glen & sylvain part 2

alright, so i went to see glen matlock and sylvain sylvain again tonight. last night. what day is it? i don't fucking know. don't judge me. it was the best decision i made all day and i didn't even decide. my friend knew i wanted to go and talked me into it; he was interested in it too because i got him into the new york dolls so he was curious to see the sylvain solo gig. i wasn't going to go because it meant leaving early from work, and i had already showed up super late so i felt bad leaving early, but luckily i have a very understanding boss who gets how important these dudes are to me. also you can read part 1 of my glen/syl adventures if you click here.

yeah- so i'm delirious right now but i wanted to write everything i remember right now before i sleep and forget everything. also my friend was buying me beers all night; i don't think there was a time when i wasn't drinking so i was kind of wasted by the end of the night. i'm sure there is a ton of stuff i'm not remembering and i just hope i didn't come off like a drunken idiot. anyway, at one point early on sylvain walked past me and squeezed my arm and said "hey! it's good to see you!" and it broke my brain. good to see me? sylvain said that? who am i? what's going on? he stopped and talked to me again before he went onstage and was talking to me like i'm an important person. which, let's face it, i'm not, but whatever. he can think that, i'm not going to stop him.

ok, so sylvain takes the stage and does a lot of the same stuff as before, but you know what? it was just as good. NO. better than before. i think it was a combination of the venue being really rad (this was at the brighton bar, by the way) and the drinking. he covered "femme fatale" again and did "you can't put your arms around a memory" and fucking "TRASH" again!!! fuck yeah. he played that one last, and the end went on for a really long time and it was amazing. also i love it when he does his johnny thunders imitation. sylvain is seriously the coolest and anyone who disagrees can fight me.

so then glen took the stage and again, did a lot of the same stuff, but i actually enjoyed his set more than i did the last time, somehow. he did the same sex pistols songs, the same rich kids songs, the same scott walker song, the monkees, etc. my friend knew nothing about him going into the show and was really impressed, and kept going on about how cool his voice is. i'm so glad he came with me because no one else i know appreciates this shit like i do, but he gets it. and glen is THE MAN. he has such an undeniable stage presence; if you haven't seen him, you're missing out.

and then they did a few songs together. they did showdown again, and personality crisis, and fucking dedicated follower of fashion! and in some kind of special effort to kill me with happiness (which almost succeeded) they covered a t.rex song. not my favorite, as it was "bang a gong" but can i tell you what it was like watching sylvain and glen sing marc bolan right in front of me? i can't tell you. because there are no words. as they left the stage, the guy that sylvain had playing bass for him stopped and said to me "i thought you were joan jett!"

and that, my friends, is the greatest compliment of them all.

by that time i was ready to retire into the happy punk rock kids home because i didn't think anything could ever top that. EVER. and then i went up to say something to sylvain because i love him obviously and he did that thing where he squeezed my arm again, and i turned into jelly, and he said "i need your help." I NEED YOUR HELP. SYLVAIN, MY HELP, HE NEEDS IT. he gave me his guitar. HE GAVE ME HIS GUITAR. I CARRIED SYLVAIN'S GUITAR. we went over to the bar and he wanted to sit with me. so i sat with him. and we talked. and i had his guitar standing next to me and i was leaning on it the whole time. i ended up not talking to him that much because all of the other fans came up and were talking to him and he didn't ignore anybody, which i really admire. i love that. he held this one girl's hand the entire time she was talking to him. how sweet is that? one thing i do remember him saying to me was "so, do you play music too?" and i said "yeah. well, kind of. i'm a drummer. i don't know if that really counts." and he said "i thought so, you have that look." that's a pretty great thing to have anyone say to you, let alone the guitar player from the fucking new york dolls. oh, so he offered me sips of his drinks. one of them was a shot of whiskey, it's called fireball? i don't like whiskey but i tried it because when sylvain looks at you and says "you gotta try this" well... you gotta try it. and it tasted exactly like those candies, atomic fireballs, you know those really hot things? yeah. anyway...uh...where was i? oh yeah, DRINKING OUT OF SYLVAIN'S SHOT GLASS. NO BIG DEAL OR ANYTHING. yeah... so glen came over at some point and said hello, and i was like "i was at the allentown show the other week," and he said "i know, i recognized you from that." AHHH YOU DID?? THAT'S SO COOL OH MY GOD I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY NOW... i actually have no idea what i said to him then... probably something really stupid/embarrassing. i think he asked where i'm from or something. my boss wanted me to ask him if that jizzing in the sandwich story is true but i couldn't bring myself to do it. so then sylvain and his bassist were talking about the t.rex song, or maybe my friend brought it up to them, and they said how glen didn't want to do it for some reason and i butted in that i was so glad they did do it and i pointed out that i was wearing a t.rex shirt. then i told sylvain that i saw him at the marc bolan tribute show a million years ago, in new york, with clem burke drumming and he was like "oh yeah! you were there? wasn't i good?" hahahaha. i love him.

