5/1 - Rider's Inn
Well, Samantha, the resident cat made it to her 40th litter...yeah, 40th. Kinda brings a whole new meaning to the words "cat house".
This was a duo gig, because of limited band space, so Jake got the night off.
We had some hangers on (people who stayed after they finished eating), which was nice. At least we know they liked us.
Rob and his entourage were there just for the barley sodas (and us). They stayed for the duration. Thanks, boys!
All in all it was a pretty uneventful gig, but sometimes we need those to balance out the Mikes of the world (see Patio gig post).
Friday, May 8, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
4/25 - The Room
Sorry for the delay in writing this, but there are an awful lot of shiny things around to distract me. Okay, here we go ~
This was a slow night, probably because of the weather...yeah, let's go with that. However, everyone really liked us. Especially Rachel and that's a way good thing since she's the one who booked us!
Jake made some new friends. The boys were most impressed with him and with good reason.
Bernie was there to offer his support. Thanks!
At one point during our break, the conversation turned into a "who's on first" kinda thing. Who knew that Mrs. Robinson could cause such a ruckus? The song, not the person.
There was a guy at the bar who ordered some sort of shot and after he downed it, grimaced like I've never seen and promptly sucked on a lemon wedge. Then he nodded his approval to Allison, the bar goddess. Now, I don't know about you guys but I think that sort of compliment just wouldn't fly outside of the bar. Could you imagine having someone react like that to a gourmet meal that you prepared or after tasting brownies that you made from scratch (special or regular), or worse yet, after a kiss?
And then there was the guy who kept getting up from the bar and going over to a table where his backpack was. He rooted around with what looked like a bag of potato chips then messed around with some contraption, went back to the bar for a moment and then went outside. Turns out that it was a bag of tobacco and the contraption was a gizmo to roll cigarettes. It only took me 3 times of him doing this to figure it out....anyway, I have to wonder just how fresh you need the tobacco in your cigarette to be when you're going to light it on fire and then inhale the smoke into your lungs. Why wouldn't you just roll a bazillion at home before you head out and put them in a handy dandy carrying case? Guess you have to be a smoker to get it.
Speaking of smoking, it seemed that my songs were timed perfectly to everyone's nicotine call (at least I'm hoping that it was the call and not my singing that drove them out). Anyway, each time it happened the bar emptied out with only Bernie left. Then I started to wonder if it might not be him...
Just yuckin'.
Sorry for the delay in writing this, but there are an awful lot of shiny things around to distract me. Okay, here we go ~
This was a slow night, probably because of the weather...yeah, let's go with that. However, everyone really liked us. Especially Rachel and that's a way good thing since she's the one who booked us!
Jake made some new friends. The boys were most impressed with him and with good reason.
Bernie was there to offer his support. Thanks!
At one point during our break, the conversation turned into a "who's on first" kinda thing. Who knew that Mrs. Robinson could cause such a ruckus? The song, not the person.
There was a guy at the bar who ordered some sort of shot and after he downed it, grimaced like I've never seen and promptly sucked on a lemon wedge. Then he nodded his approval to Allison, the bar goddess. Now, I don't know about you guys but I think that sort of compliment just wouldn't fly outside of the bar. Could you imagine having someone react like that to a gourmet meal that you prepared or after tasting brownies that you made from scratch (special or regular), or worse yet, after a kiss?
And then there was the guy who kept getting up from the bar and going over to a table where his backpack was. He rooted around with what looked like a bag of potato chips then messed around with some contraption, went back to the bar for a moment and then went outside. Turns out that it was a bag of tobacco and the contraption was a gizmo to roll cigarettes. It only took me 3 times of him doing this to figure it out....anyway, I have to wonder just how fresh you need the tobacco in your cigarette to be when you're going to light it on fire and then inhale the smoke into your lungs. Why wouldn't you just roll a bazillion at home before you head out and put them in a handy dandy carrying case? Guess you have to be a smoker to get it.
Speaking of smoking, it seemed that my songs were timed perfectly to everyone's nicotine call (at least I'm hoping that it was the call and not my singing that drove them out). Anyway, each time it happened the bar emptied out with only Bernie left. Then I started to wonder if it might not be him...
Just yuckin'.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
4/18 - The Patio Bar
No, we didn't play on the patio (but at least they had one).
Where to start? I guess with our new friend, Mike. This guy had the stature of Danny Devito and the personality of Ernest T. Bass with a wee bit of Ed Norton thrown in for good measure.
Keeping that in mind, try to imagine this one sided conversation we had with him (we were there and it's still hard for us to believe). He opened with, "I love Jesus. I mean, I appreciate what he did for me and all, but I'm a government man. I really love the government. They plow my street when it snows...Jesus never did that for me, they pay for hurricanes and floods (I'm assuming he meant for the clean up of the aftermath of hurricanes and floods not for the actual sending them part), and I love cigarettes. Cigarettes and alcohol. Especially cigarettes (as he took a moment to contemplate the cigarette in his hand rapidly burning down). Woo-wee, that wind!" (I'm hoping that he switched back to the hurricane part of his tale).
And he was the self designated requester of songs. My favorite request was, "play some Garfunkel". Mudcat told him that we didn't know any Garfunkel songs that he did by himself, but we'd be glad to do some Simon and Garfunkel. "NO, NO, NO....not them....you know...Garfunkel". Oh so too very scarily, I was able to follow his train of thought as it was derailing and offered up Grand Funk Railroad. "YEAH, YEAH, that's it...play them". So, we played Simon and Garfunkel.
This place was a nice little neighborhood bar and if you have an aversion to the law, then you would have got your $6 worth of sin taxes out of the way in one evening.
I kind of felt like being at the kids' table during Thanksgiving, providing the kids' table was in a separate room from the adults. They at least came in to check on us every now and then, which prevented us from creating our own little coup. We tried, though.
At one point, Mike came in with a few other people and told us to connect with the crowd as he gestured toward himself and the others, then promptly went out on the patio and closed the door behind them.
And speaking of coups, you guessed it ~ another Mike story. We took a break and sat at the adults' table, just a few bar stools down from him. The bar was a squared off U shape and sitting directly across from Mike were a few Hispanic boys. Yeah, we thought it might get ugly too, because Mike was well into his love of alcohol via Jagermeister and Bud. He raised his beer bottle and shouted USA!, USA!. Then he told the Hispanic boys to raise their bottles too. When they didn't, he stared speaking his version of Spanish to them. Jake's favorite part of this one sided exchange was when Mike asked them if they worked and one of the boys started speaking real Spanish back to him. The only thing I could glean from it was the word "loco". Then Mike decided that he needed to really be friends with them, so he meandered over to their side of the bar where he could carry on his ramblings up close and personal, which was about the time we went back to the relative safety of our kids' table.
Oh, and he was quite the "dancer". Jake and I were trying to decide if he was actually dancing or just doing his best to stay upright. At one point, both attempts failed...but our new friend Mike is a trooper. He did a quick save by rerouting his oneness with the chair, which was soon to be a oneness with the floor and lunged the chair and himself toward us (thankfully, there was plenty of room for him to work his magic) and then started "dancing" around the chair. Kind of like dancing with a broom, but as polar as one can get from Gene Kelly.
So, I guess all in all Mike was the real entertainment for the evening. They could have saved some money and just booked him....
No, we didn't play on the patio (but at least they had one).
Where to start? I guess with our new friend, Mike. This guy had the stature of Danny Devito and the personality of Ernest T. Bass with a wee bit of Ed Norton thrown in for good measure.
Keeping that in mind, try to imagine this one sided conversation we had with him (we were there and it's still hard for us to believe). He opened with, "I love Jesus. I mean, I appreciate what he did for me and all, but I'm a government man. I really love the government. They plow my street when it snows...Jesus never did that for me, they pay for hurricanes and floods (I'm assuming he meant for the clean up of the aftermath of hurricanes and floods not for the actual sending them part), and I love cigarettes. Cigarettes and alcohol. Especially cigarettes (as he took a moment to contemplate the cigarette in his hand rapidly burning down). Woo-wee, that wind!" (I'm hoping that he switched back to the hurricane part of his tale).
