1 Thing Left to Say

Here it is, folks! Opening Day! And to conclude the 12 Days 'til Baseball countdown, only one thing remains to be said:

PLAY BALL!

2 Phillies Who Performed "2nd Ever" Unassisted Triple Plays

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

With 2 days left to Opening Day 2010, our 12 Days 'til Baseball Countdown continues with my list of the 2 Philadelphia Phillies who have pulled off the extremely rare feat of completing unassisted triple plays - each of which was the 2nd ever of its kind!

1. Mickey Morandini, 2B, September 10, 1992
In the 6th inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Mickey Morandini achieved the feat courtesy of a line drive off the bat of Jeff Kent. Morandini caught the liner (out #1), and stepped on second base before Andy Van Slyke could get back to the bag (out #2). Barry Bonds has taken off from first base at the crack of the bat, and ran right into Morandini's tag for out #3. This play made Morandini only the second secondbaseman in MLB history to pull off the UTP; the other was Cleveland Indians 2B Bill Wambsganss, who did it on October 10, 1920 in Game 5 of that year's World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers!

2. Eric Bruntlett, 2B, August 23, 2009
By the time Bruntlett achieved his UTP last season, a few other secondbaseman had joined the club. But Bruntlett's play was only the second time in MLB history that a UTP ended a game! In the 9th inning of that day's game against the New York Mets, Jeff Francoeur hit a sharp liner that Bruntlett caught easily as he moved to cover the bag. Stepping on second base to double up Louis Castillo, Bruntlett turned around to find Daniel Murphy trying in vain to reverse momentum and backpedal toward first. It was hard to say who was more surprised when Bruntlett reached out and tagged Murphy for the third out! The only other time a UTP ended a ballgame was May 31, 1927, when Detroit Tiger Johnny Neun became one of the few firstbasemen in history to make the play.

One more day; one more list (can you have a list with one item?) - and then the 2010 Baseball Season is here!

3 Strikes

Image via Wikipedia

Opening Day is almost here...3 days left! Continuing our countdown, and remembering that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it, we celebrate the fact that we have baseball by looking back on a few times when we didn't: 3 of baseball's official player strikes:

1. April 1, 1972 - April 12, 1972
For the first time in MLB history, the players refused to take the field and it looked as though we might be faced with no MLB season. Thankfully, players and owners came to an agreement fairly quickly, that saw $500,000 increase in MLB pension fund payments and Salary Arbitration added to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. 86 games were lost to the strike, with each team's season shortened by about 5 or 6 games.

2. June 12, 1981 - July 31, 1981
The Players Union would strike again nine years later, this time taking a chunk out of the middle of the season's schedule. This time, the agreement that eventually brought the season back favored the owners: teams that lost a "premier" player to Free Agency would now be able to be compensated by selecting a player from a pool of the unprotected players on all other teams (not just the team that signed that the Free Agent), and Free Agent status would be limited to players with six or more years of Major League service. But 713 games were lost to the strike, and an inelegant split-season format was used for the playoffs which saw the teams with best overall records for the year sitting on the sidelines. Attendance dropped precipitously as the fans indicated their frustration by simply not showing up for much of the second half of the season and into the next.

3. August 12, 1994 - April 2, 1995
The infamous strike of 1994 basically revolved around the idea of a salary cap. The owners wanted one, claiming that otherwise small-market teams could simply no longer compete in the Free Agent Era; the players did not want one, fearing that it would simply be a tool for the owners to artificially manipulate player salaries. between 931 and 948 games were lost to the strike, including the entire 1994 post season (which accounts for the imprecise number of games lost, based on the minimum and maximum number of post-season games that might have been played). It was the first time in 90 years that no World Series was played. The owners threatened to play the 1995 season with replacement players ("scabs"), further infuriating the players union and seemingly bringing all attempts to reach agreement to an end, until then Federal Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a preliminary injunction against the owners, effectively bringing the strike to an end. The players returned to the field on April 2. However, the fans stayed away in droves, to paraphrase Yogi Berra. Plummeting attendance meant plummeting revenues for each team and for the league. Three strikes and you're out, the saying goes - that may well have been the case for the MLB had the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run race of 1998 not brought the fans back.

Here's hoping we never need to live through another strike again!

