The show Saturday night was off the the proverbial hook and it also was very enjoyable. As usual it was the perfect combination of funny sincere and rocking. The highlight for me was my new friend Matt Nathanson. After only knowing him five mins I decided that not only should he do the show he should headline it and he did so with aplomb, Below is his take on the night. If you've never seen BTR you will now have a total understanding of what it is!
BY MATT NATHANSONi've now had 2 days to digest the glory
& crushing majesty (is that the right word?)
that was saturday nights "bring the rock"
show here in san francisco...
for those of you who have no idea what i'm
talking about, here's the scoop:
comedians get on stage & each tell a story
about their relationship to music.
there are no real parameters for the stories.
they can be sweet, funny, ranting, whatever...
then the house band, which features:
nina gordon (veruca salt) &
dave gibbs (gigolo aunts)
cover a song related to the story.
and the comedian sings along, if they choose.
the folks on saturday nights show:
-greg behrendt - comedian/musician/writer/badass
creator of "bring the rock".
-oscar nunez - actor/comedian from 'the office'.
-maria bamford - comedian/actress.
-eugene mirman - comedian
-jason segel - actor from "how i met ur mother,"
"forgetting sarah marshall,""i love you man"
-me.
in lieu of writing a book about this, i will give
the night to you in tasty bullet point form. go ADD!
-I MET LORRAINE NEWMAN BACKSTAGE BEFORE THE SHOW!!!
holiest. of. craps. i'm such a huge fan of the first few seasons of SNL
that when we were introduced, i almost threw up. on her.
-eugene mirman is from my hometown of lexington, MA.
mass-holes unite!
-during rehearsal in their hotel room, nina & dave both
claimed to have no real love for 80s hair metal...
which struck me funny only because nina's husband is in tonic,
who are essentially the 90's equivalent of bang tango.
(i mean this in only the most loving way.)
-oscar & jason both tore through their songs during soundcheck.
'sheena is a punk rocker' & 'ain't too proud to beg' respectively.
-despite their lack of love for hair metal, nina, dave, (w/maria) & i
busted into a kick ass pre-show, dressing room sing-along medley
of ''seventeen,' 'round and round,& 'photograph.'
-greg went on first & threw down the gauntlet.
he told a HILARIOUS story basically about van halen/music
played from the crotch vs. vampire weekend/music that has
never seen a crotch in it's life. it ruled.
p.s.- any story referencing actual words spoken by david
lee roth is the funniest story anyway. hands down.
-oscar topped his great soundcheck by kicking the holy crap out
of the ramones. prancing and preening like a total rock star!
he looked like the illegitimate, cuban love child of debbie harry & iggy pop..
-dave & nina did a BEAUTIFUL version of 'i wanna destroy you'
by the soft boys. after eugene told a rad story about discovering
the greatness of robyn hitchcock when he was a kid.
-maria bamford sang a tongue&cheek version of 'the last song' by rihanna.
but it totally broke my heart.
-jason might have gotten a LITTLE drunk between soundcheck & show.
and by a little i mean, like... WICKED drunk.... he actually smelled like
my high school senior party. anyway, even completely in the bag, he told
a great story about being dumped & how he speak/sung 'ain't too proud
to beg' to try and win his lady back.
-i told a story about the time I, assisted by the dodgy plumbing at the
bowery ballroom in NYC, rained karmic payback down on a douche-y
monitor guy. then, naturally, i played 'you've got another thing coming'
by judas priest.
-all in all, it was a totally rad way to spend a saturday night w/ famous people.
