Sidebar Calling, the Flying Monkeys and Back-to-School Skating

Last Friday's exhibition bout of the roller girls at St. Frances Academy on Chase and Greenmount was surreal. Skating derby in front of a urban teenage population of around 500 was humbling because they neither seemed to understand what the hell we were doing there, nor care. But it was kind of fun to skate on there pristine basketball court and have plush chairs to sit on as a bench, as opposed to the luxury of Putty Hill Skateland. Coach Owens was awesome too and gave us snacks and drinks and pretty much everything else we could ever want. He and his older friends are excited to see roller derby back in Baltimore proper (Feb. 17th at the Armory) because they used to go watch the Cats in the '70s. I didn’t want to tell him that we're a lot less like WWF than they were.

After the mock bout, we headed over the Kitty Kat Bar for a few drinks, where I knitted in an attempt to refrain from smoking, losing much face in the process. My favorite comment on the subject came from Ali Kaida, "you're so lame, why are you knitting? Can you teach me how to do that?"

Saturday's Clash cover night at the Sidebar featured an awesome set by Thee Lexington Arrows, but the John Hardy Boys stole the show toward the end of their set with slide guitar versions of “London Calling” and other classic Clash songs. By the end of the night though, the all-star tribute going on stage (a combination of different band members, switching singers for each song) deteriorated into a sort of a drunken sing-along, with crowd members grabbing mics and belting out, "oooh, the Guns of Brixton." That was sort of fun to watch, but again, surreal.

I heard Trixie Little put on a good show over at the Ottobar, with here trapeze act as the highlight of the night. Anyone else catch it? How about the drunken sing-along? Yikes. Baltimore can be a strange place sometimes. Hit me back with your plans for the week to come.