And he was the self designated requester of songs. My favorite request was, "play some Garfunkel". Mudcat told him that we didn't know any Garfunkel songs that he did by himself, but we'd be glad to do some Simon and Garfunkel. "NO, NO, NO....not them....you know...Garfunkel". Oh so too very scarily, I was able to follow his train of thought as it was derailing and offered up Grand Funk Railroad. "YEAH, YEAH, that's it...play them". So, we played Simon and Garfunkel.
This place was a nice little neighborhood bar and if you have an aversion to the law, then you would have got your $6 worth of sin taxes out of the way in one evening.
I kind of felt like being at the kids' table during Thanksgiving, providing the kids' table was in a separate room from the adults. They at least came in to check on us every now and then, which prevented us from creating our own little coup. We tried, though.
At one point, Mike came in with a few other people and told us to connect with the crowd as he gestured toward himself and the others, then promptly went out on the patio and closed the door behind them.
And speaking of coups, you guessed it ~ another Mike story. We took a break and sat at the adults' table, just a few bar stools down from him. The bar was a squared off U shape and sitting directly across from Mike were a few Hispanic boys. Yeah, we thought it might get ugly too, because Mike was well into his love of alcohol via Jagermeister and Bud. He raised his beer bottle and shouted USA!, USA!. Then he told the Hispanic boys to raise their bottles too. When they didn't, he stared speaking his version of Spanish to them. Jake's favorite part of this one sided exchange was when Mike asked them if they worked and one of the boys started speaking real Spanish back to him. The only thing I could glean from it was the word "loco". Then Mike decided that he needed to really be friends with them, so he meandered over to their side of the bar where he could carry on his ramblings up close and personal, which was about the time we went back to the relative safety of our kids' table.
Oh, and he was quite the "dancer". Jake and I were trying to decide if he was actually dancing or just doing his best to stay upright. At one point, both attempts failed...but our new friend Mike is a trooper. He did a quick save by rerouting his oneness with the chair, which was soon to be a oneness with the floor and lunged the chair and himself toward us (thankfully, there was plenty of room for him to work his magic) and then started "dancing" around the chair. Kind of like dancing with a broom, but as polar as one can get from Gene Kelly.
So, I guess all in all Mike was the real entertainment for the evening. They could have saved some money and just booked him....
4/17 - Enclave Coffee House (and video rental)
Well, this might have been our last gig at the Enclave...that all depends on Timothy Vegas. He's the new owner and everyone is hoping that he'll keep the Enclave the same (other than the new furniture). We're hoping so too, because we really like playing there.
The weather was so nice that the front door was left open, which was all fine and well until we were forced into a battle of the bands when a half dozen Harley's started up at once. The Harley's won, by the way.
It was nice to see some familiar faces again and of course we convinced ourselves that they were there to see us more than they were there for the coffee (and video rental). We dedicated "Walkin' The Dog" to the one with the most hair and legs, who bolted out the front door when we followed that with "Stray Cat Strut".
Now, here's something you don't see everyday. This was an actual notice posted on their bulletin board. Had to get a picture of it because there's no way I could relay it verbatim ~
There's just so many things I could say (and have said) about it, but I'll let you guys make your own comments.
The boys did their rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and Mudcat followed it with his office version of "If I Only Had A Brain". Kudos to Kayla for her backup singing!
We closed with "Ridin' The Storm Out" and Mudcat quite cleverly wished the Enclave the same.
Hope to see you guys soon!
Well, this might have been our last gig at the Enclave...that all depends on Timothy Vegas. He's the new owner and everyone is hoping that he'll keep the Enclave the same (other than the new furniture). We're hoping so too, because we really like playing there.
The weather was so nice that the front door was left open, which was all fine and well until we were forced into a battle of the bands when a half dozen Harley's started up at once. The Harley's won, by the way.
It was nice to see some familiar faces again and of course we convinced ourselves that they were there to see us more than they were there for the coffee (and video rental). We dedicated "Walkin' The Dog" to the one with the most hair and legs, who bolted out the front door when we followed that with "Stray Cat Strut".
Now, here's something you don't see everyday. This was an actual notice posted on their bulletin board. Had to get a picture of it because there's no way I could relay it verbatim ~
There's just so many things I could say (and have said) about it, but I'll let you guys make your own comments.
The boys did their rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and Mudcat followed it with his office version of "If I Only Had A Brain". Kudos to Kayla for her backup singing!
We closed with "Ridin' The Storm Out" and Mudcat quite cleverly wished the Enclave the same.
Hope to see you guys soon!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
4/11 - Ravenna Elks Club AND Redhawk Grill (yup, 2 gigs in one day!)
So, let's start with the Elks Club ~
This marked the 1 year anniversary of their new building and let me tell ya what, it was like a palace. Very nice indeed.
They had a corn hole ( I really wish that game had a different name) tournament going on in one room and raffles, pool playing, and general all round good fun in another room. We were part of the general all round good fun.
Everyone was super nice to us and Jake made a new friend.
Oh yeah, and Jake did "Old Time Rock & Roll" by request. Pretty amusing hearing him singing "say I'm old fashioned, say I'm over the hill".
Moving on to the Redhawk Grill ~
Our new friend, Andy was very appreciative of our songs and chatted with us for a while when we were done.
Mudcat and Jake did a kick ass version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". A couple started to leave just as the song began and they stopped and came back to dance to it. Said they couldn't resist. Told ya it was kick ass.
The best part was that we only repeated 6 songs! Three of them were intentional and the other 3 just sort of fell into the groove. AND we still had plenty of songs left over that we didn't get to. Not to toot our own horn, but we know a lot of songs (toot,toot!).
So, let's start with the Elks Club ~
This marked the 1 year anniversary of their new building and let me tell ya what, it was like a palace. Very nice indeed.
They had a corn hole ( I really wish that game had a different name) tournament going on in one room and raffles, pool playing, and general all round good fun in another room. We were part of the general all round good fun.
Everyone was super nice to us and Jake made a new friend.
Oh yeah, and Jake did "Old Time Rock & Roll" by request. Pretty amusing hearing him singing "say I'm old fashioned, say I'm over the hill".
Moving on to the Redhawk Grill ~
Our new friend, Andy was very appreciative of our songs and chatted with us for a while when we were done.
Mudcat and Jake did a kick ass version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". A couple started to leave just as the song began and they stopped and came back to dance to it. Said they couldn't resist. Told ya it was kick ass.
The best part was that we only repeated 6 songs! Three of them were intentional and the other 3 just sort of fell into the groove. AND we still had plenty of songs left over that we didn't get to. Not to toot our own horn, but we know a lot of songs (toot,toot!).
Monday, March 23, 2009
3/20 - Johnny Malloy's
Mudcat used his Jake-in-the-box (exactly similar to a Jack-in-the-box), since we were Jakeless this gig. He had another gig that was scheduled before this one...the nerve. And I don't like being Jakeless. I don't like it one bit.
But, he stopped in for a wee bit before his gig. Betty and Bernie were there too with Jake's best friend, Lindy.
For a moment I thought we were in a sequel to Groundhog's Day when our new friend, Bruce told us that he has been to more than 400 concerts and he'll be 50 this year. I thought about Groundhog's Day, because he told us over and over and over and over and over and over. Gosh, I sure hope he doesn't drive angry...
OH ~ I learned a great trick (which you may already know and if you do, why haven't you shared this information with me) to keep your pitcher of beer cold. Float a plastic glass of ice in it. Pretty slick, huh? I can't believe that I never thought of that. Oh well.
Well, I think that's it for this installment of movie reviews and household hints.
