Eric Slick/Project Object -- The reviews are coming in...

Eric Slick rocking out on the drums

Ahem...here are some reviews I'm getting off of the Project Object website forum board, the Yahoo Groups forum board, and by direct e-mail regarding Eric Slick on tour with Project Object:

Went to the show last night at Toad's and once again it was great. Ike was much more animated than I have seen him in several years. Maybe it was because his wife was there too. They even played a song from Ike's solo CD.

Once again Andre was great and allowed me board access to record the show and this time instead of taking my Mini disc to record I took my new Laptop and recorded straight into it so as to save time in converting the audio files.

Eric Slick is killer on drums and even though I liked Glenn a real lot Slick is no joke. He actually had double duty last night because he also was the drummer for the Beefheart Band Dr Dark.

(Glenn Leonard is the former drummer for Project Object whom Eric replaced)
*****
So that was written by a guy named Kevin on the Yahoo board and he got an immediate reply:

I saw them in Philly and I agree completely. Ike refers to his wife Denise as "Ma". She is even in his cell phone under "Ma"; they are so cute together! He even slimmed down quite a bit which has got to help him with him stamina. I actually assisted in the re-release of Ike's old solo recordings. I worked the merch booth and personally sold close to a dozen myself; the folks were gobbling them up as soon as knew about it. He has got to be psyched about those re-releases. "Should Gone Before I Left" is almost 20 years old now and has been out of print and unavailable for years. Every little bit helps those guys....most of their profit...a.k.a gas money, is in the sale of their merch. Help support the P/O cause!!

Eric Slick rocks and in my opinion, blows Gleonard away...and he is only 18. Watch out!!!

~Debutante Daisy
*****
And someone who attended the show in Boston said this on the P/O Forum Board:

Boston apr. 18th - wicked pissah awesome
Today at 10:01am
4th show that I've seen you guys. Great set. Everyone was on fire. Keyboards were best I've ever seen - he was on fire.

New drummer is great - cute too!

Please continue to end with that combo, it tickles all my mental musical pathways. Was happy to get autograph from Ike. That left me floating around for a while. Love you guys! Thanks Andre and Ike for pulling it all together.
-jim
*****
The next review, which caused tears to immediately start streaming down my face this morning, was sent to Andre and he forwarded it on to me: (Holy cow, I'm starting to feel like Neil Gaiman here...all I need to add is "and cast as Terry Bozzio, we have the brilliant young master Eric Slick -- filming began last week in New England and moves to the midwest today...)

Michael Phillips sent the following comment at Thu Apr 20 8:19 pm.

Holy Wooky at a wet t-shirt contest Batman ! You folks kick the proverbial ass in Burlington on the 15th !!!

The addition of Mr. Slick is absolutely brilliant ! Is it just me or was the Baby Snake stuff added to the set meant to accommodate young master Slicks incredible style that some what resembles Mr. Bozio's somewhat?

Unfortunately for me I had one of the dates not so much unlike the one Andre referred to when joking around saying " ... and the girls in the room are saying " I thought you said these guys were funny ? This sucks ! Take me home !" So I missed the encore only to hear about on the college radio station Monday morning. It left me felling pretty depressed. But, hey Andre ! There was a guy there taking video ! Was he with you guys ? If so, is there any chance of getting a copy of that show? I've seen allota concerts and quite a few of your guys shows but that has to be one of the most amazing nights of music I've ever had! That's regardless of the fact that I didn't get to see it all ! CRIPES ! If I had seen the rest as it was described on the radio I might have had to deify you guys and start a new religion ! Hope to see you folks again towards the end of the summer ! And thanks for keeping Franks music and legacy alive!!!
*****
Wow. That one left me a bit speechless and pouting because I was in Burlington the following morning and had I known, I would have tuned in to that college radio station and heard what they had to say directly. Damn it! I'm gonna have to put my detective hat on, find the station, write to the morning DJ, and see if I can get a transcript. Ha! Yeah, I know....I'm more than a little nuts but can you blame me?

So if you are in the Cleveland area tonight, here's the ticket and venue information -- and yeah, yeah, I do feel like hopping on a plane this very instant.

