I love this part:

‘ One reason we weren't successful is that we always played lots of cover songs. We had a repertoire of maybe 200 songs we could play. Then we'd get self-sabotaging, where we'd get some big show and play only cover songs. When we toured with Hüsker Dü on their Warehouse tour, we'd open our set with the first song on their new record. Bob Mould didn't like that at all! When we opened for Jane's Addiction, we played "Jane Says." When we opened for Guns N' Roses, we played "Welcome to the Jungle." They were like, "Are you making fun of us?" And I was like, "No, I love that song!"’

Seeing them play last night was great! Thelonious Monster was hugely influential in the 80’s post-punk music scene – Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Circle Jerks, etc… They influenced the L.A. hipsters that I went to UC Berkeley with my first year in 1985, so they influenced me. Although I don't remember listening to them then, I felt like Bob Forrest was an old friend of old friends of mine…

The music was actually great! They were sober, so they were crisp. Bob Forrest has pathos in his voice, like all the great (and dead) lead singers I’ve loved over the years, especially from our generation Shannon Hoon, Bradley Nowell, Andrew Wood, Layne Staley, and Kurt Cobain. Just that he didn’t die, although it seems that he came close, and people around him did.

Further Bob Forrest was not quite as cool looking or tough acting as many of his peers, and so he has that added resemblance to my own experience.

If you get a chance to see them play, do. They covered a Beatles medley from “Because” into “Yer Blues”, and I think some other stuff mixed in. Dix Denney on guitar was great. They had two guitarists who auditioned for the Chili Peppers, and they were tight and talented. Seeing them play in the Uptown movie theater to an audience of movie-goers, some fans of the band, some acquainted only with him from “Celebrity Rehab”, some fans of the Seattle Film Festival, who, like me, were not expecting a proper club show after the film and Q & A with Bob and the director, Keirda Bahruth, was totally out of left field, and totally new and cool live music experience. Rock and roll lives!