I went to see The Twilight Singers last night. I really liked their last album, despite what others say. So I’m at the show, and I’m swapping stories with others about how the lead singer Greg Dulli always used to be too drunk to play when his old band, the Afghan Whigs, came to New Orleans, and the shows would be lousy. One of them had seen him recently in Italy or some other European place, and said the show was “tight”. He said that Greg had kicked the booze. Good for him.
So Chelsey and I go out to smoke a cigarette before the show, because you can’t smoke in bars anymore here. (Which is a dumb idea for a place like Omaha, where you can literally freeze to death and die). While we are outside this girl is in the circle of smokers and talking to one of Chelsey’s friends, and she points out that Greg Dulli is emerging from his great big touring RV. As he steps out I realize that he is huge. Which is very disappointing to me, because I have seen pictures of this guy, and he doesn’t look that fat. (I like my lead singers to not be so fat). So I turn to the afore mentioned girl and say “Oh no. He’s huge.” And she defends him, saying that he’s kicked all his habits or something. And I’m right in the middle of some crass remark about how he should never choose sobriety over weight loss, when Greg walks right up to her and gives a big hug. I guess she was the welcoming committee when he got in town, and she’s all palsie-walsie with Greg. Which made me realize that Greg Dulli is just like anyone else. He’s probably not happy about how big he’s gotten, and he’s a human being too. From here on out I am never saying mean things about well-known people. Just because I know who they are doesn’t mean I can talk about how fat they’ve gotten. It’s not right. And it might get back to them and hurt their feelings.
For the record – Greg Dulli put on a very nice show, and his voice is really great still. He also smoked in the no-smoking establishment, which I thought was sassy. And even though he wasn’t drunk (good for him), he was very sassy. He said “motherfucker” many times. My favorite of these times was when someone asked him for one of his cigarettes, and he said “Give me some money, motherfucker” and threw a lit cigarette in their general direction. First class!
