Spaghetti Wrestling and Lakeside Park
Saturday, 30 July 2005
Knucklehead already had a gig booked for this date when the guys from Thunderhead: A Tribute to Rush called Deron and asked if we would be interested in opening for them at Frogs in East Carondelet, IL. Well, duh! The logistics of this changed a few times, but the skinny was that it was going to be a tight squeeze for us to make it to our night gig with travel time to St. Charles, MO and set-up time. We agreed to do it nonetheless.
I got a late start (of course) and arrived around 14:45. We were suppose to start at 15:30. As I arrived, I noticed that no one was there yet except Shaun Steele, Knucklehead’s default soundman, who apparently is now working with Thunderhead. Very cool. Shaun knows our stuff and is quite professional. I also noted with regret on the way there that I had forgotten my small keyboard mixer. Shaun solved this with a Y-connector and a direct box. He’s the man. The rest of the Knucklegang pulled in just behind me. We were set up and ready to play around 16:00. I found the sign hanging on the back of the stage said “Third Annual Frog Fest” and altered it with duct tape to say “Third Annual Prog Fest.” The owner didn’t seem to mind this little play, and in fact snickered at the idea.
Since we were only suppose to do two sets, Deron had decided on the “Fuck Yeah!” songs from the various sets, which meant most of the second set. We always start this one off with The Spirit of Radio. However, since we were playing in front of a Rush tribute band, that one was considered off-limits for obvious reasons. So, we did the cool Iron Maiden and Ozzy stuff, rolled through some Triumph, and other various and sundry tunes. As the guys from Thunderhead started arriving, we couldn’t help but to tease the beginnings of more than a few Rush tunes. As our portion of the event came to a close, we teased with the beginning of Lakeside Park, as Scrappy usually does. George Whitlow jumped at the opportunity to warm up his voice and came up to sing it with us, so we actually played it. Big mistake. Obviously our heads were all somewhere else, because we gaffed it big time. Deron forgot the chord progression in the break-down section, I lost the bass counter-melody somewhere in there, Scrappy lost some of the transition fills…it was aweful. George kept with it, though, and we somehow muddled through the rest of the song. We slinked away with our collective tails between our legs.
Shane Calhoun was there to tape the Thunderhead show, as he usually is. He use to come out to the Those1Guys shows and occasionally taped us, too. He also tapes national touring acts, but you didn’t hear that from me. He had told me several years ago that he had taped a 2002 Yes show at UMB Pavilion at which I was in attendance. I gave him some CDs and he said he would make copies for me. He brought these up to me, as well as three DVDs of a T1G show he had recorded at Scotty’s in Alton, IL. Very cool indeed. Since I don’t own a DVD player – or a TV, for that matter – I have not yet seen them. Judging from the excellent sound quality of the Yes CDs, though, I’m sure it will be quite good…performances notwithstanding.
While we were tearing down our equipment, the bar had arranged for spaghetti wrestling to entertain the guests. This involved two young women in bikinis, oiled up, standing in an inflatable pool filled with spaghetti noodles. You can picture the rest on your own. The referee was another woman in a striped skirt outfit with a wireless microphone to call the event. She was not as…ummm…lady-like with her dialog as she probably should have been for an outdoor event. I had, unfortunately, forgotten my new digital camera as well.
After we left for St. Charles, Steve’s girlfriend Teresa had to turn around to go back for her glasses. I stopped for gas and then continued to St. Charles. As I arrived there, Deron said, “You’re not going to believe what happened!” Apparently right after we left, five police cars and the town’s mayor arrived and shut down the whole event. They removed the owner, pulled his liquor license, and told everyone that they had to leave immediately or face arrest. I can only guess that the spaghetti wrestling got a bit out of hand for conservative tastes (pun intended), as no reason was given for this intrusion. A truly unfortunate side of this is that no one got paid for their troubles…..except us. Go figure.
After setting up the gear once again at Baha Rock Club, Deron, Scrappy, and myself adjourned across the street to Big A’s for dinner. This had been Deron’s idea, as opposed to just showing up and playing and then going home; punching the clock, as he called it. We sat and talked about fishing, Cancun, spaghetti wrestling, renting boats from Mexicans who speak no English, getting sea-sick, where they found five cops in East Carondelet IL, and burgers. I think we successfully avoided the topic of that abortion of a Rush song we butchered. Pride can be a painful thing.
We eventually went back across the street and played a fairly standard KH show there. The crowd wasn’t very big, but they were quite into the music, so it wasn’t too bad. Scott Speck made it there for awhile and we talked about hockey. Jim, the bar’s manager, approached me late in the evening with a cymbal on which he had painted BenWahBob in neon colors. He asked me to sign the back of it so he could go over that, too, with neon paint. He does this quite a bit with bands that have been playing there a long time. It is his own artwork, usually on broken cymbals or guitars donated by the bands; this one was from Bobby Deskins, the current BWB drummer. He then hangs them in various places around the club. I’ve never before been asked by a club manager for an autograph, so that was interesting.
The drive home was eventful as well this time. Somewhere on I-270 in Hazelwood, MO my “Service Engine Soon” idiot light came on for whatever reason. While looking dumbfounded at that, I looked up just in time to see the tire laying in the middle of my lane that I was about to hit. It made some hideous thumping noises on its way under my van, and actually bounced me up a couple of times before it was through. Nice. Needless to say, I was wide awake after that. I even had to turn off the live Yes in my CD player so I could listen for the changes in the sounds of my motor or undercarriage…that never came, of course. What a day.
