As I mentioned, this Saturday the Best Intentions will be rocking the Lizard Lounge (You can get your advance tix here) with This Blue Heaven, The Doctors Fox, and Glenn Yoder & His Merry Band (Glenn is in Cassavettes). I also mentioned that Nate Rogers (of Scamper and The Future Everybody) and Nate Leavitt (of The Blizzard of ’78) will be joining me on guitar.

What I DIDN’T tell you was that I am a small, small man. I feel that the best way to elicit good performances by my guys is to create a sense of competition. As we have been rehearsing for the show, I’ve been asking myself one question: who is the superior Nate?

In order to determine Nate supremacy, I have decided to make it official. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

NATE VS. NATE

Round 1

As we lead up to the show, I will be presenting a series of contests that will determine who will be Nate Numero Uno at the Lizard on Saturday night. Without further ado, I present the first contest…

NATE VS. NATE CONTEST #1: The Spelling Bee

I emailed Nate and Nate a series of National Spelling Bee-winning words with the following instructions:

Please correctly spell the following words that I am now emailing you. Do NOT look them up on the internet. Honor system, fellas. (The word is followed by each Nate’s answer).

Word #1: gladiolus
Rogers: gladiolus
Leavitt: gladiolus

Word#2: cerise
Rogers: cerise
Leavitt: cerise

Word #3: luxuriance
Rogers: luxuriance
Leavitt: luxuriance

Word #4: albumen
Rogers: albumen
Leavitt: albumen

Word #5: asceticism
Rogers: asceticism
Leavitt: asceticism

Word #6: fracas
Rogers: fracas
Leavitt: fracas

Word #7: foulard
Rogers: foulard
Leavitt: foulard

Word #8: chlorophyll
Rogers: chlorophyll
Leavitt: chlorophyll

Word #9: insouciant
Rogers: insouciant
Leavitt: insouciant

Word #10: soubrette
Rogers: soubrette
Leavitt: soubrette

Final score: Nate Rogers 10 for 10, Nate Leavitt 10 for 10. Result: tie.

Okay, so perhaps email wasn’t the best venue for a spelling bee. My bad. I’ll tweak this thing a little bit and come back with a more conclusive contest tomorrow, I swear.

Brendan Boogie & The Best Intentions
With This Blue Heaven, The Doctors Fox, and Glenn Yoder & His Merry Band
The Lizard Lounge, Mass Ave, Cambridge
Saturday June 19
8:30 doors 21+, $8 adv/$10 door

And now, the final installment interview in the Most Awesome Interviews of All Time series.  First, we had Brian King from Oranjuly.  Then, Mike Epstein from The Motion Sick.  Finally, we’ve got Paul Melancon.

We’re all playing a show this Saturday at the Lizard Lounge, you see.  Since Paul was busy in Atlanta pitching batting practice to the Braves, I was able to catch up with him on email this week:

Brendan Boogie:  So you live in Atlanta, huh?  So sorry about that whole “burning the city down during the Civil War” thing. But you’ve got to admit, you guys had it coming, what with the whole “slavery” nonsense.

Paul Melancon:  Um… this is a rhetorical question, right? I don’t really have to pretend to be from the Dukes of Hazzard or anything, do I?

Oh, alright… “Yee-haw.”

BB:  Why don’t you tell the fine people of Boogieland a little bit about your musical and personal background starting from birth to five minutes ago?

PM:  It’s been a wild, rollercoaster ride of hedonistic excess, punctuated by crazed misery, a strange journey through a deranged landscape of despair and madness.  Shortly thereafter I started playing music (which was where I traveled around the country playing dives and festivals, toured with the Indigo Girls, and released some critically-acclaimed records).

BB:  Our readers may not be aware of this, but they are actually reading your words on a website you (along with Andrea Kremer) created.  Tell the good people about your design business and how they can get an awesome  website like mine.

PM:  The fine folks at Shake and Howdy Artist Services are available for all your web and graphic design and artist management needs at affordable rates.  Or, at least, that’s what Andrea just told me to say.

BB:  Any big surprises planned for the big Lizard show on Saturday?

PM:  I don’t know how big any of my surprises might be… I forgot to bring the matching jumpsuits this time around.  So, it’ll just be my usual mix of introspective and moody pop, misguided love of Jeff Lynne and the occasional cover song that I don’t realize is to old for the audience to recognize.  It’ll be TEH HAWESOME, as the kids say.  Or possibly they don’t.  At any rate, it’ll be great to finally play a show together and I’m looking forward to it!

This is going to be quite the great bill of pop rock music at the Lizard Lounge this Saturday night.  Be sure to get your tickets in advance.  Don’t get shut out – this is looking like another sell out.