Episode 39 of Radio Free Charleston, “Go Van Gogh Shirt” comes to us from March, 2008, and it’s a nostalgia-soaked trip down memory lane. And you can take the word “trip” any way you want. The music is from an archival video that I found while rooting around in the “gem closet” here at Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor. It’s from November 1990, recorded live at The Empty Glass. We called that night “Shooting Fyssh In A Glass” because I was going to videotape the band, Strawfyssh. They were opening for Three Bodies, and until I checked the tape I’d forgotten that I had also taped Three Bodies doing their sound-check that night. So I had both bands on tape.
No, of course, since this show is nine years old, it’s doubly-nostalgic.
I hosted this show from the Empty Glass of 2008, during Happy Hour. It was a bit loud, as the Glass tends to be, and there are parts of the show where the audio on the host segments is questionable, but the show is still packed with musical goodness. Okay, let’s be honest. The audio for the host segments is horrendous. It was this show that convinced your host to start using a microphone, rather than relying on the word of his cameraman that “It sounded okay.”
There is also a surreal guest appearance by none other than Charleston’s Mayor, in a segment that has to be seen to be believed, and which, considering events that occurred after this show first debuted, has taken on a twisted and bizarre character.. There’s also an animated short by me, just so that the entire show doesn’t degenerate into ruminations on “the olden days.”
This was one of the shows where I was burdened with a production assistant who…didn’t work out. We actually had two assistants during this time that proved to be more of a detriment than a help to our show. They were quickly “future endeavored,” never to be heard from again. You can read the original production notes HERE.
PopCult Note: We have been presenting these classic episodes of Radio Free Charleston in the order in which they premiered, but next week we are going to skip one, then come back to it a couple of weeks later, for reasons that should be obvious.
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