One Bad Muthaf*cker- Andre Williams, Flash Express @ Safari Sam's June 29, 2007

I can be crass; I will unabashedly tell a dirty joke while certain friends of mine will redden in shame; Those same friends are also the ones that will remind me that children will be present and please refrain from using the word fucknut. However, I will never be as crass as Andre Williams, never ever. For a man nearing 70 something, he will sing "Give it to me baby" and make me blush. Tonight, in what you guys must see as a trend here, I showed up as the second band was ending their set, which left Flash Express and then Andre Williams.

Ok. I need to put a caveat on here. I was told that the band before Andre Williams, and who also ended up being the backing band, was Flash Express. HOWEVER, there is a Los Angeles band called Flash Express as well and I cannot seem to find any info to prove that this band I saw perform was in fact Flash Express. So, please, if you look at the band in the photos and know that, Yes- this is totally Flash Express, or Uh-no this is definitely not the band, then please tell me. Thanks.

Anywho, with all that blah blah aside, they were not the most exciting/original band to see. It was only after three songs in that I started to bop my head a little. The crowd that was enjoying them though was bordering somewhere along the lines of the Rockabilly scene and guys who like Monster Trucks. It reminded me of hyped up lounge music or really fast "white guy blues". The guys though could play, I will give them that. I think what bothered me the most is how many times the singer wanted to put motherfucker into the songs; you can only do that so many times before I stop taking you seriously. The funniest thing here though was the one guy who got the job of wearing shades on stage, doing back up vocals and shaking either a tambourine or a maraca, or both, and almost never in time with the actual music. I felt like he's the friend of the band who just got out of rehab and needed something to do.

Now, once you took away the lyrics and they had to start playing Andre Williams songs, all the showiness was scraped away and they were a great backing band. Now... on to the man.

Andre Williams started off by walking through the crowd to get up to the stage. He actually seems a little intimidating walking through, what with young girls throwing themselves at a 71 year old. And it's not like a rich old man thing, he doesn't really have much money, he's just that cool. Sauntering on stage with what looked like a complete satin suit of royal blue and red, he crooned "Give It to Me Baby" over and over into the microphone. While covering songs off the last couple of releases, including "Agile, Mobile and Hostile" and "I Wanna Be Your Favorite Pair of Pajamas", he gave smooches to anyone up in front of the stage, regardless of sex.

It was apparent though that Williams was getting up there in years. In between songs, or when the band started jamming, he had to take a sit break, or lean up against one of the band members. But I give him an incredible amount of kudos just for getting up there and doing a compete set. And the show was entertaining and I danced and had fun while this cool old guy sang about bonin' and cussing. Oh, and if you're still not convinced, there's a movie/documentary coming out about him so I suggest that for future viewing material.