I went to the DNA Lounge in San Francisco last night to maintain my goth street cred and hear one of my favorite musicians, Tom Lehrer. I liked this guy long before I knew I was a goth, and I always thought of him as more of a folk singer or something like that. However, he's obviously goth when you think about some of his songs: "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," "The Masochism Tango," "We'll All Go Together When We Go," "The Vatican Rag," "The U.S.S. Make Shit Up," "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)," "I Hold Your Hand in Mine," and "The Sexy Data Tango." I remember that back in 1959 the New York Times wrote:

The tide of "sick jokes" may be ebbing but Tom Lehrer's "sick songs" are still at flood. At Town Hall on Saturday evening Mr. Lehrer regaled a large and appreciative audience with his merry ditties of disease, dismemberment and death. It was the sort of program in which "necrophiliac" is a very funny word.

Mr. Lehrer's muse was not fettered by such inhibiting facts as taste as he eulogized that lovable character, the old dope peddler, or sung of the joys of poisoning pigeons in the park. Yet, despite his obsessive interest in disintegration, Mr. Lehrer has a worthily witty song or two in his repertory and an occasional perceptive comment crept into his monologues between songs.

Well, it's been just over 6.5 cat years since then, but a few things haven't changed. For one thing, Tom is looking pretty darned youthful for his age. I suspect he has a picture of Zane Grey in his attic. He's also kept to his musical ideals, although he had a lot more bum jokes in his set list last night. That's just fine with me. As a cat, I just love bum jokes. Bum. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! It's just so funny. He has changed instruments, though. He used to rely on a piano, but he now plays a stripped-down 88-string guitar.

The concert was pretty darned nifty. Tom had a few songs that were new to me, like "Ex-Lover's Lover," "The Vampire Club," and "Goodnight, Demon Slayer." One guy kept asking him to play "Freebird," but Mr. Lehrer does not like to be told what to play. Tom finally asked the guy to get him a beer from this one 7-11 in Oakland, and after the audience started to laugh at him, the guy left in a hurry. He seemed a little annoyed, possibly because he realized that Tom hadn't told him which 7-11 he wanted the beer from. Assuming he found the right one and didn't get shivved in Oakland, he should be getting back with the beer any time now. I'm glad that guy asked first, since I was going to ask him to sing "The New Math."

I didn't realize that Mr. Lehrer had such a suitcase full of sarcasm and a belly full of bile, all directed at George Lucas. I think it's nice that a famous singer is willing to come forward and say that the most recent Star Wars movies were totally Bush. I mean, really, you'd almost think that the only thing Lucas can do these days is throw together dull 90-minute cinematic advertisements for cruddy Star Wars toys. On the other hand, the new Red Dwarf movie that he wrote and directed, Serenity, was just head and shoulders above The Phantom Menace. Maybe there is hope for the guy. Until we can be sure, I think Tom Lehrer will be singing a wonderful song that mocks Star Wars and is chock full of bum references, of which this cat highly approves and feels that there should be more of in our musical lexicon.

On the style front, I was the only one at the club with fangs (I think), but I was not the only one to wear a tux. I was, as you might guess, the only one to look good in a tux. One fellow had a top hat of sorts, but he didn't manage it with anything close to the style and grace that one would associate with Red Skelton's Freddy the Freeloader. I was just so much more hip than the rest of the club that it wasn't funny.

Okay, I'm just not a fan of Japanese Goth rock. I'm much more fond of Greek Goth rock, like Aerosmith, The Archies, and The Turtles.