From: "Anthony J. Rzepela" Subject: Walkin' Blind IV (sights, sounds, Irving Plaza '96) To: babel-list@postmodern.com, rzepelaa@netaxs.com (Anthony Rzepela) Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 00:00:04 -0400 (EDT) Fourth (and last?) set of observations before I can review the damn shows. :-) Patti the Professional: There was an anecdote (here on babel) about Patti's book-signing which painted a wonderfully vivid picture of Patti-the-boss-lady. ("I want to be sure she gets that book.") I thought of that in the middle of a very physical number in show 2, when she yanked a mike loose from the connecting cord and, thinking it was just dead, held it out behind her for a replacement. Beat. She shakes it. Another beat. One single and firm shake. (Looking pretty annoyed.) Down to the floor it goes, as she grabs Lenny's. She missed her cue on nite 1 for "Fire in the sky!" and doubled over in laughter. She is generous with affection and appreciation when things go well. Particularly touching was an afterthought: a couple of taps to the top of Tom Verlaine's hat after she walked away from him after a particularly smooth performance. (Forget the song.) Posters: People were grabbing posters left and right as we entered for show 1. (I'm guessing a table had been put out with a stack of them?) There were two styles: the album cover, and a promo featuring the covers of the five remastered PS/PSG albums. The supply was gone on nite 2, and so patrons were reduced to begging the bartenders for what was on the walls behind them. At the end of show 2, one lucky young man who begged a roadie to get an autograph for him got his wish. Patti's the crow: I think that just about all of the witty comments she made over the two shows here have been reproduced, but there was one episode that floored me: Someone shouted out some typically inane comment/request _while_ she was speaking (she was saying something about how much she just likes the opportunity to say "Thanks, Icky" or whatever it is to one roadie with a strange name) and just as my own feeble mind could only come up with "Shut up, fool. I want to hear HER.", PS not only REPLIED to it, but managed to be funny as hell, too. Amazing. Celeb spottings: Someone pointed out filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (sp?) on the loge after the end of show 2. Marlon Richards, son of Keith, and recently married into the de la Falaise family, was hangin' with the groundlings for show 1. ++Tony Rzepela (rzepelaa@netaxs.com)