What A Weekend! (Part 3 - Always Room for More Jello!)

(This is the third of a three-part post. Read parts one and two here & here.)

The weekend finished up in Baltimore, MD, at The Ottobar, a venue that has become a regular stop among my show-going friends, to once again catch Jello Biafra &
The Guantanamo School of Medicine. This was a Sunday night all-ages show, so we had no idea what sort of crowd to expect. About 200 showed up, mostly skewing older, to see Jello and three opening bands.

The first two bands up were local Baltimorians. 4 Footer was about halfway through their set when we got there, so I didn't get to see or hear enough of them to form an opinion, but what I did see was interesting. Their sound was kind of punky southern hard rock, not entirely unlike Nine Pound Hammer to my ears (and that would be a good thing!) But, by the time we had our first round of beers and staked out our space in the club, their set was over.

4 Footer
We had no idea what to expect when The Fishnet Stalkers took the stage, dressed like it was 1979 (the striped shirt/skinny tie look). What a pleasant surprise they turned out to be! Like a slightly harder-edged Chesterfield Kings, or Jagger and Richards filtered through The Dead Boys, they played tough without sacrificing melody. Playing for the hometown crowd helped, but this band is definitely one to watch - they have the chops to be big time if they choose.

The Fishnet Stalkers
Witch Hunt traveled along with Jello Biafra throughout this tour, and seeing them a second time only reinforced for me how good they are. I daresay they sounded better Sunday night than Friday. Their drummer is simply astounding, playing at hyper-thrash speeds and propelling the band through song after song without missing a beat - literally. They seemed to spend a little more time giving their between-song protest speeches on this night as well, but that is forgiven when the music is this good.

Witch Hunt
During Witch Hunt's set, we spotted Jello Biafra walking through the crowd. It was strange - very few people seemed to recognize him. Then again, I have to remember that the Dead Kennedys actually split up before many of the kids in the crowd were even born. Maybe they had never seen him live before? I decided to go over to Jello and shake his hand and thank him for thirty years of great music. In typical Jello fashion, he corrected me: "It's been thirty-two years!" he smiled, "I was 19 when we started Dead Kennedys." We talked a bit about the Philly show, and he mentioned how he is usually completely spent after a performance - which is very believable. I asked if he'd be willing to sign Dead Kennedys records, knowing that the band's split was less than harmonious. He said sure, as long as they were originals on Alternative Tentacles and not the represses through East Bay Ray's label. He directed me over to his roadie to be sure to catch him after the show.

Jello and the band ran through the same set in Baltimore as in Philly, with only minor changes in patter and pacing, and they were every bit as fantastic the second time around. As opposed to The Trocadero, where stage diving was commonplace, The Ottobar was plastered with signs saying "Absolutely No Stage Diving Whatsoever!" As a result, the crowd's energy was different, but no less positive than Philadelphia's. In fact, The Ottobar's set up, with a much lower stage and a loft off to the left, allowed Jello much more freedom to interact directly with the crowd.

Jello Biafra & The Guantanamo School of Medicine
About half an hour after the show, Jello came out to greet the dozen or so fans like us who had stuck around. He couldn't spend a lot of time with us - he desperately wanted to get something to eat and had to get on the road to Washington DC, but he spent about 10 - 15 minutes talking with everyone and signing records, always checking to make sure they were originals. I heard him tell one person who handed him a record, "I can't sign this one, this is a completely illegitimate pressing. East Bay Ray didn't even make any money off of this one!" Wonder what record that was? He wasn't nasty about it, though, and his stance on only signing original material is completely understandable.

As we filed out of the club, we met up with GSM bassist Andrew Weiss, who talked with us for about twenty minutes about his days in Rollins Band. We asked him about the band Scornflakes, which was the New Jersey-based improvisational punk band he had been in before joining Rollins. He seemed surprised that we knew of Scornflakes, since "about 10 of the 12 shows we played live were at City Gardens," a venue in Trenton, NJ, where we had seen many a show in the '80s. He was happy to talk about the old City Garden days, and mentioned that there was a Scornflakes record out there that they had recorded live. By now it was getting to be almost 1:00 AM and there was long drive home ahead of us, so after thanking Andrew for the show, we hit the road.

