Attention, lackeys!
The Robbie Fulks band end-of-year wrap-up, now an 11-year tradition, will take place on Saturday night December 27 at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, Illinois. This is the venue where we have staged my little farrago of merriment for the last 3 of the 11, and it seems to work best there. "It," if you haven't been there, is: bemoaning the outrages and depressive pitfalls of the year past and celebrating the prospect of change...any change. These are the cliched sentiments of New Year's, but at some point we got too old for December 31. So we moved it to the weekend before year's end, and quit going abroad in favor of hanging at Bill Fitzgerald's place, where we're more likely to arrive home alive after the show, and the audience does not reach the tipping point of alcoholic stupefaction by 11:15 P.M. (our second or third song). Also, it seems that people who live in or near a big city are more vocal in responding to jokey references to abstract concepts -- especially important in a year like 2008, which saw exciting public developments in particle physics.
That's just one of the threads in our skein this year. Our look back at '08 also puts paid to Proposition 8, Mrs. Palin, the economic meltdown, and other targets blindingly obvious and, if I may say so, eggheadedly subtle. Beyond that we're premiering a new audience participation game, with a copy of my new release as the prize. And then there's the internationally revered Rap of the Dead. Our guests this year include keyboardist Chris Neville of the hugely popular Chicago band Tributosaurus, and the delight-inducing (don't you hate the word "delightful"? Let's force it into retirement.) comic actress Beth Kathan. The roots-country Long Gone Lonesome Boyz open the show at...I forget what time, but if you arrive at 9 I would think you'd be well in time for everything. Check the Internet or something. We will also play a goddamned hour and a half of music. Once again, the vitals:
Robbie's End of 2008 Show
Fitzgeralds
6615 Roosevelt Rd., Berwyn IL
Happy New Year!
xo, robbie