Mudcat used his Jake-in-the-box (exactly similar to a Jack-in-the-box), since we were Jakeless this gig. He had another gig that was scheduled before this one...the nerve. And I don't like being Jakeless. I don't like it one bit.
But, he stopped in for a wee bit before his gig. Betty and Bernie were there too with Jake's best friend, Lindy.
For a moment I thought we were in a sequel to Groundhog's Day when our new friend, Bruce told us that he has been to more than 400 concerts and he'll be 50 this year. I thought about Groundhog's Day, because he told us over and over and over and over and over and over. Gosh, I sure hope he doesn't drive angry...
OH ~ I learned a great trick (which you may already know and if you do, why haven't you shared this information with me) to keep your pitcher of beer cold. Float a plastic glass of ice in it. Pretty slick, huh? I can't believe that I never thought of that. Oh well.
Well, I think that's it for this installment of movie reviews and household hints.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
3/18 - three...three...three posts in one
No, that's not the name of a bar, I'm catching you up on the last 3 gigs. Apparently, there are an awful lot of shiny things around here, because I've been hugely distracted. Okay, here goes ~
2/13 - Enclave Coffee House
Friday the 13th...oooh, scary (not really).
Remember the guy I was telling you about from the last Enclave gig who was there with his daughter? Oh guess what, he was back (sans daughter) and bought one of our CD's! Thank you!
We saw a couple of other familiar faces and I want to believe that they were there to see us, not just there for the coffee.
During our break, Jenna (the chick in charge on Friday nights) asked Jake to play "My Girl". So, we all tried to come up with the Temptations version, which felt like we were cramming for the big exam and then she asked us if we wanted her to print out the lyrics, which made us breath a sigh of relief (especially Jake, since he was the one who would be singing it for her). Turns out it was Nirvana's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" that she wanted to hear, which worked out quite well since Jake knows that one.
That's pretty much all the exciting-ish stuff from this gig.
2/28 - Johnny Malloy's
We had a nice crowd for an early gig (6-9...DJ after that).
While we were setting up, I overheard a guy at the bar boasting that he had been there since 2:50. That's pretty specific. He didn't say 3:00 and he didn't say 10 'til 3. He said 2:50. I'm wondering if his goal was to drink himself sober, because he was there for the duration.
Betty and Bernie were there with one of their friends. It's always nice to have their support.
In the back of the room we had a birthday party group. We got a request to sing "Happy Birthday" to the guest of honor from 2:50 boy, which makes me wonder if he knew her and was not invited to the party (he was sitting at the front end of the bar) or if he was just being nice. Anyway, we sang to her and everyone cheered for her and life went on.
But then....
We saw Elvis. The Vegas Elvis. He proceeded to the back of the room to the birthday group, plopped down his boom box, got out his Mr. Microphone and started singing (yes, while we were playing). When we finally figured out what was happening, we stopped to let him have his moment. A couple at the bar yelled to us to keep playing, because that was a separate party, but we decided to be nice. Elvis came up to us on his way out to apologize for singing over us, so that made me feel better. And of course as he was leaving I had to announce that "Elvis has left the building". How many times in your life do you ever get to say that for real (okay, for fake...I know it wasn't the real Elvis...he's working at the 7-11 in Michigan). And I got to quote Johnny Carson, who said "if life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the Elvis impersonators would be dead".
That pretty much sums things up.
3/13 - Enclave Coffee House
Oh, guess what ~ it's Friday the 13th again...spooky....to quote Pogo, "Friday the 13th came on Friday this time".
Peanuts came out to offer his support and to visit our friendly customer service returns department, where items can be exchanged without having a gift receipt.
The pictures on display this time were pretty cool. Very art noire-ish. We liked them, but not $75 worth of like.
And we got some sad news. The Enclave will be closing in June. So, if you want to check out the Enclave (and us!) come out on Friday, 4/17.
No, that's not the name of a bar, I'm catching you up on the last 3 gigs. Apparently, there are an awful lot of shiny things around here, because I've been hugely distracted. Okay, here goes ~
2/13 - Enclave Coffee House
Friday the 13th...oooh, scary (not really).
Remember the guy I was telling you about from the last Enclave gig who was there with his daughter? Oh guess what, he was back (sans daughter) and bought one of our CD's! Thank you!
We saw a couple of other familiar faces and I want to believe that they were there to see us, not just there for the coffee.
During our break, Jenna (the chick in charge on Friday nights) asked Jake to play "My Girl". So, we all tried to come up with the Temptations version, which felt like we were cramming for the big exam and then she asked us if we wanted her to print out the lyrics, which made us breath a sigh of relief (especially Jake, since he was the one who would be singing it for her). Turns out it was Nirvana's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" that she wanted to hear, which worked out quite well since Jake knows that one.
That's pretty much all the exciting-ish stuff from this gig.
2/28 - Johnny Malloy's
We had a nice crowd for an early gig (6-9...DJ after that).
While we were setting up, I overheard a guy at the bar boasting that he had been there since 2:50. That's pretty specific. He didn't say 3:00 and he didn't say 10 'til 3. He said 2:50. I'm wondering if his goal was to drink himself sober, because he was there for the duration.
Betty and Bernie were there with one of their friends. It's always nice to have their support.
In the back of the room we had a birthday party group. We got a request to sing "Happy Birthday" to the guest of honor from 2:50 boy, which makes me wonder if he knew her and was not invited to the party (he was sitting at the front end of the bar) or if he was just being nice. Anyway, we sang to her and everyone cheered for her and life went on.
But then....
We saw Elvis. The Vegas Elvis. He proceeded to the back of the room to the birthday group, plopped down his boom box, got out his Mr. Microphone and started singing (yes, while we were playing). When we finally figured out what was happening, we stopped to let him have his moment. A couple at the bar yelled to us to keep playing, because that was a separate party, but we decided to be nice. Elvis came up to us on his way out to apologize for singing over us, so that made me feel better. And of course as he was leaving I had to announce that "Elvis has left the building". How many times in your life do you ever get to say that for real (okay, for fake...I know it wasn't the real Elvis...he's working at the 7-11 in Michigan). And I got to quote Johnny Carson, who said "if life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the Elvis impersonators would be dead".
That pretty much sums things up.
3/13 - Enclave Coffee House
Oh, guess what ~ it's Friday the 13th again...spooky....to quote Pogo, "Friday the 13th came on Friday this time".
Peanuts came out to offer his support and to visit our friendly customer service returns department, where items can be exchanged without having a gift receipt.
The pictures on display this time were pretty cool. Very art noire-ish. We liked them, but not $75 worth of like.
And we got some sad news. The Enclave will be closing in June. So, if you want to check out the Enclave (and us!) come out on Friday, 4/17.
Monday, February 16, 2009
2/7 - Trading Post
Pete and Linda came out to show their support. It was really great to see them! I was surprised that they ventured out there, since it's at the opposite end of the earth from where they live.
I was also surprised to see R.J. and Winston. Even though they rode in on a Camel, they were still Kool. I think they went out to talk with Mary a few times during the evening too.
Well, I must mention the bathrooms again. Hey, a bathroom can tell you a lot about the place that surrounds it. The toilet paper was chained and padlocked to the wall. Now, I'm not sure if that was their way of discouraging toilet paper theft or if they just had an overabundance of chains and padlocks. The women's room had the word women painted on it like graffiti and there was a hole in the door that could have been used to rest your fist in if you got bored with keeping your arms at your side. The mirror was so non-reflective that I wondered why they even bothered with the mirror at all.
However ~ Linda clued me in to the fact that there was a "nice" bathroom on the other side of the bar by the pool tables. This one had a normal sign on the door and it was big and bright
inside and it had one of those circular tables with a ruffled cover over it with the glass over that. There was a framed Chip and Dale picture on it and a nice little fake fern. One entire wall was dedicated to Harley Davidson with their logo painted on it and the mirror in this bathroom was not only reflective, but it was full length. Guess the choice of bathroom depends on how a girl is feeling about herself at the time.
