From the archives: Hamell on Trial on VDay
Hammel on Trial at the Cactus Cafe; February 14, 2006
Hammel was magnificent: a crazy, sweaty, foul-mouthed, 50-y.o. bald man. He kept addressing the crowd affectionately as "you fuckers." He stated that he was nostalgic for assassinations, that nobody got assassinated anymore, possibly due to a lack of 3-name individuals (John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman, etc.). To remedy this deficiency, he wondered aloud, perhaps David Lee Roth or Ronnie James Dio could be persuaded to join in. "Maybe if we armed Yo Yo Ma."
Continuing the assassination theme, later he sang a sold about Pat Robertson, the chorus of which was "With your brain on the cross behind you." He led the crowd in about 8 iterations of this chorus, with a massive grin on his face the whole time. "This is fucking great!" he exclaimed in between the fourth and fifth repetition. He sang a song about jerking off only to thoughts of his wife, as well as other romantic songs. Having a child has really mellowed him. He told many many funny stories, and my face hurt from laughing by the end of the 2 hours.
