Today I’d like to formally announce my candidacy to be elected president of Mutantville! That or I could take a huge byte of a dirt sandwich. Hmmmm, neither sounds particularly appetizing, especially in light of the most ludicrously expensive presidential campaign in the history of politics. Who’s glad that crap is over?
No, instead today I will re-gale you with the legend of how “MVP Turned Back Time.” Yes, it’s true! We did. We even made it Halloween in November, along with our friends and now honorary MVP Players Stuart and Crystal Pearson. That’s right I’m talking about the legendary 2nd Annual Pearson’s Halloween Bash! To call this yearly Halloween celebration EPIC, somehow just doesn’t quite do it justice. If a house completely converted to an Adams Family-like setting and a full on bore haunted trail are things of interest to you, or if you happen to appreciate original rock music, perhaps you should consider checking them out next year. As for this year, here’s how it went down.
Myself and Todd have a little band called, “Absolute Zero,” as many of you know. We played the epic bash last year and were asked to return and perform again this year. Since our former 2nd guitar player, Bill Blalock recently re-joined the band, we thought it might be worth dragging a videographer along with us and since Streebo is always up for a Halloween related event, we got him to come handle the shooting of the video for us. I think it’s safe to say that he had a good time. 
This year we got ourselves out there in time to take a little walk through of the haunted trail. It was neat and quite spooky. You can see excerpts from that in the first video of the playlist .
There are a few small draw backs to this show, but the fun factor is still high. Among those are playing outside in a cold environment. Tough on the fingers and this usually plays hell with the guitar tuning as well. If you can forgive the small mistakes and over-all uneven sound due to having only one video camera and mic source, I think the videos look great and really share a sense of the events live feeling. Furthermore, since we have just added Bill back to the mix and he had to improvise for most of the set. Not an excuse, just saying, I stand by the energy of our performance any day. Catch us in the spring park events for a better idea of the kind of band we are. We got tons of kind compliments afterwards and that’s always a little tough for me to take when I know we didn’t perform up to our potential. For me it’s about having good songs and most people actually mentioned the material and that was very gratifying.
Again, Crystal and Stuart just did an amazing job of home and yard decoration. I can imagine that such an event represents a sizable investment. To boot, this year Stuart played a short set with, “Looking for Finland” (I think they might be renamed, “The Bryan Project” not sure on that). Who knew he could thump like that? A very Flea-esque style player with a 6 string bass no less.
The haunted trail, created by Stuart and I gather his neighbor, Brent (guy with a cool name) was pretty well put together. With the right crew of haunters it could be on par with the trail the Shriners put together with the help of MVP a few years back. And they do it all for the free entertainment of friends and neighbors. There were some young kids running around out there who seemed to be having the time of their young lives. Good on you both for embodying the spirit of Halloween. I hope the tradition stays alive in coming years.
A lovely spread was laid out for all and after a 1:45 minute set, which seemed to go by in a second, the band warmed up inside with some nice snackage. MVP Players Felicity and Eric showed up to hang out with us and Todd’s gregarious nature kicked in. Jeremy checked out early, having to work the next day, so Lincoln and myself got to load up the gear solo. No matter that. Another great show went into the books for Absolute Zero. I’m so happy that this band is alive after all the fall-outs and trials over the years. Who can say they’ve had an active band for over a decade? To boot, AZ is a band with an extremely original sound. There are no other bands out there doing what we are doing and I do think we hold a niche for Alternative Southern rock, especially in this area.
This years turnout was probably slightly smaller than last years, with only 50 or 60 folks making it out. I imagine the post Halloween blues kept a few people away. The actual event date was November 3rd. On the other hand, most everyone who showed up was in costume so that was a lot of fun. I got my hair grab mid-song by an elderly women, dressed as a witch leaning off of the porch. Combined with my nose running like a fountain and dripping on my microphone, which, incidentally shocked the be-jesus out of me, coupled with semi-frozen fingers on my fretting hand, it did take us a few songs to hit out stride. Once we got warmed up though, it was on like Monkey Bone!
Lastly, thanks to my band mates who make the realization of my songs possible, particularly the new bloods, Lincoln and Jeremy. You guys are in for an epic adventure as we get this band into high gear in the coming months and hopefully years. This means a lot to both Todd and I. To us the opportunity to record more of our legacy material or at least get in front of a new audience is a dream opportunity. Furthermore, thanks to my buddies in Mutantville for lending me this forum to promote my music.
See, and you thought that was all of Johnny Brento’s JuJu for the week. Sorry to disappoint the haters, but the article must go on. Why? Well, that simple. I have more kicking photos to share.
Last night the MVP trio, Streebo, Geo and myself, Brento, or as I like to refer to us, “The O’s,” as in “The O’s kick a lot of ass,” held the first Mutantville Business Meeting in some time. These used to happen on a monthly basis, but I think most of you would know that we’ve been as busy as a one-armed barber with the hives. The list of projects that have finally come to fruition were solid and gratifying to sort of soak in. The plans for the future were no big surprise to anyone on the call. Of course we cannot publicly share these publicly at present. Too many copy cats abound in our neck of the woods.
I don’t think any earth cracking conclusions were reach apart from all of us agreeing to pour 100% into the upcoming MVP 10 Year Celebration and Mad Monster Party Film Festival.
Jamie and Geo have some product they will produce for the aspiring indie film maker. I’m off to the races getting, “Take That,” my horror comedy, ready for Nevermore and the various other regional festivals and we all have big work coming for Mad Monster Party. Personally, I also have an album to complete in this calendar year. Lots of projects! Lots of projects!
This is all not to even mention my involvement as co-director of CutshawKane’s Mosaic 33, which will take up a huge chunk of my creative output for November and December. That project kicks off in 9 days.
These are interesting time and I marked my 43rd birthday this past Monday, it occurs to me how happy I am to be making films and music at such an age. Many of my old class mates have given up such creative pursuits in favor of the daily grind and an early bed. Not this one says I. Nah, Never! Onwards and upwards!