SO...we're playing along with Mudcat and Jake doing some very impressive guitar solos and people are clapping (which I took as a good sign) when this guy walks up to us and tells us to "kick it up", so I asked him if he meant the type of music or the volume. He said both. Then I asked him what he wanted to hear and he said to play anything. Fine then. I asked him again and he told us to play some Hank Williams. Just then a scene from the Blues Brothers flashed before me and I wished that I had thought to bring some chicken wire with me.
But don't worry about us....we were alright.
This seemed to be mostly a biker bar (kinda figured that out with the Harley wall), but all that leather was peppered with the boys in bib overalls and cowboy boots, construction workers who came right from the job and with girls who had dress-up sweat shirts or the kind you boys would think twice about taking home to meet your mom. Well, I'm sure you could take her home to meet your mom after she changed her shirt that said "I'M DRINKING FUCK OFF". We just let her drink.
And you know there had to be the guy in camouflage to go with all that mix (and there was). When we were singing "down by the river, I shot my baby" I swear that camo-boy looked at me like "yeah...me too". That was a wee bit disturbing and sort of amusing all at the same time.
One snippet of conversation that I heard was some guy telling his buddies about how bad his day was. His car wouldn't start. Then he got it started and he drove through a mud puddle and his muffler fell off. Yeah, the parking lot had a lot of duct tape in it. Neil Young was right, rust never sleeps...it just waits in the parking lot of the the Trading Post.
Oh yeah, there's a newish beer out there that I'm pretty sure was invented by some guy at Budweiser who was trying to kill his hangover at a marketing meeting and just got lucky. It's Bud (or Bud Lite) with Clamato juice. Say it with me ~ EWWWWWWWWWWWWA.
Pete and Linda came out to show their support. It was really great to see them! I was surprised that they ventured out there, since it's at the opposite end of the earth from where they live.
I was also surprised to see R.J. and Winston. Even though they rode in on a Camel, they were still Kool. I think they went out to talk with Mary a few times during the evening too.
Well, I must mention the bathrooms again. Hey, a bathroom can tell you a lot about the place that surrounds it. The toilet paper was chained and padlocked to the wall. Now, I'm not sure if that was their way of discouraging toilet paper theft or if they just had an overabundance of chains and padlocks. The women's room had the word women painted on it like graffiti and there was a hole in the door that could have been used to rest your fist in if you got bored with keeping your arms at your side. The mirror was so non-reflective that I wondered why they even bothered with the mirror at all.
However ~ Linda clued me in to the fact that there was a "nice" bathroom on the other side of the bar by the pool tables. This one had a normal sign on the door and it was big and bright
inside and it had one of those circular tables with a ruffled cover over it with the glass over that. There was a framed Chip and Dale picture on it and a nice little fake fern. One entire wall was dedicated to Harley Davidson with their logo painted on it and the mirror in this bathroom was not only reflective, but it was full length. Guess the choice of bathroom depends on how a girl is feeling about herself at the time.
SO...we're playing along with Mudcat and Jake doing some very impressive guitar solos and people are clapping (which I took as a good sign) when this guy walks up to us and tells us to "kick it up", so I asked him if he meant the type of music or the volume. He said both. Then I asked him what he wanted to hear and he said to play anything. Fine then. I asked him again and he told us to play some Hank Williams. Just then a scene from the Blues Brothers flashed before me and I wished that I had thought to bring some chicken wire with me.
But don't worry about us....we were alright.
This seemed to be mostly a biker bar (kinda figured that out with the Harley wall), but all that leather was peppered with the boys in bib overalls and cowboy boots, construction workers who came right from the job and with girls who had dress-up sweat shirts or the kind you boys would think twice about taking home to meet your mom. Well, I'm sure you could take her home to meet your mom after she changed her shirt that said "I'M DRINKING FUCK OFF". We just let her drink.
And you know there had to be the guy in camouflage to go with all that mix (and there was). When we were singing "down by the river, I shot my baby" I swear that camo-boy looked at me like "yeah...me too". That was a wee bit disturbing and sort of amusing all at the same time.
One snippet of conversation that I heard was some guy telling his buddies about how bad his day was. His car wouldn't start. Then he got it started and he drove through a mud puddle and his muffler fell off. Yeah, the parking lot had a lot of duct tape in it. Neil Young was right, rust never sleeps...it just waits in the parking lot of the the Trading Post.
Oh yeah, there's a newish beer out there that I'm pretty sure was invented by some guy at Budweiser who was trying to kill his hangover at a marketing meeting and just got lucky. It's Bud (or Bud Lite) with Clamato juice. Say it with me ~ EWWWWWWWWWWWWA.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
1/30 - 3rd Base (it's a bar, that's not how far I let him get)
Betty and Bernie were there with their entourage. THANK YOU! I do believe that Betty is our official den mother, recording secretary, historian, lyrics finder, and all 'round good sport.
Jeff and Carrie were there, but were around the corner (no, not the bar in Lakewood) and they didn't even realize that we were the band until we took a break and I went to talk with them.
Swan was there to offer support and to regale us with her tales of meatloaf (apparently, it's not just for supper anymore).
Chloe made her appearance too, which was a most welcomed sight! And she allowed us to not miss a beat (no pun intended) with keeping us abreast (I said breast) of the conversations at the bar while we were in the midst of our sets.
There were a couple of guys at the bar who thanked us for taking them back..."but not too far back". You're welcome. I think.
Jake kicked ass on his guitar solos and I'm not the only one who thought so, based on all the applause from family, friends, and strangers.
If I didn't tell you in the last post (hey, I've slept since then and I have CRS ~ Can't Remember Shit) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAKE! Even if I did tell you, the sentiment is still the same.
The End
Betty and Bernie were there with their entourage. THANK YOU! I do believe that Betty is our official den mother, recording secretary, historian, lyrics finder, and all 'round good sport.
Jeff and Carrie were there, but were around the corner (no, not the bar in Lakewood) and they didn't even realize that we were the band until we took a break and I went to talk with them.
Swan was there to offer support and to regale us with her tales of meatloaf (apparently, it's not just for supper anymore).
Chloe made her appearance too, which was a most welcomed sight! And she allowed us to not miss a beat (no pun intended) with keeping us abreast (I said breast) of the conversations at the bar while we were in the midst of our sets.
There were a couple of guys at the bar who thanked us for taking them back..."but not too far back". You're welcome. I think.
Jake kicked ass on his guitar solos and I'm not the only one who thought so, based on all the applause from family, friends, and strangers.
If I didn't tell you in the last post (hey, I've slept since then and I have CRS ~ Can't Remember Shit) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAKE! Even if I did tell you, the sentiment is still the same.
The End
Saturday, January 31, 2009
1/24 - Rider's Inn
Mudcat and I did a duo gig at Rider's. There's just not enough room for the 3 of us...barely enough for two. Oh yeah, and we got a parking space right up front. Coincidence? I think not.
There was quite an interesting mix of people and/or attire. We had everyone from the barely old enough to drink to the barely able to move about unattended. And the attire ranged from nicely dressed for an elegant dinner to the guy who's t-shirt probably covered his entire stomach about 50 lbs ago. But that's okay, they all liked us.
During the course of the gig, Elaine brought out some sort of wee animal for everyone to see, hold, and fawn over. It took a while to figure out that it was actually a cat. Well, Mudcat figured it out (maybe it has something to do with the name...), but I had to ask. I was actually considering that it might be a bear.
Anyway, turns out that this kitten was part of Samantha's 38th litter. Yeah, 38. I KNOW!
She is their house cat (Rider's is a B&B) and apparently quite active. Jill said that Samantha gets more action than most of the guests and probably has better stories.
