The Insane World of Chris Partyka Presents...

OK, I know I was touting this big concert that my oldest brother Chris was going to have a couple of weekends ago...and then suddenly, I stopped talking about it.....Did I forget about it? Did something go HORRIBLY wrong?!

No, actually....I held back, because something unbelievable was happening, and I wanted to hold back until it finished....Again, we're talking about my brother Chris here, so this means nonstop insanity, impossible situations routinely coming true, and Amanda Beyfuss envisioning a hard-core porn movie with her and Chris (The title?: It rhymes with "Rock Star", if you know what I mean...), thus causing her to drool uncontrollably on her keyboard, thus making it temporarily inoperable...

And I'm not making this up, I swear...

OK, so Chris's band, the Ghosts of Pasha, had a show at the Mercury Lounge on Sunday, October 23, 2004 at 10PM. Now, it's a decent-sized venue, and it can hold a pretty good size crowd (a few hundred)...his band was not headlining, so I figured that if he got half the place filled, it would be a very successful turnout.

However, by the time the concert started, the place was PACKED! Packed? Yes! Packed! No...I mean PACKED!!!!!!....The entire place was jammed with people...and they were screaming for the Ghosts of Pasha, in particular, for their most popular song, "Power Bitch". There were loud chants throughout the venue of "Power Bitch! Power Bitch!".....I couldn't believe what was happening; I wondered, "How could they be so popular already?"

And not just anywhere, I'm not talking Piedmont, North Dakota, where maybe the only competition for the Ghosts of Pasha would have been the "Badlands Jug Quartet", or "Frontier Joe and his 'mazin Mandolin"....I'm talking NYC! Sure, word gets around, and I'm always the absolute LAST person on the planet to get the 'word' (I was the kid in high school that had no idea where to buy drugs, guns, or term papers....Hell, I didn't even realize that anyone was doing drugs at all.) So I've never got the 'word', I still don't get the 'word', and I never, ever will get the 'word', because I'm a 'nerd'

OK, so the Ghosts start playing 'Power Bitch', and then, something even more unbelievable happens: Everyone starts singing along! Now I'm thinking "How do these people know the lyrics?"....At this point, I remained a bit skeptical, but I truly believed for the most part that Chris was now officially a rock star, and that Carson Daly was about to burst upon the scene and attempt to act hip.

The rest of their set went like this too...Even the band seemed totally surprised by this crowd reaction...Chris loved the energy, but he was blown away by the sheer numbers and insano passion of the audience.

After the show, Chris emails everyone, in an almost stupified tone, about what happened...he was so happy--giddy to be precise....So was the rest of the band..

OK, here's where it gets REALLY interesting: it turns out that the crowd was actually a traveling comedy improv group based out of NYC, and their latest stunt, entitled "Best Gig Ever" was to go into a show, and pretend as if they were Ghosts of Pasha fans for years.

(check out their Web site: http://www.improveverywhere.com/conquests.html)

Be sure to visit this site and read the Guestbook -- there's lots of user feedback on this show...some people thought this was kind of mean, but it actually helped the Ghosts of Pasha gain additional publicity. The band members, including Chris, commented about this and were not only great sports about it, but appreciated the experience.

And perhaps most importantly, the improv troupe became fans of the band, as they acknowledged the Ghosts of Pasha and their unique sound and talent.

They are playing another show on Saturday November 13, 8:00pm at sin-e. ("They" means the Ghosts of Pasha, not the improv group.......but I can't be sure about that, can I?)

Oh! and one more thing: the Ghosts of Pasha have an article in a pretty popular New York culture magazine (I don't know the name of the magazine, I'll get that today), and they are being touted as an up-and-coming band in NYC...Kewwwll!!! So more on this in the future, I guarantee you..

I will bitch about the election results in tomorrow's post....Ciao!