No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master. ~Hunter S. Thompson
|
RSS Feed
| Designed by: |
| Rest In Peace, Larry Feichter |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by John Abbott | |||
| Sunday, 10 April 2011 07:35 | |||
 One of the rituals here at freak & geek central is to scan the online Chippewa Herald every morning. Lately that has been to see what the wingnuts in Madison are proposing, and to garner local response from the comments section to see just how many of those fools are also living in my area. Sadly the number is large. But in the process, the headline with photo of a minivan upside down in the Chippewa River caught my eye. Reading an article like this, "Lawrence Feichter", not Larry, no mention of profession or past, I didn't even know who it was talking about. It wasn't until later, checking Facebook chatter I made the connection. Understand, I don't really know, or talk to many musicians. Close to zero in fact. So I don't have a ton of details, I don't have many Larry stories to recount. I write from the voyeurs' perspective. I am a music fan. I am there for the music. I go and see the shows and I write about it as if it were a show you would see. I don't write about personalities. I don't want to know that some guitar player, in a band I love, is an asshole. It warps my whole perspective on the music then. And besides, thats not what I really want to provide to the net. So, instead I stay on the outside. I just want to be the faintly recognizable, can't quite place him, guy lurking around the edges. Case in point, I was down to My Place bar one weekend a year or so back, seeing the Pheromones. Larry was standing right beside me for one song when I was up in front of the band. A few days later, after I posted the review, he dropped me an email out of the blue. He told me "Hey man, I was at that show!", and we should hang out and catch some music together. To which I thought "heh heh heh, we already did!" Its ok, I am a lite weight. Three beers is a heavy night for me. I am sure I couldn't have kept up with a guy who's nickname is Crazy Larry, anyway. Larry lived life. The locals have seen Larry as the drummer in the band Cats Ass. But, he used to be in the big time. I *might* have seen him when I saw Molly Hatchet back in the day. I was a fan of the band and he was the drummer with them when they were touring a national circuit. He toured out east with a few bands. He was in a number of bands down around Chicago. I don't really know what brought him into this area. It was lucky for him the music environment in the Chippewa Valley is what it is, fantastic. It was lucky for us he stayed. He and another member, formed the band Cats Ass in 2003. I have a hard time believing Larry put any less into a Cat's Ass show than he did on a big stage. Larry could sweat like no other man. The Wife remembered Larry as the guy who often complimented her on her shoes. See, there are shoe guys and there are (primarily) non-shoe guys. I am the latter, much to her frustration. I tend to notice when people are not wearing any shoes at all. But I can't say I have ever, without prompting, noticed another person's shoes. Larry on the other hand noticed The Wife's shoes every time we saw him. To her, it vindicated her shopping efforts. If just one person noticed, it was worth it all. Larry noticed. What I best remember Larry for was his fire breathing act --which scared the shit out'a of me each time I saw it. I am old enough to remember Great White. And though I love music, it isn't worth burning to death in some dumpy bar over. I always plotted my route to the exit each time I suspected it was coming up. After it was over, I usually spent the set break bitching to The Wife about it. Smell of lighter fluid, combustibility quotient of the average ceiling tile, etc. But, you know, I didn't die in a fire. I saw Cat's Ass maybe four times, and lived through it each time. And, really in hindsight, you know, it was pretty cool to see something like that in a small bar. To feel the heat off that ball of fire. <cough><cough>…yeah, yeah, while I was shaking in my boots. I am a wimp. But thanks, Larry, anyway, for showing me something I had never seen before. So what this is all leading up to is, Wednesday night, there was a remembrance jam at the Red Zone Bar. I wanted to show up and show some support for a guy who worked long and hard to throw it out there to the fans. Rolling down the street, the Red Zone in sight, I realized just how many people Larry touched. I had to park about a block away and walk to the bar. When I got there I discovered a don't-call-the-fire-marshall sized crowd. There was some great music and some people having a good time. Partying in the fashion to send off a partier of the highest regard. Great to see. The video (and I might post more later) grabs a couple of best moments of a whole bunch of musicians who had never played together. It was a night done with feeling. Anyone who recognizes faces of the musicians, please leave comments down below. I was really surprised how many of them I didn't recognize. I want to use this space to announce on May 1st there is going to be a benefit for Larry's family at the T&C Roundabout. I expect it will be an afternoon deal. Check with the T&C for details. If you can't make it and want to send a donation, get it to either the T&C, or the Snout Saloon. They will make sure it gets put into the right hands. As it turns out, I thought about Larry just last night. We were out to the T&C Roundabout bar to catch Left Wing Bourbon on stage there. --Great show, by the way! Outstanding! They closed with Zeppelin. It was amazing. But while there last night, I happened to recall the previous time we were at the T&C, we were there to see Left Wing Bourbon that time as well. We briefly ran into Larry, as he and Kayla were moving to the side bar, we were coming in. He complimented The Wife's hair as I skulked on down the bar, searching for stage center. I think it was her first complement of the new doo And, from my perspective it is a fitting remembrance of a guy who can be Crazy Larry to his buddies, but who can take the time out of his day to say something good about someone else. A rare thing these days, but Larry had it. Thank you Larry. Hits: 1010 Comments (4)Subscribe to this comment's feedLarry's Benefit
There are 8+ bands taking the stage for the benefit on May 1st at T&C Roundabout. Big Backyard, The Big Deeks, Brass Monkey, Crowded Heads, Fully Loadid, Pheromones, Phoenix, Sonic Void, and more...Party starts at Noon and goes until we can't go anymore!
,
April 15, 2011
Write comment
|
|||
| Last Updated on Monday, 11 April 2011 04:37 |
