Blues, Beer, and Foulmouthery

Saturday, while Chief Justices were dying and Ralph Friedgen was mainlining bacon drippings, I did manage to make it to the DC Blues Festival out at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre. I got there in the middle of DeConstance's set. She has a tremendous voice, but did not have a band to match. The place was not even half-filled yet, so I got myself an excellent seat. After they finished up, there was a swift set change and then my main reason for being there took the stage: Candye Kane. Full disclosure: I am not that familiar with her music, having only heard a song or two before. (Though, I am quite familiar with her "early career".) I went because my friend, EMT, has testified to the greatness of a Candye Kane live performance and I had to see it for myself. And you know what? She was dead right. Even though she only had an hour to perform, and the show was not in an intimate club setting, Candye completely worked everyone in attendance. The description of her show as being like "a revival in an adult bookstore parking lot" is spot on. The set was funny, sassy and an all-around good time. And unlike DeConstance, her band was the equal to her singing. Unfortunately, I didn't see any merch for her at the tables, so I'll just have to buy online.

The original plan was to just see Candye, but after reading the bio of Sharrie Williams in the program, I decided to stick around for that, too. Once again, I made the right decision. Like Candye, Sharrie completely worked the crowd and had them eating out of the palm of her hands. The band was tight, too, kicking out some very good soul-blues jams. Definitely worth seeing again if she returns to the area.

I left after that, got home, and then got in touch with JG to make plans for the evening. The plan: let's go see The Aristocrats! We got CO into the fold and made an evening of it, starting and ending with beers at Harry's. The movie was, as expected, hilarious, so overloaded with great lines and images (Fred Willard, anyone?) that it would be ridiculous to try to get them all in here. Just go see it already.

After the movie, as mentioned just a few sentences back, we returned to Harry's and drank on into the night. Lots of fun was had, including wasting the film of some girl who asked me to take a picture of her group. (Unfortunately, she did not take the long way back to get her film, as I was prepared to take another quick shot of the boys, this time in full "deez nutz" mode.) What all was discussed, aside from the movie, is a bit fuzzy, though, I do know we spent a lot of time talking about what songs we'd like to perform karaoke style, including the three of us doing Snoop's "Signs", with CO as Justin Timberlake. Ha! Also, under the influence of beer and the movie, preliminary talk of doing open mic comedy was made, but that will have to wait until we've karaoked.

Today, I veg, after deciding against going to Hoss's. I know I'll regret it soon enough, but that sleep was solid. No complaints here.

Tomorrow, BBQ avec mein familia.