Daily Staff Writer

If there is a face of the Maintenance Shop, it is that of Rusty Poehner, the Shop’s coordinator of eight years.

She is the mother of the M-Shop family and the prime DNA source of the venue’s unparalleled personality.

Her “no-bullshit” attitude is what makes every M-Shop experience seem so real. And her ears of gold are what make them so damn entertaining.

Poehner shared her four favorite M-Shop shows with High Note.

Ted Hawkins

October 5, 1994

It was a small but reverent crowd. I remember standing back by the bar while he sang “As Long As I Can See The Light.”

Knowing his history, how he came off the streets and was finally discovered in his old age — it was all there in his voice. One of the loneliest, most plaintive voices I’ve ever heard.

It gave me goosebumps. It made me cry. It made me envy his religion and depth of faith.

We were so sad that more people hadn’t shown up to hear this amazing sound and then, two months later, he was gone.

It still gives me goosebumps.

David Lindley

May 5, 1993

The first time I booked Mr. Dave, the entire staff fell all over each other running down to costume storage to find offerings of polyester for him (Dave is the god of bad polyester clothing).

He was really touched by it. He gave me a piece of this bizarre Japanese caffeine chewing gum — “Sting, with Caffeine Crystals” — and this screwy little logo that said, “Let’s Wake Up!”

I was scared to try it. I still have it, in fact.

After the show, I went up to the green room to pay him and, instead of counting out the money after I gave it to him, he threw it on the floor, rolled around in it for a minute, then stood up and said, “Yep, that feels right.”

Bob Mould

October 4, 1993

The sound check for that first solo show was really … different. Bob brought Vic Chesnutt along as his opener.

We still had the big green room and lots of costuming laying around in it, and Vic got carried down for sound check in his wheelchair, wearing a green taffeta gown and a Burger King crown, popping wheelies all over the room.

He wore them all night, too.

I didn’t realize how serious Bob was about cutting back on performing because his hearing was so badly damaged, until we set him up. He played on an 8′ x 8′ platform, one guy on one chair with one acoustic guitar, surrounded by four monitors, each cranking about 110dB – kinda like sticking your head in a jet turbine.

After the show started, people were standing up, yakking, half ignoring the openers as they often do, and then Bob appeared and told them to sit down, shut up and listen — and they all sat down, crossed their legs, folded their hands in their laps like good little children and gazed up at him with total reverence.

It was almost like Sunday school.

Last Supper Smoker

Medulla Oblongata, Larry Myer, Smokin’ Blues Band, Stuart Davis

May 10, 1998

I had very mixed feelings about this, but I love the event theme we came up with — the Shop really lends itself to events, you know, costumes, decorations and all.

Everyone really pulled together to make this one happen, from the art direction for the Last Supper parody photo to the program, which we parodied as precisely as we could from a church bulletin Pete brought in.

Once we got going — with the staff all in choir robes, Audrae wandering around with a tray of fancy cigarettes for the audience (provided by Bill Young in Food Service — we were really touched by that gesture), two huge piles of smoldering butts on either side of the stage as burnt offerings — it was just perfect.

Everyone joined in the responsive readings and order of service, and Tyler was just possessed – standing up there waving his cigar around and just not shutting up.

Some of it was him channeling Jack Daniels, but some of it was truly inspired.

It all just made me enormously proud of our staff and volunteers, the artists who cared enough to come do the show for free and the house full of regulars. There really is an M-Shop family, and that night was the clearest proof of it I’ve ever seen.