Amazing postscript: we had all taken Monday off from work, and we wandered into a used record shop Monday afternoon and found - of all things - the Scornflakes record! A buddy of mine took it; maybe he'll eventually get Andrew to sign it!

It was a fantastic weekend all around, filled with great bands, great music, great people and great memories. I was exhausted when it was over, but happily so. So when does the next weekend full of cool bands come around?

(Visit That's What I Was Going To Say's Facebook page for more pics from Sunday night's show.)

4 of Baseball's Famous Flakes

Image via Wikipedia

The countdown continues...4 days until Opening Day of the 2010 Baseball season! Since today is also April Fool's Day, I thought it appropriate that today's list look at 4 of baseballs daffiest players:

4. Jay Johnstone
Over a 20-year big league career, Johnstone was well known as both a solid utility player and one of baseball's great clowns. Whether it was dressing up as part of the groundskeeping crew and dusting off the infield between innings of a game, or climbing over the top of the dugout and marching through the stands in full dress uniform to go get a hot dog, Johnstone always something mischievous up his sleeve.

3. Babe Herman
Often called "The Daffiest Dodger," Herman was a good player who just seemed to get into odd situations. Decades before it happened to Jose Canseco, reporters insisted a fly ball had bounced off of Herman's head into the stands - not true, Herman insisted! It bounced off his shoulder... Herman is also the only man in history to double into a double play. Trying to stretch a double into a triple, he failed to see that the runner ahead of him was already standing there - or that the runner heading home had turned around and headed back to third, leaving 3 men on one base. Of course, his reputation was made when he was summoned to the phone while chomping on a cigar. Herman put the cigar in his coat pocket and took the call. Afterwards, he pulled the still-lit cigar from his pocket and resumed puffing away as though nothing were amiss...

2. Rube Waddell
In the early part of the 20th century, few pitchers were as accomplished as Waddell. He had pinpoint accuracy and an array pitches that flabbergasted hitters. He also had a bad habit of disappearing from the club, sometimes in the middle of an inning. He was entranced by fires, and if he heard a firetruck pass he drop whatever he was doing and run to chase it. Opposing teams' fans discovered they could easily distract Waddell by holding up small puppies. Waddell was one of a kind.

1. Bill Lee
Any player whose nickname is "The Spaceman" has got to lead this list! Lee earned his nickname basically through his outspoken, offbeat opinions and philosophies about the game and the world, most famously, The Cosmic Snowball Theory: "A few million years from now the sun will burn out and lose its gravitational pull. The earth will turn into a giant snowball and be hurled through space. When that happens it won't matter if I get this guy out."

What A Weekend! (Part 2 - Rock 'n' Roll Girls On A Saturday Night)

(This is the second of a three-part post. Part one can be read here.)

As fantastic as Friday night's show at The Trocadero in Philly was, the weekend actually picked up steam on Saturday night. My brother and I headed to West Chester, PA, to see The Donnas with Gorevette opening (there was one other band...I'll get to them in a moment). This was the third time The Donnas came within shouting distance of Lancaster, PA in the last two and a half years, and both of the previous times they were here, plans to go see them fell through. I decided I wasn't missing them a third time. Boy am I glad I didn't!

The venue in West Chester was called The Note. It was the first time I had been there - indeed the first time I or any of my friends had ever even heard of it. Of the three places we went this weekend it was the smallest, yet this was the show that had the largest crowd. I estimated there to be about 300 - 325 people there, crammed like sardines into the long, narrow building. When you first walk in, the bar is to your right; to your left is the wall. You've got about a two-person width from that wall to the back of the bar stools (provided the two people considered are very close friends). At the far end of the bar the place widens slightly, and about four steps lead you down to the floor in front of the stage. To the left is the only access I saw to an upstairs area that I never saw. When a band is playing and the floor is packed, going up and down the stairway appears to be no easy task.

Despite the sardine-can accommodations, The Note is not an entirely uncomfortable place, and unlike many places where I have seen shows in my time, it is not in the kind of neighborhood where you take your chances getting to and from your car. We had a good chuckle at the establishment directly across the street, though: it was a barber shop in the kind of storefront that has two full-length window boxes on either side of the door, and both windows were crammed full of KISS memorabilia. Posters, LP jackets, t-shirts, mannequin heads made up like KISS - anything you could think of! So, if you're looking for the Gene Simmons haircut, I know a place...

