June 15th, 2012 marked my 212th Deer Tick show (give or take some exaggeration,) and to be honest, I thought this might be the show where I didn't have such a great time. Every single one of the friends that would normally stride into a Tick show with me like Dr. Gonzo would Raoul Duke, couldn't make it for that evening's festivities. I was flying solo.
Who was I going to play air guitar with? Who was going to swill PBR tall boys with me? Who would scream "Let's all go to the bar!" and throw fists in the air while I did the same?!? These were the questions running through my head as I watched my 5-year-old graduate from pre-school earlier that evening.
Despite those dire questions (and being partially covered in freeze pop juice and pizza sauce,) I packed up and headed to The Paradise for the show. Holding out hope that the previous 211 Tick shows had been no fluke and I would be spirited away to that care-free zone a Deer Tick show tends to take you.
The openers that evening hailed from a place I've been spending a bit of time lately, Nashville, TN. If you're familiar with the main drag in Nashville, you'll know what I mean when I say it's a safe bet the Turbo Fruits are playing the smoking side of the street. With hair envoloping 3/4ths of the bands members faces, it was hard for me not to feel like I'd fallen through a worm hole and ended up back in earlier era of the Boston music scene when nobody made eye contact. Don't mistake that statement as a negative, though. Not every group can open up for a band with as much live power as Deer Tick and not feel flat. Featuring guest appearances by Tick's Ian, Dennis, and Rob, the Turbo Fruits melted a few faces of their own that evening and brought the capacity crowd to head-nodding peak.
When John McCauley and friends took the stage a tall boy later, it wasn't long before I felt assured the evening would not disappoint. "I am the boy your mother wanted you to meet..." came scratching out of the birthday boy's mouth and a minute and half later I was singing at the top of my lungs, pumping my fist in the air with my new best friend while we pushed up against the front of the stage.
The band rambled through hits old and new, raucous and reserved, and covers of The Replacements and The Beastie Boys. We were also fortunate enough to be witness to a celebration of John McCauley's birthday which started with McCauley's being attacked by The Turbo Fruits with a very large sheet cake and ran right through the anthemic closing number "Let's All Go To The Bar."
As the fans filed out of the club and the cleaning crew tried to scrape frosting off the stage, I found myself wondering why I would ever doubt that I would have a good time at a Deer Tick show. As Turbo Fruits lead Jonas Stein said of Deer Tick during the show: "You're family now." Everyone who ends up with a hoarse voice, dripping sweat or covered in beer after taking part in a Deer Tick show is part of family.
It's most certainly a dysfunctional family, but it's a family none the less.
Kiss Me On The Bus (Replacements cover)
Play videoHouston, TX
Play videoDirty Dishes
Play videoThese Old Shoes (featuring Chris Paddock)
Play videoLet's All Go To The Bar
Play videoDeer Tick Set List - 6.15.12:
Ashamed
The Bump
Easy
Baltimore Blues, No. 1
Main Street
Walkin' Out the Door
Make Believe
Clownin' Around
20 Miles
Funny Word
Now It's Your Turn
Kiss Me On The Bus (The Replacements cover)
Walls
Houston, TX
Dirty Dishes
These Old Shoes
Cake And Eggs
Not So Dense
Mange
Miss K.
Fight for Your Right (Beastie Boys cover)
Let's All Go to the Bar
