SPEEDING MOTORCYCLE in Austin (w/Kathy McCarty!)

[billybob]

thanks jeff!

[billybob]

excellent!  Daniel's sister is bringing him up to Austin tonight to see "Speeding Motorcycle."   pretty sure he's going to love our version.  i didn't tell him about any of the differences between the Houston version and ours, so i think he's in for a few pleasant surprises...

[jason]

http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/index.php/2008/03/07/for-daniel-johnston-tonights-the-night/

For Daniel Johnston, Tonight’s the Night
March 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am

Word just reached us that local songwriter/artist Daniel Johnston has canceled his opening weekend performance at SXSW due to illness, but as usual with all things Johnston, there’s a silver lining, and it’s this: Johnston is suddenly scheduled to make a post-show appearance at tonight’s March 7 performance of Speeding Motorcycle, peripatetic director Jason Nodler’s rock opera based on Johnston’s sweetly unrefined music and self-mythologized life, currently running at Austin’s Zach Scott Theater. To be clear, Johnston isn’t in the play (though longtime cohort Kathy McCarty, of Glass Eye fame, takes a notable star turn), but he’s scheduled for a brief after-show performance with the rockin’ post-show band at 9:30 pm.

There are plenty of reasons (fantastic songs, well sung, and a comically heartbreaking storyline) to grab a ticket to any of the remaining performances in Speeding Motorcycle’s run (the play opened Valentine’s day and is up through April 13), but if you’re looking for a hometown event of international cult-epic proportions, you’ll want to be at the Zach tonight.

[OhJoy]

...this sounds like an awesome night!
Hope someone comes back to tell us how the night went down.

[Stress Records]

It was a fantastic evening of theater.  Daniel thoroughly enjoyed himself and said his favorite songs were Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grievances and Loving Feelings.  Loving Feelings was written specifically for Speeding Motorcycle and is still unrecorded but if he went into a good studio with this band and released it on a decent label he'd have a hit single.  The concert after the show was my favorite part tonight partially because Daniel was there and partially because the band had added several songs to their repertoire since the last time I saw them two weeks ago.  Cosmic Kid, Blue Clouds and Natalie Queen of Weirton were all new and great while the old standby numbers like Grievances, Ain't No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Outta Me, Speeding Motorcycle, My LIfe is Starting Over and Rock This Town were better than ever.  As couples were slow dancing to True Love Will Find You in the End it was easy to imagine it becoming a wedding classic.   No More Pushin Joe Around was especially rocking but nothing could match the energy of Rock and Roll EGA when Daniel joined the band to sing and play electric guitar.

It was also great fun to watch Daniel speak to Captain America afterwards. The Captain was still in full uniform and Daniel kept telling him how glad he was that he wasn't really dead.  "Even Time Magazine reported your death. I'm so relieved!".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Se9dqdlmU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nohM73YCx_4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGk0cwQT3tw

[madnell]

sounds like quite an amazing evening! 

i enjoyed the youtube clips very much.
can't wait to see it live.

BIG CONGRATS TO ALL & MOST ESPECIALLY TO DAN!

[Henry Long]

Great clips, Stress! Thank you so much for sharing them, and your report on the evening.

This is how Daniel's music will continue into the next century...as re-invention by other artists, musicians and the collective culture. Brilliant!

[Stress Records]

http://bp2.blogger.com/_I4jLPgglqnE/R93B9WoSNvI/AAAAAAAAFeo/sLX21_hQf4o/s1600-h/IMG_2826.jpg

If that link is too long to work try this one:

http://hausfrauinc.blogspot.com/2008/03/speeding-motorcycle-musical.html

[Stress Records]

Now that I've seen the show 6 or 7 times I can honestly say that not only does it never get old but it actually gets better each time.   Bill and Kathy and the 3 guys who played the Joes and the entire cast and band were extraordinary night after night. I know that some of the visitors to this forum aren't fond of most of the Daniel covers out there but if you could have heard the after-concert part of the show I think you'd have some new favorite covers.   Some of the songs I've never heard sound better and frankly can't imagine sounding better  - songs like Brainwash, Ain't No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Outta Me, No More Pushin' Joe Around, Blue Clouds and My Life Is Starting Over Again.  Imagine a room full of people shouting out and singing along with some of the lines to Brainwash or a little girl who couldn't have been 10 years old performing an a cappella  version of Running Water only to have her final line cut off by thunderous applause and you'll get the picture.  I can only hope that all of you will eventually get a chance to see it.

[billybob]

thanks jeff for your kind comments.  i'm really glad i was lucky enough to be part of this production and that i got a chance to play these songs that have been in my life for almost 25 years now.  i do understand that most people prefer daniel's versions of his songs to any covers--i feel the same way.  but i  feel like we did these songs out of love, and even the cast and band members less familiar (or totally unfamiliar) with daniel's stuff grew to love the songs.  it was quite a kick to hand out cds to people in the cast and have them pick songs that they wanted to do in the nightly aftershow, and i was downright amazed by some of the interpretations that they came up with.

for some people who never got exposed to daniel, or who only recently learned of him through the documentary, or who just couldn't hear past the low-fi, occasionally out-of-tuneness, i think the play serves as a great introduction.  whenever i remembered i would point out that the 40-50 songs performed during the play and aftershow represented not even a tenth of daniel's output.  i know daniel made some new fans during the run of the play, i saw it with my own eyes.

i guess this might be a good place to thank jason and tony for putting together such a great piece of work, and to jeff and kathy for keeping daniel's name and music out there through some really dark times, and to the amazingly talented cast and the really fine band we put together.  and mostly i'd like to say thanks to my friend daniel, for writing SO many great songs and bringing so much loving feeling to so many people all over the world.