The Bottom Line, June 6th 1998:

Quail:

LJ, Woj, Gary "Black Bart" Assa and I arrived in plenty of time to get great seats, and after an embarrassing incident where three waitresses in a row made passes at Gary, we settled in with beer and gin-soaked olives. Most of these we had to pry from LJ's fingers, if not directly steal from one of her three million martinis. Alas, the menu did not feature anything as provocative as "Agony of Pleasure Waffles" or "East Grinstead Wings," but I did have a few carrots, and one of them had a blemish which looked like Deni Bonet, so it was not a total loss.

Tim Keegan was really cool -- I never saw him before, and I thought he played two damn good sets, especially his first, more light-hearted set. The beer was so expensive that I couldn't buy "Acoustic Homer," "Sonic Marge," or even "Eno Three-Speaker Maggie," but I'll keep my eyes peeled for them in the future.

Robyn. . . . .

Well, by now you have all heard that Robyn is doing the piano thingie, and that he started Set the First with "Silver Dagger," which is my mom's favorite song.

It was a great pair of sets, and Robyn's hair looked like it was designed by Jim Henson's Workshop. I have never heard him play acoustic guitar more tightly, and to hear "Flavour of Night" on piano was even worth Woj's dire glare when I made a few audible squeaks of delight too close to his craftily concealed taper microphone. But still, the highlight for me was "Victorian Squid," which I have never heard Robyn sing. Maybe it's the recent Oscar Wilde revival that's infected the lad's blood, but that lovely tale of Victorian sexuality was belted out with a deliciously squidariffic intensity.

lj:

The two Bottom Line shows Friday night were great! I brought my new roommate, The Big Ragu. We met up with fellow fegs Gary Assassin, woj, and ferris. We all decided that Gary's new name should be either "Black Bart" or "Jet!" I myself prefer Jet! because then he would have a cool name with an exclamation point in it. And then of course every time you say hey Jet!, your mind finishes it by going "woo-hoo-hoo-woo-hoo-hoo-woo-hoo-hoo!"

(sorry to every person who now has the WINGS LYRICS CURSE for the rest of the day!)(but not really sorry, it kind of makes me feel satisfied)

We had chicken wings and fries.

Jeff Rosedale:

I'll try to string together a few random reminiscences of the June 12 Bottom Line shows...

Began with Cynthia Mask... wearing black shirt with large white polka dots early, slamander shirt late... hair seemingly grown longer since last time... did solo acoustic, acoustic duo with Tim Keegan, piano (yes!), and back to acoustic again... both sets featured about four songs I had never heard, which was a blast... two piano songs per set, Flavour of Night and one new song...

The Storefront opening will be on November 18 at the Film Forum in NYC...

Standout songs for me were Trilobyte, 52 stations, Queen of Eyes (with Tim), Chinese Bones, Viva Sea Tac, the early performance of Jewels for Sophia, and I'm Only You... he played IODOT but I like it better with the electric guitar... he strummed an entire song at the end with a plastic fish...

Banter was highly enjoyable, including bits about gourds "lit up from within", mistaken notions about going back home again, tomatoes growing out of radio sets, and re-living the bus tickets of your life (1974 being a year of bus-tickets, now looking kind of grainy)

... suffice it to say both shows were great.

--Jeff