Even Stephen King gets the blues.

On Saturday night I went to see The Rock Bottom Remainders live in concert at the Royale (formerly the Roxy) in Boston. Author-friend Debra Schubert got to see the band a little more up-close than I did, since her city (Philly) had an option for "VIP" tickets with a meet & greet cocktail hour before the show, but I managed to get some signatures anyway, and I had a thoroughly wonderful evening.

Band members on Saturday included: Mitch Albom, Ridley Pearson, Dave Barry, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Amy Tan, Greg Iles, and Roy Blount, Jr. At the end of the night I asked the band's sound guy if there was any reason why Steve King didn't make it, and he said that King was behind on a deadline, and owed 6,000 words to his editor and needed to be home writing. Yes, even Stephen King still has deadlines. Yes, he has to skip fun events to get his word count in. I said that was the best excuse I'd ever heard, and the sound guy didn't believe me, but I was totally serious.

I expected the band to just do covers ("Paperback Writer," of course) but was delighted by a couple of their original songs! And I hope you will be, too. I'm going to quit writing now and just give you the video. In fact, I have enough video to last ALL WEEK. Come back on Wednesday and again on Friday for more.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

THE ROCK BOTTOM REMAINDERS!

Amy Tan sings These Boots Were Made For Walking

The bearded gentleman on the left is Greg Iles (guitar). To the right you'll see Ridley Pearson (bass) and Dave Barry in the blue t-shirt (guitar). Mitch Albom is barely visible here (keyboards) but you'll see more of him later.

Mitch Albom sings Buddy Holly

Sorry, I didn't get video of him as Elvis. This isn't the best clip, but I assure you the man can sing. The man way on the end in the stars-and-stripes top hat is Roy Blount, Jr. He can't sing (he said it, not me!) but he was a great MC, and if you see a man in a weird hat in any of these videos, that's Roy. Amy Tan is rocking the white wig, and between her and Mitch you'll see Kathi Kamen Goldmark, who is married to Sam "the talented brother" Barry (again, they said it, not me!). You'll see Sam featured prominently in the Wednesday and Friday videos.

Dave Barry is in love with a Proofreading Woman

I sadly missed filming the first verse of this (original!) song, but it went something like:

Some men like a woman with a sexy body

Some men want a woman with a beautiful face

I like a woman with a big vocabulary

Who never leaves a comma out of place.

Okay, I've had it dealing with Blogger and YouTube, so you'll get more video on Wednesday. See you then!