Noise Pop

Skivvies and Fernet: Noise Pop day 1 with Har Mar

Photos by Jenz » Noise Pop Day 1, Tuesday February 23

Text by Sjimon Gompers
Posted on February 24, 2010

Har Mar, getting Coyote Ugly.

har mar superstar closeup

Wearing this ensured free drinks for the whole night

Enter Bender's, duck around a beet-red-faced drunk trying to claim he's my plus one. Yeah, sure buddy. Zeitgeist is the other way, man. Jeez. Cue the techno remixes. Thank you live one o' whatever. Just what the Pete Tong did I RSVP myself into?

I am met with Jacob Fury and Miles, the DJ responsible for the techno.

So I tell Miles, "Hey, that's some techno you got going on there."

"Yeah, I know I was going to play more indie rock, but DJ Dan started it off with the techno and I sort of went with it." And while the indie got about as far as the Postal Service, the conversation was good amongst the hungry press corps.

Then the people filled in, bearing their LIVE 105 shirts that read in big upper case bold, "BE STUPID," with "for successful living" as the lowest logo denominator. The excitement grew as the open bar came to a close.

Har Mar Superstar, that fame whoring-everyman who warmed up the crowd by hanging out with them before his grand performance, took center stage. Watching him sip Tecate and co-mingling with various fans reinforced the love that many had flocked around to see. And believe me, love is what we all received from Har Mar.

Emerging with a bassist backed by a host of pre-recorded production, Har Mar Superstar went way back into his little red book to play his back catalog. With each nostalgic self indulgent groove, he shed a layer of clothing in strip tease fashion. He chided the audience of hardened hipsters to give him something he could feel, saying, "Let me hear you scream!" The crowd roared back at its beloved and wonky minstrel as he took his act into the audience, mic chord serving as an umbilical tail back to the stage.

He then began wailing into "Brothers and Sisters" before stripping down into his skivvies and posturing like the nearly-nude, portly Adonis that he knows he is, hanging from bike hooks and shaking his junk in the faces of unsuspecting fans. Impose photographer Jenz described him best as "the love child between Ron Jeremy and Jon Lovitz." I still want to get a recording of him reciting "it stinks" ad nauseum. Long live Noise Pop!