The KISS barber shop across the street
I mentioned in Part One that first bands are often throwaway acts. The band that first took the stage at The Note Saturday night certainly followed that rule of thumb. The less said about Fatal Flaw, the better, but I feel I should try to describe how bad they were. Picture four guys who looked like they would have been far more at home at a frat party in 1992 than a Donnas show in 2010, playing light-alternative music that makes Toad The Wet Sprocket sound heavy in comparison, and you'd be picturing something better than Fatal Flaw. We couldn't figure out how they got on the bill with The Donnas; in school, The Donnas would have beaten these guys up and stolen their lunch money. They broke out every cliched rock-n-roll move you can name, from rocking the guitars back and forth in unison to the drummer twirling his sticks. My brother summed them up perfectly when he said, "These guys would get booed out of a prom!" The most positive thing I can say about Fatal Flaw is that they eventually stopped playing and left the stage.

From there, though, the evening skyrocketed! Gorevette was up next. I arrived in West Chester not knowing who Gorevette was. I will forever kick myself for not looking them up online before leaving for the show! Gorevette, it turns out, is a collaboration between Amy Gore of The Gore Gore Girls and the legendary Nikki Corvette of the classic Detroit-based bubblegum-punk band Nikki & The Corvettes. Had I realized that, I'd have shown up with a fistful of Nikki & The Corvettes records to be signed!

Amy Gore and Nikki Corvette of Gorevette
Gorevette was awesome. With Lianna Castillo on bass and Al King on drums, Amy Gore and Nikki Corvette ratcheted up the fun and energy in the club exponentially. Gore is an exceedingly talented guitarist, and Nikki Corvette bopped around the stage with her Raggedy-Ann-red hair flying, tearing through a set that included originals as well as covers of classic punk tunes like The Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get?" and The Saints' "Wild About You." Nikki also had the line of the weekend, when she told the crowd that Gorevette's CD would be available for purchase at the merchandise table, and "we'll sign it, we'll hang out, we'll drink, whatever!" What more can you ask for?

While we waited for The Donnas, I happened to overhear a conversation among the three folks directly in front of me. It seemed to be a couple and their friend. The girl asked the friend about the upstairs, and he told her that there was a bar up there, and that there was a rumor circulating that Johnny Knoxville was up there to see the show. Her eyes widened as she turned to her boyfriend and said, "I've got to get up there! Johnny Knoxville might be up there!" As she determinedly began pushing her way toward the stairway, the boyfriend deadpanned, "Oh good. Maybe if you ask him he'll stick something up his ass." OK, so maybe Nikki Corvette didn't have the line of the weekend.

The Donnas did not disappoint. For just over an hour they burned through their set. They stuck mostly to their more recent material, and that combination of punk/metal/hard rock was the perfect tonic for the crowd. Frontwoman Brett Anderson has become quite the performer over the band's sixteen year (!) history, and she worked the crowd to a fever pitch all night. At times she verged awfully close to the paint-by-numbers rock 'n' roll script (mention the town you're playing in after every other song, tell the crowd that tonight is by far the best show of the tour, do the "I wanna hear you make some noise!" routine, etc.), but there was enough of a knowing smirk behind it that you can't fault her for playing the game. And boy did the crowd respond! We all wished they would have gone longer, but this was the last night of four-stop East Coast mini-tour, and they had a 5:00 AM plane to catch.

The Donnas
Still, they came out for their encore, and this was when the "rock 'n' roll" act was completely dropped and The Donnas reverted before our eyes to the Palo Alto high school teens who decided to form a band based around their love of The Ramones and and Motley Crue. After revving the crowd up for their slightly rewritten cover of KISS's "Strutter" (hmmm...did they see the barber shop across the street?), they got through about four bars of the song when guitarist Allison Robertson's amp went silent. It was endearing to see the tough-chick swagger fall away a bit as they determined what happened. The roadie diagnosed a failed cable, hooked Allison up again, and the swagger was back in full force. Once again they launched into "Strutter," and once again, the amp went silent just as they reached the middle of the first verse. Allison could only drop her head in disbelief.

