Much to my disappointment, I’ve learned that Freedy will be wintering in Austin this year, which means no NYC-area shows until (if?) the new record comes out in 2009. This, for whatever reason, got me thinking about my spotty track record in converting Freedy casualists - folks who like Bad Reputation - into bona fide fans who won’t attempt to hang themselves with their shoelaces when I dork out about the genius of the extra lyric beats at the end of the second verse of Tucumcari.
The most successful tactic has been recommending a few of the records (in order: Blue Days Black Nights, Can You Fly, Never Home, This Perfect World) and getting out of the way. Somewhat less successful has been dragging would-be Freedophiles to a show, which leads me to believe that I might be the problem. Perhaps three hours of “isn’t he GREAT?” bleats and the relentless pong of my beer burps diminish the impact of Freedy’s songs and his engaging on-stage personality. So I’ve gone back and catalogued the reactions of those who have had the bad fortune to serve as my musical wingman/wingwoman, an exercise which has proven as didactic as it is space-filling.
1. ES and TS: “Okay, we just paid $15 each to hear Bad Reputation.”
2. SC: “Alright, pretty good [nodding head slowly]. Alright.”
3. JS: “*Freedy*”
4. KG: “This is a much less annoying phase than the one where you talked about The Wire for nine straight months, even though you knew that I don’t have HBO.”
5. JD: “They’ll keep serving us while he’s playing, right?”
6. MC: “That middle-aged guy in front of you… he’s dancing like nobody’s watching.” [He sure was, and by himself. This was not meant as a compliment.]
The middle-aged guy had been shaking his tailfeather to Responsible, today’s FReedy FRiday selection. I’m generally not a fan of newbie-arrives-in-New-York sagas, but this one has a nice lilt and a severe lack of sentimentality to it. Buy it here.
