Harry Veinlate Dei: Lost Post

XXL Preamble: I found this pending post, a transcription of journalistic notes from a Harry Pussy concert in 1994. Truly lost in time. I must have wanted more to write about the performance but could never find the right words. I had seen them “open” for Sonic Youth before, so I knew what level of energy they brought.

Imagine listening to a funny and scary Sonic Youth cover, but it’s only two people who stop playing – awesomely – this music inexplicably, sometimes for a minute or two of awkward confrontation with certain audience members. Even the drummer is full-throated offering to fight with her sticks in hand. They occasionally stand on the lip the stage and shoot birds at people who are irritating them, F bombing them and the horse they rode in on. I saw that at The Roxy. They had played some noise and covers…sometimes maybe just drink cold beer and tell the audience to F off instead of playing. It was their time. I cannot remember if Sonic had let them open to get some scratch to fix their van, or it was The Make-Up, but both of their performances had been dynamite, and a van was fixed that permitted more shows to occur and whatnot.

I had a chance to see Harry Pussy in an “intimate venue”, and I was sort of already scared to go, and told my editor. I lost the copy of the article. A decade later, I close the fermata with a recording from Orcutt from 1991 exploring a more melodious duo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJmiK2FXmcI. I also happen to really like his rendition of “Ol’ Man River“. Anyways, this was me in 2015 ruminating about an event from the ’90s, when I was maybe 23 years old. I transcribed notes I had found among moldering letters and post cards in a box in the attic. Then set it aside for a decade.

I did an article for Ink 19, a “last night of Homage Cafe” in ATL, paying homage to Homage on its last night open. This was sometime around 1994. “This group played. The drummer attacked and bit my photographer before the show even started. Very frightening. Harry Pussy – and then I was sort of on my guard for the next attack for the rest of the night. “