Wesley Stace / John Wesley Harding

In my usual attempt to procrastinate, the other day I was browsing around various club websites looking for cool upcoming shows when I noticed that Wesley Stace, or as I usually refer to him under his musical name, John Wesley Harding, would appear at Warehouse, an avant-garde theater/music hall/cafe/bar complex on 7th Street (beautifully juxtaposed with the new Convention Center across the street).

Who is this John Wesley Harding (JWH, hereafter), you ask? Well, have I given you any mixed CDs lately? Check The Geodesic Dome (cover features the Buckminster Fuller stamp--aren't I clever?) for "Goth Girl." Everyone loves that song. That would be JWH from one of his handful of albums, Confessions of St. Ace. And how did I learn about him? Actually, I saw him open for Fastball in November 2000 at the 9:30 Club (before you snarl, I was a big fan of Fastball before anyone else had heard of them!). I found it odd that I was singing along to all of JWH's songs as he performed since I'd never heard of the dude and he wasn't doing covers. Then it hit me: I had listened to his CD for a month when I worked at Barnes & Noble. B&N's policy used to be (don't know what the deal is now since many things have changed since I departed) that the store could only play a certain 5 CDs (selected by corporate or at least above the store manager) for an entire month. JWH was one of those 5 sometime in 2000 (probably August). I heard the damn thing a million times, that's how I knew to sing along.

Anyway, returning to this evening, Allie and I arrived. He read a couple of selections from his massive novel Misfortune and performed a couple of songs from the book a cappella. It was wonderfully funny and postmodern. A great combination. As an ironic twist, he invited the entire audience of--I don't know--20-30 people to a party at his friend Jim's house in Georgetown. But first he asked if there were any thieves, [blanking on this one], or antisocials. Allie and I laughed loudly knowing we fit the latter. Those types weren't invited to the party. So we didn't go. Oh we aren't party people, but I might have considered it if it wasn't in fucking Georgetown. I really hate Georgetown, but you knew that.

Oh and expecting a "mini-concert" as the website advertised I brought my ear plugs. I'm such an old woman.