I’m trying to recall how Tony Maimone ended up on upright bass for three of our acoustic shows in 1988. My best guess is we got to talking at a The Scene Is Now gig, and he offered his services. Twenty-six years ago today was the middle one, a matinee at CBGB, on a dream bill with Peter Stampfel, Jad Fair, and a rare duo performance by Will & Amy Rigby. Though numbers by all of the other acts were in our repertoire, it was only “Griselda” that we played that day (after we got the go-ahead, naturally). Our set also included the Angry Samoans’ “Get Off the Air,” which went over well with my parents, and hopefully others. Speaking of the airwaves, 16 years later we made our way to CNBC’s Fort Lee studio to take part in the short-lived McEnroe talk show. In addition to our star turn of “Today Is the Day,” we were the house band, playing on the other guests, as well as in and out of commercial breaks. Looking over the 10 songs used as bumpers, at least nine of which doubled as either tennis puns or guest-appropriate (we escorted Kevin Kline to the couch with Will Rigby’s “Dave“), I’m going to have to show a little tough love and suggest that if the host had worked as hard on his part of the show as we did, somebody might have watched. No complaints whatsoever with his guitar work on our quartet version of “Beat on the Brat,” except that we have no recording of it.