About 15 minutes later, one of the guests came downstairs to get his room service tray-o-food (I'm thinkin' he's not completely clear on what room service actually means) and when he headed back up the stairs with tray in hand, Mud and I had to keep from laughing, thinking of Jill's comment.
Next on the scene is a border collie looking dog who decided that he needed to check out all the band equipment up close and personal. At least he didn't decide to mark our area his territory.
All I could think of is that we were getting a little too close to the Ghostbusters' "dogs and cats sleeping together" thing...sorry Jake, didn't mean to haunt you with the Ghostbusters reference. I crack my ownself up ~ haunt/Ghost...hey, I'm sure one of you is at least chuckling warmly.
Other than that, I got nothin'.
Mudcat and I did a duo gig at Rider's. There's just not enough room for the 3 of us...barely enough for two. Oh yeah, and we got a parking space right up front. Coincidence? I think not.
There was quite an interesting mix of people and/or attire. We had everyone from the barely old enough to drink to the barely able to move about unattended. And the attire ranged from nicely dressed for an elegant dinner to the guy who's t-shirt probably covered his entire stomach about 50 lbs ago. But that's okay, they all liked us.
During the course of the gig, Elaine brought out some sort of wee animal for everyone to see, hold, and fawn over. It took a while to figure out that it was actually a cat. Well, Mudcat figured it out (maybe it has something to do with the name...), but I had to ask. I was actually considering that it might be a bear.
Anyway, turns out that this kitten was part of Samantha's 38th litter. Yeah, 38. I KNOW!
She is their house cat (Rider's is a B&B) and apparently quite active. Jill said that Samantha gets more action than most of the guests and probably has better stories.
About 15 minutes later, one of the guests came downstairs to get his room service tray-o-food (I'm thinkin' he's not completely clear on what room service actually means) and when he headed back up the stairs with tray in hand, Mud and I had to keep from laughing, thinking of Jill's comment.
Next on the scene is a border collie looking dog who decided that he needed to check out all the band equipment up close and personal. At least he didn't decide to mark our area his territory.
All I could think of is that we were getting a little too close to the Ghostbusters' "dogs and cats sleeping together" thing...sorry Jake, didn't mean to haunt you with the Ghostbusters reference. I crack my ownself up ~ haunt/Ghost...hey, I'm sure one of you is at least chuckling warmly.
Other than that, I got nothin'.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
1/23 - Enclave
Dear Betty,
Here's what happened...
Jake jinxed us by saying that he hoped we could get a parking space right in front like we had the last time we played at the Enclave, because we rounded the corner to find not one spot at all. Anywhere. Mudcat drove around a couple times, but nobody left. So, we ended up parking in the back and we carried the equipment through their slolemn course (pretty sure it was set up just for us) to get back up to the stage at the front. Of course, there were no open spots when we were done, so we reversed the process.
Some interesting art work was on display. Kinda hard to explain, but it looked like the artist might have had some ideas that needed to be expressed regarding drug use and quite possibly lesbianism (at least that's my take on them).
The first song I did was Landslide and I looked up at the back of the room to see my reflection in the men's bathroom mirror (the door was open, but the bathroom was empty) just as I was singing "and I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills", which made me want to change the lyrics, but I knew that would send me into hysterics. Then I had to sing "mirror in the sky" without changing the words or chuckling.
Remember the Redhawk gig where Jake was the winner and let us know it all the way home...well, there was a poster that just said "the winner is" and then there was a big open space at the bottom. I can't tell you how much I wanted to write Jake's name on there and/or to snag the poster for him. But, I behaved my own self.
It was a fairly sparce crowd until around 11-ish when the place pretty much filled up. Most odd indeed, but I guess 11-ish is coffee drinkin' time in Willoughby.
Oh yeah, the same guy was there who got all excited the last time we played at the Enclave when Mudcat sang "I'll be stalking you" instead of "I'll be watching you" and ran up to his friends to tell them. This time he was happy as could be, because his friends got to hear it too. Jake and I spotted the guy, but Mud didn't, which is too bad, because it would have been most enjoyable to see the look on that guy's face if he had noticed him and sang the song the regular way, Oh well.
There was some guy there with his daughter. She was bored out of her mind like only a pre-teen can be when she's out with one of her parents and not her friends. She successfully ignored him by texting, putting her head down on the table, and looking away from him. He seemed pretty dejected until he realized that we were playing songs that he liked. Then he perked up and tried to ignore his daughter's requests to leave. Eventually, she won.
Dear Betty,
Here's what happened...
Jake jinxed us by saying that he hoped we could get a parking space right in front like we had the last time we played at the Enclave, because we rounded the corner to find not one spot at all. Anywhere. Mudcat drove around a couple times, but nobody left. So, we ended up parking in the back and we carried the equipment through their slolemn course (pretty sure it was set up just for us) to get back up to the stage at the front. Of course, there were no open spots when we were done, so we reversed the process.
Some interesting art work was on display. Kinda hard to explain, but it looked like the artist might have had some ideas that needed to be expressed regarding drug use and quite possibly lesbianism (at least that's my take on them).
The first song I did was Landslide and I looked up at the back of the room to see my reflection in the men's bathroom mirror (the door was open, but the bathroom was empty) just as I was singing "and I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills", which made me want to change the lyrics, but I knew that would send me into hysterics. Then I had to sing "mirror in the sky" without changing the words or chuckling.
Remember the Redhawk gig where Jake was the winner and let us know it all the way home...well, there was a poster that just said "the winner is" and then there was a big open space at the bottom. I can't tell you how much I wanted to write Jake's name on there and/or to snag the poster for him. But, I behaved my own self.
It was a fairly sparce crowd until around 11-ish when the place pretty much filled up. Most odd indeed, but I guess 11-ish is coffee drinkin' time in Willoughby.
Oh yeah, the same guy was there who got all excited the last time we played at the Enclave when Mudcat sang "I'll be stalking you" instead of "I'll be watching you" and ran up to his friends to tell them. This time he was happy as could be, because his friends got to hear it too. Jake and I spotted the guy, but Mud didn't, which is too bad, because it would have been most enjoyable to see the look on that guy's face if he had noticed him and sang the song the regular way, Oh well.
There was some guy there with his daughter. She was bored out of her mind like only a pre-teen can be when she's out with one of her parents and not her friends. She successfully ignored him by texting, putting her head down on the table, and looking away from him. He seemed pretty dejected until he realized that we were playing songs that he liked. Then he perked up and tried to ignore his daughter's requests to leave. Eventually, she won.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
1/17 - Redhawk Grill
Other than the fact that it was snowing sideways, it was just lovely weather for a gig. And foolish me, forgot that people in the snowbelt don't think twice about sideways snowfall and will head out to the bar just to get rid of some cabin fever, so I made a bet with the boys that it would be an early gig. I bet 11:00, Mudcat bet midnight, and Jake bet a full gig with us ending at 1:00, but first he had to know what the prize would be for winning, which is the right to gloat. And he did. At varying intervals all the way home. Mud just turned up the volume on the radio.
Mary, the head chick in charge, told us that we could put our bags and whatnot on the pool table if we wanted to get them out of our way. She said that other bands do that, because no one ever uses the pool table. Mudcat made the call to leave the pool table open, just in case someone wanted to play. He's the smartest boy ever. Moments later, some people walked in and all the boys in the group had their own pool cues. And those are the people we got tips from. Pretty sure they wouldn't have liked us and/or tipped us had we used the pool table as our storage area.
It was Richard's birthday, so we did our version of the happy birthday song. He stood up and took his bow, he stood up on one foot, and he actually considered doing the cartwheel, but chickened out at the last minute.
Oh yeah, and it was a night for Beatles songs.
The roads were pretty crummy by the time we left. Apparently, vertical snow actually becomes horizontal at some point. We trudged along and all was right with the world (except for the gloating interjections from Jake).
