This Machine Still Kills Fascists

radio noir behind the scenes: pezzettino...

Oh what a day this was...

If you follow Radio Noir (or know me personally) you know that our studio got robbed. The break-in literally happened 3 hours before Pezzettino performed on our show.

Imagine my surprise, when I came home from work to find fragments of my door frame lying on the ground next to a mangled padlock and useless screws. My immediate reaction was naive optimism, but that wore off quickly when I discovered several pieces of our equipment were missing.

I called John before I called the cops. He knew before I could get the words out. He could hear it in my worried and disappointed voice. After we took inventory via cellphone, I called Saint Paul's finest. Officer friendly showed up promptly... 1 hour later.

Margaret arrived a good 20 minutes before 'officer friendly'. I explained what happened, she gave us all hugs and yogurt covered raisins, then witnessed me file a police report (seriously Margaret you are amazing). We still had one laptop, so the game was on.

Now when you listen to the podcast you might notice John and I playing. This happened completely out of no where. The mixing board was on a flight case next to a drum set, and the laptop sat on an idle floor tom. This became John's mixing post (we never do Radio Noir this way).

It was just one of those days. We all wanted to hit something, so I picked up a guitar, John picked up some sticks, and Margaret kept encouraging us to play along (completely off the cuff). I can't remember if we ran through a song in its entirety before air time, it's all a blur.

I had to figure out the key of each piece by ear, and if I wasn't doing that I was finding random objects on floor for percussion. John was mixing with one hand while beating the drum kit with other, and Margaret was jumping around the room as if thousands of people were watching.

It all came clear to me during the song "Falling Down," at that moment no song in the world was more beautiful. That was it, the catharsis. We were doing exactly what we were supposed to be doing, having the time of our lives.

Thank you Margaret, have fun and be safe on tour!