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Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo! Mr. Baltimore and a Night on the Town!
 | | Billy Driscoll | | “You gotta serve somebody . . .” |
Mister Baltimore loves rock and roll.
He loves it . . . Loves it.
Yes he do!
And in his beloved Crabtown - which gave birth to Frank Zappa, doo-wop pioneer Sonny Till and anti-war rocker David Byrne - there is plenty to choose from on any night of the week.
"Music," preached Zappa, who spent the first 12 years of his life in Maryland, "is the only religion that delivers the goods here on Earth."
The Good Lord knows that Mr. B is keen on cruising heaven in his own backyard. From Fletcher's in Fells Point to the underground rock at Talking Head around the corner from City Hall, you'll see him up at the stage, rock and rolling his middle-aged self to death.
 | | Mr. Baltimore does his Keith Moon impersonation at the Talking Head Club on Davis Alley. |
The other night, he dragged me out of the house - where I was enjoying lamb souvlaki carry-out from Samos on Oldham Street and reading "Soul Circus" by George Pelecanos - to chase some music.
"Come on, bookworm," he said, his Daddy-O Cadillac double-parked outside. "That funny-looking guy from the Smithereens is putting on a show for a good cause in Hampden."
"What guy?"
"DiNizio."
"What cause?" I asked, shoving a spindled postcard of Memorial Stadium in the new Pelecanos thriller to mark my place.
"Who knows?" he said, pushing me out the door. "Some do-gooder stuff like Beatle George used to do."
And off we went, Johnny Winter roaring "Rock Me Baby," out of the tape player in the dash of Mr. B's Coupe de Ville as we motored from my new townhouse on the Canton waterfront to the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in working class Hampden.
[Hampden is where John Waters filmed his classic "Baltimore versus New York" film "Pecker," one of Mr. Baltimore's favorite love letters to the Queen City of the Patapsco River Drainage Basin.]
DiNizio was crooning solo with an acoustic guitar on Buena Vista Avenue to support the Kochmann Foundation, which benefits the American Cancer Society and the Save the Bonobo campaign.
 | | Mr.Baltimore’s ride. |
[Much like Mr. Baltimore, Bonobo chimps of the Congo are mostly interested in "getting it on" and taking naps. Like him, they are a symbol of an obscure, authentic culture braving extinction.]
DiNizio's good-time gig was organized by super-Smithereens fan Michele Alessi, a friend and colleague of Dr. Kenneth Kochmann, for whom the foundation is named. Dr. Kenny is a Baltimore-area physician battling bone cancer with a great smile and, at the event in his honor, a tie around his head like a bandito bandana.
Alessi spotted Mr. Baltimore last month in the mix of a Smithereen's show at the Ram's Head in Annapolis.
B-Boy was jumping up and down to "Wall of Sleep" - "She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965" - in his Attman's deli sweatshirt. His dance moves - imagine a Chesapeake Bay blue crab trying to sidestep the steam pot - garnered an invite to the FOP lodge.
 | | Richard "Guantes" Snyder | | Poet, humanitarian and foot soldier for rock and roll – Pat DiNizio at the FOP Lodge in Hampden. |
Sans Smithereens - a Jersey band together now for more than 20 years - DiNizio is often on stage for good causes. His mitzvahs are driven by a wondrous love for his daughter, Liza.
Although Papa doesn't say in public exactly what it is that makes his girl "extra ordinary," there are clues in the love song he wrote for her: "She's Got A Way" from 1999's "God Save the Smithereens" on the Velvet label.
With the help of DiNizio and scores of friends - caterer Sammy Zannino contributed an incredible spread of roast beef, grilled chicken, cheese, fruit and vegetables - Alessi raised about $2,000. Most of it went to the American Cancer Society with a smaller check going to the horny chimps in the Congo.
[Good sources have it that Dr. K - an avid figure skater who has worked throughout his illness - is "very fond" of the Bonobo lifestyle. To which Mr. Baltimore replied: "Hey, the worst I ever had was great!]
