by frank van der linden
last kiss my jazz gig to date

Yep, sunday the 30th of january, 2000 was the day that the last KMJ
gig was played, in Ekko in Utrecht. It's true; Rudy mentioned it
several times during the show. But anyway, let's take it from the top...

They started a bit after 22:00. They were in a good mood, probably helped by not drinking Spa Blue, but white wine this time ;-) Guests were Buni Lenski (of DAAU) on the violin, and Thomas Noppe (Gore Slut) on guitar. During the evening, they probably played every song they rehearsed, and some 4 or 5 impros. That lasted for some 2 hours and 10 minutes, until 0:15. Then, at 0:45, while most people already had left, they came back *again*. They wanted to play a bit more because it was their last gig. Much to the dismay of the sound people, who had already switched off the monitors and unplugged the microphones, and had to put them back again. They did one more song an an impro, at which point Rudy called it quits, and KMJ became history.

Other notable moments during the show:

* Bandmembers walking on and off stage to go to the toilet at various times. Buni was called back, because Rudy wanted him to play in the next song. At one point, Heyme came back from the toilet, wandered up to the stage, stood next to me and said to me "hey, nice live music they have in this place". This was during a punk-impro, so we raised our fingers in the air in hardrock fashion, to the amusement of Rudy.
* Buni asked Rudy "why is this band quitting" at some point in the show, and Rudy replied something like "it's existed for too long".
* They played "C'mon feel the noise" by Slade again. Apparently, this was the last song they recorded, they did it for some 70s cover album (perhaps a glamrock cover album, I don't know).

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things.. but, needless to say, it was
a remarkable evening. I miss them already *sniff*.

- Frank