MTX

On January 25th, I went to see the Mr. T Experience at the Bottom of the Hill in the city. I have seen them numerous times before and always thoroughly enjoy their performance. The last lineup I saw was Frank, Joel, and Jym (my favorite lineup in fact), so needless to say it has been a while. The lineup now is Frank and Jym plus the newest members, Ted Angel and Bobby Jordan. I hadn’t ever seen the latter two, so I didn’t recognize Ted despite the fact that he was standing next to me for much of the Hi-Fives performance. He kind of reminds me of Giovanni Ribisi. Add to that my attraction to younger guys, and I was content with the eye candy he was providing. Frank was also wandering around, looking either tired or drunk. I’m not sure which, but I know from first hand experience that pushing yourself to do the same things as you get older can wear you down. I think his wife was there, too. I have no idea what she looks like, but Jordan was with me and he thought it looked like her.

The Hi-Fives aren’t really my kind of thing, so I waited patiently for their set to end, and was happy when it finally did. Then, MTX came out and did their thing. There were some songs from their more recent albums, Alcatraz and Road to Ruin, that I didn’t recognize. They also played a ton of great classics, including Sackcloth and Ashes, Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba, I Fell For You, You’re the Only One, Hell of Dumb, Swallow Everything, The History of the Concept of the Soul, King Dork, …And I Will Be With You, and More Than Toast. I did notice that either Ted or Bobby (not sure which, maybe both) was off key on a number of occasions, sometimes enough so that it messed Frank up and pulled him off key as well. I know I am biased, but Joel really did a great job of singing back up. Their voices were great together.

They were gracious enough to do two encores, after the audience chanting MTX repeatedly. I find chanting creepy, so I didn’t participate in that, but I did my part with cheering and clapping. Frank noted at the beginning of the second encore that he was getting to old to keep playing so many songs. It was definitely strange, first of all, seeing Frank looking as old as he does now, but also seeing him singing with guys that are probably younger than me! Regardless, I had a good time and I’m glad I went.