After the Kochmann show, Alessi lured Mr. B to the Tattoo rock club in the Northeast Baltimore neighborhood of Hamilton for a March 6 DiNizio gig. And, of course, he brought me.
If you a rock fan visiting from out-of-town - and its unlikely that Mr. Baltimore will be outside of your hotel room blowing the horn for you to jump in his Caddy - it's well worth the $12 cab ride from the Inner Harbor to the Tattoo.
 | | The lush upstairs of the Tattoo rock and roll club, 4825 Belair Road in Northeast Baltimore. |
[Want to have a great dinner before the show about a mile away from the Tattoo? Stop at the Chameleon Café, 4341 Harford Road. Everything is good but I suggest you start off with the cornmeal breaded oysters served over spinach flavored with bacon and topped rémouladeure. A treat at $7.95. Mr. B likes his oysters raw at Faidley's in Lexington Market.]
"Graham Parker was my first big show and everybody was in awe that all of a sudden, this rinky-dink bar on Belair Road had all these major acts," said Andy Bopp, local Catholic gym teacher, guitar-hero from Love Nut and Myracle Brah and the Tattoo's owner.
"This is a personable place," said Bopp, a 42-year-old family man who lives in the neighborhood. "You can get up close to your heroes and stand right next to the stage."
Which is what Mr. Baltimore was doing when the voice of the Smithereens was joined onstage at the Tattoo by Starbelly, a power-pop trio who complement DiNizio's passion for guitar-driven melody.
Starbelly worships at the altar of Badfinger, Cheap Trick, the ever-baffling Cute Beatle and the band that put the Cute Beatle's mop on the map. Unless you catch a Starbelly gig, chances are you will never hear the Wings' ditty "Let 'Em In," performed live unless Paul is singing it.
I think they do it better than Paul but then again, I sometimes think that Sir Paul should have his Beatles credentials revoked. The other surviving Fab released a new album - "Ringo-Rama" - this month which features the George Harrison tribute "Never Without You," spiced by Eric Clapton's guitar.
With DiNizio fronting, the band kicked into a set of Beatles' songs that began with "I'm A Loser" - "I sing it like me," said DiNizio of the classic from Beatles '65, "not like John" - and continued through "Free As A Bird," "I've Got A Feeling," and "I Dig A Pony."
Strange and welcome and not your typical set of Beatle covers. DiNizio applauded Starbelly for venturing into "Free As A Bird," with him, saying he'd been trying for years to persuade the Smithereens to do it.
"Believe me," said DiNizio after the group finished up "Pony," from "Let It Be," "these songs are more complex than you think."
March 26, Peter Case and the Plimsouls appear at the Tattoo - $12.50 in advance, $15 at the door - and on May 10 and 11th, the great guitarist Dave Davies of Kinks' fame will perform a "full-on" electric show.
Mr. Baltimore had had a few at the Tattoo - not too many, but enough - and let me drive the Cadillac back home to the Holy Land: everything east of President Street and south of Patterson Park.
 | | “El Greco,” the Electro-Mechanic of the Holy Land in a portrait by Kirsten Beckerman. |
Headed east on Eastern Avenue - now soothed by the voice of Lucinda William's singing "Essence" on WRNR, 103.1 FM - he stared out the windshield as his hometown passed in the night.
Near the corner of Ann Street in Fells Point, he pointed out a repair shop, its front window crammed with vintage sewing machines and baby dolls and typewriters.
"In there," he said, pointing to a sign that "Electro-Mechanic." In there, behind all of the clutter, "is the best composer in town."
"Who's that, B?"
"Theo Roditis," he said as I slowed for a better look. "He calls himself `El Greco,' and has a keyboard buried in the middle of all that crap. Good ole Theo can repair any machine in the world but he'd rather make music than make money."
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Visit other Baltimore neighborhoods: AlvarezFiction.com
Other Stories by Rafael Alvarez
Mister Baltimore Goes to the Movies
A Hometown Boy Celebrates The Less-Traveled Baltimore
Pilgrims Flock to Shrine of Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes
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