Diff'rent night, same Nast'

February 20th, 2006: yet another night of the thundering excellence we are blessed to witness at the Monday evening liturgical services of the First Ecumenical Grease Gospel Church of Fat City Sauce and Salsa. AAAaaaaaaa-MEN!

Pepe's solo left us all shakin' our heads. Throw DOWN, dude! Below: close-up crop from the original shot. Mr. Hummingbird Hands!

BELOW: Ruben Laxamana rules the front of the house (seen here with Jerry about 15 minutes prior to Lights Up). How'd you like to come to the gig and have less than an hour to EQ and balance a massive, complex audio board and 6 foot rack of power and signal gear that gets used by all the other acts during the week and gets left for you to reset -- for a fully mic'd 14 pc band with 4 lead singers, a Sam Ash warehouse full of percussion, and a 6 pc horn section? Ruben Gits 'er Done, no sweat! Great work, Ruben.

BELOW: Don't try this at home, y'all; these men are professionals. (Is that one beautiful sight, or what?) We also gotta give props to Kelly of the Railhead crew for the great job with the lights.

GLOBAL NEWS UPDATE: Aviation adventurer Steve Fossett encountered severe stratospheric turbulence during his recent record-setting around-the-world flight. NASA meteorological scientists subsequently determined that it had been caused by Lenny Lopez's lead vocal on Toto's "Rosanna." The "Butterfly Effect" pales in comparison to the "Dr. Lenny Lopez Effect," LOL! (Hell, I could sing like that -- if I'd been intubated with a helium canister throat implant.)

Random thought I had: Listening to Santa Fe deep-funk-fry the James Brown "I Feel Good" tune last night, it occured to me '...y'know, these dudes are the only band on earth that could make the "Satin Doll" of funk - "Chameleon" - sound new and inspiring...' Hahaha...jus' take my word for it. We don't need y'all to prove it. (How many times have any of us jammed on THAT thing!!! LOL!)

UPDATE- Rochon is now also gigging Wed thru Sun from 10pm to 1am at the Hooters Casino (Trop, directly south of MGM Grand, just east of the Tropicana Hotel/Casino) in the 13 Martini Bar with an R&B group called "Level 8." Be sure to swing by and check it out. BTW- After they learned of Roch's recent car wreck (he got hit by a DUI driver), they've been gracious enough to send a Hooters limo to pick him up every night after he gets outa Clint's show at Harrah's.

ALSO- A bit off-topic in terms of genre, but, I was checkin' in at the Vegas Craigslist musicians site the other day, and ran across a post by an L.A. band called "Dog n Butterfly," a group that does a "Heart" tribute show. Very professional-looking website. Their stage photos make mine look pretty wimpy. But, I'm gonna catch up. Once I get a grip on high-speed film emulation w/sharp focus in low available light using my digital, BobbyG will be up to speed. (It'd probably help if I used a tripod and manual focus rather than just blazing away hand-held on auto-focus while trying not to knock peoples' drinks over.) I'm up for any suggestions from the more techno-photographically astute.