Tags: The Grinch Song
For many years now, the various bands of Hoboken have “banded together” for an annual concert to raise money for a worthy charity, play some holiday songs, and generally have one last hootenanny before the year’s end. I fist started playing these shows maybe 4 years ago with the Gordys. That year, the event was held for Katrina relief. This year, the money was going to the Jubilee Center, an after-school program in town, so when the Gordys got the invite to play I also passed it along to the Fuzzy Lemons, who quickly agreed that it’d be fun.
Each band only got two sing 2 songs this year. The Gordys have traditionally perfomed “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” (featuring me!) and that old Pretenders chestnut “2,000 Miles,” with Pamela on vocals. But Pamela begged out this year, on the flimsy grounds that she’s due to give birth any day now, and the band was kind of done with the Grinch song. So instead we went with 2 numbers that Howard and I have perfected over the last couple of years at our Museum shows: “Winter Wonderland” and John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over).”
The Fuzzy Lemons, meanwhile, had just learned “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” for our own Holiday gig on 12/5, and Dana had been pushing to sing “Santa Baby,” so that short set was easily decided.
It was, as always, a very fun evening. Hoboken musicians are, by their very nature, a warm and friendly crop. We love to jam with each other, a tradition that goes back at least two decades (when the town’s aging population began to be replaced by artists drawn by low rents). And we love to drink together, so piling us all into the back room at Willie McBride’s with a few of our fans is always the recipe for a good time.
The Fuzzy Lemons had a ball, playing what was certainly our latest gig yet. (We went on at 8:15!) Justin’s wife captured our ska rendition of “Santa Baby”:
I got a lot of props for the Grinch song; I’m afraid of what might happen if I don’t perform it next year.
The Gordys, meanwhile, took the stage for the first time without Pamela, and with yet another drummer on the throne: Joe Harari, Rob’s teenage son. He did a great job and will most likely be invited back, if his other four bands don’t keep him too busy. Justin’s wife captured “Winter Wonderland,” and the whole room sang along on “War is Over,” which was great. I wanted to get the whole crowd up on stage for the final chorus but it was still pretty early and no one was drunk enough to try it, I guess.
However, by the end of the night everyone was more than ready to join Geri Fallo on stage for a rendition of “Christmas Wrapping,” the big hit for The Waitresses in the 80s, written by absent Hoboken resident Chris Butler. Now, I take a lot of the blame credit for Geri jumping up on stage to sing; I think Harari (Rob, not Joe) and I were the ones who truly pestered her to get on stage with The Gordys over the summer.
It’s possible that we’ve created a monster.
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