The Hart-Witzen Gallery, that lovable ramshackle flat, hosted something called the Emofest Saturday afternoon featuring bands like One Six Conspiracy, The Darkstar Observatory, and My Personal Hero (Following the established Emo code of ethics, nearly every band had three words in its name). Entering the place, I anted up my seven dollars and headed for the concessionaire for some refreshment. Seeing the table littered with Coke and Sprite cans, I began to sweat. “Um, I don’t suppose you have any beer?” my friend asked with a hint of fear in his voice. “No, said the gentleman. “Be nice, wouldn’t it?” We all shook our heads knowingly. Venturing into the crowd, one thing became obvious: we were the oldest folks there, by a margin of at least five years. Settling down, we caught the beginning of Dark Star Observatory’s set, which basically consisted of a warm-up dirge of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Cherub Rock” — appropriate with the number of rosy young cheeks in attendance all goofed up on caffeine. The band launched into some rather decent original songs, but I started feeling weird since the band members were all over a decade younger than myself, coupled with the fact that I still can’t play guitar or bass after years of trying. Feeling proud of the young’uns and a little depressed at my decrepit old ass, we left the Emofest to take solace in something truly adult — cold beer. Turning the corner, we were nearly run over by two or three girls who couldn’t have been older than 11 or 12, carrying guitars. I’m all for creative expression, but what could these girls possibly find to emote about? An allowance freeze? A shortage of Harry Potter books? Two scary beer-deprived adults sipping cokes and grinning at them? Er, scratch that last one. — Tim C. Davis
Stomaching the Goo: On Monday, WEND-FM 106.5 hosted a “Goo Goo Lunch” for a dozen or so contest winners with the main entree being a chat with singer John Rzeznik and bassist Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls. The band, in town to promote their latest album (due out soon), fielded questions from fans and talked about everything from politics to hanging out with the Panthers’ new head coach John Fox (they ran into him at a restaurant or something) to visiting the set of Sesame Stree recently. Apparently head Goo (Rzeznik) isn’t too keen about file sharing on the internet either: “I don’t want to be a volunteer musician.” While the quirky Takac thinks the terrorists’ conspiracies began with the whole Bush/Gore voting spectacle or something along those lines. After taking in all the Goo, including stories of their “early” days when they would pretend to shop in grocery stores just to eat or wander onto college campuses to shower for free in the gyms, I found the most interesting part was when Takac took a seat next to me and divulged secrets about certain policies they have on the set of Sesame Street. I’m not at liberty to discuss what I’ve learned about Elmo and the gang; in any case, the star then began to mumble something about Al Qaeda. — Lynn Farris
Where’s the grins? Ace & TJ of Kiss 95.1 FM hosted a benefit show Saturday at Amos’ Southend for their Grin Kids fund (the morning show hosts use the money to take terminally ill children to Disney World). If turnout was any indication, Mickey might get a little lonely this year. The show, billed as the first annual Queen City Jam, was loaded with local talent, but the crowd was a bit small and hardly managed to fill one level of the club. Despite the fact that they were mostly playing in front of other folks who were there to play as well, 4th Ward, Bel Air Saints, Thirteenth Door, Jill Austin Band, Bridge and Charity Case played their asses off, and you gotta give props out to that. A few blocks away, however, another spot was overflowing with folks who probably could have managed to contribute a few bucks to a worthy cause and work in a few of their lame pick-up lines as well. Come on, folks, even a company party with a karaoke machine is more interesting (thanks Christin, Craig, Lindsey and Steve!) than standing around an over-crowded bar vying for someone’s attention. — Lynn Farris
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2002.
