Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 02:19:58 -0400 (EDT)

From: Mademoiselle Rachel <rkb200@is5.NYU.EDU>

Subject: GF: CB's show - I made it!

OK, finally I got to see the Fibbers, even though some publicity woman at Virgin supposedly put me on the list to cover the show and then I wasn't on the list, but I saw some people I know on line and we got in fine. The show was really wonderful, someone else will have to give more details b/c though I have Butch I don't know all the song titles. There was this moment when Carla was having trouble with her guitar but then it got fixed and it was cool. They did Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home, Cuckoo, lots of others off Butch, and ended with this Willie Nelson song. It was kinda funny b/c I had just come from seeing Mary Lou Lord busking and doing all these folkie songs and then that show, which was really packed and hot, but it was great, and all the previous reports about Nels's guitar playing, well, he was just amazing. For a while him and Carla were down on the stage floor, I couldn't see, and he did this incredible solo and just had so much energy and it was great. And Carla was amazing too, there was almost this quiet and then she whispered "You Might Think I" and then a long pause and just wailed "HATE YOU" so loud, it was really cool.

sorry this is all over the place, it's very late and all I know is I enjoyed myself a lot.

Anthony - I looked for you but didn't see you, hope you had a great

time too.

--rachel

Date sent: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 23:06:25 -0400 (EDT)

From: KenJoseph@aol.com

Subject: CB's Show

I'm sure that Anthony is going to post a comprehensive and informative account of the show at CBGB's. I want mention just a few things.

First of all, AOL's e-mail was down when we left Pittsburgh on Thurday morning. Thus I left home without Sydney's description, Randall's exhortation to take notes and some other important information that I found when we got home. I aslo forgot the slip of paper with the name and address of Dennis's restaurant. So, as a social outing, the trip to CBGB's was a bust. :-(

There also were some distractions from the music. Just being in CB's was one. I'm provincial enough that I was getting a big thrill just from being there. Another distraction was having my wife along. She loves Carla's voice and her lyrics. However, high on her list of things to be avoided are smoke, crowds, loud music and staying up after midnight. When I realized that it was possible that the Fibbers would play Dusted and the crowd might start moshing, I remembered that touching by strangers, accidental or otherwise, was also way up on the list. So I was just a little worried.

We arrived at around 10:30, just before RR Jerk started. Ticketweb allowed us to skip the line. Although the place was filled, it was easy to get to the stage with a little patience. On the way there, I talked briefly with Nels. I asked who had the great idea of Quintron opening and he said it was the band's idea. He had heard Quintron two years ago, and the band was very much into him and Miss Pussycat. He aslo mentioned Carla's cold and seemed concerned about how her voice woud hold up.

Carla was out in the crowd during RR Jerk, but didn't seem as animated as she was in DC or Philly. Durng the show, I didn't notice any problems with Carla's voice, but she didn't seem as intense as at the other two shows. Nels more than made up for it, though. He played like a man possessed. The set list was typical except for closing with Hands on the Wheel.

From: "Anthony Kibort" <ackibort@li.net>

Date sent: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 23:40:12 +0000

Subject: Bill Tutton is the nicest person! (very long)

Hey all,

I've been wanting to post about my experience at CBGB since Thursday, but up until Sunday, I only had limited access to the internet and I've been really tired the last couple of days. I've posted this before, but basically, my two friends Kim and Gary flew in from Atlanta last week. They're native New Yorkers, but they've lived in Atlanta for years and they flew up for the week the Fibbers would be at CBs. The three of us decided to build a vacation last week around the show-- we stayed in a hotel in the West Village and acted as if we had an apartment in Manhattan for the week-- it was one of the best weeks of my life.

But anyway-- the Fibbers! Everything that could possibly go wrong did, but the night was amazing because Bill is the nicest guy in the world. First of all, Virgin was supposed to put Sydney's name on the guest list with a +1. Then, as Sydney posted, the publicist at Virgin said the Fibbers would go on at 9. Well-- no name on the guestlist and the acts played in the order they were billed, and when my friend Kim and I met up with Sydney at 8:30, she wasn't on the guestlist they had out front. Sydney's stomach was bothering her and she was probably already too sick to stay, but because the Fibbers were supposed to go on early, she paid ten bucks to get in and I did too. So there we were at 9:15 watching Servotron and knowing that there was no way the Fibbers were going to play until after midnight. Eventually, Sydney had to leave because her stomach hurt too much and so she basically spent ten dollars to not see the Fibbers.

It gets worse-- Kim and I instructed Gary to meet us outside the club at 10:30 because everyone knew that if you get your hand stamped you can go outside. At 10:30, CBs was packed, there was a huge line outside, and noone was allowed to exit so Kim had to yell for Gary through the door. (KEN-- I can't believe Ticketweb allowed you to skip the line at 10;30--argghhhh!!!) If Gary couldn't come in, the night was screwed up and we probably would have all left. Kim was really worried and then she spotted Bill Tutton at the bar. She went up to him and told him that they'd come all the way from GA for the show and that they were going to miss it because Gary was outside. SO BILL GAVE HER HIS CMJ PASS! She snuck it outside to Gary who couldn't believe he had Bill Tutton's CMJ pass-- but CBs wouldn't let Gary in because there was no readmittance even if you had a badge!!! Gary kept the badge in his pocket because he didn't want to pretend he was Bill and he returned to the line. I vaguely knew what was going on from what Kim was trying to tell me, but we thought there might be a chance to fix everything if we could just retrieve Gary and get the badge-- so I went up to Bill.

