Chuck Folds 5

Through coffee and couch avoidance, Rob and I managed to get our homebodies to the Rhino last night to see Chuck Folds 5 play. Full, proud, name-dropping disclosure: Chuck is my brother-in-law. He's an awesome bro-in-law if you consider it awesome to be able to call a relative with any manner of question from home-improvement to urban sprawl and have him answer the phone, "What do you want, beyotch?" and then give a serious, lengthy answer. Which I do.

Some of you unfortunate Greensborians who aren't related to Chuck may remember him from Bus Stop, the pop-rock band that also included Snuzz, Eddie Walker and Evan Olson. Some of you probably have the reunion shows penned in your calendar a year in advance.

When Bus Stop broke up, Chuck put together Rubberband, a party/wedding band. The first time I saw Rubberband, I had to do a double-take - the skinny dude lurking in the back corner of stages at Bus Stop shows was suddenly smiling, riling up the audience, singing and even doing a bopping white-boy version of... wait for it... dancing!

As much as I love Rubberband, Chuck Folds 5 is even more fun because I get the distinct impression (totally unfounded, just my impression) that the primary purpose of the band is to amuse Chuck and the other guys in the band, Tim and Steve. Being the goofy guys they are, they're fun to watch amuse themselves (pervey insinuation totally unintentional... and yet, I'm not going to change the sentence... that's me amusing myself.)

In a moment of uber-radness at last night's gig (no offense to the drunk college kid who bravely attempted a breakdancing move), when I requested Baby Got Back, they sang it to an improv honky-tonk tune. It doesn't get much better than that... except maybe when they played Freebird so the aforementioned drunk college kid would stop yelling, "Lynyrd Skynyrd".

Just for the record, Chuck didn't ask me to write this. In fact, he won't even know I did until I send him the link. I'd worry about embarrassing him except I don't think it's possible.

So, go see Rubberband and Chuck Folds 5- the lack of sleep and dreams of corrugated cardboard (I have no idea what that's about but I swear it's what I dreamt of last night) are totally worth it.