The Night Shift... Continues!

Here's where we go to kick back after the races with our pals. Pour a tall one, punch a few buttons on the jukebox, and relax...
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Weatherhound
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby Weatherhound » Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:50 am

Do you know how long it took me to read up to this point? LOL

It's been a while. Last time I yapped at ya I told you I visited Kemah and saw how well they have rebuilt from Ike. Glad to see you are still playing. I have been caught up in work and the end of the year is always cumbersome. Racing season is kicking in so now I will become more of a frequent follower. Play well and good night.

From the Night Shift this week, Weatherhound.
Brian "Weatherhound"
1969 Z/28 Camaro
540 Injected Enderle Bird
Lake Jackson, TX

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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby 23t » Tue Feb 02, 2010 7:09 am

Take picture while you play! That would be neat!! You've heard of helmet cams, car cams, why not a guitar cam? :wink:

Am I thinking to far outside the box? :roll:

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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby WildcatOne » Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:31 pm

I'll see if I can borrow Arrianna's camera...it has a feature where you set it on a tripod and you can step on a button or something and it takes a pictue without you having to hold it...I'd like to show proof of what I'm talking about, ya know. Weatherhound, it's great to read you again! Being from around these parts, you probably know about these places and events I talk about. Just want you to know that if you're out and about on any given night and we're playing somewhere, get in touch with me and you'll be my guest at one of these deals...for as long as you can stand it...that goes for all of you folks, too. The band always gets over, but during Mardi Gras, it's a no-holds-barred crowd at every gig.

Just to give a brief outline, Mardi Gras is an imaginary celebration. It's the few weeks on the common sinner's religious calendar that leads up to the season of Lent, the 40 days preceding Easter, culminating with "Fat Tuesday", the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which begins the time during which the faithful population are to give up their chosen simple pleasures...fasting, fish on Friday, give up chocolate, golf, drinking, something you enjoy...and offer it up to cleanse your soul. Personally, I give up lunch...Having grown up in the Catholic church, I was an altar boy (acolyte) at all of the Lenten rituals, all done in Latin...Novenas, the Stations of the Cross, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, (We used to joke about "Not Bad Thursday") Holy Saturday, finally Easter Sunday. Anyway, Mardi Gras is the opportunity to glorify the pleasures of the flesh and all worldly interests, and do it to the ultimate degree and get it out of your system because you have 40 days of misery coming up...it's all made-up, ya know...it's not really the way things are, but it's a great excuse to raise all kinds of hell (some folks go pretty far with it) and party with everybody and in the South it's become an annual tradition. Krewes sprang up, they have parades with elaborate floats and people tossing beads and coins to the delirious crowd, marching bands (Galveston has the Philadelphia Mummers every year as well as the major college bands in their parade. The Mummers are great...they wear Shrimp suits), themes, gala balls, wild in the streets...there's a lot of gigs to be had for Mardi Gras and this year we got SIX. Religious disclaimer...Folks do what you believe and it's all good. This is just to describe what Mardi Gras is...Cheers, WC1

New Orleans will be on its ear this week...Saints in the Super Bowl during Mardi Gras???? WOW!!!!
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby WildcatOne » Sun Feb 07, 2010 5:13 pm

It's Super Bowl Sunday! Yeah! I'm going up to my Dad's to watch the game. We played twice this weekend, Friday and Saturday nights on the Strand in Galveston. With Mardi Gras going on, it's 10 times the party and 10 times the excitement the band generates. Last night particularly was a highlight gig. The place we played at had the storefront doors wide open to the crowds in the blocked-off street and before we knew it we had people crammed in there and they went absolutely bonkers...on every single song. We played 4 full sets and a 20-minute series of encores until the cops showed up with their lights flashing and shut us down at 1:30. No better way to end a perfect night. We have a new sax player, Eric. He's young, in his 20s and he can play like nobody's business...he accepted Pee Wee's offer to join; he's a student of Martin's, the guy who sits in with us from time to time, but this kid is something special. He's becoming comfortable with our stuff and he can ride like the wind on his solos. He attracted a large contingent of the females in attendance with his cool style and stage presence. He picked up our dance moves (the band now dances behind Pee Wee in unison while we play and he sings the songs up front) and he is becoming cool to hang out with...at first he was a little isolated and quiet but now he's starting to hang out and have conversations with us...great! He's a perfect fit and a breath of fresh air to our sound. He's new at this. He had girls all over him. He talked to me about it and I told him have fun but be careful. They don't know you. If you get mixed up with a groupie, I guarantee you she'll be nothing but trouble after the score. Be polite, make 'em feel special...but leave it at that. He agreed and thanked me for telling him that. He's a great kid with a great future and this is a perfect opportunity for him to get some stage legs. Life is good. Off to the Super Bowl! Hope the Who does well, not to mention the Saints...I'd favor the Colts as well. Peyton Manning has had his game face on since training camp and although I love the Saints, it looks to me like the Colts are going to win? They can lose if they beat themselves. We'll see, won't we! Cheers, WC1
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby draglist » Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:28 pm

