that's right. clem freaking burke. i love him.
so, i'm kind of really lucky in that i have hugh cornwell as a friend, who is tight with clem, since they play together when hugh tours over here in the u.s. of a. see, when i told hugh i was going to this show, he emailed clem to tell him to expect me to say hello. who knows what else he said, because i ended up having a lovely evening. ok - i couldn't bring myself to go say hi to him when i first saw him because i get really shy around him still, which is stupid because i've already met him a few times. when i finally did, he was really nice and said hugh told him i would be there, and i blurted out "YEAH AND YOU'RE ONE OF MY FAVORITE DRUMMERS OF ALL TIME" to which there is no proper response, except for what he did which was smile and nod. then he asked if i'd be around after the show, and that we could talk then. phew.
and he actually did!
but first - let me describe the split squad. aside from clem, it's michael giblin (of parallax project) on bass and lead vocals; eddie munoz (of the plimsouls) on guitar; keith streng (of the fleshtones) on guitar; and josh kantor (of the baseball project) on keyboards (oh, and josh totally caught me air-drumming along to "get off of my cloud" before the show started; i'm really good at being embarrassing).
so i guess after seeing what bands these dudes are all in you can maybe kind of guess what they sound like, but in case you can't you can just listen here. it's like power poppy rock and roll deliciousness. plus they covered ac/dc and the who and led zeppelin. my brain almost melted watching clem drumming like keith moon. so cool. the show was fantastic; eddie and keith did a lot of jumping off the stage and running through the crowd, or writhing on the ground (a la nigel tufnel, except they didn't need help getting up). but i was pretty much watching clem the whole time and trying to memorize his movements and learn all of his neat tricks.
after the show, clem's drum tech dude (who heard me shout about clem being my favorite) handed me the sticks clem had just played with. i might have drooled a little bit. he also gave me a fresh pair of unused ones and i was delighted to see that clem and i use the same brand AND size. vic firth 5a. that's my stick. that's clem's stick. that might not mean much to a non drummer,but it's kind of a big deal.
also, i went over and bought the album. michael was manning the merch table, and i asked for a copy on vinyl and he said "oh, and there's a download code in there so you can listen to it...on your...you know..." and i smiled and said "oh, i will be listening to THIS on my turntable" and he smiled back and seemed pretty psyched and told me how it'll sound much better on vinyl. he was super nice.
clem was walking around with a bottle of wine and handing out glasses to his friends, and guess who got the last glass? somehow, it was me. clem shared his wine. with me. what. he sat down at the table where i was sitting, but was talking to other people and signing things and being very humble and nice to everyone who approached him. i told him "WE USE THE SAME SIZE STICK" and he smiled at me but didn't seem to know what to say. ugh. i'm so embarrassing! when we finally did start talking, like for real, it was much better and i was kind of cool. i mean, i think i was anyway. he was watching me twirl one of his sticks around and then started doing it too (better than me, i might add), and was telling me about being left-handed, but he still drums right-handed, which is why he can do all the twirls and throwing/catching, because the left hand does less so he uses that one; i'm right handed and never have time to throw in a twirl or a toss with my right hand because it's too busy. and we talked paradiddles. total drummer nerd shit. i mean, i thought it was so cool he was like "...so i have to end my fills on a paradiddle, so i can start in with the right hand again" and i knew exactly what he was talking about. i was in heaven. and he told me about another band he's in now, so i said "wait, wait, wait. so, you're in that band, you're in this band that played tonight, you're in the international swingers, AND you're in blondie...HOW DO YOU HAVE TIME FOR THAT SHIT?" and he laughed. what a life. all he does is travel around and play the drums in cool bands. then it looked like they were all getting ready to leave, so i asked for a picture with him and of course he said ok. i tried to do it myself but the light wasn't very good and it was too dark.
so then he gave my phone to michael (i think it was him...if my memory is correct) and i turned the flash on so he could get a decent picture of us. awww. and then i said goodbye and he gave me a hug (!!!) and that was that. such a great night.
as an addendum - i got an email from hugh the next day saying that clem had emailed him and said i remind him of joan jett so, uh, you know, FUCK YES.
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