Knucklehead already had a gig booked for this date when the guys from Thunderhead: A Tribute to Rush called Deron and asked if we would be interested in opening for them at Frogs in East Carondelet, IL. Well, duh! The logistics of this changed a few times, but the skinny was that it was going to be a tight squeeze for us to make it to our night gig with travel time to St. Charles, MO and set-up time. We agreed to do it nonetheless.
I got a late start (of course) and arrived around 14:45. We were suppose to start at 15:30. As I arrived, I noticed that no one was there yet except Shaun Steele, Knucklehead’s default soundman, who apparently is now working with Thunderhead. Very cool. Shaun knows our stuff and is quite professional. I also noted with regret on the way there that I had forgotten my small keyboard mixer. Shaun solved this with a Y-connector and a direct box. He’s the man. The rest of the Knucklegang pulled in just behind me. We were set up and ready to play around 16:00. I found the sign hanging on the back of the stage said “Third Annual Frog Fest” and altered it with duct tape to say “Third Annual Prog Fest.” The owner didn’t seem to mind this little play, and in fact snickered at the idea.
Since we were only suppose to do two sets, Deron had decided on the “Fuck Yeah!” songs from the various sets, which meant most of the second set. We always start this one off with The Spirit of Radio. However, since we were playing in front of a Rush tribute band, that one was considered off-limits for obvious reasons. So, we did the cool Iron Maiden and Ozzy stuff, rolled through some Triumph, and other various and sundry tunes. As the guys from Thunderhead started arriving, we couldn’t help but to tease the beginnings of more than a few Rush tunes. As our portion of the event came to a close, we teased with the beginning of Lakeside Park, as Scrappy usually does. George Whitlow jumped at the opportunity to warm up his voice and came up to sing it with us, so we actually played it. Big mistake. Obviously our heads were all somewhere else, because we gaffed it big time. Deron forgot the chord progression in the break-down section, I lost the bass counter-melody somewhere in there, Scrappy lost some of the transition fills…it was aweful. George kept with it, though, and we somehow muddled through the rest of the song. We slinked away with our collective tails between our legs.
Shane Calhoun was there to tape the Thunderhead show, as he usually is. He use to come out to the Those1Guys shows and occasionally taped us, too. He also tapes national touring acts, but you didn’t hear that from me. He had told me several years ago that he had taped a 2002 Yes show at UMB Pavilion at which I was in attendance. I gave him some CDs and he said he would make copies for me. He brought these up to me, as well as three DVDs of a T1G show he had recorded at Scotty’s in Alton, IL. Very cool indeed. Since I don’t own a DVD player – or a TV, for that matter – I have not yet seen them. Judging from the excellent sound quality of the Yes CDs, though, I’m sure it will be quite good…performances notwithstanding.
While we were tearing down our equipment, the bar had arranged for spaghetti wrestling to entertain the guests. This involved two young women in bikinis, oiled up, standing in an inflatable pool filled with spaghetti noodles. You can picture the rest on your own. The referee was another woman in a striped skirt outfit with a wireless microphone to call the event. She was not as…ummm…lady-like with her dialog as she probably should have been for an outdoor event. I had, unfortunately, forgotten my new digital camera as well.
After we left for St. Charles, Steve’s girlfriend Teresa had to turn around to go back for her glasses. I stopped for gas and then continued to St. Charles. As I arrived there, Deron said, “You’re not going to believe what happened!” Apparently right after we left, five police cars and the town’s mayor arrived and shut down the whole event. They removed the owner, pulled his liquor license, and told everyone that they had to leave immediately or face arrest. I can only guess that the spaghetti wrestling got a bit out of hand for conservative tastes (pun intended), as no reason was given for this intrusion. A truly unfortunate side of this is that no one got paid for their troubles…..except us. Go figure.
After setting up the gear once again at Baha Rock Club, Deron, Scrappy, and myself adjourned across the street to Big A’s for dinner. This had been Deron’s idea, as opposed to just showing up and playing and then going home; punching the clock, as he called it. We sat and talked about fishing, Cancun, spaghetti wrestling, renting boats from Mexicans who speak no English, getting sea-sick, where they found five cops in East Carondelet IL, and burgers. I think we successfully avoided the topic of that abortion of a Rush song we butchered. Pride can be a painful thing.
We eventually went back across the street and played a fairly standard KH show there. The crowd wasn’t very big, but they were quite into the music, so it wasn’t too bad. Scott Speck made it there for awhile and we talked about hockey. Jim, the bar’s manager, approached me late in the evening with a cymbal on which he had painted BenWahBob in neon colors. He asked me to sign the back of it so he could go over that, too, with neon paint. He does this quite a bit with bands that have been playing there a long time. It is his own artwork, usually on broken cymbals or guitars donated by the bands; this one was from Bobby Deskins, the current BWB drummer. He then hangs them in various places around the club. I’ve never before been asked by a club manager for an autograph, so that was interesting.
The drive home was eventful as well this time. Somewhere on I-270 in Hazelwood, MO my “Service Engine Soon” idiot light came on for whatever reason. While looking dumbfounded at that, I looked up just in time to see the tire laying in the middle of my lane that I was about to hit. It made some hideous thumping noises on its way under my van, and actually bounced me up a couple of times before it was through. Nice. Needless to say, I was wide awake after that. I even had to turn off the live Yes in my CD player so I could listen for the changes in the sounds of my motor or undercarriage…that never came, of course. What a day.
posted by Paul J. Smith | 09:57
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