Gonzo Radio: February 2009

It began like any other Sunday. The sun came up, people went to church and George Bush was no longer in office. What a great day. The after-effects of a long night prior to this morning crept up on my body and mind as I became more conscious. My coat hanger had fallen to the floor, as it usually does, and made a mess of my already disgusting room. I had only one sock on and my pants were in the hallway. Reflections of the previous night flashed through my aching skull. Drinks were had; drugs were passed around everything that made up the recipe for a night to remember but would be forgotten. It would be hours before my body would fully recover from the hang-over. But I was prepared to do it all again to cover the first day of the 18th annual C-U Great Cover-Up.

What the hell is the Great Cover-Up anyway? It’s been a long standing tradition that once a year the most notable bands in the Champaign Urbana area convene at a venue and perform, but not their own material. It’s a sonic and visual masquerade for bands and scene-sters to take part of. It’s beyond a tribute show. It has a sense of humor. Serious covers are always welcome, but if I ever had the chance to play the Great Cover-Up I would perform as Tom Jones, or perhaps Neil Diamond. It is an event that allows bands license to indulge their bitter-sweet taste in music and performing as the bands they consider their “guilty pleasures”. This year’s event would take place at the Highdive in downtown Champaign throughout three days.

Sunday evening, the first night of the whole “sonic masquerade” came around and I forgot to attend the show. I was drunk off of a few cans of Steel Reserve and a forty ounce of Colt .45 in a basement near the venue. But from what I was told by friends that did attend the evening bore resemblance to putting a seven-teen year old Champaign-based guitar player’s iTunes playlist on random. I say guitar player because the Mike Ingram Band performed as local band “Temple of Low Men” who had many members that doubled as music instructors within the community. Iain Sheppard was my percussion instructor for many years, and his band-mates also taught friends of mine on bass and guitar.

The first night’s set went as follows:
Sunday, January 18
The Beat Kitchen as Sly and the Family Stone
Mike Ingram Band as Temple of Low Men
Curb service as the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack
Brother Embassy as Limp Bizkit
Kilbourn Alley as Peter Tosh
Popgun 5 as Lynryd Skynryd

The sheer variety of the night was seemingly uncompromised. How could the next group of bands beat this? That question mulled in the minds of the concert goers and performers. The answer would come in a days’ time.

The evening began for your lowly writer early. Three dollar long islands at the canopy club are always a treat. After a few I went back to my house to sit and watch some X-Files video tapes that litter the living-room. My room-mate, who performing at the Cover-Up, asked me if I would dance on stage at the end of his set; I guess I had said ok because by the end of the night I had put on a batman costume and drunkenly danced to the cadence at the end of “Bang the Gong” by T. Rex.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ten minutes after walking into the Highdive I had already opened a tab and had two double Jim Beam’s on the rocks and because I was considered to be part of one of the acts I was allowed into the back-stage area. Tubs of beer were made available to the bands performing. It was in that area that the true spirit of the Cover-Up was revealed.

“Don’t worry about the lyrics man, this is the cover-up. Nobody gives a fuck. People come here to party and get drunk and watch people fuck up while they GET fucked up.”

This was the preamble of the night, and every night of the cover-up.

This piece of truth rang through my already aching head. It was around nine o’clock when I arrived and it was nine fifteen when the long-islands, the shots of Jim and several beers made the visions blur. The first band/’s (it was an amalgam of two local bands, Post-Historic and Robots Counterfeiting Money) was/were Andrew W.K. and they had the stage show down to a T. The buffoon of a man playing Andrew himself was spot on. Solos were jumbled and the keys player was very intent on playing the part right and sacrificed antics for clarity, but it was a spectacle. The show was similar to Andrew W.K.’s performance (and one of the funniest videos I have ever seen.) on Saturday Night Live. Just YouTube it and be prepared to laugh.

Up next was Dave King the Duke of Uke and His Novelty Orchestra, but that night they were T Rex. The entirety of this portion of the night I spent behind a bass amp. It was part of my free admittance into the show that I hide until the end of the last song and dance around on stage. Within my drunkenness I had thought it a good idea to get a batman costume that was left in my backseat and wear that with silver and black aviator glasses for my performance. It didn’t make sense to me or the audience that watched. But it was okay because the Duke had invited the crowd onstage to dance as well, and they did. After almost falling over the cello player’s cello the song ended and I jumped/fell off the stage.

