Dominique, Nick and Ava sound-checking at Smith-Andersen

Ava Mendoza, Dominique Leone and Nick Tamburro crushed it like so many pomegranates going POM Saturday at the opening party at Smith-Andersen Gallery in Palo Alto. They played three short sets over two hours, then rushed up to Berkeley for a club show at Starry Plough. I schmoozed with about a half dozen fans, artists and staff before retreating to a stool within two feet of the keyboards, for my own little peace of music/food/art/weather heaven. I am not sure if they noticed when, finishing 90 percent of my bottled water, I blew across the mouth a few times, at, to my mind, appropriate points in measure, to create if not a note per se than something note-like, or more note-like than noise-like. That I subsequently kicked a group of hanging nearby metal rulers and t-squares a couple times did not seem to inspire much ire either. I may have clapped once or twice, after a song. I hooted first once than twice. “That was a double-whoop!”

Good luck to Ava and gang, with new cd and changing their name, to Unnatural Ways. But don’t change that sound!

PS. this is a weird segue and speaking of heaven but my “pomegranates going POM” reminds me that I caught “60 Minutes” talking with a supposed former Navy SEAL who wrote under the name Mark Owen about about the killing of Osama Bin Laden and that he added the detail that on his way home given liberty he stopped for “two tacos and a bean burrito” at Taco Bell reminds me of the restroom-based  danger-evading story-telling scene from Tim Roth in Tarrantino’s “Reservoir Dog”. edit to add, two minute later: Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) “bag full of pot room full of cops” bathroom scene>>>