11 March 2008

DFACTOR

My very good friend over at Waved Rumor is leaving New York because we finally got a restraining order against him. As one of favorite working rock bands The Constantines put it, soon enough work and love will make a man out of you. This is a tribute.

Last Friday, Dave played a farewell show at Pianos to an adoring crowd of friends and lovers, playing a bunch of the great songs he's written over the last 10 years, and mixing them in with cover songs from bands who have propelled him forth.


Listening to them on Friday night, I realized how uncanny Dave is at writing songs in the present tense. His songs are calendar dates on my timeline here. They capture moments. For every song I heard a song and my memory countered with a story.

It was a special show because a number of guys who had played with Dave at some point in their lives joined him onstage to toss off a song. And as I looked around the room I realized how many people are addicted to his energy, his momentum, and his melodies. It was a party.

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I've always bugged Dfactor to put out a compilation of his catchiest songs, (because everyone who witnessed the glory that is 'Sizzlin' Sun' on Friday is not necessarily going to want to listen to 'Light Up the Whippets', which is a science experiment gone wrong if applied to whipped cream canisters, and a downright crime if applied to doggies.) But if he writes from his gut and heart the way he has since I've met him, then all is good.

Everyone who's been touched by Dave in his New York stay will miss him, and I stand proud in that formation. The Trouble Dolls are playing out tonight. Good luck, Dfactor. With much love.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amen motherfucker. Your post nearly brought a tear to my eye.

10:19 AM  
Blogger Dave Cavalier said...

It was a huge disappointment that I was not in the city for this. It's still quite a shock to think that dfactor has moved to Arizona to work for the McCain campaign? Who saw that coming!?

My favorite dfactor memory of all will always be the Gothic Bar New Year's show of 1999 and his legendary stage patter with the audience. I had just met him and we were playing on Staten Island in the middle of an ice storm with snuff movies playing on the monitors in the back. The set was entirely Guided by Voices, a band I am guessing the audience was not exactly familiar with.

Good times.

12:41 PM  

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