Hotels and Leather Vests
Saturday, 10 December 2005
This weekend started with a bit of a fizzle. Dawna and I were supposed to go see her violin teacher in a string concert at SIU Edwardsville. With the weather that had rolled through the area just a few days earlier, and the logistics of her not getting off work until 18:00, there was little chance we would be making that concert. A last minute change of plans for her ex-husband unexpectedly handed over her oldest son for that night as well. We had also planned to go to Eddie’s in Granite City to see Ivory Tiger. Katrina, the wife of their bass player Geo, had apparently planned a little birthday bash for her. So, we were able to drop off Derek at Geo & Katrina’s home while we went to Eddie’s. All of the usual suspects were in attendance, including Deron Boyd and Steve Wenos of Knucklehead infamy. Dawna seemed to have a pretty good time (everyone in the bar sang Happy Birthday to her), and I didn’t at all mind seeing some people I haven’t seen for some time. Towards the end of the evening’s festivities, it became obvious that we would be having a small KH reunion. Since Steve Hall didn’t make it out that night, Wes from Ivory Tiger would be filling the vocal void. We went to the stage and I warbled out Hendrix’s Purple Haze, then Wes joined us for Rush’s Red Barchetta, and Krokus’ Screaming in the Night. Geo even came up and joined in on the Krokus vocals. We left around 01:30, picked up Derek, and headed back to my house.
Dawna had to work Saturday morning, so I was to take Derek home when he awoke. After we had coffee and sent here off on her way, I fired up the computer and began working on a couple of string quartets. I got tired after awhile (my computer locked up and I lost everything I had written over about an hour - doh! - save early, save often) and decided to take a little nap. I didn’t wake up until almost 16:00, and Derek was still asleep. I woke him and told him I needed to take him home before his mom got there. She called while we were sitting at the kitchen table chatting about the layout of the city of Troy, IL (don’t ask), and said she would just stop by and pick him up on her way home. I had mentioned to her that I had to make a call to Idaho earlier this week, but wouldn’t tell her what it was for as it concerned her Christmas present. Consequently, she has been bugging me about it ever since, hoping I will slip and tell her what is in Idaho. I just told her potatoes. (“What’s taters, Precious?” “PO-TA-TOES!”).
After they left, I began getting ready to go play at Jacques’ in the downtown St. Louis Sheraton Hotel. It is across the street from the Savvis Center and the Blues were playing the NY Rangers that night, so we were expecting a better crowd than we had gotten on previous occasions. We were not disappointed. The game ended as we were nearing the end of the first set, and people started filing in at an extremely acceptable rate. It was a good crowd, despite the Blues’ OT loss just moments earlier. There were several couples there who were engaged to be married, and they seemed to be having the best time. One group had driven in from Jefferson City, and another from Kansas City. We felt obliged to play there requests, and they seemed quite grateful.
Dale had removed the heavier stuff from the set list for this gig in order to insert the more danceable stuff. So, there would be no Sabbath, or Rush, or Zeppelin this night. Oh, well - so it goes some nights. We had dancers all night, so I guess it worked. Even when we broke the flow by fumbling around and changing songs in the middle of the sets, the dancers still came right back. Someone actually asked for some Led Zeppelin as we were shutting down for the night. We kind of looked at each other, but decided not to push our luck, as we have been trying to get this as a regular gig. The pay is good, it’s fairly high profile, and the house sound system is very good. The stage has a nice, dead sound, too, which makes for a more enjoyable time for us with little or no feedback and a good stage mix. Both the manager and the soundman told us at the end of the night that they liked us and would be telling the agent to book us some more dates this year. Very cool.
One semi-odd occurrence did take place at the end of the night. I say semi-odd, because at this point in my career nothing really surprises me anymore. We actually had two requests to play at weddings. The first was relatively benign. The couple from Jefferson City came up to the stage to talk and request songs a couple of different times. At the end of the night, the girl came back up by herself and started asking me about how much we charge for weddings. I told her that we will do weddings, but she needed to talk to Carlos for the financial arrangements. She seemed to really like us. The other occurred with me when I went to the bar to take care of the band tab. I was approached by a fairly “normal” looking young lady who asked if we play weddings. When I said yes, she asked if I would mind wearing a leather vest. Huh? She repeated her question. When I asked if there was some sort of reasoning behind this request, she proceeded to explain that she had a certain “idea” about how she thought we should look; Carlos would dress as a hippie, Dale would dress as a geek with a bowtie and pocket protector, Bobby would play without a shirt, and I would dress like a biker with a leather vest. Uhhh...OK. I repeated that we do indeed do weddings, but special requests such as this would probably come at an additional cost. She noted that she had one of our business cards and would be in touch. I can’t wait until Carlos gets that phone call.
Teardown was fairly quick, and we were out the door by 01:45. We found out at the last minute that the club would not validate our parking garage tickets on nights that there is a Savvis event, but this turned out to only be $5. Not too painful at all. I listened to the King’s X CD Dogman during the uneventful drive home. All in all, a pretty good night.
