Maus Space

I'm sure a lot of you have had the pleasure to meet some of your favorite musicians.
I've met the Fastbacks, David Thomas from Pere Ubu, Ariel Pink, Geneva Jacuzzi
Who are some of the musicians you met? I'm curious to see your lists!!!

Not a whole lot, but the big ones are -

Mike Watt - after a fIREHOSE show in '91 or '92, I bought a t-shirt from him and had a short conversation about the Minutemen whom I'd seen in '85 just before D. Boon died. He got a tiny bit emotional talking about D Boon, then gave me the shirt for free and signed it "D Boon Forever" on the back. He's still one of the musicians I admire most.

Denny Walley - great slide guitar player for Zappa and Beefheart, in fact he grew up in the same part of California as those two and knew them as kids. He lives here in Atlanta and I see him fairly often attending concerts. Got to do dinner with him and a couple of friends, talking about some of the harder Beefheart songs to play (e.g. The Thousand and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole).

Ariel Pink - hard to say we "met" but I tried to strike up a conversation before his show by telling him that he and I were on an album together - the "Copy Me" R. Stevie Moore tribute album, to which Rare Goat and Ariel Pink both contributed a track. Unfortunately, this "ice breaker" didn't have the intended effect of him saying, "say! that's great! you seem like a cool guy, why don't we hang out?" but instead he looked puzzled and asked, "am I on that?".

Itzhak Perlman - world famous violin player. I'm not a fan or anything, but when I was high school age, my best friend was friends with Perlman's son (my best friend's dad ran a classical music record label, that's how they hooked up), and one time we all ended up eating dinner at my friend's house, with Itzy there too (disclaimer: as far as I know, no one calls him Itzy. Please forgive me).

The guys in moe. - You may or may not have heard of the jam band "moe.", but they're a fairly big deal, and in the 90s they were among my favorite bands. They're still around, though I haven't seen them in over 15 years. But I was a fan in their early days, and the first time they trekked to the southern US (they hail from upstate NY), I was one of just a handful of people at their concerts. My friend's girlfriend knew their soundman for reasons I can't recall, so we got backstage access most of the time they played. One time they even crashed at my friend's house (as did I).

Maybe more, but this post has gotten long enough.

So what's he like?

This was in 2007. He was wandering outside of the venue, but I was too nervous to talk to him. He was smoking many cigarettes. I saw him drinking a bunch too, and by the end of the show he was so drunk I wasn't afraid to approach him. So after the show I talked to him for a few minutes, he was very drunk but shook my hand at least 3 times. I said the show ruled and that it was a shame there weren't many people there. We're talking Harrisburg, PA, the anti culture cesspool. Pere Ubu put one of the most powerful shows and there were maybe 20 people in the theater. it was pretty surreal but I was glad we had that experience. He was pretty gracious though, I also bought Ray Gun Suitcase from him because I didn't have it

That is super interesting about Mike Watt and Itzhak Perlman, thank you for sharing that!!!