Now the swagger was completely gone, and The Donnas were suddenly four somewhat nervous girls grasping for a way to fill the time while the roadie fixed the guitar. Bassist Maya Ford told jokes, Bret Anderson giggled nervously, drummer Amy Cesari (filling in on this tour for regular drummer Torry Castellano) kept a beat going for the crowd to clap along with. They almost apologetically took their third stab at "Strutter" and this time made it all the way through. Feeling confident, it was time for one last song. They closed with "Take It Off," or at least tried to. Once again, the guitar failed! Determined to finish their set, they soldiered on with a back-up guitar, and tore the house down to close the night. It was a great, great show, technical difficulties notwithstanding.

After The Donnas were done, we made our way back to the merchandise table, where Amy Gore and Nikki Corvette were taking the time to chat with fans. I told Nikki that I wished I had brought my records for her to sign; she promised she would sign them the next time they came through the area. I picked up the Gorevette disc and a solo Nikki Corvette CD, and both Amy and Nikki were happy to sign. Got a laugh out of Amy Gore when she asked if I had put my email address on their mailing list at the table. I said I had, and then signed my name next to it, telling her, "There! Now you have my autograph, too!" They were both very friendly and great to talk with, and for as fantastic as both their set and The Donnas' set were, getting to meet Nikki Corvette and Amy Gore was the high point of the night.

Getting to meet Nikki Corvette
An hour's drive back home and another night's rest...and there was still more music ahead before the weekend would be over! Part Three will be posted tomorrow, so stay tuned...

(Visit That's What I Was Going To Say's Facebook fan page to see more pics from Saturday night's Donnas/Gorevette show. I've opted not to post the video I took Saturday night because the sound was even worse than Friday's video. If you'd like me to post it anyway, leave a comment either here or on the fan page.)

Recommended Reading: Look Back in Anger

One of my favorite early '80s New Wave acts was the duo of Pal Shazar and Andrew Chinich, Slow Children. Their two albums have remained in mid-to-heavy rotation on the turntable around these parts since my high school years, and when I first began the New Wave for the New Week series over a year ago, Slow Children were among the bands that inspired the concept. They were the 9th entry in the NW4NW series.

While researching links for that blog post, I found Pal Shazar's current website, and through it I was introduced to the wonderousness of Shazar's post-Slow Children creative world. I had not heard her solo music before; now I wanted to find every release (still searching on some!) In addition to music, she has found expression through the written word (Penthouse Magazine published excerpts from her novel, Janitor) and through her paintings and illustrations. On top of it all, I discovered Pal has her own blog, Look Back in Anger. It has become a regular read for me.

Look Back in Anger focuses on the imagery surrounding great films, and is as much, if not more, a visual blog as a written one. In each post, which often come in spurts of three or four in a day, Pal shares a photograph or maybe two or three and a brief comment. Each presentation pulls you right in and puts you in the picture, in the movie, or in the era. The level of feeling she is able to evoke with a few images and often a relatively stark economy of words is astounding. Shazar's blog is nostalgic without being maudlin. She does not mourn the loss of classic cinema and its icons; rather, she celebrates the fact that the medium in which they shared their talents with the world is one which allows us to continue to enjoy them today, and will afford future generations the same pleasure. She is both curator of history and siren calling you to step through a portal to another time and place, where the greats of the silver screen never age, never fade out, and never fail to entertain.

To say that I was happily surprised and honored when Pal Shazar responded to my request to be a part of this series would be putting it mildly. That is, I suppose, one of the more surreal aspects of the Internet: here is someone whose work I have admired and whose records I bought and loved for years, and here we are communicating not as fan and musician, but as fellow bloggers. Allow me to share Pal's responses to the Five Questions I've asked each blogger (please note that, as seen in her blog, her preferred writing style is reminiscent of e.e. cummings - no capital letters. I have kept that style in presenting her words here):

What or who inspired you to begin blogging?
PS: a friend who has a boutique (kaight shop nyc) told me that she lamented having to rely on others to update her website. she was unable to do it herself but she found that having a blog was much simpler. so, she created one on blogger and showed me how to do it. the very next day i created my film blog. i knew that my passion for films would be a lovely gift for others as interested as myself. plus, i am very visually oriented and there are just countless beautiful stills to share.

some of my least favorites experiences involved standing in a film rental place and looking at all the titles with my head swimming. if my knowledge of great cinema can spare one individual those moments of anxiety i will have made a useful offering.

as i like to write as well as paint, having a blog is a really fun way to be creative without investing that time with any ambitious thoughts! it is simply a gift for anyone who may stumble upon it. believe it or not, there are some people who have yet to see 'camille' or 'love with the proper stranger.'

