WJ: I started playing on Frenchmen about ’90. I got this reggae band back in the day called the Shepherd Band. We were the shit. We were the shit. I started playing with them in the summer of ’89, and I think maybe ’90 we started playing up in there on Frenchmen. It was Café Brasil. Then, the next thing you know, a few years later, Café Istanbul [called the Dream Palace at the time] opened up, right? That was the only two clubs that I knew of. Oh, and I do believe the Apple Barrel opened around that time too.
… I used to love going to Café Brasil. That one made me stop going on Bourbon Street. Monday night they had a jazz band; Tuesday night, Klezmer played there, the Yiddish band. Then Willie Green, I loved that, every Wednesday. And I think Thursday was reggae, Ben Hunter—no, Ben Hunter must have been on Wednesday because Thursday was a Brazilian band and all the Brazilians used to come out for that. Lord, those people could dance. Banda Logun, that’s what they were called. The chick was from Brazil; she wound up going to Miami, I think. Friday and Saturday was alternative music.
It was so funny because Tuesday, the Jewish people came out, and same thing with the Brazilians on Thursdays. You look at the people like, “Yep, they’re Brazilian, they’re Jewish …” I loved that.
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