rituals of all sorts

I live pretty ritualistically when it comes down to it, practices of various sorts providing most of my structure for an otherwise free form live. Yesterday wasn't so different, I left work for yoga practice, followed by a Buddhist group/birthday gathering, then met up with Yoon Ki to go to her show -- she's a classically trained violinist but of late she's been playing with jazz singers and country bands. Last night, she was playing with the Pine Box Boys at Thee Parkside, opening for Joe Buck.


Now the Pine Box boys are quite fun, and good. They've a following and are an all around tight, committed, well-humored bunch of musicians. Their goth-death-murder lyrics get old for me (given the type of songwriter I am, this shouldn't come a surprise) but the music always makes me stay. That said, Joe Buck takes it all down to the nitty gritty of dark, goth, in-your-face cow-punk. I've seen him play bass for Hank Williams III band "Assjack," a dark, tightly-wound bunch that delivers standard Hank Williams I tunes as well as goth country thrash, so I was and wasn't quite sure what we'd in Buck's solo incarnation. When we got out of the car, he was right next to his trailer and quite pleasant.
Nonetheless, the duck-taped roll bar set up in front of the kick drum was a tip off. He's a well honed performer, no doubt about it, and he drew us all in with his sheer energy, if not all of got in for the "come on, motherfuckers" bait he said by way of starting his set. But some of us do yoga, some of us mosh! The video below shows you what happens when a person on the yoga side of the ritual equation appreciates a vibe but forgets that she's watching a show designed to incite people to thrash. Take your ritualized aggression as you like it, but I wasn't gonna survive this pit. We left laughing and fortunately, unscathed. (The ride home, in a very full car, was as entertaining as the show, but alas, the batteries of my fLip had worn out.)