Photos By: Travis Tutwiler
So, I’m sitting in my car, listening to REO Speedwagon’s High Infidelity album, Thursday afternoon. Wasn’t everyone? I was waiting, always waiting for the arrival of my buddy The King and that of Lizzy Borden, the band, not the chick with the bad attitude.
The King arrives without fanfare as he is wont to do. We sit, we chat, we laugh; lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually, the Winnebago from Hell (henceforth referred to as TWfH) emerges from the ether, carrying the band. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for! It’s been such a long time coming, I can scarcely believe it’s happening. Yet it is.
Perhaps a bit of context would be helpful at this point. Here’s the not-so-fascinating story leading up to the day’s events: Years ago, my wife forced me to miss, what turned out to be Lizzy Borden’s last performance in Dallas for about six years, in order to accompany her to company’s farkakt (Yiddish for “fucking”) Christmas party! At the time, I was devastated, but acquiesced to the dutiful husband role. I very grudgingly went along to the party, never thinking I’d have to wait this long to see Lizzy Borden live, something I admit I had begun to doubt I would ever get to do. At the time of the previous show, the band was touring behind its then new album Appointment with Death, which was garnering unexpected (at least to me) popularity. To that end, I thought Lizzy would likely roll through town again a few months later as part of some other tour, or even better, with its own headlining show. That didn’t happen. I’ve been haranguing my wife about this ever since. Luckily, she’s a good sport and inexplicably tolerant of my bullshit. I’m happy to report that great cosmic wrong has been righted, as of this writing and I’ve now had the pleasure of meeting the band and finally seeing them tear it up live… and tear it up they did!