We dropped off Jake and continued on our way when we noticed a pair of headlights coming toward us in the middle lane on I90. Yeah, what's wrong with that picture? Miraculously, all the people on the road at that point (including us and the drunken idiot) moved out of each others' way to avoid an accident. This person moved into the fast lane (although from his perspective it was the slow lane), zoomed on by us and continued on as far as I could see the tail lights. We were so stunned that it didn't occur to us to call 911 until we were home and by then it seemed a far better thing to just have a beer. Hopefully, one of the many police officers tending to cars that had spun out was able to stop that idiot. Wonder if that guy is a driving instructor...
So, that's pretty much it for that gig.
Stay tuned for our next gig where Jake wears a barret.
Other than the fact that it was snowing sideways, it was just lovely weather for a gig. And foolish me, forgot that people in the snowbelt don't think twice about sideways snowfall and will head out to the bar just to get rid of some cabin fever, so I made a bet with the boys that it would be an early gig. I bet 11:00, Mudcat bet midnight, and Jake bet a full gig with us ending at 1:00, but first he had to know what the prize would be for winning, which is the right to gloat. And he did. At varying intervals all the way home. Mud just turned up the volume on the radio.
Mary, the head chick in charge, told us that we could put our bags and whatnot on the pool table if we wanted to get them out of our way. She said that other bands do that, because no one ever uses the pool table. Mudcat made the call to leave the pool table open, just in case someone wanted to play. He's the smartest boy ever. Moments later, some people walked in and all the boys in the group had their own pool cues. And those are the people we got tips from. Pretty sure they wouldn't have liked us and/or tipped us had we used the pool table as our storage area.
It was Richard's birthday, so we did our version of the happy birthday song. He stood up and took his bow, he stood up on one foot, and he actually considered doing the cartwheel, but chickened out at the last minute.
Oh yeah, and it was a night for Beatles songs.
The roads were pretty crummy by the time we left. Apparently, vertical snow actually becomes horizontal at some point. We trudged along and all was right with the world (except for the gloating interjections from Jake).
We dropped off Jake and continued on our way when we noticed a pair of headlights coming toward us in the middle lane on I90. Yeah, what's wrong with that picture? Miraculously, all the people on the road at that point (including us and the drunken idiot) moved out of each others' way to avoid an accident. This person moved into the fast lane (although from his perspective it was the slow lane), zoomed on by us and continued on as far as I could see the tail lights. We were so stunned that it didn't occur to us to call 911 until we were home and by then it seemed a far better thing to just have a beer. Hopefully, one of the many police officers tending to cars that had spun out was able to stop that idiot. Wonder if that guy is a driving instructor...
So, that's pretty much it for that gig.
Stay tuned for our next gig where Jake wears a barret.
Monday, January 5, 2009
1/3 - Key West
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Our first gig of 2009 was for a birthday party for Ruth (a.k.a. "Granny"). I won't tell you how young she was, because girls just don't. But I will tell you that we left out the verses in our version of happy birthday that direct the birthday person to stand on one foot, do a cartwheel, a somersault, and the occasional back flip. All that was required of Granny was to stand up and take a bow, which she did.
We had our tiny dancers at this gig, but they did more running than dancing, which seemed to make their mom sooooooo happy. Or not.
Most everyone was singing along and appeared to be enjoying themselves, but clearly they were there for Granny and not for us. She packed it in around 10:30, which was followed by a mass exodus.
So, that was pretty much it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Our first gig of 2009 was for a birthday party for Ruth (a.k.a. "Granny"). I won't tell you how young she was, because girls just don't. But I will tell you that we left out the verses in our version of happy birthday that direct the birthday person to stand on one foot, do a cartwheel, a somersault, and the occasional back flip. All that was required of Granny was to stand up and take a bow, which she did.
We had our tiny dancers at this gig, but they did more running than dancing, which seemed to make their mom sooooooo happy. Or not.
Most everyone was singing along and appeared to be enjoying themselves, but clearly they were there for Granny and not for us. She packed it in around 10:30, which was followed by a mass exodus.
So, that was pretty much it.
Friday, January 2, 2009
12/27 - Streetside Cafe
Well, this was a pretty much Jake's gig...his family was there and he has a brand new fan!
Let's just say that Jake's new fan was high on "life". And I'm pretty sure he couldn't decide where he wanted to be from. His accent kept changing from British to Australian-ish to American-ish. When he made his exit, he kissed me on the right cheek, then the left cheek and then came back to the right cheek telling me that "we do it 3 times". But wait, there's more ~ he said "cheers" and then "chow". Maybe that was his way of telling us that he was happy and going to grab a bite to eat.
This guy was also a "photographer". He had a camera with a flash that was perched about 2 feet above the camera and a zoom lens that could have captured a fly on a blackboard across the street, but he was taking pictures of us from about 2 feet away.
He also did a duet with Jake...on his air guitar.
We get all kinds.
Well, this was a pretty much Jake's gig...his family was there and he has a brand new fan!
Let's just say that Jake's new fan was high on "life". And I'm pretty sure he couldn't decide where he wanted to be from. His accent kept changing from British to Australian-ish to American-ish. When he made his exit, he kissed me on the right cheek, then the left cheek and then came back to the right cheek telling me that "we do it 3 times". But wait, there's more ~ he said "cheers" and then "chow". Maybe that was his way of telling us that he was happy and going to grab a bite to eat.
This guy was also a "photographer". He had a camera with a flash that was perched about 2 feet above the camera and a zoom lens that could have captured a fly on a blackboard across the street, but he was taking pictures of us from about 2 feet away.
He also did a duet with Jake...on his air guitar.
We get all kinds.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
12/5 – Enclave Coffee House
This is not just your average every day coffee house…according to their sign, it’s also a video rental. However, I can’t remember seeing any video section and/or anyone returning or leaving with a video.
Ooooh, I know ~ it must be the video that some girl was making on her little camcorder thing. She was recording us for a bit, then went over to some guy who was sketching (my take on that to follow) and was shooting him while he was doing his sketch thing. But, not shooting with a gun. There were signs posted that firearms were not allowed… Anyway, that’s gotta be it. Okay, that mystery is solved. I can sleep tonight.
I did a little survey (asked Jake) and it’s unanimous that being sketched is much worse than being photographed. With a picture it’s like yankin’ off a band aid; quick and almost painless. But, with being sketched it’s kind of like a slow, painful death. And I felt bad if I moved. I certainly didn’t want him to have to start over.
Oddly enough, they had a stage. I’m talkin’ a real stage with outlets and room to move about the cabin. It was a small cabin, but my point is that some of the official-like bars we’ve played in just moved a table over and smashed us into a corner that was as far away from an outlet as you could get without going to the next county.
Being up there was like being stuck in the back seat of the car on a family trip and not being able to reach the heater which was on full blast. We could see the source of the heat, but couldn’t reach it and even if we could have reached it, just like in the car on a family trip we would have caught all kinds of grief had we tried to adjust anything in the driver’s domain. I still have an aversion to adjusting the controls in someone else’s car, but enough about that. Let’s get back to the gig, shall we?
I took another survey (asked Jake again) and determined that despite our roasting, this was actually one of the most fun gigs we’ve had. And We sold another CD! Thank you, John. Plus, we got some tips (money tips, not stock market tips).
It started out with being a mixture of people, most pretty young-ish, but with a smattering of “older” people and everyone seemed like pretty normal blue collar types.
But then….
There was the guy wearing fish net gloves with the fingers cut out who mysteriously produced a bridge (as in teeth) while talking with us and nonchalantly put it back in his mouth without missing a beat in the conversation.
Some bikers came in (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and one of the women had long hair down to her hips, but remember in the 80’s or 90’s when people went from long hair to short hair and kept one strand of the long hair and braided cords or ribbon into it? Well, this woman apparently did that and then let her hair grow out again, but kept the braided piece too. That braided piece of hair was down to her ankle. I am not kidding. I kept wondering how she managed to not catch it in anything or trip over it or choke on it in her sleep. Then I pictured her riding on the bike with the wind blowing that part of her hair straight back and how distracting that would be for the person in the car behind them, but then I decided it might be a good idea to pay attention to what ever song we were doing at the time.