then i guess they were leaving so he wanted me to "help" him carry his guitar outside. i don't think i did...i think my friend grabbed the case from me...probably for the better at that point. so we get out to their car and i finally buy a book from glen but i don't have enough money for a cd too, and you know what he says? "don't worry about it, you can pay me back next time."
WHY ARE YOU GUYS SO FUCKING COOL I CAN'T STAND IT
so we said goodbye to them and that was basically it. i don't know if anything can ever top this. i mean, drinking sips of sylvain's shots and talking about marc bolan and glen remembering me and all of that...it's just too much for me. excuse me while i slip into a sleepy/happy coma. i really hope i wake up in time for work tomorrow. fingers crossed...

sylvain sylvain & glen matlock

the title of the post should say it all, right? i'm still going to talk about it. i just got home from this show so i'm all amped about it still.

i've had the chance to see the new york dolls twice in my life, but it's just sylvain & david johansen from the original lineup. it's such a shame about arthur kane; if you ever have a chance to watch the documentary about him, "new york doll," do it. it's really sad, but it's so, so good. anyway, so seeing sylvain do a solo show was really incredible and intimate and wonderful. and he played new york dolls songs - including my favorite, "trash," which he closed with, and he did "you can't put your arms around a memory" (substituting "you can't put your arms around a johnny" for some of the lines; cute) and he did an eddie cochran song and...what else? if i remember i'll add it. at the end of his set he came to the front of the stage and started shaking hands and signing things for people, so i thought "what the hell?" and pulled my new york dolls record out of my bag for him to sign. he saw it and said "wooooow" which was adorable. then he used my sharpie for a bunch of other things he signed because he likes to use 2 sharpies at a time and when he handed it back he said "thank you sweetheart." *swoon*

so then glen matlock came out and was all british and cheeky. he did a few of his own songs and he did sex pistols songs ("god save the queen," "pretty vacant") and he did a scott walker song!!!! he said "anyone here know scott walker?" followed by a few seconds of dead silence and then my little chipmunk voice: "yes!" and he said "oh you do? oh good..." and went into "montague terrace." so cool. AND he did rich kids! "burning sounds" and "ghosts of princes in towers" and he explained where that title came from. oh yeah and the kinks "dead end street" and the monkees "steppin' stone." it was really cool to see him perform and listen to his stories.

then at the end sylvain came back out and they did some new york dolls songs together; "showdown," "jet boy," and "personality crisis." i mean, i saw the dolls do those songs, but somehow it was just as cool seeing these two singing them.

after the show, they both hung out at the side of the stage to talk and sign and take pictures and all that. so i waited my turn and then handed glen my rich kids record, which he seemed impressed by. he asked my name so he could make it out to me and we chatted a bit, and then i asked if i could get my picture with both of them and he said sure. so i sat down between the two of them and smiled and some nice man took my picture. the first one was a bit blurry because of me moving my head and the second one...well, see for yourself:

me and sylvain are looking at each other and i'm laughing, because when he realized what was happening, he turned to me and said "hello" in this weird kind of fake sexy voice and i started cracking up. then glen turned and said "hey now, i saw her first" which is why he is blurry. it was too much. i thanked them both a bunch of times and then i had to run outside because my friend was waiting for me and then his car broke down in allentown so it was an adventure getting home. anyway, i'm here, it's 2:30 am and i'm wide awake so this is what you get. thanks for reading!

UPDATE: check out part 2!