“Richard Todd from WTMA told me that if I won a second year in a row, he was going to call a penalty flag on that”
— Ryan Nelson of Lowcountry Live. Nelson won once again for Best Local Talk Show Host
Gypsy Jazzercise
A dance dance revolution at the Tavern
I haven’t spent a weekend at the Village Tavern in ages, but this one was different. The VT was tag-teamed first by Philly’s own Man Man on Friday and then on Sunday with dance-alicious performances by Hey Willpower! and Men, featuring two of the gals from Le Tigre. On Friday night, the guys from Man Man donned their white shirts and war paint to fill the tiny VT stage, and let me tell you, this show se-se-seriously brought people out of the woodwork, folks I didn’t even think still lived in town. Bouncing up and down like pogo sticks, people packed the place, as the Man Man dudes jammed out on pots, toy music makers, psychedelically painted percussion sets, a xylophone, and a cow bell. It was a serious display of gypsy jazzercising. On Sunday, wearing a glittering silver bow tie, Will Schwartz from Hey Willpower! (pictured) whipped out vocals and dance moves on the stage while his shy sidekick, Tomo Yasuda, mixed it up. Their set was followed up by a nice entrée of Men, featuring Johanna Fateman and J.D. Sampson, and the dance party clearly didn’t miss a beat. The pair glowed all radioactive like behind their Macs as the giddy audience spun around. —Svetlana Minx
Best of Charleston 2008
On Wednesday, City paper took over the Charleston Visitor Center bus shed for a night of living dead debauchery, featuring food and booze galore, nearly naked strippers, a performance by Cabaret kiki, and a gang of boils of ghouls
Walk Like a Zombie
BOC ends in bar crawl
Last Wednesday’s much anticipated Best of Charleston party was over all too quickly, and many well-hydrated zombies (and those too cool to dress as zombies) stumbled down the street for the Zombie Bar Crawl. Club Pantheon opened up just for the crawl, and it was the first stop for many, though the dancing didn’t get started ’til later. (We’re told Queer Eye‘s Thom Filicia was hanging out next door at Dudley’s, sans zombie attire.) Other stops included the Black Cart, Charleston Beer Works (where a bloody game of shuffleboard ensued), Torch, and O’Malley’s, where most of the packed crowd seemed confused by the few zombie stragglers who made it to the bar. While I got some disgusted looks thanks to a rather nasty looking neck wound, the college girls really seemed to dig the zombie look on the guys. (One dude got asked to make out, point blank.) The bars closed, we spilled out onto the street, and everyone shuffled home in a worn out, dead-eyed procession. —Erica Jackson
Man on Fire
This Bush’s approval rating is high
“You never get over the stage fright jitters,” said Sam Bush (pictured right) to a packed house at the Music Hall last Thursday, a place he told City Paper he’d wanted to play since hearing Ricky Skaggs’ live album recorded there. If he was nervous about kicking off his spring tour in Charleston, it didn’t show in his performance. Backed by an incredibly tight band that included bass, guitar, banjo, and drums, Bush rolled through a long set that featured plenty of tracks off his new release, Laps in Seven, and many old favorites. Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish joined the band for an encore that included “Uncle Pen” and The Band’s “Up On Cripple Creek,” taking front and center for a melt-your-face-off electric guitar solo while the crowd sang along in unison. —Stratton Lawrence
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