Speaking of the Broadway Central Cafe, I spent the better part of the weekend there checking out some shows. Friday night I had to head down there to see the "battle of the bands" between the Marbles and Bongo Jones. For those of you who were not receiving the barrage of E-mails back and forth, these two bands (who actually are very close friends), were talking trash about each other and decided to have a "battle of the bands" to see who was best. The night turned strange when I arrived and found out that Bongo Jones' guitarist, Stef, could not make it because of an unavoidable family situation. But the show went on.

Each band played several songs, then allowed the other to play several songs. The night, which could have turned somber due to the afore mentioned problem, had a fun upbeat vibe to it, and as the night got later, the music got more outrageous, as the Marbles, after breaking a guitar string, went into what I would refer to as a Neil Young "arc"-like wall of noise intersperesing Steve Miller Band lyrics into the mix. Depsite what lead singer Mike Grau says, he obviously loves the Steve Miller Band (a closet fan I guess).

And as for Bongo Jones, playing without their guitarist and with some minor swapping of instruments, didn't hurt their performance at all. Actually, I have little to compare it to, as I had never seen them live before. That said, they rocked! Even when Buzzy was singing what others referred to as, "the I want to slit my wrists songs", they still rocked. If they sound that good with no rehearsal, I can only imagine that with the full band, they must be incredible and will have to check them out again soon.

As a little side note on the night, on the message board for Lump 'N' Loaf Record's (both bands are on this label), someone posted that, "We all got to wear John's (from The Marbles) "St.Paulie's girl" wig, and that was fun ,but I must say that I think Lazlo looked the best in it." I'd just like to say that I never wore a wig, and since there are no pictures to prove I did, I must be teling the truth :)

Speaking of pictures, when I returned to the Broadway Central Cafe on Saturday, my picture was taken, surrounded by 4 beautiful women of rock. Of course I am referring to the return of the Catholic Girls, who rocked the packed in like sardines venue with songs from their brand new CD, "make me believe", as well as some choice cuts from their past.

It is so refreshing to see a band reunite and not only sound good doing it, but look like they are having fun too. It was impossible not to notice that the band was smiling and seemed to enjoy being back on the stage (unlike many bigger name bands that seem to reunite for the money). I look forward to seeing them again, as they plan to do many area shows to promote the new CD.

Oh, and as a quick update to something I said last week, that little birdie told me to pick up the new issue of the Aquarian, that hits the streets on Wednesday, for a nice write up of blowupradio.com.

2. NEW SONGS ADDED THIS WEEK