitarist Andrew busted out the lap steel going off bringing it up a notch in the process. Keyboardist Anthony tickled & tantalized his way thru the show brilliantly & with seeming ease. After the Hounds, another great band from Texas the David Garza band tore it up to finish the night. Just prior to their start, leader David approached me, introduced himself & gave our magazine high props. And just as he said I would, I really dug their set & genre bending unique yet rocking style. After the show, I lured a few overly festive friends & bandmembers over for an impromptu castle rendezvous, which went into the wee-est of hours. So both of our 17th annifreakinversary bashes were major successes thanks to all involved. As we overlap these journalistic forays we will revisit this night in our next installment of this ever roving column.
On that festive funky & fun far out show & on such a positive uplifting note it’s time to end the Freak Has Been Scene 76 until we meet next time in the FHBS 77, which is due out around our blessed relaunch as a freaky quartlerly around Nawlins’ JazzFest spring 4/20ish time just prior to the worthy full moon of 04/24/05 or so. The “Infrequently Weekly but Frequently Freaky” Weekly Freak goes quarterly. As we close down our 17th year in print & look cleareyed toward our 18th, we have provided our readership with 76 editions thus far averaging 4.4705882353 issues per year. There’s some thing to that number. So this is a very important transition & recalibration that we (after 7 years running) move from a bi-monthly format to a quarterly. This will help us to help serve you better. As we head into our back nine (as a music magazine based positive themed “movement”) & as the freak meets his 40th year, it should be understood that the Weekly Freak is about much much more than just this magazine you’re holding in your hands (or from the screen you’re reading). We go deeply into many things seekingly freaking the whole way.

November 27, 2004

Looking for a soulful blast from the past, the freak ventured down to uptown’s Famous Dave’s in uptown for a Paul Metsa hosted multi reunions of the Paul Metsa Group & Cats Under The Stars. First; I’m gonna start out by saying this: In this awkward age of dividers (& division) we find ourselves in, Paul Metsa is a uniter. And, of course, you can quote me on that. The 3 set night was in a sense Paul’s history brought to life with an unbelievable cast of characters. Metsa was on fire & a good example was when he said in trademark tounge in cheeky Paul: “Thanks to everyone in this town for giving me the benefit of the doubt (pause)” [ad libbed]. The Paul Metsa Group (which I used to see very frequently early in my career on Minneapolis’s enriched music scene) rambled thru many old favorites & blasts from the past like “Iko Iko”. Then as Paul opened up the last set with Cats Under The Stars with his signature spacy guitar intro he explained the song to sum up his 25 years of playing music in Minneapolis before careening into “Robots on Death Row”. Other greats worth mentioning are “Jump the Rope”, “59 Coalmines” & toward the bittersweet end Bob Dylan’s “(It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue”. The latter is one of the most impactful tunes on me in my life thus far including my hearing it on 06/27/85 at my first Grateful Dead show ever. For these complex reasons I will never be the same. I wanna thank Paul for inviting me that night to his after party. I truly wish I could have gone. Check out Paul Metsa playing weekly (& freakily) at Famous Dave’s. He is a gem in the rough here in the tamer than ever Twin Cities. Visit: paulmetsa.com.

Cats Under The Stars

Metsa & the Freak

November 26, 2004

Fuelled by the fully activated full moon in Gemini, the freak went with a far flung last minute whim meeting the Zack (from Jack Brass Band, South Side Aces, Zack Lozier Painting, Weekly Freak, etc) for another zany assed funk laced Pleasure Pause down at the freak friendly 101 year old university neighborhood watering hole live hotbed the 5 Corners Saloon. A fantastic time was had by all in attendance I can comfortably assess. And on top of that: it was one ass shaking floor quaking funk flurrious time. Spontaneous come-bust-shun. Pleasure Pause will do it to you every time. Take it from a pro.

November 26, 2004 Full Moon

Full Moon Info: 11.26.04 20:07 Universal Time.

