I was so wired from SOUND Team last night that I forgot to mention the rest of the show. It was the Basement’s “New Faces Night”–a showcase evening (usually) for singer/songwriters. Heather Morgan was entertaining. Great voice. Nice songs. A little notey sometimes, but really good. Not my cup of tea maybe, but she could sing. Matt Hartin played kinda gritty, Steve Earle/Bruce Springsteen songs. He strapped a harmonica to his face for a couple of them which always makes people look like they’ve been in some kind of accident.

But Senator Tom Pappas (ex-Superdrag, Flesh Vehicle) stole the show. It has been a long while since I’ve seen his “magic,” but he really pulled out the stops last night. He played an acoustic guitar, just like the others, but he ran his through a distortion pedal into a tiny amp. Bold move, you might say, but Tom was just getting started. His songs also featured plenty of a capella breaks and leads.

There is a guy who plays at Pie in the Sky Pizza in Cool Springs maybe every Friday who plays leads but he has a pedal that samples his rhythm guitar and replays it while he breaks off a solo. Tom doesn’t go for that fancy-pancy crap. He just stomps on the distortion pedal and blows it up. He doesn’t need any rhythm section. It’s like a cross between Tenacious D and Syd Barrett. If he isn’t being serious, it’s hilarious. But you can’t always tell with Tom. He played a song called “Don’t Stop the Laughter” that featured the lyric quoted in the title to this post, and it was seriously hard to stop the laughter. Way better than seeing him with Flesh Vehicle. He should hone the acoustic show and just do that.

After Tom and and the gaily capitalized SOUND Team, I had to call it a night. Nothing could top it.