I got there late, but didn't miss my own timeslot. When I got there two guys that I see a lot were doing some really slow, basic, and minimalist punk/metal as a two piece. The guitarist has a cool mustache. For their last song they played an awesome cover of "I Am the Walrus" which sounded way better than the version by the Beatles. It was really heavy and dry. Cool stuff.
In between acts the Weird Paul Rock Band tells jokes and does very strange skits that seem to be about hats most of the time. Here Jon Dowling is making a strange sex joke about pope hats and adultery.
When they were done with the penis jokes I reviewed some records on stage. The idea was to make weird comments about the art on the sleeves and not really talk about the music. I was sort of unprepared and some of the jokes weren't very funny, but everybody seemed to think I was really great. I explained my dislike for Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (it's not actually that bad), explained that Big Dipper's Craps must be really cool because Bill Goffrier is doing a silly dance on the inside, and read the back of Nancy Sinatra's Boots album (which tells you about how good she smells, talks, eats, etc.). I had fun doing it and Weird Paul seemed to think it was a good idea and he had me guess which records he owned (The Cars' Heartbeat City and Big Black's Songs About Fucking). Jon Dowling wanted to buy the Big Dipper album.
Someone that I don't know played some cool bluegrass music after I was done. He went on for a really long time, but it sounded good. There isn't much else to say on this one.
Next Jason Baldinger formerly of Paul's CDs did a crazy performance as dying Las Vegas lounge act Jimmy Braun. He swaggered drunkenly around and made lots of chauvinistic comments before he sang "the hits of the Beatles" throwing in some Wings and John Lennon songs as well. "The hits" ended up being a capella noise because all of the backing tracks were opera songs. He should join Wild Raft Records and become the next Brian Disanto.
Before Weird Paul and his band got to come up and play for us Greg Cislon and Jordan Weeks did a skit about "the Big Sky". They walked around dressed up like Native Americans with a strange cut out landscape of the southwest. Jordan Weeks sat down and began to tell us all about preserving nature and why he loves the Grand Canyon as Greg Cislon made noises in the background that resembled rattlesnakes, water, and wind with lots of different objects. Weeks' character told us about his first trip to the canyon with his parents and how he couldn't get it on with a girl that was with them and also about his belief in the Sasquatch. It was a really funny piece of work.
The Weird Paul Rock Band started off with "Hot Water Heater", a sort of "hit" and followed it up with the lesser known "Murder Garage" (my introduction to Weird Paul and featured on the PPP Halloween comp in 2009). They played the fun "Pot of Macaroni" and some covers too. You can check out the surprisingly short setlist here.
My first Weird Paul Variety Show was a lot of fun and I've gone to more since. I'm not sure if I'll perform at another one, but I might if I had more practice with what I was trying to do. It is hard to know what to expect at the Variety Show, but it always turns out pretty well (especially for the price!). Come check it out the third Sunday of each month.
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