And if all this isn't enough, I'm hanging around here yesterday afternoon with the television on in the background and all of a sudden, I hear a TV commercial for the Rock School documentary which will be shown on the A&E Network starting Wednesday night, April 26 at 9:00 p.m. and I immediately spun around in my chair just in time to see a close-up of my son on the drums! I have to admit, even though I've seen the movie about a thousand times and own the DVD, I still got really excited when I saw that commercial, which I understand is in heavy rotation on all of the cable stations right now. But unless you know Eric intimately, you'll never recognize him in the movie -- it was filmed over three years ago when Eric had really short hair and was barely sixteen years old. Though when Julie and Eric are interviewed in the movie their names are flashed across the screen so you know it's them and then of course they are in tons of concert footage and Eric does some narration, etc. I think Julie basically looks exactly the same, just younger but to make it easy for you, they are first interviewed in the movie side by side trashing the band 311. And at Zappanale toward the end of the movie, Eric is wearing a "Titties and Beer" t-shirt. Ha. Anyway, here's the link with the scheduled showtimes throughout the month.

So Julie and I did not eat breakfast at Sabrina's yesterday, we found an incredible place at 22nd and South Streets called Ants Pants Cafe. It was sick, sick, sick! I had an avocado, tomato, egg and brie sandwich on multi-grain toast; Julie had the special which was an omelet with carmelized onions, goat cheese, and spinach, with an order of fresh fruit on the side. I of course could not resist those homemade potato chips and it's worth the trip alone just for them. They also make a sweet potato version which comes with a chili/sour cream dipping sauce. Oh man do we have a new favorite place for breakfast now!

And as I mentioned, no trip shopping with Julie is ever without adventure. First we went to Lucky Jeans where...and I'm not being delusional, I swear, the twenty something sales guy flirted with me while Julie was trying stuff on. I'm serious. He kept telling me how cool I looked and how cool I was and asking me all of these kinda personal questions...it was pretty flattering.

Most likely he saw a T.V. special on older women liking younger guys cos' there's no committment worries -- said old broads just want sex, etc. But whatever. I left there feeling pretty good, so after Julie got two pair of shorts at Lucky, I suggested we go to the store I talked about yesterday owned by the rock musician's wife.

The owner is Kimberly and she's young and beautiful. Her store is filled with one of a kind, original designer pieces that blew me away. She started selecting stuff for Julie that if I had picked out, Julie would have said NO WAY -- like a pink flowered camisole type top and a very short cropped faded jacket to wear over it. Julie came out of the dressing room looking like a fucking model.

"Oh my god, you are gorgeous" Kimberly and I said together.

"Thanks!" Julie smiled so widely I could not believe it. She usually gets shy in these situations, but she really did look knocked out magnificent and the outfit was so unlike anything she owns I started getting insistent.

"Mom, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Julie said, giving me a weird look.

"Yeah, okay, but you are letting me buy you that top and jacket. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?"

"Mom!"

Okay, I know when to shut up so I followed her back into the dressing room.

"What's the matter?"

"Oh nothing unless you don't mind spending $175.00 for a tank top..."

Err...

(Considering how gorgeous it was and a designer piece, I shouldn't have been caught so off guard but you must remember, I live in black t-shirt world)

"How much is the jacket?"

"You don't even want to know."

"Oh crap."

"Yeah. Now what are you going to do, Mom. How do you get us out of this one?"

"I have no idea." Ick, ick, ick.

"Well, tell her the truth. You're an unemployed writer."

"But..but...I make money writing," I said weakly but okay, thank god Julie is no Paris Hilton and is so frugal and down to earth that she wouldn't let me buy the outfit for her because if you must know, had she looked at me with those big brown eyes and asked, she looked so incredibly beautiful I would have gone for it.

Wait, now I'm starting to worry they switched babies on me in the hospital. How the hell did I give birth to anyone so sensible?

Just kidding.

Anyway, I dealt with it by saying to Kimberly that "Julie wouldn't let me spend that much money" which was the truth but I did it while Julie was in the dressing room and whispered it. And I did end up getting her a very affordable plain little black tank top so we didn't leave empty handed...it has an unusual cut to it and is made of a great, stretchy fabric so all I can say is if you can swing it, you really should visit this store (on 16th between Walnut and Sansom) because Kimberly is a doll and has unbelievable taste.

And yep, I was actually considering going back later and buying the stuff for Julie anyway as a surprise -- that's how great she looked and how much I love her -- but when we got outside, she was adamant about not wanting anything else and made me swear I wouldn't do it because she knows me so well.

Man I love my kids.

Later,
xo