Last night was one the most markedly unusual evenings I have had. I saw these guys, (well mainly Clayton), at the Wake1 downtown. Although it was a very short reading, or more accurately, show, I wasn't dissappointed. The entire 45 minutes was filled by his voice, along with music and sounds that I found out later were also his. I had been asked to record the event by Chris, who said: "He'll probably be really drunk, so run a line from the board" The implication was that a straight line from the board, together with the unidirectnl mike were the best bet for catching the least of his insults with the audience. I had never seen Clayton before, and was kinda' surprised that Chris expected any sort of misbehaviour on the part of the normally reserved crowd. I started to catch on when a crowd of more-unkempt than usual persons started to filter in. They seemed uncomfortable, and kept mostly to themselves, and clustered without exception, around the bar. These were not gallery regulars. I knew that I was in for something new. I was ready at 10pm, but noone had any idea where the performers were, or where the instruments were. With no equipment, the soundchecks, etc. were going to put us at least at 11 before anything was going to start. Everyone looked annoyed, except the newcomers, who seemed to be only vaguely interested in the performance, most of their attention was directed at Gloria, who was tending bar that night.
Finally, about 10:20 they arrived. The only reason I noticed was because Chris pointed Clayton out to me and said:"That's the man you have to talk to". He and three others had just arrived, but they weren't anywhere near the stage,and they didn't have anything resembling equipment. They were at the bar, and as I approached Clayton was trying to get Gloria to give him a bottle of Johnny Walker. I introduced myself, and momentarily deflected his attack from Gloria, who looked very thankful.
Actually, he is a really smart guy. He knew what we needed to do, and how to do it. We were ready in ten minutes or so, mostly because of his attitude towards soundchecks, which seems to be a "turn it on! allright, that sounds okay. If it sounds shitty later on we'll deal with it then" I'll leave out a transciption of the performance for now, except to say that it was both vulgar and compelling, as well as most any other adjective you could think of.