A Lovely Night For Dancing - WMO Rocks Glens Falls
Scotty Manicotti

report filed 9/18/99 8:33 pm - To quote Merl Saunders, last night at M.T. Muggs in Glens Falls, New York, was 'a lovely night for dancing.' Just ask Scotty Manicotti. The guy sparked a get-down-and-shake-it wiggle fest with a deliriously uninhibited performance of his legendary 'chicken' dance. Waving both hands to one side and then the other like a grass skirted hula dancer, Manicotti was the center of attention as he proceeded to increase the intensity and animation of his crowd pleasing gyrations while the song progressed. Clucking and flapping the wings protruded from his old school WMO shirt, Manicotti took a flying, spinning leap off the stage and hit the dance floor in a perfectly executed split. Wow...

Inspired by Manicotti's bizarre ballet of the mind, Reedo showed some fancy footwork of his own with a moon walk/break dance routine that also had the crowd roaring. 'Big D,' an old friend of the band and a bunch of his buds also got into the mix, lead by D's unique on-his-knees march across the dance floor... there was some serious struttin' goin' on all around the room!

In fact, everyone in the club seemed to be having a good time, except some jealous pea brain who started giving his girlfriend a hard time for having fun and dancing while he sat in his chair and pouted. After seeing the reasonably attractive brunette exchange smiles while bopping to the beat with Jarrod, the guy started to give her a hard time and then gave her a shove. From there he started to hassle Jarrod. That's when Reed came right over and tried to settle 'Mr. numb nuts' down. Not only were the four or five of us on tour mobilized to assist in any way that might be appropriate, Big D and his burly crew of Harley ridin' and beer swilling amigos were also ready for action.

Never one to miss an opportunity to exert a little force in the name of peace and love, Tim actually got in the guy's face while still onstage. Calling him out with a reprimand to 'straighten up fool, overcome your petty insecurities and act like a man,' the first set ended with Tim publicly humiliating the future wife beater... if it weren't so sad, it'd be funny. In any case, the end of the first set was pretty strange...

Everyone working at M.T. Muggs, was extra nice - thanks to Chris and the rest of the MTM gang for the hospitality! A couple of monkey fans from way back, Torbin and Cindy were also at the show and having a grand time, as were lots of folks checking out the band for the first time.

Among the new crew of monkey fans - Kat and Jack, a couple of super kind groovemeisters who not only got down in fine fashion on the dance floor, they had the band over for a super tasty breakfast at their home in the morning... you guys rock!

After a breakfast extraordinaire we hit the road fat and happy. Got to Burlington, Vermont, in good time and knocked around the socks-and-sandals hippie town 'til Serge the sound man showed up to open the club for load in. That's where we are now - in a very cool, upstairs bar called the Metronome. This place has great feng shui, with a nicely flowing circular layout, a large dance floor and extra cozy backstage area, as well as a killer sound system. As if all that weren't enough, it's situated right above the Nectar, hallowed spawning ground of Phish. So that's the scene... the gear is being set up and I'm in search of food...

Sunday, 9/19/99 8:42pm

It's Sunday evening and I'm properly stuffed after a fine steak dinner. The entire armada has docked at Torin and Michelle Johnson's house in Syracuse, about an hour from the venue of this afternoon's show. Before we get into today, here's the scoop on last night - very good show but way too short. Turns out that Saturday night is the big disco night at the Metronome and the house DJ starts spinnin' records at 11pm, so the monkey was relegated to an opening slot which started at 9pm.

Although the place was virtually empty when the band started, by the time they were done, the place was packed. Unfortunately just as the vibe was approaching the desired state of groovus-maximus, the plug got pulled in favor of the disc spinner. Go figure...

After the show we revved up the groove armada and drove to Syracuse for today's festival. We got in around 4:20 am and slept 'til the sun came up. After partaking in a nice egg sandwich prepared in the galley of our motor coach, courtesy of chef Tim, I wandered around the grounds until the band took the stage just before noon.

With the sun and blue skies above, WMO got their first taste of East Coast style music and camping festival madness at the Harvest Moon Fest outside of Syracuse in upstate New York. The venue's main stage fronted a natural amphitheater of tree lined, rolling green lawns... a perfect setting for today's outdoor monkey shines.

 

 

Lots of interesting folks and cosmic characters of all descriptions at today's show... in addition to a dancing pooh bear who delighted the crowd with her gentle back and forth 'tele-tubby' sway, a gravity defying music enthusiast only known as the 'Headmaster,' showed his appreciation for the monkey's spirited grooves by dancing upside down, while standing on his head atop an upside down trash can. From vantage points both onstage and in the audience, the Headmaster put on quite a show...


Once again, the band would have liked to have played longer, but the hour plus set was well received by the crowd, most of whom were seeing the monkey for the first time. Here's some more images from this afternoon:
Heidi and Zane

Jarrod

James demonstrates proper leaning technique to the festival's engineer