The Mr T Experience - "Dumb Little Band" (live)

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Minor Secrets of "Dumb Little Band" Revealed!!!! Whoa, it's Wednesday. It happens every week, but this one took my surprise, a bit. Not that anyone cares, but as today is Wednesday, that is Wodnesdæg, my schedule calls for a Song for Odin™. However, we're in the midst of the Noir City film noir festival in San Francisco, seeing all the films this time because the program is just so good, which is great but it's also disorienting. I got my weekdays mixed up and thought it was Thunresdæg instead. Nevertheless the show must go on, mustn't it? So here goes... https://youtu.be/1g_SbwaYdeo This is "Dumb Little Band" from our recent show at the Melody Inn in Indianapolis. I don't know if you can tell from the video, but it was a wild night, a sold out small club with a very enthusiastic and warm-hearted crowd. The stage at that place is a little odd, placed off-kilter in the corner and oriented such that the frontman only has a tiny sliver of stage real estate to stand in. The cymbals were at my back and my toes had to extend over the lip of the stage, and I had to place myself very carefully and avoid any sudden movements. It was a bit awkward (and I say that as a guy who pretty much sprang from the womb awkward.) I'm not saying it wasn't fun and I'm not complaining. I'm just congratulating myself on not tumbling off the stage into the audience, which could have happened at any point. You work with what you've got, and at that moment what I had was less than a square foot of solid ground. Show business success. As for the song, I believe this is the first time "Dumb Little Band" has come up in this series. I'm finding now that I don't have much to say about it in the way of "minor secrets." In a way, it was a song that was waiting to be written, and I happened to be the guy to write it. I think the germ of it was an actual incident, depicted in the song, the first time anyone ever said "you guys kind of remind me of Green Day" rather than the other way around (which up till a certain point had been the more usual construction.) People used to say they were like our "little brothers." Anyway, we don't remind me of each other, much, however you slice it. But the rest is history. One fun little gimmick in the recording is that in the verse referring to past band members we put in little arrangement "sound bites" that were kind of like impressions. Joel did a quite effective, characteristic Aaron-style bass run at the appropriate line (which feature remains in the live arrangement all these years later.) And we actually had to go out and rent a china cymbal to evoke Alex. I mean, it's sort of funny, and maybe was even worth it. (Drummers, don't get a china. Just don't. No band or audience ever likes it.) Anyway, there it is. Maybe I'll be better prepared for Wednesday when it next rolls around. Then again, maybe I won't. #music #songs #video #punkrock #minds

The Mr T Experience - "Dumb Little Band" (live)

MTX live as the Meloidy Inn, Indianapolis, 11 January 2019, captured by Chris Mattern. Fun night. "Minor secrets" will be here. medium: https://medium.com/@drankf/latest minds: https://www.minds.com/frankportman twitter: https://twitter.com/mtxforever instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dran...

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Minor Secrets of the MTX part eleven: “Don’t Come Close,” “I Just Wanna Do It with You,” “Thank You (for not Being One of Them)”, “A Song about a Girl Who Went Shopping”, “Pig Latin,” “Unpack Your Adjectives,” “Scientific.” https://medium.com/@drankf/minor-secrets-of-the-mr-t-experience-part-ix-28c85193d4e3 (note: the preview says "part ix" which is an unfortunate auto-correct of the title that I didn't notice till publishing, and now it appears to be set in stone. For what it's worth, this is the eleventh installment.) #music #songs #mtxforever #minds

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