This was truly a Muffin for the record books! You can't possibly capture in a single post how much came together at this year's Muffin but it was pretty darned amazing. Thursday's rain and hail turned into near perfect Muffin weather for the remainder of the weekend! Some great performances were turned in at the Friday night open mic. Miz Jen, for one did a fantastic set in case you missed it. Expect big things from her at the Open Mic this summer!The Saturday pot luck was a real wiener and a must have for future Muffins. Psuedo's fusion machine got the party up and running fast with their own mash brand of funk-hop and R&R. Very cool! They were followed by Berkeley's finest geezer punk band, The Happy Clams. Wow... what can you say! As tradition dictates, The Unreal Band capped off the night. Clearly they have been working hard because in 25 plus years of playing the Muffin, they have never sounded better! They had everyone up and dancing until well after midnight. Wow, is this world's greatest party or what!
Sunday saw Dandy G. wrap up the horseshoe tournee by defeating not one but two of his sons in the final rounds. TOC didn't do too bad either. Another terrific Itchy spin-off the Cosmic Shenanigans kicked off the third evenings show. Keep your eye on this band... they are big fun! The lone Hokum Boy himself H. Hollander dragged himself out of double H-surgery all the way to the Muffin for the next set. Nice to see you up and about H. Next up was a loose consortium out of Berkeley called the Lost Hippies (a.k.a. Cavepainters) who jammed with various Muffin family members including Doggie Jomo with a rousing rendition of the "D. J. Theme Song". The LH also performed a valuable dynamic load test of the stage by placing no fewer than 12 people on it at one time thereby qualifying it GTG for yet another year. "Laid back" Sunday was topped off with some very cool and classy blues by (all the way from Portland OR) Mr. Dan Lange. If that wasn't enough, Muffin newbie (and hopefully future regular) David Matela brought the show back to Earth with some incredible riffs that had everybody feelin' groovy. Nice!
The fun just spilled over into Monday for those who just couldn't make themselves leave. The traditional meat fest was done up right with some fine goat ribs a-la-Elin. A guitar-off ensued giving birth to at least three new verses to "Ghost Muffins in the Sky" and a rendition of D.J.'s "Muffin Song". And a very long song it is. Thirty-five years and counting!
Some individual thanks go out (in no specific order) to...
Mr. Ed P: for graciously allowing us to do this on his property AGAIN!
G. Lee: for delivering world class sound under the worst conditions possible.
Vasco: for organizing the Marin front.
Pin-head Mike: for hauling the lil-JuJu all the way from Alameda.
M.C. Shoot: for projecting what might be Muffin's raunchiest videos to date.
Greg M: for rounding up all the homies and keeping them in line.
Chris: for commandeering the HS tore-knee AND ticket design/printing.
Candy: for those SUPER stickers.
the Pirates: for Tiki cocktails (especially the "bilge water").
Paul Pot: for encouraging the whole mess.
Laura (Pink Boots): for being a ticket nazi.
Rickey D: for keeping that Itchy spirit alive.
The Weazels: for inventing the Muffin and abdicating their horseshoe crown again.
Marshall (with help from Pope): for not wrecking the hay wagon completely.
Lee: for fixing the hay wagon (just in the nick of time) and drawing/mailing the flyer.
Bee People: for keeping the gate running smoothly and those critical cappuccinos.
Gary & JA: for keeping the faith!
Bishop Joey: for forming the decorations committee on his own.
Matt: for pitching in on sound.
Vee: for being a firewood taskmaster.
Antoinette: for hauling out the hay-ride.
Bill: for upgrading the KMUF transmitter.
Tim & Dina: for firing up the pot luck.
Hans: for the Muffin portrait studio (Just don't put me on facebook!).
Stephen & the Neck: for continuing to show up and entertain us after 30+ years.
the Roadies: for humping gear and hanging in (beer pong rules!)
Pope: for filling in the many gaps and keeping us on course (most of the time).
Everyone who attended: we couldn't do it without you!
Photo by Derwoody (who else): See more of Darron's Muffin photos
