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PERMANENT LIPSTICK: Bumbershoot

South Sound adventures at clubs, restaurants and my favorite hangouts

Ginger Knoxx

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Labor Day falling on a Monday means one thing: three-day weekend.  Those of you who went out of town, bless you.  More parking and a shorter wait for drinks at the clubs for the rest of us.  This, of course, didn't apply at BUMBERSHOOT.

Thursday 9/2

SMOOTH and I met up at HARBOR LIGHTS around 10 p.m. It took me forever to decide on a drink.  I finally went with CHRISTMAS CANDY, a drink I created about four years ago at Christmastime.  Crown, Butterscotch Schnapps, a dribble of cream and a float of Grand Mariner - a mixture that reminds me of the prize in the bottom of my Christmas stocking, aah childhood joy.  And after one of those seriously potent numbers I'm a few steps away from a BAD SANTA attack.  Harbor Lights was closing, so we headed to HELL'S KITCHEN for ASVA and SWORMING HORDES. ASVA performed one song that dragged on for a half hour - sounded like a warm-up the whole time.  I guess I'm not into stoner-heroin rock.  Sworming Hordes were killer with their melodic guitar riffs and solos à la IRON MAIDEN. If they'd had any vocals, I imagine they'd have been King Diamond style.

Friday 9/3

Curiosity and boredom drove me to TABOO to scope out their OLD SKOOL Friday. Why did I go? Ladies are free before 10 p.m., and the drinks are cheap.  The music was passable, but every time I looked around I kept remembering the AMATEUR STRIPPER POLE DANCING contests Taboo hosted last year. I knew I had to flee before I was the pole entertainment.

Saturday 9/4

There's a band called VAUX from Denver, Colo., that played a HOUSE PARTY in North Tacoma about a month ago and came back to play Hell's Kitchen for the early show this evening.  Their light setup stood them apart from other bands with RED PANELS THAT FLASHED repeatedly intermingled with blasts of white light illuminating the band in crisp silhouettes for 10 seconds at a time.  The singer could sing, so I actually listened to their songs, which is more than I can say for the lead singer who followed them.  Typical tired screamo rock, HOPESFALL lost my interest 40 seconds into their first song.  That gave me time to catch up with ROSS ERKERS, Hell's Kitchen's Harley riding doorman.  Erkers, the new manager for JACKMOVE (www.jackmove.info) - who are playing CHEERS WEST Saturday, Sept. 11, with Lahar, Fitz of Depression and Crash Landing - comped me a CD.  Jackmove singer CHRIS ELLIS's gnarly, gritty voice makes me want to DRINK WARM BOURBON.  Too Pissed For Hard Love is now on constant rotation in my CD player.

For act two of the evening, STEPH DOG and I checked out ZEKE at FENDERS ROCK CLUB with GLIMPSE and BLANK GENERATION (a friend of BG told me their SINGER HAD BEEN UP ALL NIGHT DRINKING and sounded like crap - I'm glad we were late). The guys in Glimpse all look like they have the SAME STYLIST. And Zeke's drummer seemed like he was pissed at the majority of the crowd for sitting down.  Hell's Kitchen's bartender BRIAN (3 Inches of Blood) and longtime regular NICK (hobbies include fishing and spanking his monkey) maintained a stance against the stage for Zeke's whole set.  I left Steph Dog in the capable, but equally drunk hands of girlfriend RAINBOW and headed home.

Sunday 9/5

Two BUMBERSHOOT $25 tickets, $8 parking, $12 bottle of Chardonnay gulped rapidly in the parking lot by Steph Dog and me, $3 raspberry scone, $6 sushi (I knew better), $7 chicken curry, $2 mango tea, $7 gas: a $94 day.

Watching the freak show parade: Priceless

Cool cat singer/guitar player BRIAN RAY of MARMALADE and STINGSHARK was spotted with a lady friend fighting the crowd with the rest of humanity.

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