popular thinking

MEETING STEVE MORSE: I almost forgot. Last night, after Hell's Belles, lead singer Jamie Nova and I were hanging outside the Middle East, enjoying the lovely after-midnight air on Mass. Ave. when a tall guy interrupted us. "Hi, I'm Steve Morse from the Boston Globe," the tall guy said. He put out his hand to Nova, who replied, then turned to me. I put out my hand, "Hi, I'm Sean McCarthy, from the Boston Herald." Morse paused, then turned to Nova and began praising her and the band, barely even acknowledging me the rest of the way, except to talk about some long-ago club (as if I'd know about it -- doesn't he know he's my dad's age?). Anyhow. It was amusing on a couple of levels. First, that he said goodbye to Nova but not to me, because I guess I outed myself as a member of the enemy, not that I feel that way. I read his stuff. Sure, we compete for readers. But we're all in the same business. It'd be like Nova giving the brush-off to one of the other musicians on the Middle East's bill that night. Second, Morse thought Nova would get a kick out of knowing that the Rolling Stones had just been in town earlier in the week. Did I mention Morse is my dad's age? Third, it's amusing that of all the times for me to meet him, it was in a situation in which I clearly had the upper hand. Well, there is a fourth, too -- when Mandy Reed (the Belles bass player and my friend from back in the previous century) returned outside, Nova told her about how Morse was kind of rude to me. Ha! Anyhow. Be on the lookout for a review of Hell's Belles from Steve Morse later this week in the Globe.