this monday at the hideout

Lou Reed died quite a while back, and I wanted to do something in his honor and memory but it took all these months to get a date together. That's mainly because Michael Shannon, who I asked to serve as Lou, singing the dark and the strange and the blunt and the funny and the heartfelt material from "The Blue Mask" (my fave Lou solo record), is "busier than a pair of jumper cables at a Puerto Rican picnic," as a comedian from the less ethnically sensitive 1970s used to say. This month Michael's holed up in Chicago while his talented wife works at Steppenwolf, and I nabbed him straight away. We played through the record's ten songs last night, and I can tell you for sure it's gonna be a hot one. Playing along: Alex Hall, Scott Stevenson, Jason Narducy, Grant Tye, me.

Because of Michael's celebrity, we're doing advance tickets on this one -- though at the usual low price of $10. To all the faithful who are accustomed to walk in at 6:55 and pull up a seat -- sorry! Get a ticket!