Is there a story or meaning behind your blog or its name?
PS: the greatest (favorite) performance i have seen on film is richard burton's role as 'jimmy' in 'look back in anger.' what the british term 'kitchen sink drama' is exactly the style of film i adore. these films were made in the 1960's depicting individuals with great passion living in fairly grim circumstances. some of the terrific actors associated with these movies are: alan bates (a kind of loving) richard burton (look back in anger) and tom courtenay (the loneliness of the long distance runner). john schlesinger, joseph losey, and tony richardson are some of the directors who brought these tales to life in their exceptional black and white films.

Which post would you choose from your archives if you had to provide only one that best represents what your blog is all about?
PS: rain/tears: powerful concoction, my blog's namesake

When you first log on to your computer each day, what is the first site you go to? Why?
PS: i like to check into one or two culturally driven information sites and see what's up with the world.i also love to peek in on fashion.

What one other blog would YOU recommend that you read regularly, and why?
PS: there is a guy named tom sutpen who has a blog called 'if charlie parker was a gunslinger, there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats.' if you google his name you can easily find it. he is a culture lover and always posts great images. it is very inspiring to see faces and places that are gone but not forgotten. i am regularly amazed by how many people in their twenties are so passionate about early cinema. of course we all love james dean, but so many people are praising the talent and personality of people such as carole lombard. indeed she was one of the most incredible comedians. it was a blogger in her twenties who brought to my attention the great actor lon chaney.

I hope you will take the time to visit Look Back in Anger and spend some time there. Seldom in today's jaded world do we get the chance to be swept away such as those classic movies could offer. Escape a bit into that world, and you just may find yourself going back to visit again and again.

My most sincere thanks to Pal Shazar for her willingness to be a part of this series and for taking the time to share her thoughts with us!

5 Opening Day Milestones

Image via Wikipedia

With only 5 days remaining in our countdown to Opening Day of the 2010 Major League Baseball season, let's review 5 of the most important milestones achieved on Opening Days past:

1. Opening Day, 1907
Roger Bresnahan, catcher for the New York Giants, takes the field wearing shin guards such as those worn in the British game of Cricket. It is believed that Bresnahan on this day became the first catcher in MLB history to wear such protective equipment. In short order, the rest of the catchers in the league would (probably gratefully!) follow suit.

2. Opening Day, 1910
In Washington, DC, the Washington Senators begin their season at home. President William Howard Taft tosses out a ceremonial first pitch, making him the first President to do so.

3. Opening Day, 1940
One of my favorite baseball trivia questions is, there has been exactly one game in MLB history where an entire team's roster finished the day with the exact same batting averages they had coming into the game - how did it happen? Answer: Bob Feller, on this day, took the mound for the Cleveland Indians and threw the only Opening Day No-Hitter in MLB history. The Chicago White Sox players all began the game with batting averages of .000; when they left the field hitless, those averages were still .000!

4. Opening Day, 1947
Jackie Robinson takes the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Major League Baseball's sixty-plus-year-old color barrier is broken.

5. Opening Day, 1974
Hank Aaron connects for his 714th career homerun, tying Babe Ruth's lifetime total. Four days later, Aaron would pass the Babe, and then go on to finish his career with 755 - a record that would stand until Barry Bonds passed Aaron in a cloud of controversy. Bonds may have the higher total in the record books, but for my generation, Aaron will always be baseball's Home Run King.

Please feel free to share some of your favorite Opening Day moments in the comments below!

What A Weekend! (Part 1 - Friday in Philly)

It has taken me until now, Tuesday afternoon/evening, to completely process and begin to write about the past weekend. Three nights. Three cities. Nine different bands, two of them twice. Meeting and talking with four very cool musicians, two of whom are unqualified punk rock legends (one I expected to see and one who was a complete - yet pleasant - surprise!). It was a wonderful weekend filled with great music; it reaffirmed for me how much more I enjoy seeing a band in a tiny club with 200 - 300 people than in an arena with thousands. And, at an average of $15 cover per show and $4 a beer, plus $20 to pick up 2 CDs, the whole weekend took less out of my wallet than seeing some big-name band in some stadium somewhere where you need binoculars to see the band and your chances of actually meeting and talking with them are slim to none. Let me share the highlights with you.

