THE LONGPIGS: CONCERT REVIEWS

From: Mariah Betz
Date: Dec. 7, 1997
Place: Lawrence, KS; The Granada

Hey All! It's two days since I saw the Dandy/Longpigs show and I'm still freaking out and recovering from one of the most kick ass times of my life. It began with this huge snowstorm in Lawrence that night, and my friends and I were extremely excited at the prospect of getting snowed in with the bands! (We live 45 min. from Lawrence.)

	SET LIST
	Happy Again Far Beyond Good & Evil On & On Sally Dances Dozen Wicked Words She Said Jesus Christ

Anyway, after the excruciating drive, we arrive at the Granada, where we're pleased to actually see our names on the Dandy's guest list. But to top that (believe me, this gets better), the first person I see when I walk into the bar is our very own Courtney (Courtney Taylor of the Dandys for you Longpigs fans). He is basically just hanging out, talking to one of the Longpigs. It seemed Crispin hasn't showed yet (rumor had it that he was hangin' out with a special someone in Indianapolis), and the LPs might not play at all. Treble Charger just totally dropped off the tour. Courtney is trying to convince everyone to play anyway and offers to take Crispin's place. I guess they had an all-star jam session with both of the bands the night before that rocked out (according to Sarah, goddess of merch) because Crispin was still in Indianapolis.

Well, my friend Cristie and I are basically hanging out, talking to Courtney, Sarah, and what's left of the Longpigs. (Eric, Peter and Zia are nowhere to be found.) With the shitty weather, the club's pretty barren, but both bands completely kick ass anyway. Crispin shows up like 15 minutes before the show. We finally get to meet Zia and tell her all of the funny list stuff that's being said about her. I think she looked really interested when I told her that last week's quote was "it's all about Zia."

There's no way I could even go into how much I enjoyed both bands--I can't think of the adjectives to adequately describe it. The Dandys kinda did an encore because they said goodnight, and my friend Cristie's like, "What about 'Minnesoter'?" Zia admits they forgot it and then they play it. We also begged for goodmorning, which was not on the set list, from what I could see. First time I ever heard "Little Drummer Boy," and like everyone else, I loved it. I now have the single.

The whole show was simply incredible. The Dandy's set seemed seemed to last quite awhile, especially compared to the Longpigs, and I kept thinking, I hope they play just one more, several times. After the show both bands just hung out in the club and mingled with everyone. I got to talk at length with Peter, Zia, Eric, and Courtney, as well as Dee and Crispin from the Longpigs. My friend Cristie was actually quite chummy with Dee. They hid in the corner and played pool for quite awhile. I approached Crispin after their set and told him I really enjoyed their set, and he replied, "I really enjoyed your shirt." I was right in front of the stage in a little blue retro western-style shirt that had a western painting type thing printed on it. It's my lucky shirt--I can't go anywhere without people commenting on it.

Well, my friends and I are like hanging out with both bands in the Granada (I'm getting quite chummy with Crispin AND Courtney), and we all decide to move on to another bar called the Bottleneck (pronounced Bot'olneck in British accent, btw). Things get pretty drunk and crazy--everyone's drinking lots of jack and coke, Crispin and I are sitting at the bar together talking about their band, England, his ex-girlfriend, relationships, and my new cat, Freaky. He buys me two beers, and I think I did a shot with Courtney. (Both of these boys are the notorious players on the tour, according to Sarah. All of the other boys have girlfriends.) At one point I'm sitting at the bar with Crispin on one side and Courtney on the other. Talk about the most yummy rock star sandwhich in the world! How could I want anything more in life at this point?

Well, somehow, Cristie and I lose our ride (could it be that our two friends were sick of watching us flirt our asses off with Dee, Crispin, and Courtney?) and get kicked out of the bar and we're stranded (poor us) with Dee and Courtney, who also got left. Our ride finally shows up, and we give Dee and Courtney a ride to their hotel, where the Dandy tour bus is waiting to take them to Oklahoma (the Longpigs have long since left Dee to fend for himself). In all the confusion I lost all of my signed Dandy merch stuff and memorabilia, including a poster signed by all of the Longpigs, and I'm like totally heartbroken. Courtney tries to console me and gives me a number to call to get more stuff (rest of it's packed away), we hang out with the other Dandy band members and Dee on the tour bus for awhile. Finally they have to go, because it's like three or four in the morning.

But here's how cool the Dandys really are: they feel so bad about my stuff and grateful for the ride and worried about the crappy weather, they give us the keys to their hotel room and let us stay there! (We have all sorts of Capitol fax papers and lots of silly groupie things like notes and stuff they left behind). And I find out later that the phone number Courtney gave me really works! All I can say is that both bands were totally nice and down to earth. I can't say enough about living in a small city if you want to meet bands, and these two bands were the most fun and the coolest I've met so far. Cheers everyone!