Post-Parade Party Pics

So after the Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade I went on down to a party on Lakeland Street. I knew Righteous Buddha was going to play, but when I showed up, Beer Pressure was setting up to play. I thought maybe I was at the wrong party.

Two old friends of mine were in the band, Lee and Scott, from the now defunct Blue Funky Daddies, back from the mid 90's. That being said, Beer Pressure is completely different from the Blue Funky Daddies. Oy! Punk is not dead in Baton Rouge. The best thing is they don't take themselves totally seriously (they have songs about beer), and they put on a show. Songs included "Beer Pressure", "We're Always on Tap" and a punk anthem about Baton Rouge that may have been called "Baton Rouge Belongs to Us". Totally cool if you like kegs and The Ramones (and who doesn't?).

Righteous Buddha played next. The running joke with this organ trio is that every guitar player who sees them says, "You know what Righteous Buddha needs?" "Me".

Well, who should show up to play guitar with them but Mike Waugh Brand© Music's own Denton Hatcher, who you may remember from such guitar solos as Don't Try To Steal My Thunder.

I think moniker of biggest band slut of Baton Rouge should be passed from Chas Justus and go to Denton Hatcher. Denton's playing with Dr. Cornelius, Secret Black Society, Righteous Buddha, and Gangsta Folk regularly (if not more). I thought he was my little secret. I thought I was special. Who knows how many one night stands he's had? You just wait Mr. Denton, you might be the hot thing now, but pretty soon these bands will just use you up and spit you out and you'll wonder why in the world you wanted to play with anyone other than Mike Waugh.

Here, organist John Smart gets super funky. But in the back of his mind, he's thinking of ways to use Denton Hatcher as a stepping stone on his way to the top, like Paul Simon did to Art Garfunkel or George Michael did to that other guy from Wham!

After Righteous Buddha quit, some Mardi Gras revelers put together an impromptu ensemble that included the inimitable Bennett Rhodes on snare drum. The accordion player kind of looks like an organ grinder, and Mr. Rhodes, with the fez, could be the monkey. In fact, as a child I had a drum playing fez-wearing monkey wind-up toy.

And with the party winding down, Heather says "Peace-Out."

Posted by Mike Waugh at February 25, 2004 08:38 PM