While Mudcat was singing his version of I’ll Be Watching You (I’ll be stalking you), one guy caught it and started laughing. Then his buddies came in, so he ran up to tell them about it like he was a 7th grade girl telling her friends that the cutest boy in the whole school just talked to her. So, they all turned around to watch and listen and when Mudcat got to the second time around he switched it back to “watching you”. This guy’s friends all turned around to tell the guy what an idiot he was and then they all walked away and left him there. It was pretty amusing.
But then….
There was this chick that clearly wanted to be a boy (and was quite close to pulling it off too) who was hanging out with some friends in the back of the room. One of those boys clearly wanted to be something, but I’m not sure what that something was. It was kind of like looking at the half man/half woman at the circus. At first I thought his head was completely shaved and that some girl with shoulder length jet black hair was sitting really close to him and I wondered how that wouldn’t become annoying after a couple of hours. Turns out it was all him. The black hair was sprouting out of one part of the shaved head and it kind of looked like the hair on those dolls where you pull on it to make it grow.
The girl who was working there joined them and took off her shirt (don’t get excited, she had a camisole underneath) and then chick-boy gave her a massage.
Oh yeah, Jake’s Nirvana song was a big, big hit with chick-boy and friends. Mudcat and I liked it too!
But then….
One of the boys carried what looked like a dog dish over to the microwave and moments later he took the dog dish out of the microwave and carried it with him while he went outside with his friends. As he passed by, it looked like chicken soup in the bowl. So, apparently the friends went out to smoke and he decided that dining outdoors during a blizzard would be a really fun thing to do. Or maybe he just likes to eat in the smoking section.
This is not just your average every day coffee house…according to their sign, it’s also a video rental. However, I can’t remember seeing any video section and/or anyone returning or leaving with a video.
Ooooh, I know ~ it must be the video that some girl was making on her little camcorder thing. She was recording us for a bit, then went over to some guy who was sketching (my take on that to follow) and was shooting him while he was doing his sketch thing. But, not shooting with a gun. There were signs posted that firearms were not allowed… Anyway, that’s gotta be it. Okay, that mystery is solved. I can sleep tonight.
I did a little survey (asked Jake) and it’s unanimous that being sketched is much worse than being photographed. With a picture it’s like yankin’ off a band aid; quick and almost painless. But, with being sketched it’s kind of like a slow, painful death. And I felt bad if I moved. I certainly didn’t want him to have to start over.
Oddly enough, they had a stage. I’m talkin’ a real stage with outlets and room to move about the cabin. It was a small cabin, but my point is that some of the official-like bars we’ve played in just moved a table over and smashed us into a corner that was as far away from an outlet as you could get without going to the next county.
Being up there was like being stuck in the back seat of the car on a family trip and not being able to reach the heater which was on full blast. We could see the source of the heat, but couldn’t reach it and even if we could have reached it, just like in the car on a family trip we would have caught all kinds of grief had we tried to adjust anything in the driver’s domain. I still have an aversion to adjusting the controls in someone else’s car, but enough about that. Let’s get back to the gig, shall we?
I took another survey (asked Jake again) and determined that despite our roasting, this was actually one of the most fun gigs we’ve had. And We sold another CD! Thank you, John. Plus, we got some tips (money tips, not stock market tips).
It started out with being a mixture of people, most pretty young-ish, but with a smattering of “older” people and everyone seemed like pretty normal blue collar types.
But then….
There was the guy wearing fish net gloves with the fingers cut out who mysteriously produced a bridge (as in teeth) while talking with us and nonchalantly put it back in his mouth without missing a beat in the conversation.
Some bikers came in (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and one of the women had long hair down to her hips, but remember in the 80’s or 90’s when people went from long hair to short hair and kept one strand of the long hair and braided cords or ribbon into it? Well, this woman apparently did that and then let her hair grow out again, but kept the braided piece too. That braided piece of hair was down to her ankle. I am not kidding. I kept wondering how she managed to not catch it in anything or trip over it or choke on it in her sleep. Then I pictured her riding on the bike with the wind blowing that part of her hair straight back and how distracting that would be for the person in the car behind them, but then I decided it might be a good idea to pay attention to what ever song we were doing at the time.
While Mudcat was singing his version of I’ll Be Watching You (I’ll be stalking you), one guy caught it and started laughing. Then his buddies came in, so he ran up to tell them about it like he was a 7th grade girl telling her friends that the cutest boy in the whole school just talked to her. So, they all turned around to watch and listen and when Mudcat got to the second time around he switched it back to “watching you”. This guy’s friends all turned around to tell the guy what an idiot he was and then they all walked away and left him there. It was pretty amusing.
But then….
There was this chick that clearly wanted to be a boy (and was quite close to pulling it off too) who was hanging out with some friends in the back of the room. One of those boys clearly wanted to be something, but I’m not sure what that something was. It was kind of like looking at the half man/half woman at the circus. At first I thought his head was completely shaved and that some girl with shoulder length jet black hair was sitting really close to him and I wondered how that wouldn’t become annoying after a couple of hours. Turns out it was all him. The black hair was sprouting out of one part of the shaved head and it kind of looked like the hair on those dolls where you pull on it to make it grow.
The girl who was working there joined them and took off her shirt (don’t get excited, she had a camisole underneath) and then chick-boy gave her a massage.
Oh yeah, Jake’s Nirvana song was a big, big hit with chick-boy and friends. Mudcat and I liked it too!
But then….
One of the boys carried what looked like a dog dish over to the microwave and moments later he took the dog dish out of the microwave and carried it with him while he went outside with his friends. As he passed by, it looked like chicken soup in the bowl. So, apparently the friends went out to smoke and he decided that dining outdoors during a blizzard would be a really fun thing to do. Or maybe he just likes to eat in the smoking section.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
11/8 – Hammers Barn & Grille
No, I didn’t mean Bar & Grille…it looks like a big old barn up on top of a big old hill.
There were a couple of boys playing the bowling machine when we were setting up right next to it and it sort of felt like we were part of a giant pin ball machine, because of the bells and ching-ching sounds coming from the bowling machine. At least the boys were nice enough to step away from the machine and belly up to the bar during the gig.
Jake made his solo singing debut!!!! Great job, by the way. And you know what this means, don’t you? Oh, let me tell you ~ MORE Jake songs. Hey, don’t yell at me, you started it.
Betty and Bernie were there as our support group. Okay, let me rephrase that ‘cause that just sounds like we’re in rehab. Betty and Bernie were there to cheer us on! And Betty is our new unofficial videographer. Well, I guess it’s official now.
Oh, and the latest episode of “what Lola hears” went like this during our break ~
Betty: would you guys like a drink?
Mudcat: I think I’ll have a Killian’s, myself
What Lola heard: I think I’ll have to kill myself
I really didn’t think the 1st set was that bad…
One of the boys at the bar was trying to be a wisenheimer and yelled out “dueling banjos” in response to Mudcat asking if there were any requests. Poor dumb thing had no idea that Jake and Mudcat knew the song. They just switched their handy dandy super high tech guitars to banjo mode and started dueling. I swear I heard someone squealing like a pig off in the distance. I didn’t.
Oh, and on the way home we saw a coyote. He ran across the street right in front of our very own eyes. Pretty sure it wasn’t just your standard run of the mill coyote…I’m thinkin’ it was Wyle E. Coyote ~ Super Genius.
No, I didn’t mean Bar & Grille…it looks like a big old barn up on top of a big old hill.
There were a couple of boys playing the bowling machine when we were setting up right next to it and it sort of felt like we were part of a giant pin ball machine, because of the bells and ching-ching sounds coming from the bowling machine. At least the boys were nice enough to step away from the machine and belly up to the bar during the gig.
