Blues Fest Report

As the sole representative at Blues Fest yesterday, I feel obliged to let everyone else know what a great time they missed. From the opening band Stevie Ray and the Fu Bros. (not sure of the band's name here) to the last (not sure of anything by that time), the show was a rousing success. Boogie Chillin' teamed up with Hazel Payne (who still has a great caboose) to perform Everybody Gets the Blues, and she herself later teamed up with the Mayor (everybody's favorite KMTer) to do You are My Sunshine (anybody who has ever heard the Cash/Dylan version of this song can appreciate how bad it can truly be -- Mayor Hu did them proud!). Another highlight was David Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers, complete with washboard, wash basin bass, and jug. Apparently a lot of these bands play up in Taipei at The Living Room.

I seem to remember some Slovakian guy taking the stage dressed in a wide brimmed hat and spitting out Slovakian lyrics. I also seem to remember chatting with Red Haired Karl and Vivian at Chili's while I tried to sober up. I think I met Dean, PJ, AJ, Chris, English Brett (Happy Birthday man), Kirk, Brooke, all of Milk in cognito, and basically anyone who has lived in Taichung over the past ten years and been involved with the music scene. I am not sure if there was a kissing contest, though when I got home I found some mouthwash (unopened) that was given out to all attendees in anticipation of a kiss off. Being as I don't remember kissing anybody, I'm going pretend it didn't happen. I do know that when I checked out my pocketbook this morning, there was not much money leftover, and anybody who was at Retro Poker can relate that that was no small sum.

All in all, it was a great day (I think) and a great way to live up to Jason Hu's dream of Taichung becoming an international city on par with New York and Paris (yep, we're one Guggenheim short -- oh wait, that got cancelled). Now I need to go downstairs and see if I was foolish enough to ride my motorcycle home or if I actually used my brain and took a taxi...