Seems I'm not the only one who's memory banks came up with all kindsa stuff after the passin' of Ernst "Ernesto" Kamphuis... My pal Robbert B. posted some age old footage of Ivy Green on Youtube playin' (what I think was) their final gig right here in Utrecht. And yep, that's me talkin' to Tim and Dr. Bibber... Dig it right here and here.

For more old footage check here and here.

And dig this story by all round good guy Niels...

All hail Ivy Green!

Ben Gart was lucky enough to catch Ben Weasel and his crew in full flight out the Windy City way last night. Let him tell you about it...

The crowd was antsy waiting for Ben Weasel to come on last night, screaming and yelling for him and the band to get started. This was the first of two nights and it turns out that it was going to be something special -- Dan Vapid was on stage getting his guitar tuned up and was part of the band tonight. (Dan is one of the nearly-original Screeching Weasel members who stuck it out thru about 1996)

The point of this show was to play the first Lookout Records (and first formal/Ramones-inspired Screeching Weasel lp), MY BRAIN HURTS, from beginning to end. As such, Vapid played second guitar and did back-ups, it was pretty magical to have one of the key ingredients of those early tunes available and willing to play. Made a huge difference, I think. The band was tight, played the first “side”, one tune after another with barely a chance to breathe between tunes. Ben was in a good mood, appeared to be having a good time with the crowd, band, and songs.

He took a few minutes to talk about the next set of Chicago shows in November and to taunt the assholes in audience – some things never change (and in this case, that's a good thing). The band then kicked back in and played thru "side 2" of MY BRAIN HURTS solidly and faithfully. The audience sang along the whole way and clearly had a blast -- me included.

Ben told us that he wasn't going to play the encore game of leaving the stage only to come back. The band tuned up, huddled and agreed on the tunes they'd finish up with. The rest of the set was comprised of a couple of tunes from the BOOGADA, a few from ANTHEM FOR A NEW TOMORROW, some latter SW and Riverdales and one or two songs from THESE ONES ARE BITTER. Naturally, there were other songs I would've loved to hear but having the opportunity to hear my favourite Weasel album in its entirety was a golden experience. Like a number of fans, I have a lot of memories tied in with that record and the times I spent listening to it over and over.

Thanks to Ben for this chance to step back a little in time and relive some more youthful times.

I was going to go see "Killer of Sheep" today but I guess that's been bumped. The reason? Well, the arrival of a certain Swedish album that I've been on tenterhooks about. First impression is that it's just as overwhelming as expected. Amy went back to the USA yesterday and there are a half dozen songs toward an album with David Scott that'll be coming together over the next wee while. There's a lot of great music coming out over the next month. Stuff that's worth holding on through for the humdrum for.

It's not raining today either so I'm going to grab some fresh air to the beat of those Modern Short Stories. I'm going to check out some travel agents for flights to Barcelona because this on-line booking shit is akin to buying insurance. Mind-numbing. And I'm not sure that the bargains that are made out to be there actually are.