Keller Williams, doing what he does
As part of Yes Month, I was roped into going to Bear Tooth's First Tap event featuring Keller Williams. Given that (most of the time) I dislike First Taps (too hot, too expensive, too pointless, to high school reunion-y) and had no idea who or what exactly a Keller Williams was, this felt like a dicey proposition at best.
Of course, isn't that when events are the best?
Sure enough, I had a damn good time. It was Cate, Darren, Eric, Aarin and myself, with random appearances by my friend Ashley as well, and it was our boy "Hobo" Williams (as we aptly titled him).
Aarin, Cate and myself (except I missed the thumbs up cue)
Bit of back story about that: during the show we had repeated jokes about Keller's appearance, mostly along the lines of the fact that he was super dorky looking and kind of homeless looking. Example 1: during his extended break in between his main set and encore, Cate and I were openly wondering whether or not he was out by the dumpster sleeping. Example 2: I told everyone during the show that "I like this guy. Mostly because I think he's probably going to do the same thing I'm going to do after the show, which is go home and read comics." It's unconfirmed whether or not he did, but I most definitely did.
Regardless of his shabby and dorky look, the guy is pretty amazing. Often referred as "the one man jam band," Williams strolls out with an acoustic guitar and essentially pours various guitars and his own voice into effects pedals and uses them to create the effect of an entire band performing on stage. His amazing ability to handle the various instruments and effects plus the unique feat of successfully creating the sound of various brass instruments with his voice made for some really fun and ridiculous music. As I said to Aarin, this is music I love live but would never listen to recorded.
"Hey guys! Keller Williams!"
Most of his original material was about goofy things, such as living his dream of going on The Price is Right. These songs were fun but typically forgettable. The two stand out musical moments for me were his cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" and his astounding mini-cover of the Crystal Method's "Busy Child." By looping various acoustic guitar beats and effects and using his voice, he almost perfectly captured that song. Which is a techno song. Which is freaking amazing.
The audience was a lot better than usual, in that they were uniformly entertaining to watch (two favorites: crazy dancing man that Aarin and I thought was on Acid and the guy who loved Keller and invented dance moves on a whim, including the punch dance and the dog paddle) and I knew almost no one. I typically loathe the audiences because it's like running through the halls of your high school (and not in a John Mayer sort of way), which is shockingly not my favorite thing to do.
All that, and the First Tap was delicious. The Dark Knight Baltic Porter was despised by my crew and adored by I, as I follow the mantra that darker beer is always better. It was a very tasty beverage, indeed.
Aarin flipping off the camera and Cate making the goofiest face EVER
Combine all those things along with my wonderful friends and you have $25 well spent. That's something I never expected to say about a First Tap again, nor did I ever expect to even say I went to another First Tap. Thanks Yes Month!