You’d think the Christmas season would be a natural for a column like this, but you’d be thinking wrong. First of all, there’s the fact that almost everyone you know is either out of town visiting family (therefore leaving you with no one to go see stuff with), or has a bunch of people in town, usually of the “old friend” variety. Of course, there’s also Christmas presents to buy, dinners to make, gifts to give and eggnog to be slurped. And, as most area artists also have their own families and commitments, musical and other artistic endeavors are often short-shrifted in favor of playing again in the New Year. In other words, not jack to do, and no time to do it in.
Speaking of gifts, how about the Charlotte Bobcats laying the wood on the New Orleans Hornets 94-93 at the Coliseum last Tuesday? (Is it curious to you that no one, not even Harrelson Ford, has offered a new Tahoe or two for naming rights to this place?) Granted, the Hornets were one-for-the-year before playing our orange crushers, but beating the former bugs helped — as I heard a team announcer say on the radio after the game was over — “get some closure” for the “deep wounds” inflicted when the Hornies left. Now, I’m as big a sports fan as the next guy — long as the next guy ain’t, say Tom Arnold — but “closure”? How did these sensitive souls survive the “lost years” period between losing the Hornets and getting the Bobcats?
“Hey Bob, wanna go check out the Panthers? They’re a fun team to go see…quit yer moping!”
“Naw, sorry Mitch. I just…I just…it wouldn’t be fair to them.”
Having helped bring closure, the Bobcats also attempted to bring clothes-ure: basically, if you brought a handful of Hornets schwag — say, that old Tim Kempton jersey you’ve been hanging onto — you got free Bobcats gear in its place. My question: why were these people holding on to this stuff all this time? Were they hoarding this useless, no-collector-value junque in preparation for such a night? Or were they just too cheap to buy a hat? Only Robert Johnson knows for sure.
Regular “residencies” at music clubs are a highly underrated attraction. You can literally see a band “working through” their music at such a regular engagement, sanding off the rough edges and polishing the songs to streamlined perfection. If done well and honestly, you almost become a fan without realizing it.David Childers and the Modern Don Juans do a semi-regular gig at the Comet Grill, a great if off-the-beaten-path restaurant and bar located off Ideal Way in Dilworth. Besides having the best french fries in town, the bar is also a two-tiered bandbox, making it perfect for checking out the likes of DC&TMDJ. Childers has said he brings three changes of clothes to his Comet shows, the better to stay dry during his four-hour (!) sets.
(If this image of the burly Childers as a costume-changing diva makes you laugh, you’re not alone. Then again, maybe he’s just trying to get some use out of that old Rex Chapman shirt.)
Last Thursday, I entered the hallowed walls of The Milestone Club for the first time in almost a decade. The place that has hosted shows by the likes of Nirvana, R.E.M. and Black Flag has reopened with a focus on local and regional acts (at least for the time being). Man, what a place. It’s not for the white-glove set so much, seeing as the walls are covered in painted graffiti, the tables are covered with Sharpie-d paeans to the female form (and a few to the male form — go ladies!), and the bar’s specials run more towards $2 tall-boy PBRs. But it’s fun, and it’s no-nonsense, even if the surroundings do lend themselves to some nonsense on occasion. There’s a weird kind of safety that comes in being in a place like this — warm, cave-like, and sort of set off from the rest of the world (or at least the guy in the parking lot who kept hassling me to “borrow my cellphone” for “a few minutes,” whereupon he would “bring it back.”)
The best part of all this? Pa Bell was wearing — I kid you not — a Charlotte Hornets sweatshirt. So maybe that’s the idea, I thought. These Hornets shirts are going to the homeless! George Shinn always did well by the homeless in Charlotte, and now he will be unwittingly clothing even more of them with old-school Bugs gear!
That said, if his Hornets don’t start doing something soon, there might be even more homelessness in Shinnie’s future. His own team’s.
This article appears in Dec 22-28, 2004.
