all photos: Paul Goodman

Who here
Wants to sleep in the
dragon’s mouth?
Who here
Wants to feel?

My favorite word of the internet era is Earworm. It comes from the German mashup Ohrwurm, meaning: a hooky catchy catching song but with a bit more element of obsession. Like, worse than how a jingle pops into your head every now and then—an earworm takes over your thinking for weeks, stopping you in the street while you pause and finish the line.

More facts about the Earworm:

It was the March 1, 2005 Urban Dictionary Word of the Day.

It is a useful metaphorical illustration for how memes (the catchy bits of culture not limited to LOLwhatevers) are actually quite similar to organic infection processes. Stoned college rappers say that language is a virus all the time, but its more like languages are identical to organisms and certain phrases, especially musically accompanied ones, are insidious parasites.

In German it sounds like DOORvurm, but looks like Eorworm, meaning that the eventual sound of the word itself is itself a meme.

There is a real earworm Helicoverpa zea but it eats ears of corn. But it is a poisonous ugly larva that according to wikipedia “is very aggressive and will bite. It has been know to attack and consume other larva of the same species (sic).” Sick.

There was that brain-control bug in Wrath of Khan that went in your ear and then made you evil. Basically the same thing.

Or, damn, did you see Mountains of the Moon? Freaky.

Clues, who played last week at DC9, have many songs, but only one of them brings to mind a Teutonic space caterpillar.

Who here
Wants to sleep in the
dragon’s mouth?
Who here
Wants to feel?

They started with a quiet thing and I wondered if I was in the right bar. But then they played Perfect Fit which was as delightfully sloppy as I was hoping, the keyboard being stabby and ominous and the drummers (yeah two drummers on many songs for no particular reason except to fuck shit up) going nuts and Alden Penner’s high hooting vocals sounding creepy and the fast part falling to shambles. Then they all switched instruments and performed the same miracle again. Special multi-instrumentalist Phish prize goes to Lisa Gamble who played everything in sight except guitar including some kind of loudspeaker device that she strapped to her head and shrieked into (after the show I quizzed her about it—it was a telephone attached to a mic chord, just like Bob Log 3 used to rock. (She mentioned Bob Log 3, and I dropped to one knee and asked if she needed a green card. [That didn’t really happen.{as far as you know}])).

Then Brendan Reed came out from behind the drums and sang the crooning swooning You Have My Eyes now and their buddy from the opening “band” (two dudes singing a long muezzin-tower raga in [Hebrew? Arabic? Sorry I am culturally illiterate] barely qualifies as a band {though it was pretty awesome}] came up too and played some kind of Turkish pipe and helped out with the WOOOAH-ohs. It was a bit Arcade Fire-esque, which might be odd because he was in that band, or it might be perfectly appropriate–either way it was fantastic. He stared into the audience brazenly, and raised his arm to indicate the balcony as well. Then he went back and punched his drums again in the face abusively.

But seriously they could have just stood on stage and played that one riff and said these words over and over again and that would have completed their mission for me musically:

Who here
Wants to sleep in the
dragon’s mouth?
Who here
Wants to feel?

When the song before this song ended, nobody clapped. When they started Remember the Severed Head Alden was fat-fingering the keys sloppily. Something was out of tune.
The crowd milled, confused. It did not matter, it was so satisfying, and by the end all were swaying, bending like reeds in a hurricane.

Let me tell you how satisfying it was to hear them do this on stage. It was exactly like, in my opinion, the scene in Mountains of the Moon (1990) when the giant African cockroach crawls into the prissy explorer’s ear and he starts freaking out and running out going AAAAAAA I CAN HEAR IT and then grabs a…oh god I can barely type this…grabs a metal protractor and JABS the pointy end deep inside with a speaker-rattling Crunch! and his buddy runs in and pours hot wax from a candle into the bloody orifice, which, at that point just seems like overkill but the look on the explorers face is like aaaahhhhhhhh no more bug noises

Who here
Wants to sleep in the
dragon’s mouth?
Who here
Wants to feel?

I didn’t move, or dance or sing along or nod even or drink.
I honestly have no memory of it. Thank god they played Cave Mouth next otherwise I would probably still be there. Cave Mouth is a straightforward Pitcheblende/Circus Lupus-style 90s-scary dance-punk track that starts with the
words:

Who here
Wants to sleep in the
dragon’s mouth?
Who here
Wants to feel?

…I guess so they can break the spell. Or because that’s the signal for the beast curled around your brainstem to release its poison into your blood fully. In the week since the show I have not slept. I have eaten only grapes and drunk only wine. I sometimes start off towards work in the morning and come awake standing on deserted midnight corners with no memory of how I got there. There is a voice in my head asking me if I want to feel. I hope the band comes back soon, because I think I am ready and I think I’m here and I know I want to.