Dave's Smithereens Page
Dave's Smithereens Page
 |
 |
|
|
The Smithereens, Friday, July 30, 2004, The Rock Club at Double D's Entertainment Complex, Morristown, NJ by Joel Keller for DSP
Shot girls. Four dollar withdrawal fees at the ATM. Bartenders showing more cleavage than Dolly Parton. Yep, that's right, folks… for the third time in a year, The Smithereens performed at the rock club at Double D's, Morristown, NJ's finest "gentleman's club and sports bar", with all the corresponding sights and sounds that this unique venue contains.
There was so much "stimuli" around the club, that I half-expected the band to come out wearing bikini tops and thongs. Thankfully for their comfort - and the audience's delicate constitutions - the band came out fully-clothed at around 11:00 PM (they were the second band of the night; the opening band was The Lost Patrol, and the closing band was Alchemy), starting their set with the song "Afternoon Tea".
Actually, considering the mid-summer humidity outside and the environmental conditions inside, thongs for all might have been preferred, disturbing visuals notwithstanding. "I have two words for Double D's: fuckin' air conditioning!" said a sweat-drenched Pat DiNizio before he and guitarist Jim Babjak launched into an impromptu cover of the song "Game of Love" by Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders. Drummer Dennis Diken and bassist Severo Jornacion, filling in for the California-based Mike Mesaros, quickly caught on to Pat and Jim's improvisation and filled in the rest of the ensemble effortlessly, energizing the dehydrated crowd.
As with the group's other sets in 2003-2004, the choice and order of songs were determined on the fly, with Pat advising Dennis, Severo, and Jim of the next song while the audience cheered the just-completed song. The four men's intimate knowledge of their own catalog allowed them to segue from song to song with nary a mistake or misstep. This freewheeling method also allowed Pat and company to play some rarely-played songs, like "Crazy Mixed-Up Kid" and "Alone At Midnight", both from the band's first full-length album, Especially For You. Other rarities included Pat's solo recording "Somewhere Down The Line" and covers of The Who's "The Seeker" (which can be found on Attack of The Smithereens) and "I've Got a Feeling" by The Beatles.
Overall, however, the set was fairly low-key, or at least as low-key a power quartet such as The Smithereens can muster, owing to the intimate crowd and steamy conditions. Slow and mid-tempo songs such as "Especially for You", "Deep Black" and "Cigarette" dominated the set, allowing both the band and crowd to keep semi-cool. Everyone was hot, from the band to the crowd to those aforementioned shot girls. At one point, a fan blotted the head of Jim Babjak with one of the WDHA-FM t-shirts given away by a station DJ before the band came on stage.
The one song that surprisingly didn't make the set was the band's biggest hit, "A Girl Like You", from 11. Usually played right before the house lights come up, the boys, probably sensing a bit of tiredness in themselves and the crowd, didn't even tease the crowd with the opening notes. Instead, the encore consisted of one - and only one - song: the Babjak composition "White Castle Blues". Jim, who wrote the song in 1977, mentioned to the crowd that a version of the tune was to appear on the soundtrack of the recently-released stoner epic Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. He went on to tell the salivating crowd (Jim rarely plays this fan favorite, so the audience was re-energized when he began telling the story) that because of the song, he is one of the "elite" in the White Castle Hall of Fame, inducted in a 2002 ceremony at the chain's headquarters in lovely Columbus, Ohio. He later told a group backstage that he gets invited to White Castle restaurant openings in New Jersey, not to perform, but just to be there as a Hall of Fame representative.
The rendition of "White Castle Blues" was expertly performed, amping up the crowd for their long rides (or in my case, short walks) home. Everyone left Double D's Rock Club happy they saw their idols in action once again, whetting their appetite for the arrival of the multi-CD set It Came From Jersey: The Smithereens Anthology, due out in August or September.
Hopefully, the next time The Smithereens show up at Double D's (and I do hope that happens… all kidding aside, the Rock Club is a very underrated music venue as far as sound, sightlines, and relatively cheap beer are concerned), it'll either be winter or the AC will be turned up to "frosty". The crowd and band will both benefit.
Oh, and they should also cut the ATM fee to two bucks. Just thought I'd get that one in there.
Setlist:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|