Greazy Meal in NYC - 11/08/97

 

 

At 12:00 midnight, I witnessed the greatness (or should I say "the greaziness") of the Minneapolis-based group, Greazy Meal. Let me say that Izzy Bar's is way too small to hold the number of people that were there that night....Tramps or The Wetlands would have been a better venue to see Greazy Meal. Because the place was filling up pretty fast, I was somehow pushed up to the edge of the "stage". (The stage itself is a platform raised 2 inches off of the floor.) There I was up-close and right in the middle of the action. The last band members to hit the stage were Tommy Barbarella (the ex-NPG member) and Julius Collins (lead vocalist). I was standing right in front of Julius, about 6 inches away from him!

 

The band started the show with a new song called "Beat", a pretty damn funky up-tempo song.

After the song finished, Julius did the most interesting thing: he took off his shoes and socks and began searching for a place to put his shoes & socks. Now, I was standing in the middle of the audience and there was a small space between my feet. He placed his stuff in that small space and I thought "hmmm.....I guess that'll do! Ha ha!" Then, he leaned toward me and said, "I had to find a place for my shoes.....I didn't want to trip on them." (Talk about up-close and personal!)

I noticed that the guy's thumbnails were painted green, his toenails were painted dark-red, and he was wearing a ring on one of his toes! (Hey, call me observant!!)


The song set listing was:

 

These guys are one of the baddest groups around.......they are some super-greazy muthafuckas! "It ain't easy....being greazy!" was the catch-phrase that rolled out of the mouth of the Urban Herbalist himself, Julius. I should add that Julius has a damn good voice! Another interesting thing about the Greazy Meal show was a woman who was doing some ballet dancing throughout the show, half of the time along with Julius.

 

On an exciting note, I got a chance to meet Julius (besides the thing with the shoes!) and I told him how "greazy" (excellent) his shit was! On an even better note, I got a chance to shake hands and exchange pleasantries with Tommy B. (or Barbarella, if you like the NPG) (While I was chanting "Tommy B." during "Old Soul Cafe", I should have chanted "N.P.G..... in the motherfuckin' house"). Tommy's hair is a lot shorter than in his NPG days.....it's better this way! The encore began 1:20am with 4 additional songs, including "I Can't Wait".

 

All in all, the experience of this funky extravaganza will NEVER be forgotten!!

 

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