Oh, How We Danced All Night

The Mummydogs - Live at the Press Club, Sacramento, CA (1/7/00)

Have you been without your "Guy Kyser's Scary Voice Fix" for too long? Then jones no longer, my friends, because here are...The Mummydogs!

You guys really like Thin White Rope, from the evidence in the Download Vault, so here's the only show I have by his more recent band, The Mummydogs. Yeah, huzzah, hurrah, yippee!

As far as I know, only one album out by this band, on good ol' Frontier Records. Remember Frontier? They were one of my faves long ago. Even put out a Madison band, E*I*E*I*O and I wish I had something live to share by them, because good as they were on their albums they were much, much better live. Great band for dancing and drinking. I took my little sister - when she was still in high school, I think - to see them at the long gone Turner Hall and she couldn't believe her big brother could dance like he was dancing, and for hours. She was the one that had to take a break.

If you don't know them, the Turners were and still are a kind of German-American institution dedicated to "Sound Minds and Sound Bodies" or some suchlike Germanic scary thing that would later turn nice young blonde boys into perfect cannon fodder for Hitler. Anyway, they built these big buildings with a gymnasium and a stage (and usually a bar in the basement, naturally) that were perfect for punk rock shows in the 80s. Saw the Minutemen and Hüsker Dü and The Replacements and Naked Raygun and tons of other shows at Turner. I remember watching Bob and Greg drag a completely wasted Grant Hart from this little room at the front of the building all the way through the crowd to get him onstage. One of them was on either side of Grant with an arm hitched under his pits, Grant's feet behind them dragging on the ground, head almost hitting the floor. He played amazingly once he was propped up behind his kit, for the first half of the show. He was nodding off big-time by the end, barely able to keep a beat. Wonder what was in his tea that night?

The old Turner Hall building was downtown, just blocks from the Capitol building and in a great location to bring weirdos together - something the City didn't really like happening. It was bought by the State or the City, I can't remember which, back in 1991 or '92 and then torn down. The Turners built a new building somewhere, I've heard, but I've never been there. Probably used for a lot of weddings now, I bet.

I didn't say much about The Mummydogs, did I? Just download and listen and enjoy your weekend. Grab that Neil Young show, too, if you haven't - it's a lot of fun! Have big guitars in your head all of the time, that's my advice - it's the best way to stay sane.

Buy the 'dog's shit!

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Now playing: Gate - Spirit
via FoxyTunes