"Hi, Bill. I'm Anthony. Franny, whose real name is Sydney, and I run the Geraldine Fibbers shrine site..."

"Oh, hi! Nice to meet you. How are you doing?"

"Not good-- Sydney was on the guest list but we had to pay and then she left sick and my friends came up from Georgia and one of them is stuck outside."

"Is your friend... Kim??"

Basically Bill then told me that he thought he was going to be in a lot of trouble because if he went outside he wouldn't recognize Gary or know his last name, and he was afraid he'd get in trouble for giving out his badge. He went downstairs and talked to someone from Virgin about it but eventually, he told a woman from CBs that he was in the band and his badge was outside with "a big supporter of the band who came a long way." She said "well, we can put that guy on the guest list and stamp his friend's hand so he can retrieve him..." -- meanwhile I'm thanking and apologizing to Bill every two seconds and feeling horrible that I basically said hi to him to get Gary inside. While I'm doing this I notice a long list of names that had suddenly materialized by the door-- and Sydney's name was on it. "Hey, that's Franny!" I said to Bill.

This was actually great because Bill had to explain to the guy that the woman had said it was okay to go out and before he gave us any trouble Bill was saying "Guests of the Geraldine Fibbers were on the list and they had to pay $20!?" The guy looked like a cartoon when a person turned into a donkey and gave me $20. Then Bill told him that there was someone else outside that should be on the guest list and that I was to go out to find him. I ran outside, stepping on people's toes pulling Gary in. Gary gave Bill back his pass, Bill found Kim in the crowd and gave her a victory sign, Gary and I thanked Bill a million times and then we all bought him a Heineken. Bill then saw Dennis who I guess he already talked to and he introduced us and and he said to me "well, if you're on the mailing list, you must want to meet Juli!" So we went over and met Juli-- I said hi and shook her hand and she was very nice to me and I thanked her for the print. She told me that her computer has been broken for weeks-- so that's everyone's answer for where Juli has been-- then I excused myself to go back to Kim and Gary who'd found a good elevated table in the back. But on my way there, I saw Kevin and as long as I had the courage to bother Bill and put him through all that hassle to get Gary in, I figured I'd just say hi. I told him I did the page with "Franny" and he said "you do???!!"-- I have to note here that both Fibbers I talked to seemed to get pretty excited when I mentioned Franny. It's like they have this one fan out there that they're constantly searching for so they were happy to meet me-- for all I know, they haven't seen the page since I started helping out-- anyway, Kevin wanted to meet Sydney and I inadventantly said that "she saw Servotron and got sick." He told me that Carla was sick, too, and that she hadn't shown up yet. I said "Oh no!" and told him that they were my favorite thing in the world-- and I asked him if we could pay Gary's cover and he was astonished. He couldn't believe we would ask that. And I forgot to give him the card I was carrying for a record store that I found Metal Machine Music on CD at the day before! (Actually, I forgot if it was Bill or Kevin who was looking for it.)

Gary said he'd never seen me happier and-- he's a big Butthole Surfers fan-- I told him "imagine if Gibby helped your friend get in the club." Kim and Gary said I had a good point. Kim kept saying over and over how she couldn't believe how nice Bill was-- how patient he was with us and that he was willing to hand over his badge to a complete stranger. Kim actually bought Bill another Heineken and he was already holding one and said "Oh boy! Another Heineken!" But I saw them laughing so it was all just really great. I actually saw Nels with Bill but I figured Bill was sick of us by then and I decided not to say "hi" to Nels, though I would have loved to.

Oh, yeah-- the Fibbers played. The show was really great even though Bill told Gary it would be really ragged. They played well over an hour-- started with Tuffy. I kept in mind that Carla was sick and maybe I'm imagining things but I think she talked out a few lines that she would usually sing louder-- which wouldn't make sense because then she would scream the way she always would. Butch was as beautiful as at the Knitting Factory and Hands On The Wheel closed the set and was done as perfectly as possible. Kim had us scream "BILL" at the beginning. We stayed in the back because we had a good view, but that meant hearing a lot of chatter. The people pushed up to the stage seemed to be really into the show-- especially during You Doo Right. Carla didn't talk as much as she did at the KF, but if she was sick and would be too sick for the next show, you have to give her total credit because there was nothing ragged about the show. Richard was great. The Small Song was great. Trashman was great. The French Song was great. They did almost all the songs they've been doing with Leyna.

And Rachel-- I did see you! During Lillybelle-- I think I saw you at the bottom of the stairs by the bar. We were sort of trapped up top so I didn't say hi.

Anyway, sorry this was so long, but I just thought it was amazing that Bill did that and that everyone was so nice. And I did bug Juli one more time over the rail of the merch booth where I was sitting—I handed her the card for the record store to give to Kevin.

So it turned out to be a great night. It sucks that Sydney had to miss them. And it's too bad I didn't meet Ken and his wife. But I ended up exhausted and happy.

Alright-- I'm exhausted now, so goodnight everyone!