In order to combat the mood that I’ve been in over the past few weeks I decided to take in a concert tonight. When you are beginning to question life pretty much the best thing that you can do is see Cowboy Mouth. They are a hard rocking party band from New Orleans whose entire purpose is making you feel glad to be alive. That’s something that I really need right about now so I braved my way to the Voodoo Lounge at Harrah’s Casino to see the show.
I’ve talked about the Voodoo Lounge before but it bears repeating. In many ways this is an awesome venue. Great sound, perfect sightlines, and bathrooms that are both plentiful and clean enough that you don’t down penicillin upon leaving. On the other hand, I am forced to pay five bucks for a bottle of Miller Lite, the bartenders are slow as hell in that they can’t even open a bottle of beer without doing a Cocktail trick and the crowd always seems to be filled with refugees from the slot machines who will throw things at the band during a ballad about Hurricane Katrina. So keep that in mind.
This is the third incarnation of Cowboy Mouth that I’ve seen. Sonya is still on at bass and she is a good edition to the band and she might be the longest tenured bass player they’ve ever had. Seriously, it’s like every year they get a new one. Paul Sanchez left and was replaced with Vance Degeneres, which is good in that he’s famous from television and bad in that you can’t really call yourself the baddest band on the planet when your guitarist is named Vance. Fred and Paul are still leading the band and a lot of the songs are still the same.
It’s really tough to say this, but these shows are simultaneously great for me and horrible. I mean, I love the music and I play their CDs all the time when I’m depressed and just need to be reminded that this is an amazing place if you just open yourself to it. You can’t listen to their music and not brighten up. On the other hand, I could probably do without the drummer yelling at me to make some noise on every friggin song using the same spiel that he’s used in every show I’ve seen. Maybe it’s just that I’m not a jump up and down and throw your hands in the air type of guy. Or at least not while I’m sober and standing in the middle of a casino. I don’t want to fault the band for it but maybe I’ve reached the point where listening to Aimee Mann is more meaningful than Cowboy Mouth. Might as well officially designate me as being old.
Side note # 1: While walking through the casino I noticed that they had a special Christmas buffet on Monday. I’m not kidding, they were advertising a holiday themed extravaganza. Ok, I’ll admit that a lot of the time I get down on my life but I’ll have to admit that I have yet to reach the point where the casino buffet is my best Christmas dinner option. I don’t know what is sadder: that there will be people lined up to gorge themselves or that there are some poor souls who will have to work on Christmas to cook and clean and work the cash registers.
Side note # 2 (particularly written to Erik): At the show I saw what has to be SBEM’s evil twin. Looked exactly like her except with pitch black hair. I didn’t do a double take, more like a twelve-times take. I was simultaneously extremely attracted and scared for my life. Like if I talked to her I would be transported to Bizarro world or something.
Side note # 3: I think everyone has one song that whenever they hear it a sly smile comes across their face. No one else knows why, it’s just a song that connected to a moment of your life and you’ve never let anyone else know the real reason. For me, it’s Moby’s “Natural Blues”. And trust me, hearing that song while watching a New Orleans band set up had me grinning from ear to ear. You want to know the story? You’ll just have to wait for the novel. No one would believe that it’s true anyway…
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