Friday night Ann and I went to the Middle East to see Sex Mob. We ended up getting more than we bargained for - 3 opening acts. First up was this guy (or host for the evening) called Evan O'Television. His act was talking to a videotaped version of himself. I'm sure he was trying to make some sort of point about TV and our society, but he was too damn annoying to get that point across. The most impressive part of his act came late in the night when people (myself included) started booing him - and his pre-recorded alter ego knew he would be getting booed at that point. And no, we weren't saying "Bu-urns."

The first musical act was this group called the Dresden Dolls. Kind of a punk/goth/pomo act with costumes from 1930s Germany. If you've seen the musical "Cabaret" that should give you some idea of how they were dressed. A strange choice of opening act for an avant garde jazz group It seemed like half the audience was there solely for them given their interesting attire/hairstyles/piercings and the fact that they left soon afterward. Jake, you'll be happy to know that the male member of the group is a Heineken fan

Next up was Beat Science. They were damn good, and since they were actually a jazz group, made sense as an opening act. They had a couple interesting quirks a banjo instead of a guitar player and a tuba (not a sousaphone!) instead of a bass. That guy was probably the best tuba player I've ever seen. They had the added bonus of having a sax player who periodically put down his horn and played two clarinets at once. Just goes to show you that sax is twice as hard to play as clarinet.

Finally, at about 12:30, Sex Mob came out. They were the tightest new school jazz outfit I've seen (Not to slight MMW, but I think it's harder for 5 guys to keep the avant garde jazz coherent than 3). They played a couple of Bond songs, and their leader (David Bernstein) on slide trumpet was one of the most energetic musicians I've seen on stage - he was running around more than Van Halen in their "Jump" video. They had a great groove going and I had a huge grin on my face while I did the self-conscious white jazz fan head bob dance. To great nights of music two days apart - that's the kind of thing that makes me happy to be alive. And it didn't even bother me that much that I had to go to work at 8AM on Saturday.