This weekend started with a bit of a fizzle. Dawna and I were supposed to go see her violin teacher in a string concert at SIU Edwardsville. With the weather that had rolled through the area just a few days earlier, and the logistics of her not getting off work until 18:00, there was little chance we would be making that concert. A last minute change of plans for her ex-husband unexpectedly handed over her oldest son for that night as well. We had also planned to go to Eddie’s in Granite City to see Ivory Tiger. Katrina, the wife of their bass player Geo, had apparently planned a little birthday bash for her. So, we were able to drop off Derek at Geo & Katrina’s home while we went to Eddie’s. All of the usual suspects were in attendance, including Deron Boyd and Steve Wenos of Knucklehead infamy. Dawna seemed to have a pretty good time (everyone in the bar sang Happy Birthday to her), and I didn’t at all mind seeing some people I haven’t seen for some time. Towards the end of the evening’s festivities, it became obvious that we would be having a small KH reunion. Since Steve Hall didn’t make it out that night, Wes from Ivory Tiger would be filling the vocal void. We went to the stage and I warbled out Hendrix’s Purple Haze, then Wes joined us for Rush’s Red Barchetta, and Krokus’ Screaming in the Night. Geo even came up and joined in on the Krokus vocals. We left around 01:30, picked up Derek, and headed back to my house.
Dawna had to work Saturday morning, so I was to take Derek home when he awoke. After we had coffee and sent here off on her way, I fired up the computer and began working on a couple of string quartets. I got tired after awhile (my computer locked up and I lost everything I had written over about an hour - doh! - save early, save often) and decided to take a little nap. I didn’t wake up until almost 16:00, and Derek was still asleep. I woke him and told him I needed to take him home before his mom got there. She called while we were sitting at the kitchen table chatting about the layout of the city of Troy, IL (don’t ask), and said she would just stop by and pick him up on her way home. I had mentioned to her that I had to make a call to Idaho earlier this week, but wouldn’t tell her what it was for as it concerned her Christmas present. Consequently, she has been bugging me about it ever since, hoping I will slip and tell her what is in Idaho. I just told her potatoes. (“What’s taters, Precious?” “PO-TA-TOES!”).
After they left, I began getting ready to go play at Jacques’ in the downtown St. Louis Sheraton Hotel. It is across the street from the Savvis Center and the Blues were playing the NY Rangers that night, so we were expecting a better crowd than we had gotten on previous occasions. We were not disappointed. The game ended as we were nearing the end of the first set, and people started filing in at an extremely acceptable rate. It was a good crowd, despite the Blues’ OT loss just moments earlier. There were several couples there who were engaged to be married, and they seemed to be having the best time. One group had driven in from Jefferson City, and another from Kansas City. We felt obliged to play there requests, and they seemed quite grateful.
Dale had removed the heavier stuff from the set list for this gig in order to insert the more danceable stuff. So, there would be no Sabbath, or Rush, or Zeppelin this night. Oh, well - so it goes some nights. We had dancers all night, so I guess it worked. Even when we broke the flow by fumbling around and changing songs in the middle of the sets, the dancers still came right back. Someone actually asked for some Led Zeppelin as we were shutting down for the night. We kind of looked at each other, but decided not to push our luck, as we have been trying to get this as a regular gig. The pay is good, it’s fairly high profile, and the house sound system is very good. The stage has a nice, dead sound, too, which makes for a more enjoyable time for us with little or no feedback and a good stage mix. Both the manager and the soundman told us at the end of the night that they liked us and would be telling the agent to book us some more dates this year. Very cool.
One semi-odd occurrence did take place at the end of the night. I say semi-odd, because at this point in my career nothing really surprises me anymore. We actually had two requests to play at weddings. The first was relatively benign. The couple from Jefferson City came up to the stage to talk and request songs a couple of different times. At the end of the night, the girl came back up by herself and started asking me about how much we charge for weddings. I told her that we will do weddings, but she needed to talk to Carlos for the financial arrangements. She seemed to really like us. The other occurred with me when I went to the bar to take care of the band tab. I was approached by a fairly “normal” looking young lady who asked if we play weddings. When I said yes, she asked if I would mind wearing a leather vest. Huh? She repeated her question. When I asked if there was some sort of reasoning behind this request, she proceeded to explain that she had a certain “idea” about how she thought we should look; Carlos would dress as a hippie, Dale would dress as a geek with a bowtie and pocket protector, Bobby would play without a shirt, and I would dress like a biker with a leather vest. Uhhh...OK. I repeated that we do indeed do weddings, but special requests such as this would probably come at an additional cost. She noted that she had one of our business cards and would be in touch. I can’t wait until Carlos gets that phone call.
Teardown was fairly quick, and we were out the door by 01:45. We found out at the last minute that the club would not validate our parking garage tickets on nights that there is a Savvis event, but this turned out to only be $5. Not too painful at all. I listened to the King’s X CD Dogman during the uneventful drive home. All in all, a pretty good night.
posted by Paul J. Smith | 12:12
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