dBs/Mayflies USA
I've been remiss in having not weighed in on the dB's show (I know, it's been over a week), but the folks that contribute to the dBs web presence have done a pretty good job of reviewing it (especially Jeff Hart from Brown Mountain Lights). But I'll mention a few things...First of all, I'm sorry I missed the Mayflies USA when they were together. Their opening was the first time they've played out together in a few years and they were really, really good - good enough that I just picked up one of their CDs. Great set and clearly some of the capacity crowd were there for them as much as for the dBs.
And what a crowd - I've gotten used to going to Cradle shows lately (because there've been a lot of reunion shows) and finding that I'm (at 46) one of the younger people there but this one was astounding even to me. A measure, I guess, of the reach of the dB's legacy and the local popularity that they've enjoyed long past the time they were still a band. Peter said something from the stage about people he hadn't seen since high school and I would not doubt that there were in fact a bunch of folks that went to high school with the guys in Winston-Salem back in the day. Other than that, you can see from the comments on the dB's website that it was a night for local rock legends. We said hi to Stan Lewis (original SCOTS member) and Terry McInturff (local guitar god/guitar maker) and saw Dave Enloe from the Fab Knobs but apparently the show was on the floor near the stage where it sounds like every band that ever hit a lick around here was represented. Including (and I think this is cool as shit) Joe Hackney, the newly-elected speaker of the state house. (It's nice to know that the rock-and-roll generation has well and truly taken over...)
The show was every thing I'd hoped it would be with the slight exception that they started off with my favorite song (Black and White) and it was a little flat. Everything after that was stellar. There probably wasn't anything that I just really wanted to hear that they didn't play except maybe Dynamite. The Chris Stamey-led songs like Ask For Jill just sparkled (and this from someone that's been more of a Holsapple fan) and he seemed to be having just the time of his life - I became a huge Chris Stamey fan during the show! It was a hell of a damn show - you should have been there. Of coure with Peter now living in Durham and Chris living in Chapel Hill and strong rumors of a new CD coming out, I'm hoping you'll have more chances to see them.
I think this was my 4th dBs show - I saw them at the old, old, old Cradle (the location that we later owned as Rhythm Alley), at Viceroy Park in Charlotte and opening for REM in the George Washington University gym in DC in 1984 - and it was as good as it ever was. Go see 'em if you get another chance.
As a side note, I got a kind of apologetic phone call from Schoolkids Records the day before the show that my copy of It's Christmas Time had finally come in. I want to do business with the local record stores but if I'd ordered directly from Amazon I'd have gotten it 5 weeks earlier. 'Nother note - the first (only?) album by the Sneakers (Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter before the dBs and Let's Active) has been remastered and rereleased. I haven't heard it yet but I'll be picking it up soon - check it out!
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