Difficult Setup in Wingate

This morning I was wondering how I was going to do another "setup went well, no problems" post tonight. Be careful what you worry about. Tony is immobilized with the flu and Mike had to work late. That left Kyle, Brian, Donna and me to bring all of the equipment in. Fortunately the High Street Bar & Grill has no steps into the back door so we could use a hand truck for the heavy stuff.

Things got interesting when we realized that the only person who knows how to connect the lights to the controllers is Tony. I hope he feels well enough tomorrow to plug all of that stuff in or it's going to be a very dark stage.

Sound check was very abbreviated, we could only make sure everything was working, no songs to check balance or anything. Donna will be pretty busy the first few tunes tomorrow. Sound check revealed an annoying problem; one of the subs wasn't making any sound. We removed the 18" driver and found an open voice coil. That driver is less than a year old so it's still under warranty but it's such a pain to ship it back to the factory for repair. For this weekend we'll use an old driver that was removed last year.

That leaves a lot of things to be done tomorrow before the show. We need to carry Tony in so he can connect the lights. We might have to duct tape him to a mic stand so he can play. We need to install the replacement driver and also do a mini sound check. The bright side is that we'll be there early enough to get some of the prime rib special, usually they've run out by the time we get there. Mary and Triva will be ready to serve up some of their excellent food. Don't forget to try one of Triva's desserts!

Jessica came in to pick up a carryout order. She had her dog with her and Kyle wanted a picture with the dog. We talked about funny captions for the photo, such as "Kyle and his new girlfriend, along with her owner Jessica", but the more I look at the pic and the later it gets the more twisted the ideas get. So, let's have a contest. Post YOUR idea of a caption for this photo as a comment to this blog. I'll pick the best one at 5:00PM this Saturday. The winner gets a free drink either this Saturday night in Wingate or next month at the Hideaway. Twisted and kinky are good, bizarre is better.

Last Weekend

Wow, here it is Wednesday already and I'm just now putting together a post about last weekend! I've been busy with moving our website to a new hosting company. That always takes a lot more time than you think it should. You may have noticed the downtime we've been having with the old one. I hope this move takes care of that.

Enough excuses. Last weekend followed the same pattern as the January show at the Hideaway. There was a good, lively audience on Friday. Saturday was even better. We have more pics for the photo album, including some new ones for the "Show Us Your Tats" section. There were birthdays both nights.

Jim, Dan and Eddy from the Cole-Matthews Band (not sure I got that name right) were there with a big group celebrating a birthday. They sat in with us on "Every Rose" and "Dreams". Jared Skaggs sat in on "Pride and Joy". We had lots of people on stage Saturday!

It's time to start thinking about this coming weekend at the High Street Bar & Grill. We'll set up the equipment tomorrow night and be ready for another fun weekend. Show time there is 9:30 but if you want to enjoy some of their excellent food don't forget that the kitchen closes at 9:00.

Ready for another weekend at the Hideaway

Yesterday I wasn't sure we'd be able to get the trailer up the driveway but after a lot of work it was cleaned out. We got an early start this afternoon and had the trailer unloaded before the sun set. Hooray for longer days and more light. Bright sunshine yesterday and today was a welcome contrast to Tuesday's blizzard. It was also nice to get out for a change. We stayed inside during the blizzard and then yesterday pushed snow out of three driveways.


I think Brian's spent too much time indoors too. He was ready to play some drums tonight. We warmed up with 'Crazy Bitch' and then went over most of the new stuff. There were some that aren't really new, we just haven't done them for a while. The rest are all new for us, including a couple of Kyle's originals. Of course I'm not going to tell you what they are, you'll have to come to the show and hear them for yourself.




We've not played the last three weekends so we're all ready to have some fun, as I'm sure you are. Come on out to Curly 'N' Blondie's Hideaway Friday or Saturday (or both) and we'll have a great time!