Two Solitudes: Tuesday, Sept. 14. Columbia, MO. The Hairhole.

Long Live The Hairhole.

These guys do it right. From the basement stage, Ron declared these guys and their venue to be “true punk-rock,” his greatest compliment. I agree: Columbia rocks.

I played first, with Chris on bass. They loved us, oh man, what a great crowd.

Ron Wax was next. This was their best set of the tour. It was funny because Ron always writes his set list on his arm, but at this place he couldn’t read it because the list was in red sharpie and the only light during their set came from a red light bulb. The writing was completely invisible. The greatest part of the show was when Ron started shocking himself because his amp isn’t grounded, there were holes in his shoes, and his socks were still wet from his “sailor-dive” into the Mississippi earlier in the day. He has a pair of white shoes of some mysterious significance that ride around inside his amp, guess they’ve been there for years, waiting for the perfect moment or something. After continued attempts to play guitar and several shocks, Ron started cracking up on stage and said it was time to put his white shoes back on. He changed his shoes right there and declared that he was now a different person. Dave kept banging his mallets on the low ceiling. It was so dark Dave almost hit several people in the face when he tossed his homemade egg shakers into the crowd. Chris played with those guys, too, giving it his all for two sets. They played the Clawfoot song and I kept grinning while I jammed out from the crowd with my tambourine. Ron Wax rocked tonight.

Heater played next, they were great! Like a really good punk band with a psychedelic bent. I got one of their records, looks really cool. When I get home someday I’ll listen to it.

There was a really gross-looking art piece sticking out of the wall in the bathroom; wish I’d gotten a picture. I did get a picture of this weird thing leaned against the wall.