The weekend kicked off Friday night in Philadelphia, at the fabulous Trocadero, seeing ex-Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra's newest band, The Guantanamo School of Medicine. (Many years ago, friends and I got into the habit of always calling it "the fabulous Trocadero." Given it's history - dating back to 1870 as a vaudeville theater, through the middle 20th century as a burlesque house, to its current incarnation since the 1980s as a club where many a Punk Rock show has taken place - it just deserves more than simply "the Trocadero...") Probably about 300 people were in attendance Friday for an all-ages show that featured three opening bands.

Mirrors and Wires
When we arrived, Mirrors and Wires were already into their set. Wish I would have caught them from the beginning. As a rule, first acts are kind of throwaways; in this case, they left me wanting to hear more. Playing all instrumental psychedelic punk material, the band delivered a solid performance. I see that they have a couple of releases under their belt; may have to check them out. Up next was Common Enemy, a local thrash band who were unfortunately just not my cup of tea, mainly due to the garbage-disposal vocals which made every song sound pretty much the same. But the band had a strong fan base among the kids in attendance, and to their credit, they got the crowd moving. Always does this old punk's heart good to see the youngsters out there slamming in the pit like we used to in the old days...

Common Enemy
Witch Hunt took the stage next, and impressed the hell out of me. This was my first time hearing the local Philly band, and I'm kicking myself for not picking up their CD. The four-piece band (two girls, two guys) blasted out energetic hyper-speed material interspersed with mini-speeches about the injustices of the world. Call their stuff emo-thrash, I guess, but I loved it and so did the hometown crowd.

Witch Hunt
Then it was time for Jello. I was very excited to see Jello perform live - I was lucky enough to catch the Dead Kennedys in Charlottesville, VA in 1985 on what would be their last tour before splitting up in the wake of Biafra's obscenity trial, and they have always ranked among my all-time favorite bands. The current band playing with him includes Ralph Spight (from Victim's Family), Andrew Weiss (ex-Rollins Band), Jon Weiss (ex-Helios Creed) and Kimo Ball (from Freak Accident), and the new material from GSM's debut The Audacity of Hype compares very favorably with anything Jello has done in his myriad musical collaborations since the DKs disbanded. The band is tight and powerful, and Jello is mesmerizing as ever on stage. Pacing, frothing, sneering, pantomiming lyrics, ballyhooing and pontificating between songs, Biafra commands your attention unlike any other performer I've ever seen. He hasn't lost a step since 1985.

In fact, the whole performance in Philly was like a Punk Rock time machine taking me back to 1985. The kids were stage diving and crowd surfing (yes, the club allowed it - more about that in a moment), the pit was constantly swirling, and the energy was positive. The band played for almost an hour and forty-five minutes, giving us all the new material and - to the elation of everyone from the old fogies like me to the kids in the pit - a handful of Dead Kennedys' classics: "California Über Alles," "Let's Lynch The Landlord," "Holiday In Cambodia" and, in the second of two encores, "Bleed For Me" were all played as solidly and as well as the original band played them back in the day. I felt the urge to dive into the pit myself, but thankfully the voice in the back of my head reminded me I'm not 18 anymore!

Jello Biafra
About the stage diving. I have not been to a show where the club allowed stage diving in at least 20 years. Most clubs forbid it because it is possible to get hurt, and the club would then of course be liable. In fact, during Friday night's show, we saw two kids land badly. The first did a sort of feet-first leap into the crowd and hit the floor hard; the bouncers helped him off to the side, but he seemed more shaken up than banged up, and he was back in the mix in short order. The second, however, took the headfirst dive and came down where there were not enough people to properly catch him. He was carried off to the side and attended to by the bouncers; at one point I caught a glimpse of him and he had one heck of a knot on the side of his forehead. After the show, I asked one of the bouncers how that kid was. "He took a header," the bouncer told me. "I expected him to be leaving in an ambulance, but he walked out of here on his own." I told him how surprised I was that they were allowing the stage diving; he said the band had requested no barriers at the stage and they had to respect the band's wishes, but they were concerned, too.

