Old Hat - photo by Alison Cartwright

The second act of the night is Old Hat, and what can one say? Two men and two women take the stage and proceed to give us songs divined from their spiritual leader W. Alan Yankovic (who has a blog, and unconfirmed connection to the musical parodist of similar name).

Songs in Friday night’s set included “Dominic the Donkey,” “Uncle Pat’s Pig Roast,” and “Fucking Morphine,” which was described as “the song about the time we took drugs and nothing happened.” They take breaks in between songs to auction off a macabre painting, and end up taking a collection from the audience – twice, because they weren’t satisfied with the results of the first go-around.

All this, and the music itself was fun, spectacularly entertaining, and very often witty. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen someone play the acoustic bass with intensity, but that is what Old Hat’s bassist Preston Spurlock did. Besides being a talented musician, his violent outbursts with and towards this usually-docile instrument were perhaps the most entertaining part of the show. I don’t know if his rage-fueled bass-playing was part of the act, or just part of an artist’s passion in the moment – I don’t care, it was fucking fun.

These musicians (the others are Dibson Hoffweiler on guitar, Deenah Vollmer on mandolin, and Fran Agnone on drums) smile out the side of their mouths throughout the set, as though they’re getting away with something. Indeed, at one point Hoffweiler – their sort-of lead man – remarked that they must be doing something wrong, because not nearly enough people had walked out yet.

Old Hat and Kung Fu Crime Wave at The Debutante Hour’s Telethon Bash. The accordion/drum/cello power trio, presents a variety show with folk-rock group The WOWZ, Phoebe Kreutz and new cult phenomenon Old Hat. And magic too! The Ukranian National Home. 140 2nd Ave. 8:00pm.

Variety Show Telethon Bash
The Debutante Hour, a lively female vocal trio whose members play the accordion, the cello, and the drums, needs money to record a new album, so they’re putting on a show, with performances by other bands, jugglers, puppeteers, opera singers, and comedians. (The roster includes Jonathan Wood Vincent, the Wowz, Phoebe Kreutz, Old Hat, Kung Fu Crime Wave, Rachel Feinstein, Michael Richter, Victor Varnado, Herb Scher, Marti Newland, Sweet Soubrette, Grits and Harmony, and the Orange Teardrops.) Donations will be accepted on twenty old—allegedly Soviet—rotary phones, and there will be a silent auction for such prizes as a private show in the winner’s living room, cupcakes baked by the Debutantes, and a canoe trip with the group down the Gowanus Canal. (Ukrainian National Home, 140 Second Ave., between St. Marks Pl. and 9th St. 212-529-6287. Dec. 5 at 7.)

I ended up staying in bed for the majority of the time between then and Saturday morning. It was supposed to be my last week of work, but I missed it all. But I was miraculously doing better Saturday. But I went to Old Hat practice and performed with Cheese on Bread. The show went so well, and it made me so happy, that I just started feeling so much better afterwards. One of the best shows we’ve had in a while, I think.

And then Sunday evening I was back at Sidewalk for a solo show. I was the closing act of the festival. I felt like I was not doing a very good job, but Bernard gave me a tape of the show, and it’s pretty good despite the fact that I didn’t practice since I was sick all week. It was fun.

Monday was my last day at work. Very anti climactic. I was so excited to have a last day at work, and then it came three days later, after not having been there for over a week. Oh well. I finished some tasks up for them and it was nice to leave on good terms.

Today and yesterday, Matt Keesan and I have been working together on our web application which we’ve been developing for a music studio. It’s mostly together, and I’m proud of it. It is fun to work on a computer project alongside a friend. Today we took over Dan and Betsy’s apartment as an office. Yesterday we spent a good day in more southern Brooklyn, stopping by various Cafe’s for internet.

We did a fair amount of walking yesterday, it reminded me a bit of our day in Toledo, Ohio over the summer. Matt and I were up earlyish for some reason, and we walked through town to get to the public library. The early morning walk with Matt is a good thing. In Toledo we got to the library and checked email and whatnot. I sat next to a guy who was "having" cybersex in yahoo messenger. He was rubbing his crotch. I was only slightly uncomfortable with that.

That is what I have been doing the past week. A little over a month from now I’m going to fly to Berlin to play shows in Germany with Huggabroomstik. I’m very excited. I bought my tickets.