A Saturday night benefit concert for the ALA/Proquest Scholarship Fund drew a standing room-only crowd to hear the last waltz for the Rock Bottom Remainders, the band featuring a changing roster of bestselling authors, including Stephen King, Roy Blount Jr., Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Mitch Albom, Scott Turow and others. The setting was fitting, since the Remainders performed in Anaheim for the first time in 1992.
The group had been conceived by beloved literary figure Kathi Kamen Goldmark, who died in May; her husband, Sam Barry, brother of Dave, is also in the band, which had announced before the show that, with loss of Goldmark, this would be its last gig. After paying tribute to her as “the gold standard” and raising a toast, Blount also said they were hanging it up because after 20 years, “We’re getting old and mean.”
One audience member commented that the younger ALAers were “probably at Adventureland,” but the boomer-heavy crowd gave the band a whole lotta love, eagerly populating the mosh pit at the foot of the stage. Amy Tan’s appearance in a blonde wig, leather motorcycle cap, and dominatrix heels, performing “These Boots Were Made for Walkin’,” brought roars of approval.
