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Tuesday night at WWT just added to the legend of American Aquarium. See LB's comments on the lead-in page, as well as several other reviews we've done - AA never fails to impress. Always a good time - high energy, great songs, - and now signed to Little Rock's own Last Chance Records. Hailing from North Carolina, their former hometown of Raleigh has now taken "home away from home" status with LR taking the top stop (figuratively, at least), while lead man BJ Barham proclaimed that it has been way too long since they've played White Water - almost two whole months.

But really I'm here to write about their lead-in band, Yazoo Shakes, from Memphis, TN. Haven't seen anything quite like that since ....... hell, never seen anything quite like that. Hoping it might help to portray this band, I posted this picture I found on their mySpace page --->

but then I decided the pic was too mainstream, so a verbal description must suffice.

First let me say that photog Lizzie would not, could not, turn and face them while they were playing - and she's started two barfights in the short time I've known her. Yazoo Shakes lead singer and keyboard "aficionado" - let's call him a Gregg Allman lookalike for lack of a better description - well, let's not use the word singer -- lead screamer Clay Ayers -- well let's not make people think he plays even as well as Gregg Allman - put on quite an exhibition. And someone should explain the musical concept of "key" to this merry band of troubadors, as in, let's all play in the same one. This cacophany of blaring, screeching owls could only mean one thing - someone owed a HUGE favor to their booking agent, and it was time to pay up.

Overheard --> "if a thousand monkeys were given musical instruments and allowed to play for a thousand seconds, this is what they would come up with."

I kept thinking these people must be putting us on - like maybe Ashton Kutcher was going to come in, grab a mike, and tell us we'd all been punk'd. But after 4 or 5 songs and all I had seen was Brandon coming down the stairs, and then only because Matt made him do it to provide "audience," I knew this band was for real - well, let's not use the word "real". Suddenly, the police showed up bearing a noise complaint -- from the deaf school. {bah dah bump}

A song or two later, T noticed the drummer and guitarist starting to make eye contact - "yeah, we got it going on now" they seemed to be communicating. Uh, no fellas, you don't. But do let me hasten to add that the two ladies in the group were somewhat the Shake's redemption - trumpeter Kate and fiddler/accordioner "the girl with the long red hair" were at the very least attractive and certainly worth watching (though I might suggest we give the accordion a rest) -- which then made me think, "where is everyone?" No Travis, no Cara dancing,  no Hendrix crowd, not even Brandon -- leaving only T, and me and Lizzie -- and she with her back still turned. Isn't the opening band supposed to draw people to the main act?

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