Usually Bobble Tiki doesn’t write about cello players or solo cello performances. It’s just not really Bobble Tiki’s style. Not that Bobble Tiki doesn’t respect cello players, or think cello recitals are interesting — it’s just that solo cello performances rarely meet the prerequisites for shows Bobble Tiki covers here in the Weekly Volcano. Bobble Tiki, for the most part, covers topics related to blues, booze or rock and roll here in his column — or at least shows that have a blues, booze or rock and roll attitude.

Typically, the cello doesn’t fall into any of those categories. As far as he can remember, Bobble Tiki has never seen a Behind the Music about a cello player.

But Olympia’s Derek M Johnson isn’t your typical cello player. While Bobble Tiki is in no way insinuating the man deserves an episode of BTM, his cello prowess Friday, Aug. 15 at Le Voyeur will demonstrate why Bobble Tiki jumped at the chance to cover the envelope-pushing performer. In fact, Bobble Tiki guarantees it.

Well known around Olympia, and indeed the entire Northwest, for his work in experimental bands such as the Dead Air Fresheners and Bloodclot — not to mention his fairly legendary live film soundtrack performances at the Olympia Experimental Music Festival — Johnson will take the stage all by himself Friday, intent on wowing the tiny room in back of Le Voyeur with both an acoustic and electric solo cello jam. The brainy bowing, which is sure to blow Bobble Tiki’s wine soaked brain almost instantaneously, will accompany a slide show similar to one the crowd at the 2006 Olympia Experimental Music Festival witnessed — with a few updates and tweaks. Johnson’s tonal cello magic, of course, will be completely off the cuff.

“Honestly, I’m not always sure. I could give some bulls*** answer about how I’m trying to awaken the imaginations of the audience and give insight into the human condition, but that’s a bit pretentious,” says Johnson when asked what he’s trying to do with the cello and what he’s trying to get across to the audience. “It’s something that I’m rather compelled to do. If I don’t perform for a long period of time I begin to lose my grounding in life.

“The slide show enhances the experience, I believe. They, the images and the cello, make sense together,” Johnson continues. “My strongest responses have come from shows with the slides. So something must click with them.”

Fans of Johnson should not dismiss yet another chance to see the longtime Olympia native in action. Johnson tells Bobble Tiki and the Weekly Volcano that he’s planning a move to Rhode Island in a year — after 30 years spent in Olympia.

“Olympia is great to a point. Living here is cheap. There is a high concentration of artistic individuals who are all very supportive to each other, for the most part. It’s a beautiful place and is a nice mid-ground to play Seattle or Portland. One can very easily develop their ideas and skills here. And what other small town has so many awesome shows a week? So much activism, progressive thought, nature, the Olympia Film Society, festivals, etc? There really is no other town like it,” says Johnson.

“However, playing shows to the same 15 people can be a bit redundant. All-ages clubs have a really difficult time staying open for various reasons. I’m still pissed the Tropicana got ran out, and that was 25 years ago! Audiences tend to be small because everyone else is out performing as well. Being in your mid to upper 30s can be a bit isolating at times since most people in the music/art community are in their 20s. It’s also way too easy to be ‘the best’ at something here since there really isn’t much, if any, competition, as it were — big fish, small pond kind of thing. Olympia is not a very diverse town when it comes to ethnicity, religion, culture, or economics. We don’t have the kind of people who can afford to support the arts in any large capacity as a real city does.

“I have lived in Olympia for 30 of my years. I want a place where nothing is familiar and I have to work my ass off to make things happen so complacency will be less likely to set in. A place with new influences, cultures, languages, people, ideas, and hopefully kids my own age once in a while,” Johnson points out, working himself up a little before closing with the reality “I’m already sad to leave and it’s still a year away.”

If the town has any sense, as Bobble Tiki knows it does, Olympia will be sad to see Johnson go as well. All the more reason to check out his solo cello performance this Friday at Le Voyeur.

As usual, Bobble Tiki doesn’t care what you do this week because he doesn’t even know you. Sorry, Jack, that’s just the way it is. Unless you can tell Bobble Tiki why boxed wine drinking isn’t yet an Olympic sport, then he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to meet you. Bobble Tiki could sooooo be the Michael Phelps of boxed wine drinking. Check out www.weeklyvolcanospew.com for all your South Sound blogosphere needs, and consider that close enough. If you got any closer to Bobble Tiki you’d be able to call his bluff.

[Le Voyeur, Derek M Johnson, Wummin, Problems, Bert Wilson, Friday, Aug. 15, 10 p.m., $3-$5, 404 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 360.943.5710]