Heard lots and lots of disturbing and disquieting things about them. Saw some freaky scary incest-suggesting snapshots of them in a backyard. Watched some video-performances at jammingconcerts.com, hearing screaming girls in the background. And played their last CD: Always say Please and Thank you enough to know that meeting 'Nonni' should probably be Denver's main local attraction. With all of this in the back of my mind, I was very excited that I got the opportunity to see them perform.

January 6, 2001. The bluebird: One of the finest venues in town, locals tell me. Tonight the feature act is Slim Cessna's Auto Club, and not the Czech dance-ensemble, which was announced on only one side of the marquee. But that didn't seem to affect the ticket-sales in any way. Enter, enter. Well, not with too many please. The place was absolutely packed around 21:30. Sold-out!

After being a bit bored by some nondescript opening act, Slim Cessna's Auto Club made its appearance around 23:00. Six incredible characters - even more cartoonish than the Ramones - walk on stage: Rumley, with a cigarette in the corner of his mouth and probably a pack or two in his pocket to get him through the entire evening, on pedal steel guitar. Dan, the neat version of Robert Smith (beauty tip: use lip-crème before putting up lipstick to look good all night long ;->), on double bass and megaphone. Dwight, a Reverend with frightening moustache on a double neck guitar with Mary/Jesus hologram. Ordy, a gentle and talented guy dressed in a 70's suit, on drums.

Followed by two even more remarkable personae: the vocalists. The one on the right I recognize as the giant - well, from the camera angle - dancer from 16 Horsepower's, Clogger video. From some people I hear names as 'Walking Death' or 'Nikolai Levin in Anna Karenina on his deathbed'. But after watching him a couple of minutes with his orange bandanna around his neck, his straw hat and his somewhat red-bearded face, it hits me. It is the frightening resemblance to the Dutch painter whose name Americans keep messing up: 'Van Gogh' just before he cut off part of his ear. (No, not 'Van Go', ... 'van Goggg', try it ... push those tonsils forward so you can actually taste them on your tongue. And? New sensation? ;-)
The other guy on the left, Slim Cessna, a son of a preacher man, is as impressive as he is a charming: more than two hundred centimetres tall, cowboy hat, 50's glasses and an incredible smile displaying one golden tooth. They've already got me baffled and interested by only their appearances.

I could live with the fact that someone puts this performance on 'mute', so I can stare at them shamelessly … but then again, a show of silence wouldn't do their lyrics any good. And they do have some very humorous lines in their songs. It's unbelievable amusing to see them putting their heart and soul into it:
"My friends all talk about me, they say that I'm a fool ... I write myself a letter, I have got nothing else to do ... I can't stop feeling all so Goddamn good" in Goddamn Blue Yodel #7 , "... Lucifer, you piece of shit, I should kick your ass right were you sit ... all the hell you put me through, my mother cries because of you ..." in Last song about Satan, "...just one thing I must have failed to mention ... Munly's got a .44 and his family is full of tension ..." and " I can't hear a goddamn word that Munly tries to sing." in Pinebox.

It's all in the deadpan way they present those lines, that makes it so 'goddamn' funny. They're maybe the best comic duo ever to come from Colorado. (Mork & Mindy, especially Mindy; 'Eat your heart out.') Slim kneeling down for the most intense lines. Munly staring into space looking for understanding, or a way-out. The way Slim and Munly interact is hilarious. Every time Slim finishes his part, he looks us straight in the eyes, smiles with that sick grimace of his, takes off his Stetson and points it to Munly who is doing his solo or his dance. And Munly returning the favour, cueing Slim and other people nonchalantly, yet nano-second perfect.

You really expect Mr. Cessna with his intimidating nasty cynical smile on his mug, to meet the Devil at Denver's Lion Lair bar, sit next to him and not be impressed, while the horned one is. And Mr. Munly, who in fact has a real warm and deep delightful voice, is somewhat ... well if you were a 12 year-old-girl in a dark alleyway at night you wouldn't find him all delightful ... (but HEY, you can ask yourself as a 12-year old girl what you were doing there in the first place). He looks very fragile and yet there's plenty of fight in him as he demonstrates by beating up Slim during a pogo. When he sings that Jesus has died for his sins you don't actually want to know what he has been doing the last couple of years.

But it's not a comedy show, in the sense of a comedy of errors, because the band doesn't make them. No sirree Bob, they're tight as a latex dress on Homer J. Simpson. Speaking about (Jelly) Jello Biafra, (those extra pounds aren't exactly reminding me of Biafra any longer, or did W.Africa prosper when I was on holiday? Did I just say that? Or did I think that :->) he did recognize their talents and signed them to his record label, Alternative Tentacles. He's now probably their most loyal groupie since he clearly enjoys attending their shows as he did this evening. Best proof was when Munly invited him on stage, where he sang along a few lines and made some 'comic' twirls.

For lack of a better description, this 'Country-Billy' music makes you want to jig, reel, boogie, bop, jitterbug, slam, twist and shout without abandon. You get the grainy sepia-coloured picture. You can't stop dancing. To see, or better, to undergo a SCAC -live performance is something really special. Their shows give the audience so much energy and so much joy; it's almost a religious experience ("oh lord ... on bended knees, give me hope and make me see ...") … but maybe from the Church of the Poisoned Mind. ;-) And when pastor Slim throws his hands in the air, like a puppet whose strings are pulled (by the God of...) you follow suit. And you hoot and holler. It's like that scene in the Blues Brothers, yes you know the one. Those who couldn't walk, well, they still can't walk, but at least they're enjoying themselves.

Tonight's show proves they have the people of Colorado eating out of their hands. So I think it's only fair we also experience this here in Europe. ;-) I strictly advise you to go and bug your local record store and listen to their new album: "Always say please and thank you". A good record to play at moments when you take life just too seriously.

By Ing!