07/??/08 Consider the Source @ Mehanata, New York, NY

At some point during CtS's weekly residency at the L.E.S. Bulgarian bar, Mehanata, we caught up with our Baller BBQ buddies. A sign at the downstairs bar promised a free shot to those willing to disrobe (and a bottle for a couple willing to partake in coitus on the spot).

06/21/08 Consider the Source/Sampson & The Folkadelics/Lachi @ private party, Queens, NY

I had been throwing progressively larger parties in my backyard for a couple years at this point. My buddy dubbed one Baller BBQ and the moniker stuck.

We had also had live music before but only loose jam sessions; this time we stepped up our game with 3 bands and a PA system.

We've had several since, each one better than the last, but this one took us to the next level and it will always be recalled as such.

To start with, in a move that flabbergasts me to this day, I managed to book the local virtuoso Middle Eastern jam metal trio Consider the Source to headline, proof eternal that MySpace was once good for something.

The party started off as usual - the regular stalwarts arriving first and tens of stragglers filtering in at a steady clip towards sundown. The bands all brought the heat, peaking with Consider the Source jamming an ambient metal improvisation while my friend spun fire betwixt the impressed guests.

Until that evening, I had oft wondered exactly how raucous a celebration I needed to concoct in order to arouse the ire of the neighbors to alert the authorities. I no longer have that query.

My friend was playing drums with a legally blind Nigerian pop singer at the time and she addressed the police from the microphone inquiring of a Semitic inclination to their noise concerns - "Did you say we have to turn it down because this is a Jewish neighborhood?" - misinterpreting "residential".

Volume reduced, drunken escapades persisted well into the summer night, a tradition set in stone.

05/31/08 Consider the Source/Fiasco/Aa/The Beets/etc. @ Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn, NY

The tail end of this all-day Todd P showcase was supposed to take place on a beach in the Jamaica Bay, but the forecast called for rain, so it was moved to this Bushwick watering hole.

The decor of the bar was a pop culture junkyard explosion. Towers of cathode ray tube televisions and other archaic audio visual equipment lined the walls. Doll parts and action figures glued to mirrors adorned spare surfaces. The outdoor courtyard was strewn haphazardly with mattress springs and outsider sculptures. It was perfect.

Bands included teen punkers Fiasco, lo-fi indie rockers The Beets (not from Doug) and noise masters Aa (aka Big A Little A).

But the best act by far, to my hippie ears anyway, was the Middle Eastern influenced prog-jam trio Consider the Source. I had heard their name bandied about and checked their tunes online, but seeing them live was a treat. It's not much of a stretch to call the bassist Claypoolesque.

Little did I know then that just a few weeks later, they would be performing in my very own backyard.