Bits and Pieces from a Rock and Roll Weekend

It was a very rock and roll weekend for the Mighty Melba Collective (Who’s down with MMC? No-body!) as we posse-ed up and rolled deep to the Test Patterns/Gito Gito Hustler show at the Pub on Friday night. Weird scene—the place was sold out and the average age of attendees was probably about 40. It seemed that everyone there was older, harder, drunker and punker than me. I wonder how I’m going to feel when I’m one of the oldest people at shows. Hopefully it won’t be at the Pub, which is one of three venues in Pittsburgh that’s banned the Maxipads. this may not seem like a lot, but given that there are like, 9 workable venues in Pittsburgh, well, we're running low on resources. I mean, sorry we couldn’t draw more than 10 people on a Thursday night during a blizzard and a Steelers game. For anyone who is keeping track, we recently found out that we’re banned at Sonny’s Tavern on Millvale Avenue for being “generally loud and offensive.” The owner was not down with "I Killed JonBenet." I guess people don’t know what they’re getting themselves into when they book a band called THE MAXIPADS. Yeah, sounds like butterflies and rainbows to me.

Test Patterns, who were playing their very first show, features Dan, the guy who recorded and produced the Maxipads’ first record. They were pretty fucking awesome. Even more awesome was Gito Gito Hustler, featuring Yago, Dan’s wife (who is also in Test Patterns.) For anyone who’s never heard Gito Gito Hustler, they are an all-girl Japanese power pop/punk rock band.

Their English is not very good (“You…buy merchandise so I buy beer!”) but they did have the 12 stock American rock and roll phrases down (such as “Are you ready, Pittsburgh??” and “We love you too!”)

Saturday found the Mighty Melba Collective in Buffalo for a Flash Darlings show, which ended in a night of general mayhem. It reinforced my theory that there is absolutely no reason for bars to be open until 4AM. None. Robbo slept the entire way to New York, so as I drove through the Snow Belt, Joe and I blasted the Maxipads record and came up with new ridiculous ideas. Such as my new favorite, calling the record “Oodles of Noodles” and then having Brad (of Random Precision Photo) take a picture of us sitting in a baby pool full of ramen noodles. GENIUS.

Then, to cap off my rock and roll weekend, and to remind me just how goddamn old I’m getting, I couldn’t even stay awake for an entire History Channel special about the Dark Ages. I passed out right in the middle of the Bubonic Plague.

That, my friends, is hardcore.