Wednesday night, we had the honour of opening for Hamell on Trial. We’d seen him open for Ani Difranco a year or so ago, and later, our friend Firedean managed to open for him up at Philly’s Tin Angel, but my impression of Hamell (Ed, apparently) was always kind of a bitter bald man who DRILLED his guitar with a flatpick.
After the Jammin Java show, I came away with a HUGE appreciation for what this man could do – both on guitar AND just as a performer/entertainer. He was one of the funniest men I’d ever seen on stage, with a smooth, almost stand-up comic delivery. The machine-gun lyrics and drill-like approach to playing guitar were the same, but – it’s like how Heather and I aren’t morose all the time, but our songs tend to be angry or depressing. The stories that go with them have to be equally intense, but in the opposite direction, so that people aren’t busily slitting their wrists out in the audience.
Well, Ed, after and between playing very intense songs, screaming about killing people and shooting himself and in general toppling the world, would then return to running jokes and … I don’t know. Heather and I could learn TONNES from him. So good.