November 21, 2004 (later)

So, here’s another case of not getting eough leading to the freak again finding his funky self down gyrating wildly to Greazy Meal down the street at the Cabooze. Another dance driven night of potent hair raising Greaze graces greasily & easily the entirity of the Cabooze leaving no freak behind (except those in hiding tokers). The essential highpoints at this show ran rampant like a stoner kid at Willie Wonka’s styly pad. Some memorable faves were Zep fave “Good Times, Bad Times” along with an alltime freak personal fave in “I Can’t Wait For Tomorrow”. Another high moment was when Jeremy Ylvisaker sat in on unruly sweet spoken guitar. Super nice vibe & warmth of spirit permeated every corner of this gigs & freaks are already abuzz about just when the Meal might be returning to the (our) stage. Inquiring greazers want to know. Hints & semi-secrets: greazymeal.com.

Greazy Power Domes

November 21, 2004

The freak was unglued to any seat at the (unfortunanetly still sit down. hint hint) cozy crisp sounding Cedar Cultural Center for the David Lindley solo show, which was nicely opened by the talented Adrian Legg. Adrian’s set was genuinely good while packed with his good natured ramblings. Please don’t take this the wrong way: Lindley is a show that should demand that people dance so let’s make that a priority in the future. Let’s collectively do away with the sit down zombie crowds that poison our town’s truly great dancing (yes) live music shows. Freaks shall take back these venues. Do you think anyone was sitting when Jefferson Airplane played the Fillmore Auditorium or the Avalon Ballroom? Back off my stoned horse: David Lindley shined in this solo show (more rare than super duo Twango Bango withWally Ingram) choosing material from a number of sources & songbooks such as Pat McDonald’s “national holiday”, Warren Zevon’s “(beneath the vast) Indifference of Heaven”, JJ Cale’s “Tijuana”, some Danny O’Keefe as well as some of his own stuff like “Catfood Sandwiches” & the infamed “When a guy gets boobs” not to mention “Head Cheese”. Also thrown in for good measure was a twisted up Asian meets Appallachian murder ballad “Little Sadie”, which made a killing with the audience. David is by & far one of the most interesting & knowledgeable charmed wonders of our music scene & his warm personality always encourages positivity & goes fittingly with his sense of humor. He is easily one of the most multitalented (certainly multi instrumentalist) humans going about this planet spreading music & good times everywhere & back. A hero to many, very few revere him as highly as yours truly. Catch my interest if you can. Also visit davidlindley.com for great DL content & even some very entertaining quirky games. Really, I’m serious.

David Lindley & Timmy

November 20, 2004

Another mammothly anticipated freakshow live wire funky good time vibe tribe gathering bringing Greazy Meal together with their loyal almost royal following all feeling the love at the home sweet home town turf the Cabooze. The scene is always revived on these nights to the credit of the planet Greaze & the Boozer love cradle family style freak den. Others might argue it’s more like a living room. Either way I concur. My late arrival saw the band in high octane frenzification adorning the show were greaze factor staples like self styling “High Life”, stony seer sayer sweetened leafy “Urban Herbalist”, “Love One Another”, a beat the clocking “Vitamin U”, decades long local hit “Funkytown” & Curtis Mayfield’s funk opus “Superfly” via the Greaze gang. I hope they will continue to do a handful of shows every year at the Cabooze so as to carry on the Greazy way. All positive & a community of fun & care. All the time. Never sometimes.

November 18, 2004

Tonight was the much acclaimed super live show The Australian Pink Floyd Show at the Orpheum Theater. This was a super production timed to perfection with even orchestrated improvised solos & emotive moments all thru the 2 adventurous momentous sets. The 1st set showcased all material from the generation defining “Dark Side of the Moon” while the 2nd set effectively paid musical homage to most other significant Floyd. I highly recommend this beyond tribute band & also their live DVDs are really cool too.

November 16, 2004

Most all my hopes & dreams on this blessed day go to beautiful Dreamgirl on this her BD. She shines like no other. With that said, I might add: happy happiness to her & to all.

SUNSHINE