Stephen Ashbrook @ Martini Ranch

Tonight was the first time I've been to the area of north Scottsdale where Martini Ranch is located, and obviously the first time I've been to Martini Ranch. The night life area was certainly vastly different to our preferred Tempe haunts, going towards the rep that Scottsdale gets. Or the cute way people refer to Snottsdale. The only bars I'd previously been to in Scottsdale fit with me (Sugar Daddies, Pranksters Too), but clearly this area lived up to the more pretentious stereotype.

On parking and walking down to Martini Ranch, we could here that Ashbrook had already started, with the sounds of Better Than Anything spilling out onto the street. And sounds being 'full band' sounds. By today I was convinced that he was going to be solo again, based on Facebook, but alas he had the whole band for Arizona. There was a little bit of a delay getting in because of my ID - it's the second time my permanent residency card has almost been a problem. It doesn't make sense to me, given the fact that it's federally issued and I'm sure harder to fake than a driver's license. But there you go... A second bouncer however allowed is in, which meant we didn't have to go back to the car to get my passport.

In anycase, Martini Ranch was actually a cool place to see a live act, despite the Snotsdale location of the venue. It was cool seeing Stephen in a proper live venue and with the full band, since we'd just seen him the other week solo / acoustic in a corner bar in Kansas City. Getting both experiences made it really worthwhile. The other cool part is that he'd mentioned the Martini Ranch show when we talked to him last time about moving to Arizona, so it was pretty cool actually making it to the show - which was unplanned, we didn't even realize he was playing until yesterday.

It wasn't long before I started to look at who was in his band - firstly I couldn't see a guitarist. Looking behind Stephen I saw a familar face behind the skins - Curtis Grippe (Dead Hot Workshop). I didn't immediately recognize the bass player, but some immediate excitement from Katie cleared up that it was Thomas Laufenberg (Pistoleros, Ghetto Cowgirl, Dead Hot Workshop - and her guitar teacher before moving to Australia). Too cool! We had no idea that either of them would be joining Stephen for the show! Which made wearing my Dead Hot Workshop t-shirt (purely something I'd brought to put into storage, and was on the top of the pile of clothes) quite fitting.

Before long Thomas noticed Katie and gave her a wave, which I think his presence helped her with the strangeness of being back. Not to long into set, Stephen announced noticing that there was a Dead Hot Workshop t-shirt in the crowd, and promptly introduced Curtis and Thomas, and announced that they'd do a Dead Hot cover. Sweet! Something that really made my choice of t-shirt quite worthwhile! He then immediately referred to Katie's Cure t-shirt, and mentioned doing Just Like Heaven recently at a friend's wedding, and that he'd do a cover of that also - which he launched into the very next song. It was really cool that we got singled out from stage and covers of songs by the bands whose t-shirts we were sporting!

Once the band left the stage, I mentioned to Katie that I hadn't gotten my cover! However, as soon as Stephen came back for the encore, he scanned for the Dead Hot Workshop and said they were going to do the cover they promised. There were clearly a few other Dead Hot supporters in the audience around us who commented on Dead Hot to me. Pretty cool. After playing Mr. S.O.B, he then launched into Folsome Prison Blues which we enjoyed given Aaron's upcoming trip to Folsome.

After the show we went out of the back to have a smoke and move away from the crowds. On the way out we passed Stephen who stopped and said hi, and brought up seeing my t-shirt and we briefly mentioned how we'd seen him in Kansas City, at which point he remembered the fact that we were moving out here. Then once we got ourselves situated, Thomas came over and said how he was so surprised to see Katie back - wanted to know about how Australia was, etc. etc., and filled us in on what was going on in the music scene here, including some cool Dead Hot Workshop news. In addition to which he seemed quite excited that he was now (and has been for quite a while, which isn't news to us) their bassist. I thought it was funny that he apologised for not remembering my name - given that he met me once 3 years ago at a guitar lesson, I was far from offended!

We went inside briefly to purchase Drive, which Stephen mentioned onstage that there was some copies of for purchase. It was funny to me, since today I'd thought to myself that it would be a cheap night, since we loaded up on the 2 CD's we didn't have in Kansas City (except for Drive, which appeared to not be available either online or at the show), so we wouldn't have to fork out anything but the cover charge. But with the news of the availability of Drive, that all changed. Of course, it was just an added $10, and we're both really glad to finally have the Stephen Ashbrook discography completely rounded out. Visiting the merch table also meant that Katie was able to pick up a Stephen Ashbrook sticker, destined for the back bumper of Pepe, to replace the one that was a casualty in the death of Mr. Burns almost 3 years ago.

We milled around for a bit because I wanted to say hi to Curtis - as a matter of fact, the Dead Hot Workshop t-shirt I was wearing was given to me by him when my other one was stolen in Tempe. Once there was a break in the conversations he was having with people I went up to say hi, not 100% sure that he'd remember me. Of course, he did and said that when he Stephen mentioned the t-shirt he looked out in the crowd and thought "is that Mark from Australia?!? What is he doing here?" Pretty cool! He was also curious to know whether or not we knew he was going to be playing with Stephen, or whether it was a surprise, which it obviously was. So it was great getting to say hi, because Curtis is always so nice. He let us know about the benefit show that Dead Hot is playing at the end of the month, which we won't be around for, but we assured him that after mid October we'll be seen a lot at Dead Hot shows.

After chatting to Curtis, it was time for us to back, particularly given the 45 minute drive ahead of us. By this time Rock Lobster was in full swing inside. The idea of an original artist like Stephen Ashbrook, who is a big deal, particularly in Arizona circles, opening for an 80's cover band is so bizarre to me!

In any case. it turned out to be a really great night with a full surprises - and 100% was worth coming out for, despite that given the last few days it'd have been easy to stay home and sleep!