Raggorama Part 3

After the Ragg rocked and rolled we, same said buddy and I, hung out with the band and I made sure they were all “taken care of” if ya know what I mean. After their set I helped them load their truck with their equipment and got to see the “backstage” area of the bar we were at. Kinda cool when you help out and then are considered a part of the band. I always seem to be able to do that, at least if I know them and they know me. While we were lifting and loading there was a situation for the guitarist of Ragg and a set of keys. While trying to find them the bouncer door duder and I went back over to the booth where we, the band and my buddy and I, were at and he whipped out a 200 dollar flashlight. After the shock faded slightly I was able to form the cohesive question on the mind of anyone involved with a person that has spent 200 dollars on a flashlight. “dude…what?” I have to admit that the flashlight was incredibly bitchin, but not 200 dollars worth of bitchin.

The band parked the truck over near the backstage area and as I loaded a bowl, the guy in the car next to us started talking to us. Found out he was the canvas for a show called battle of the tattoo artists or something, a show on lifetime I think he said, and he had what looked like an iron on patch on his lower left back. It was a tiger shark and the art was incredible. Then he took off his shirt and the whole underwater theme came to the forefront. He had manta ray, the tiger shark had the moray fish skimming along on it, and some other fish as well. Truly amazing art and needless to say the artist that worked on his back won the contest.

The other lead guitarist had lost her leather jacket and I helped in recovery of said item, a bizarre trait I’ve had for years, and kinda tripped her mind out a bit. The trait for some reason simply allows me to find things, usually that people had been missing for some time. I’ve been led to hats on hillsaides that have sat there for a week’s time, bowl lids off of friends’ pipes that are on the floors of friends’ houses, little things that are sought, but evasive. Afterwards we headed back over to the bar front door where the bassist of Ragg was hangin out. This guy looked like a young Bill Nighy to the T. it was a wonder that no one else had ever told him he looked like the actor, I was his first and was proud of it. So I made sure his head had lifted slightly off his shoulders, and me and my friend left to head back to his house. After dropping him off at his house I headed back to my home, to while the night away playing with my website and grooving on the net. Till next time ….Adieu

Raggorama Part 2

They were playing with two other bands for a cover charge of two dollars only, so not only a good time but affordable as well. I had a fifteen dollar certificate for the specific bar we were going to so I laid it on them and got three rum and cokes for my troubles. I gave one to my compadre and I inhaled the two others and the party was officially started.

The first groups name was machine and they were actually pretty good. When doing the bar band circuit as a spectator you never know what your going to get unless you know the band already. All things considered I was pleasantly surprised by machine. The songs were rockin and the lead singers’ pipes were nice and limber. Since my brain refuses , unless repeatedly abused, to remember names of people I have no clue whose in the band called machine, but they was good. Then Ragg hit the stage. The guy and girl that basically are the driving force behind the band and its music greeted us warmly and so we hung out with them during machines stint. Then me and my buddy hung out and watched Ragg shred the stage from their little booth they had staked as their own.

Now the last time we, same buddy and I, saw Ragg they were in a different incarnation called Catharsis and they shredded. They had a girl singer, as they did in Ragg as well, and she looked like she was twelve. Both my buddy and I looked at each other and in unison asked the same question wondering if she was old enough to actually get into the bar or not. Then she opened her mouth and the demon she was hiding inside of her came out. It was a mind blowing experience to feel the music crashing over you as you witness a force of nature unleashed. It was a truly awesome show. And like all their shows, Ragg was not a disappointment in any way shape or form. The singer they had this night was not too impressive until she started to sing, and then like always (why I question them at all is truly beyond me) I was blown away. So blown away I actually bought 4 shirts, got TONS of stickers (which I have a tradition of sticking, if the band rocks, to the outside of my computer case and they are there of course. I’m installing it now!) and their EP type thing with a few songs on it. So, shirt for son, daughter, wifeykins, and I done I left to go to the car to drop off the shirts and things and to get a little more change in my head and then we were back into the mix. There was the 3 or 4 college kids rockin out in a 4 person mosh pit of their own designing and others huddled back from the lights of the stage in the darkness, nursing their respective alcohol libations. As the waves of sound began people would leave, but not as many as this small town should have leave, maybe they knew what was in store and were here to rock as well. There was never more then 30 to 40 people in the bar, counting the bands I might add, at one time which is sad judging the music that more people were not able to get into and onto it.

Raggorama Part 1

I’ve got the Hawaiian shirt on and I’m in the bathroom when I hear the wife say “take this to your father please” to the little monkey girl of my world. She troops up the stairs, not unlike a ..er..trooper, and she hands the phone to me. It’s my buddy calling from a payphone to tell me that the bus split without him. Fairly cheesy is my auto response and he agrees. I’m thinking that this will be a short night out fer me if we never get started so I tell him ill come pick him up and we’re on the way.

So after massive kisses to all the family and my love is known and acknowledged I’m off once again to see a band that I’ve had shoulder brushings with for about 10 years or more. Ragg. The only band I’ve ever heard that did a punk style rendition of somewhere over the rainbow. And I tell ya readerlings..it was a tasty angle on that tune.

On the road I went to an outlet mall center near where my buddy was ditched by the bus system in our area. For some reason, at least according to said buddy, the bus systems drivers had all left for their real jobs within the public school systems driving the big yellow busses and the public transportation system in the area needed to get some folks in fast for driving. Since that has yet to happen, buddy at a payphone at 7pm at night. I cruised by the store where he was at, talking to a friend he hadn’t seen in a long time, and he hopped in the car and we were off. I had one of those bizzarro malt liquor energy things and we shared it on the way with massive bowls smoked to the herb gods.

We hit the parking garage, the self same parking garage where the last time we saw a band at the same place we were going to to see Ragg we were not only hassled but also chastised for smoking some herb by a parking attendant that was I think MUCH younger then I. He said things like ”I expect it from these young kids (tried not to laugh at that one) but I figured you guys were smarter.” Now I don’t know about you but when I get lectured by people about the intelligence of smoking herb versus drinking and destroying my liver I want to ask them if they thought George Washington was stupid. Or Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin, or any of the founding fathers not to mention all the music and art and literature that was and is a direct result of heavy drug use and debauchery. The one thing that supremely irks me out is an uneducated public that believes the propaganda that their own government uses to dumb them down. So, we parked there again, and when the heights where climbed in our minds, off we set for the bar and Raggs performance.