6/25 - John Palmer's Bistro 44

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was definitely the quietest of times.

SHHHHHH!!!

6/24 - BW3, Medina

Started out to be a patio gig, but with the weather being Seattle-ish, they moved us inside. Don't know what it is about BW3 and the rain (see BW3 Strongsville blog).

After bringing our equipment in through a 5 mile long maze, we were not rewarded with cheese at the end of the maze, just a table full of people where we needed to set up. And they were just being served their wings and another round of beer, so we knew it was going to be a wait.

Trying to stay out of the way, we piled our gear around and in front of this game that is similar to "the claw", but this one had the prizes hanging from strings and in place of the claw was some sort of scissors device to cut the string to free the prize. Sounds easy enough, right? Not according to the note on the front of the machine that informed the game player that the string doesn't always cut, so keep trying. Wow, if people are that desperate to give away their money, I am quite sure that I can come up with some sort of scam (I mean game) to take their money (I mean test their skill).

While we're waiting for these people to eat and drink, the manager comes over to us and asks us to move our things because some kids want to play the game. Move it where exactly? We moved it in front of the servers' station, which made for some fancy footwork on their part.

After a bit, we were finally able to set up, but in the same space that a table with 4 bar stools was occupying and let me tell you, that is not a lot of space. I had to sing sideways....kinda felt like one of the Supremes, but with out the fancy dress and bouffant.

We had a surprise guest ~ Big Rig Bernie and his fearless fliers. Thanks for coming out, it was great to see you!

6/18 - The Mustard Seed

A make-over occurred since the last time we played here and the place looks great. Not that it looked bad before....

And for crying out loud, be careful out there ~ it was injury central with broken arms, wrists, legs. One man had a cast on his elbow and an air boot on his foot. I don't know what's happening over there, but I'm glad we made it out in once piece.

There were lots of appreciative people and that always makes for a nice gig. Thanks everyone!

6/17 - Whole Foods, Beachwood

Always a fun time to play at the 5x7.

This time, we were scootched over so that Jake was the only one of us who had a room with a view. Mudcat and I could see down the ice cream aisle, which wasn't getting much traffic.

There were some familiar faces this time around. And how did I know this if I didn't have view, you ask? Jake told me.

And their carrot cake is yummy, that is if you like carrot cake. Was so happy to have a sample!

6/11 - The Pub

It was great to be back on the patio (well, we're always on the patio...I meant with the walls down and the heaters off). And we were along the inside wall rather than across the back this time.

There was a bridal shower going on that took up the back area. I don't know about you, but I've never seen men at a wedding shower, except for the groom, but about half of this party were men and they actually played the shower games along with the women. I'm thinkin' that all the trays of shots we saw Rita taking to their table might have had something to do with their participation.

Thanks to Dorothy and her Beau for stopping by and staying a bit. It's always great to see you!

Judi and her crew of Irv, John, Donna, and Sheril came out to eat, drink, and be merry as well.

And our neighborhood friend walked over and stayed for the duration. She and another couple actually chanted "encore" and I'm pretty sure they meant for us to sing more, not for their server to bring them a frozen dinner.

6/10 - BW3, Strongsville

Started out as a patio gig, but we ended up inside because of the threat-o-rain that turned into real droplets.

It was nice of them to reroute us to an inside spot, however it would have been even nicer had there not been a hockey game in the main dining room/bar area. Apparently, people were more interested in the hockey game than in us and it wasn't an option to have the game and our gig share the spotlight. Because of that, we ended up in the furthest, most remote corner of the building.....far, far away from the viewing public with the exception of 4 tables who wanted family time and were quite happy to be in the overflow section.

Phil, Jackie, and Ken stopped by for the second set, which was a good thing because by then the families were gone and that left just us.

Chris, Alisa, and Biz also stopped by for a bit to keep track of the placement of my feet.

6/4 - Panini's, Concord

What a great patio! And it was huge...well, the patio was, not so much our space. But that's okay, it was big enough. Don't worry about us....

The best thing was that we only had to carry the equipment about 3 feet. Got to park right outside of the gate that lead to our spot.

It was an interesting evening, what with the woman who just had to plow through our set up to get outside (hellooo...patio...you're already outside) so that she could talk to her little dog. And I double checked with Jake to make sure I heard her correctly. I did. She was talking to her dog.
But it's okay, because she told us that she wouldn't break anything. This was right before we were getting ready to start and then we closed the gate behind her before we got underway. She came back, but used the door just like everyone else.

Then there was the chick who interrupted Mudcat's introduction (guess she didn't care who we were or what we were about) to request that we sing happy birthday to her friend and when we started our version of the song, she turned around and gave us the look of death, but haha ~ joke's on her, we didn't die.

And then we had the "maraca incident". Birthday requester and her non-birthday friend came out of the incident unmaimed, but I'm pretty sure that Jake was secretly hoping for a cat fight.

Let's not forget about Mark, who came to the realization during his debut of "Down by the River" (using his phone to display the lyrics in lieu of the karaoke machine we did not have) that telling people you sing with celebrities is where he should have left it.

6/3 - Whole Foods, University Hts

Rarely do we have an actual stage to play on, but we did at this Whole Foods gig. A stage in a grocery store ~ what a concept.


Our new friend, Eileen saw us through from start to finish. Thanks!


We had some dancers; a brother/sister duo. Their mom sure has her hands full.


At one point, Jake thought that we were in Lakewood rather than University Hts, but I set him straight.

5/13 - Whole Foods, Beachwood

There are just way too many cute kids who's mom and dad frequent Whole Foods.

This time around we had twin boys, probably around 2-ish years old. Dressed alike in their khaki pants and oxford white shirts was where the similarities began and ended with these little guys.

One of the twins looked like a miniature version of dad and the other one looked exactly like his mom. The boys were having pasta...mini-me-dad had everything under the sun mixed in his, all bright and colorful, while mom's clone had plain noodles. His shoes were nowhere to be seen, his little shirt tail was hanging out and he wanted nothing to do with dad trying to get him to chair dance (or cart dance in this case), while the dad look-alike, who was still fully clothed and shoed insisted on getting out of the cart so that he could dance and jump.....and run.

And it seems that each time we play here, we see a celebrity. This time around it was Janice Joplin. Obviously, we count people who resemble celebrities as being true celebrities. It doesn't take much for us.

5/7 - Dragon Ranch

The Kentucky Derby was on every TV in a place named after the Northfield race horse, Dragon Again, so what do you think people were paying attention to? I'll give you a hint: it wasn't us.

Toward the end we had some favorable comments, so I guess we filtered through on some level.