Friday, October 23, 2009

I Heart Steve Martin

So yesterday Pete was calling to tell me he was on his way home so I could head off to school for the conferences that were scheduled from 1-8PM. Then he said:
"Oh, and so-and-so just came in my office and asked if we wanted to see Steve Martin tonight"
to which I responded:
"Oh shit. Can we do it?"
Pete and I have a mutual love for all things Steve. His comedy, his movies, his books and his music. We even went to see an exhibit of his personal art collection once when we were in Las Vegas. The man is a genius and an all-around cool guy.
Several hours later we were on our way downtown in the rain. Thank goodness for grandparents and an understanding co-teacher who took the last parent-teacher conference on her own. Hopefully those parents won't find out I skipped out on their child's conference for a banjo show. Or the principals, come to think of it.
We left home at about 7:10 and walked into the show an hour later, just as the band was starting their first song. We missed the opening banter, but still got plenty of great Steve Martin humor. Did I mention we were in row D? Thanks Rose!
This picture was actually taken from the newspaper. Last night Steve wore a red tie.
His music was fabulous- mostly his own pieces, and actually one of his first comments was "We play all my own music, which I think really distinguishes from other groups....who play all their own music."
Another one I liked: "This song is called 'I Think My Masseuse Is Too Chatty'" he then went on to explain that the label didn't think that was "bluegrassy enough" so he changed it to a protest song, which he called something like "Let's keep the minimum wage exactly where it's at".
At one point he told us he was going to play a sing-along, which would be really challenging because "there are no lyrics".
The band was great as well. That guy on the left in the picture played some mean fiddle on one of their last pieces.
And then their final piece was "a traditional bluegrass song..." and they launched into King Tut.

2 comments:

carrie said...

again, so jealous! spontaneous, downtown, banjo music, grown-up fun!

Joyce said...

You and that Pete? You are wild and crazy guys!