Jake made his solo singing debut!!!! Great job, by the way. And you know what this means, don’t you? Oh, let me tell you ~ MORE Jake songs. Hey, don’t yell at me, you started it.
Betty and Bernie were there as our support group. Okay, let me rephrase that ‘cause that just sounds like we’re in rehab. Betty and Bernie were there to cheer us on! And Betty is our new unofficial videographer. Well, I guess it’s official now.
Oh, and the latest episode of “what Lola hears” went like this during our break ~
Betty: would you guys like a drink?
Mudcat: I think I’ll have a Killian’s, myself
What Lola heard: I think I’ll have to kill myself
I really didn’t think the 1st set was that bad…
One of the boys at the bar was trying to be a wisenheimer and yelled out “dueling banjos” in response to Mudcat asking if there were any requests. Poor dumb thing had no idea that Jake and Mudcat knew the song. They just switched their handy dandy super high tech guitars to banjo mode and started dueling. I swear I heard someone squealing like a pig off in the distance. I didn’t.
Oh, and on the way home we saw a coyote. He ran across the street right in front of our very own eyes. Pretty sure it wasn’t just your standard run of the mill coyote…I’m thinkin’ it was Wyle E. Coyote ~ Super Genius.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
11/1 – 3rd Base
CONGRATULATIONS, TRUDY AND RICK ON YOUR NEW PLACE!
It was kinda like a family reunion of sorts ~ Joani and her crew, Connie and the Woody’s gang, Little Pat, Shannon, and Rick. I apologize if I’ve left any one out.
The new Bose system worked great! Can’t wait to see Jake’s reaction at the next gig.
Our first guest “singer” of the night was Maureen. She did, however provide us with a public service announcement to turn our clocks back. She reminded us quite a lot, as a matter of fact.
Rick came up and sang (for real) “Amy” with us, but we changed it to “Trudy”. He’s a nice boy.
And I really like our new version of “rock me”…very sexy.
CONGRATULATIONS, TRUDY AND RICK ON YOUR NEW PLACE!
It was kinda like a family reunion of sorts ~ Joani and her crew, Connie and the Woody’s gang, Little Pat, Shannon, and Rick. I apologize if I’ve left any one out.
The new Bose system worked great! Can’t wait to see Jake’s reaction at the next gig.
Our first guest “singer” of the night was Maureen. She did, however provide us with a public service announcement to turn our clocks back. She reminded us quite a lot, as a matter of fact.
Rick came up and sang (for real) “Amy” with us, but we changed it to “Trudy”. He’s a nice boy.
And I really like our new version of “rock me”…very sexy.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
10/18 – Scoreboards
We started out with some technical difficulties, but quickly recovered. And we had way more room than the last time we were there…a booth and the gumball / treats machines were moved out of the corner. It was almost spacious, but not really.
Joani and Dan were there, but left early on because they sprouted horns. I learned that through a quick game of charades, which greatly amused the guys at the table in front of us.
Mudcat did some “new” songs and revisited some others that were oh so too much fun. I especially liked Rock Me.
Jerry (the guy, not the cow) came up and sang with us during Amy.
Oh, and you know how I love to hear snippets of conversations during the gigs…here’s a keeper ~ “he’s the reason why our dog only has one ball”. Pretty sure she was not talking about the bouncing, foot or base kind.
We started out with some technical difficulties, but quickly recovered. And we had way more room than the last time we were there…a booth and the gumball / treats machines were moved out of the corner. It was almost spacious, but not really.
Joani and Dan were there, but left early on because they sprouted horns. I learned that through a quick game of charades, which greatly amused the guys at the table in front of us.
Mudcat did some “new” songs and revisited some others that were oh so too much fun. I especially liked Rock Me.
Jerry (the guy, not the cow) came up and sang with us during Amy.
Oh, and you know how I love to hear snippets of conversations during the gigs…here’s a keeper ~ “he’s the reason why our dog only has one ball”. Pretty sure she was not talking about the bouncing, foot or base kind.
10/17 – Brewsters
This used to be an Arabica. It had pretty much the same set up as an Arabica, with the addition of a bar at one end. A coffee house with adult beverages ~ it’s the best of both worlds.
Our new friend, Bill was making a dull job fun by singing and dancing to and from his cleaning locations using the broom as a microphone and/or dance partner. He said that he liked us because we didn’t bring in a bunch of “really old, nursing home people” who got too drunk and made a mess that he had to clean up. He also said that I sound like Alanis Morissette. Never thought that or been told that before, but I took it as a compliment.
Our other new friend, Jerome did the usual request then leave thing, but he came back.
We discovered where Jake hails from ~ I-Dee-I-Dee’O, which is just south of South Belfast.
Bernie and Betty were there and during one song Bernie had happy fingers rather than happy feet, doing the best chorus line kicks ever. Hey…if the Rockets ever branch out to finger puppets, he’ll never have to look for work again!
This used to be an Arabica. It had pretty much the same set up as an Arabica, with the addition of a bar at one end. A coffee house with adult beverages ~ it’s the best of both worlds.
Our new friend, Bill was making a dull job fun by singing and dancing to and from his cleaning locations using the broom as a microphone and/or dance partner. He said that he liked us because we didn’t bring in a bunch of “really old, nursing home people” who got too drunk and made a mess that he had to clean up. He also said that I sound like Alanis Morissette. Never thought that or been told that before, but I took it as a compliment.
Our other new friend, Jerome did the usual request then leave thing, but he came back.
We discovered where Jake hails from ~ I-Dee-I-Dee’O, which is just south of South Belfast.
Bernie and Betty were there and during one song Bernie had happy fingers rather than happy feet, doing the best chorus line kicks ever. Hey…if the Rockets ever branch out to finger puppets, he’ll never have to look for work again!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
9/27 – The Brew Kettle
We ended up doing just one long set as the gig, since we had to wait for the people in the front booths to clear out so that Albert could convert that space into our stage.
Albert was not our uncle, he was our sound guy. Well, he’s not our sound guy – he came with the place. He was a nice boy.
Jake’s crew was there; Betty, Bernie, Grandma, the neighbors, some friends from school and some of my clan were there as well; Joani, Peg, Jeremy, Mary. And Billy Sullivan his own self was there (pretty sure that was just a coinkie dink). Does this mean we have a following? Just so they don’t start handing out pamphlets at the airport…uh, oh – keep an eye on Bernie.
And Peanuts stopped by, but he must have just missed us. He’s a nice boy, too. I’m sure we’ll see him again. I’m not scared.
The good thing is that the place was pretty full when we got there and the even better thing is that it didn’t empty out once we started playing. Guess it’s true…we’re really not as annoying as you might think.
Jake did a super duper fun version of “stray cat strut” with Mudcat adding in some scat at the end. I liked it most much!
We ended up doing just one long set as the gig, since we had to wait for the people in the front booths to clear out so that Albert could convert that space into our stage.
Albert was not our uncle, he was our sound guy. Well, he’s not our sound guy – he came with the place. He was a nice boy.
Jake’s crew was there; Betty, Bernie, Grandma, the neighbors, some friends from school and some of my clan were there as well; Joani, Peg, Jeremy, Mary. And Billy Sullivan his own self was there (pretty sure that was just a coinkie dink). Does this mean we have a following? Just so they don’t start handing out pamphlets at the airport…uh, oh – keep an eye on Bernie.
And Peanuts stopped by, but he must have just missed us. He’s a nice boy, too. I’m sure we’ll see him again. I’m not scared.
The good thing is that the place was pretty full when we got there and the even better thing is that it didn’t empty out once we started playing. Guess it’s true…we’re really not as annoying as you might think.
Jake did a super duper fun version of “stray cat strut” with Mudcat adding in some scat at the end. I liked it most much!
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