blasters on art fein: "is it time to v-v-v-vamp?"

it's way too early to be awake, but i gotta write about last night! here is the dumbed-up groggy-headed stupidified sleep-deprived oh mama can you believe it version.
brian p & i left bakersfield for smellay late but only hit a tad of traffic, arriving at adelphia studio off the 5 and 2 in early evening. the blasters were already playing!!! they were just noodling around while the studio techs got their levels, which meant they were doing whatever popped into phil alvin's head... phil was in manic comedian mode, joking and singing and riffing in a laugh-out-loud manner, joyfully mad and whatta kick. they warmed up playing "whole lotta love," for instance, with phil's face tomato-red as he sputtered and cracked up singing the falsetto parts (he did it well, of course!). then he sang "my way" in a ham-handed lampoon of sinatra. art wanted a vamp intro, so phil kept stuttering, "is it time to v-v-v-vamp?" brian p told them we'd opened one of art's shows vamping on batman, so then they went into an extended and skewered version of that, then phil led "lonely, lonely nights," which my friends the blazers used to do, with the other guys peering at each other with gentlemanly amusement, wondering what phil would pull outta his ear next. he grinned and leered like bugs bunny, talked a mile a minute, cranked out the tunes, and when it was over, put his gear away while happily belting out altar boy liturgy in latin for quite a long time. i was glad he kept his beat-up old guitar turned way up cause i like his scratchy, melodious 30s-style vernacular playing... the show started and between art's questions the band played "milk cow blues," "4-11-44," "rock boppin' baby," their fantastic version of johnny paycheck's "precious memories," "daddy rolling stone," and finally "american music." the sound was just perfect; i hope everything, the practice, every word, was recorded. the blasters are geniuses and i got that wonderful feeling i was gonna go nuts from the excitement of the music and the great fun of the fellows' patter! then we all went to dinner at a nearby mexican joint where everyone squeezed around a little table, phil's humor got a little blue, jerry ate my potato taco and commented that with all the wise cracks and irreverent liveliness, "this is like a marx brothers movie!," art put his finger in my carne asada, then we hit the road back to bakersfield. i would write more, but i can't even think after this whirlwind and my resulting lack of sleep! i'll just say look for the show to air in LA, NY, Chicago, and other places. you can get more great info, too, at www.sofein.com ... art took pix, which i hope he'll send! paxton's (one above) got a little fuzzed, but better than no shots a'tall. whatta night. whatta time. whatta whatta. wow. thanks, art!!! muchas gracias and molto grazie! whatta time!!!