After T. Rex came Madonna incarnated through the two-man band Common Loon. They have been finding rapid success within the C-U music scene following their release earlier this past year. Images, sounds and consciousness began to distort at this point. The Highdive is split into two rooms: the venue section (with the stage and a few seats, and the “chill” section.) I ran into some friends that night and spent time in the half-circle booths along the length of the wall of the “chill” room. My tab was still open and I was taking advantage of my free beer situation in the back-stage area.

I learned names and forgot them just as quick. Faces melted away in my head like snow-flakes over a fire. I was part of the intoxicated crowd for a good portion of the show. The tractor kings performed as Steve Earle, with Elzie Sexton of New Ruins on keyboards. After their set was New Ruins as Guided By Voices. Microphone troubles gave their set a bad start but they recovered and delivered passed expectations. Up next was the hip-hop act Agent Mos and company baring the façade of hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest. It wasn’t apparent at first who they were covering because of the obscurity of the songs and everyone’s state of inebriation, but when they yelled “A Tribe Called Quest” clouds parted.

In my sad, drunken and confused state I assumed the show was over when Agent Mos was finished. So with batman costume in hand and my debit card freshly swiped I got in my car and drove home. It was to my surprise the following day that there in fact was another band left to play that night. Santa had preformed as Robert Smith and friends in their band you might have heard of called The Cure. And from what I’ve heard it was quite the set. They had the hair, the make-up and most importantly the sullenness of the Cure.

Tuesday January 20th
Post Historic and Robots counterfeiting Money as Andrew W.K.
Duke of Uke and his Novelty Orchestra as T Rex
Common Loon as Madonna
Tractor Kings as Steve Earle
New Ruins as Guided By Voices
Agent Mos as a tribe Called Quest
Santa as The Cure

Wednesday night consisted of drinking and playing at Radio Maria’s open mic night. The regulars conversed about who had played, what they covered, who was left and what they might cover. Speculations were made they would be uncovered the following and last night of the Cover-up.

Thursday inched by at a pace that seemed to make a slug look like Jackie Robinson. Working sucks, especially in the service industry. I was late to the final night of the cover-up and met up with friends in the middle of the Golden Qualities set as the Scorpions. I was buzzed from the shots of wild turkey we immediately took part of so when they played “Rock You like a Hurricane” I couldn’t help but join in on the chorus. Although they didn’t play “Bitch City” it was undoubtedly the most accurate of the performing bands that I had seen in the whole show.

Scurvine was next as Sound Garden. I wished to hear “Black-hole Sun” but my favorite song of the 90’s was never played, or at least I don’t remember.

More drinks were had.

I can’t for the life of me remember the Chemicals performance. They were the stooges, and they played the hell out of it, but I can’t remember a damn thing. But I do remember the Hot Cops kicking into their first song as Ranier Maria. Well done.

My friends and I were pre-gaming for the next band, our local favorite hard-core band: Roberta Sparrow. They covered Chicago based punk band/Satanists The Alkaline Trio. Imagine that, two bands I really enjoy throwing down the only songs I enjoy in that genre. All I have to say is that Greg is a machine. Imagine thrashing out a punk song and singing it at full capacity the entire time…he must be an alien, or some kind of machine.

Terminus Victor is known for having the most bizarre (at least the most far from their original songs) sets for the cover-up. If I had known that they were covering PJ Harvey I would have not gone to Merry Ann’s diner down the street and eaten a country-fried steak sandwich with fries and some of my friend’s sausage gravy from his Diner Stack.

I guess in all the real point of the cover-up is camaraderie in drunkenness. As the wise man said backstage that second night,

“Nobody gives a fuck. People come here to party and get drunk and watch people fuck up while they GET fucked up.”

Your experience in the C-U music scene is not complete unless you take in the Great Cover-up. At least once…or twice

Thursday January 22nd
Silver Moon as Fleetwood Mac/Stevie nicks
Golden Quality as the Scorpions
Scurvine as Soundgarden
Hot Cops as Ranier Maria
The Chemicals as the Stooges
Roberta Sparrow as the Alkaline Trio
Terminus Victor as PJ Harvey

Posted by Garrick Nelson edited by Darwin Keup