...Rally the Troops...

Well the theme for Saturday evening seemed to be a “rally the troops” kind of night. I felt kind of under the weather and I could have very easy sat on the couch and watched TV. But, Tracy won tickets to the Electric Amp Radio show and we wanted to put the tickets to use.

We started off the evening by going to Eat Street and eating at New Delhi Indian Cuisine. Being one of my favorites, I knew that they have a great menu with even better food. Maybe it was me not feeling well or having different impressions of how good the food was the first time I came here. But the food didn’t measure up to my expectations the second time around. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but it wasn’t great.

The highlights were samosa’s, a pastry stuffed full of root vegetables and peanuts, which was an appetizer and a sweet condiment dip with chewy bits of fruit in it (dates?) The main dish that I ordered was saffron chicken with rice and Tracy had a hot plate of veggies and fish (think fajita). We also had a side order of some nana bread. We shared the two dishes and I would say that the food was average, a nice combination of flavors and spices but the food didn’t blow me away. Would I return there again. Yes, but not right away.

On to the show…The Electric Amp Radio show took place at the Woman’s Club located in Minneapolis. This performance is a great example of, “what was once old is now new again.” I could imagine this performance taking place back during the early 1900’s.

The premise of the show is this: …”four writers living together in a little house on a city street. They holed up in a back-yard tree house and a punk poet next door. One individual plays the clarinet, badly, the punk poet steps up on occasion to lay down a few soft words about life, living and the pursuit of whatever, and the writers invite a band to stay with them as they all scramble around each other's egos.”

The show opened up by having a guy dressed in a bear costume, doing a comedy act. The material was mostly about one liners, poems, and other random writings, it was funny and mildly humorous. The entire act was a typical stand up act, the only thing that was atypical was the way he was dressed which was strangely funny and odd.

Following the bear costumed comedian, the musical guests for the night were Fran King and Duncan Maitland. They were a duo from Ireland. Upon hearing them they reminded me of the band, Better then Ezra and a solo musician, Michael Penn. They performed acoustically, contemporized style of adult folk music who were enjoyable to listen to.

The main act itself was about 70 minutes in length; it was entertaining, funny, and interesting to see how radio shows are created. I found that the actual plot was fun to follow because, it was mostly was made up in your head. The writers would give the dialog, but you as a viewer, had to fill in the details. There were a few good laughs, interesting play of words, songs from the guest musicians, and interaction from the audience. My bottom line is that the performance was entertaining and I would attend it again.