Making Memories...again
Friday, 17 June 2005
Knucklehead was booked at Eddie’s in Granite City, IL for what was possibly the last time. There has been some squabbling between us and the management there about the pay rate we receive. As one of the best drawing bands, we are also the lowest paid. We pay our soundman more for one night than the individual band cuts are for the entire weekend. So, this time we decided to go in with my small PA and give them the same thing we give smaller bars that only pay this low rate. As it turned out, we got quite a few compliments on our sound. It turns out that people liked it better when we weren’t as loud. They said it sounded clearer, even over near the bar area. Hmmm…guess we should have been doing this the whole time.
Another difference this weekend was the lack of Scrappy on drums. He had planned a fishing trip up north for this weekend, so we had substitute drummers for this gig. Friday was Kevin Kalka. We had played with him while still in high school and a few years beyond, but it had been about 16 years since we had played together in Kulprit, Nassty, and then Kid Curious – the precursor to Saturn Cats. We were all a little unsteady at first, but as the night wore on we started to catch a groove. It was, admittedly, a bit odd playing with Kevin again. We are all different players now, and the old chemistry was altered by time. But, it worked out just fine. He had done a stand-up job learning many of the harder tunes in less than a week. Thanks, Kev.
Saturday, 18 June 2005
Round two of the Eddie’s-going-away-party was to feature Mike Ramsey on drums. Mike is the former drummer for Ivory Tiger and, more importantly, the Rush tribute band Thunderhead. He brought out his “big” kit, which made it a challenge to mic everything with my small setup. But we found a way to do it, and it worked out exceptionally well. Needless to say, Deron and I were really looking forward to this night. I had bought a MIDI foot controller for my keyboards a few weeks earlier, but hadn’t really had the time to work it into my routine. I decided to bring it out anyway, if nothing else than for the Rush that we were sure to do. I also broke out the old ’73 Rickenbacker that I hadn’t played in almost 2 years since I got the Fishbone 6-string bass. After playing that bass exclusively for about 20 years, playing it again was like putting on an old pair of jeans.
We started the night with Rush’s La Villa Strangiato as our sound check. What a way to start! Mike, too, had done an outstanding job learning some of our “cool” songs like the Iron Maiden, Kansas, and Zebra stuff. Of course, we started off the second set with the usual Spirit of Radio, then launched into a bunch of other Rush songs like Freewill, Tom Sawyer, and Limelight. It’s spine-tingling to play that stuff with guys who really know it. My personal thanks to Mike and Deron for the thrills that night (Steve did a great job on the vocals, too).
I think I may have set a new record tearing down and loading the equipment that night. It wasn’t so bad coming back for it the next day when I lived just five blocks away. 20 miles is a different story altogether. Plus, Deron had been talking about Waffle House. Inspirations abounded. By the time we arrived at Aweful House, Roy and Carol (from the attic) were already there, as was Wes from Ivory Tiger. Mike and his lovely wife joined us, too. The laughs were nonstop as we all took turns ripping into each other. Carol even made the comment that she had never seen me so animated. Oops…..busted having fun in public. Sorry, Carol…I promise not to let it happen again. Just forget you saw that.
I didn’t get home until after the first light of day Sunday morning. Just as I got on the highway to head back to St. Jacob, my phone rang. It was Deron – he had run out of gas just down the street from Aweful House. What a retro weekend this was! Kevin Kalka on drums, Deron running out of gas on Chain of Rocks Road…all I needed was a bottle of Jack and a psycho girlfriend and it would have been complete. I think I’ll take a pass on that last part.
Knucklehead was booked at Eddie’s in Granite City, IL for what was possibly the last time. There has been some squabbling between us and the management there about the pay rate we receive. As one of the best drawing bands, we are also the lowest paid. We pay our soundman more for one night than the individual band cuts are for the entire weekend. So, this time we decided to go in with my small PA and give them the same thing we give smaller bars that only pay this low rate. As it turned out, we got quite a few compliments on our sound. It turns out that people liked it better when we weren’t as loud. They said it sounded clearer, even over near the bar area. Hmmm…guess we should have been doing this the whole time.
Another difference this weekend was the lack of Scrappy on drums. He had planned a fishing trip up north for this weekend, so we had substitute drummers for this gig. Friday was Kevin Kalka. We had played with him while still in high school and a few years beyond, but it had been about 16 years since we had played together in Kulprit, Nassty, and then Kid Curious – the precursor to Saturn Cats. We were all a little unsteady at first, but as the night wore on we started to catch a groove. It was, admittedly, a bit odd playing with Kevin again. We are all different players now, and the old chemistry was altered by time. But, it worked out just fine. He had done a stand-up job learning many of the harder tunes in less than a week. Thanks, Kev.
Saturday, 18 June 2005
Round two of the Eddie’s-going-away-party was to feature Mike Ramsey on drums. Mike is the former drummer for Ivory Tiger and, more importantly, the Rush tribute band Thunderhead. He brought out his “big” kit, which made it a challenge to mic everything with my small setup. But we found a way to do it, and it worked out exceptionally well. Needless to say, Deron and I were really looking forward to this night. I had bought a MIDI foot controller for my keyboards a few weeks earlier, but hadn’t really had the time to work it into my routine. I decided to bring it out anyway, if nothing else than for the Rush that we were sure to do. I also broke out the old ’73 Rickenbacker that I hadn’t played in almost 2 years since I got the Fishbone 6-string bass. After playing that bass exclusively for about 20 years, playing it again was like putting on an old pair of jeans.
We started the night with Rush’s La Villa Strangiato as our sound check. What a way to start! Mike, too, had done an outstanding job learning some of our “cool” songs like the Iron Maiden, Kansas, and Zebra stuff. Of course, we started off the second set with the usual Spirit of Radio, then launched into a bunch of other Rush songs like Freewill, Tom Sawyer, and Limelight. It’s spine-tingling to play that stuff with guys who really know it. My personal thanks to Mike and Deron for the thrills that night (Steve did a great job on the vocals, too).
I think I may have set a new record tearing down and loading the equipment that night. It wasn’t so bad coming back for it the next day when I lived just five blocks away. 20 miles is a different story altogether. Plus, Deron had been talking about Waffle House. Inspirations abounded. By the time we arrived at Aweful House, Roy and Carol (from the attic) were already there, as was Wes from Ivory Tiger. Mike and his lovely wife joined us, too. The laughs were nonstop as we all took turns ripping into each other. Carol even made the comment that she had never seen me so animated. Oops…..busted having fun in public. Sorry, Carol…I promise not to let it happen again. Just forget you saw that.
I didn’t get home until after the first light of day Sunday morning. Just as I got on the highway to head back to St. Jacob, my phone rang. It was Deron – he had run out of gas just down the street from Aweful House. What a retro weekend this was! Kevin Kalka on drums, Deron running out of gas on Chain of Rocks Road…all I needed was a bottle of Jack and a psycho girlfriend and it would have been complete. I think I’ll take a pass on that last part.
posted by Paul J. Smith | 11:06
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