Hoping to meet Jello and maybe get some records signed, we hung around for twenty minutes or so after the show, talking briefly with the road crew. The Trocadero staff let us hang out for a bit even after they pretty much herded everyone else out, but it was late and we had a 90-minute drive ahead of us, and when word came that the band had high-tailed it out of there, we did the same.

A great night of music in Philly, a great deal of fun, and had that been the only show I saw this weekend, it would have been enough. But the weekend was just getting started...stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!

Below is some video I attempted to take Friday night. Unfortunately, the sound is horribly distorted (cheap video camera too close to the amplifiers!), so it is virtually unlistenable - I highly recommend turning the volume way down. Still, the visual is there and gives you a sense of the energy in the club.

Visit That's What I Was Going To Say's fan page on Facebook to see more pics from the show...

6 Pitchers Who Were Perfect...And Then Some!

Pitching a Perfect Game in Major League Baseball is one of the most difficult feats in all of sport. A Perfect Game is one in which the pitcher faces the minimum number of batters possible (27) and retires every one of them. No opposing player reaches base during the entire game by any means. In the history of the game, it has only been done 18 times.

More common is the No-Hitter, where no batter on the opposing team hits safely during the game, although opposing batters may reach base by other means, such as a walk or an error. Major League Baseball has seen 263 No-Hitters in its history, including those 18 Perfectos - still an enormously difficult feat to accomplish, but certainly more likely than a Perfect Game.

No pitcher has ever thrown multiple Perfect Games; a mere 23 have thrown multiple No-Hitters. But only 6 have ever accomplished the amazing, and thrown a Perfect Game and at least one other No-Hitter. With 6 days remaining to Opening Day, let's recognize those six for achieving the nearly impossible!

In chronological order:

1. Cy Young
Young tossed three No-Hitters in his career. The first came on 10/15/1892, when Young, pitching for the Cleveland Spiders, no-hit the Cincinnati Reds. On 5/5/1904, Young became the first player to join this Select Six by throwing a Perfecto for the Boston Americans against the Philadelphia A's. Young would add a final No-Hitter on 6/30/1908, again for Boston (who by now were called the Red Sox) against the New York Highlanders.

2. Addie Joss
Joss pitched his Perfect Game on 10/2/1908 for the Cleveland Naps vs. the Chicago White Sox. His second No-Hitter came a year and a half later, on 4/30/1910, again leading the Naps to victory over the White Sox, making him the only pitcher on this list to shut down the same team twice!

3. Jim Bunning
Bunning is one of two pitchers on the list who tossed a No-Hitter in each League. His first came in the AL, when he was with the Detroit Tigers. On 6/20/58, Bunning no-hit the Boston Red Sox. By 1964 Bunning was in the NL with the Philadelphia Phillies, and on Father's Day (6/21) of that year, he spun a Perfect Game against the New York Mets...one day after the six-year anniversary of his first No-Hitter!

4. Sandy Koufax
Koufax has the most No-Hitters on the list. He tossed four of them, all with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and all in successive seasons. On 6/30/1962, Koufax sent the New York Mets home hitless; 5/11/1963 was the day he did the same to the San Francisco Giants. He celebrated 6/4/1964 by no-hitting the Philadelphia Phillies, and on 9/9/65, he finally got his Perfecto vs. the Chicago Cubs. Think of what he might have done had his arm not hurt all the time!

5. Randy Johnson
It would be almost four decades before the next pitcher would join this list. Randy Johnson threw his first No-Hitter for the Seattle Mariners against the Detroit Tigers on 6/2/1990. Fourteen years later, on 5/18/2004, Johnson took the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks and tossed a Perfecto against the Atlanta Braves.

6. Mark Buehrle
Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle became the sixth man in MLB history to accomplish this impressive pitching feat just last year. Having one No-Hitter already under his belt (4/18/2007 vs. the Texas Rangers), Buehrle achieved perfection against the Tampa Bay Rays on 7/23/2009

There you have it: the only 6 pitchers in MLB history to have thrown a Perfect Game and at least one other No-Hitter. If you can think of a more difficult pitching accomplishment, I'd love to hear it!