It was a well played game and a perfect game plan by the Saints coach, I thought. Glad to see that you are helping out the new generation of groupie getters, John! bp
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby WildcatOne » Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:54 pm

Yes, that was a great one, I enjoyed the game tremendously, watched it with my Dad. I was wrong about the Colts winning (I LOVE IT when I'm wrong about stuff like that) and thrilled for the Saints...only one exception in my opinion to the whole deal was the halftime show. At one time I had the greatest respect and admiration for The Who, but not anymore. They would still be great if they'd called it a day 15 years ago at least. It was painfully clear to me tonight that John Entwhistle was the best musician in the band and as we all know, the Ox has been gone for a long time. I'm sure some folks dug the heck out of their set, but what I saw was not only did they play shortened versions of their hits in a quasi-medley style to fill their time slot, they didn't sound...or look...or play...all that good as compared to the way they did when those songs were recorded. I saw them live here in Houston, 2 weeks after Woodstock. It was the last time they played "Tommy" in concert in its entirety. The original lineup, with the fringe jacket, the boiler suit and boots, the destruction of the instruments and the spectacular high-energy songs. The laser show didn't come into their deal until a few years later. They were incredibly good. Not my all-time favorite band but Pete Townsend was once considered one of the top 5 guitar players to come out of Britain, also one of the top 5 songwriters. But now? Ahem...overall I'd say it was the most enjoyable Super Bowl I've seen in a few years or so...Cheers, WC1

And another yes to your Eric the great comment, BP. May he prosper and live well with us. Life is good. Cat
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby WildcatOne » Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:05 pm

Last night we played the big Mardi Gras in Galveston at Trumpets on the Strand.
http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/Build ... il/511.php
http://www.mardigrasgalveston.com/festi ... endar.html
I went out on the balcony at sunset and took the 2 pictures below. By the time the parade came through, there were at least twice as many people out there. It was a madhouse, but we played our butts off, had a dancing party crowd and we went over. Pee Wee had words for a guy in the band who's been hot-dogging it, right off the bat, in the middle of the first song he made him turn down...he's been playing twice as loud and he's also been "jazzing up" some of the songs that are supposed to be played by the book. In other words, he's been showing off and making the band suck while he does it...it's Pee Wee's band, ya know. The idea is to back him up and make him sound good...the guy was pissed off and he pulled me aside and said he's going to rig up his own system and fix it so he can play as loud as he wants after Pee Wee tells him to turn down. I didn't say anything, I just walked away from him. Yeah, he can do that, can't he. That'll show him, won't it. Good luck to him in the future! And good luck to me, too. If it's OK with him, I'll just stick with what the boss says to do. I suppose that will work for me, at least. By the time we were able to crawl out of Galveston, the crowd had swelled to what appeared to be close to a hundred thousand. All of them were drunk.
http://www.khou.com/news/slideshows/Pho ... =y&ref=%2F

On the way back, a guy in an import coupe passed us going around 70. When he got 50 feet ahead of us, his right front tire blew out and he kept driving for about a quarter of a mile before he slowed down, throwing a rooster-tail of sparks out of the right front wheel well...then he swerved into the concrete median and threw sparks off of the driver's side, I guess to balance out the show? I thought for a minute I was at an IHRA event or something...he got sideways and came to a stop in the fast lane, turned off his lights and sat there with thousands of cars coming up behind him at full speed...I told Syl, get the you-know-what outta here, man. Just go. Debby was riding in the back seat. I'm used to driving to our gigs and taking Syl, but this night Debby was with me and Ludwig doesn't have 3 seats, just 2 up front, so Syl took us in his car...it was really nice of him to do that for us but sometimes he scares me. He yells at people (who might happen to be drunk and might also be packing) and he drives aggressively and impatiently in traffic, like it's borderline destruction derby. I'm not a perfect driver but I will admit that taking defensive driving changed my life for the better...in '98 I got a ticket for going 95 in a 55...I took that course and it made me realize what a stupid idiot I had been for so long. I drive carefully and I let the other guy be a jerk...Syl doesn't do that, though. He changes into a different person behind the wheel...as some folks do...he pulled some illegal stuff...my mouth opened and words came out. I said man, you're on probation right now for your 2nd DWI. You have a month and a half to go. Why risk having your license revoked since it's red-flagged already and going to jail now? He says, well, it'll be up to the judge. He can decide whether I should go to jail for the remainder of my probation and lose my license, but I'm sober so it wouldn't be a 3rd DWI, and I'd get a fine and get to keep my license after I initially get bailed out and go to court. I said, oh, I didn't think about that. Then yeah, sure, go ahead. It'll all work out great, man. Get it back up to 90. We got home safely. It's Valentine's Day so I'm going to hang out with my wife and be a good husband, but I thought I'd put these pics in. Here's the pictures I took at susnet. I had to lighten them a lot, hence there's a lot of Gamma in them, but that crowd doubled in size within a couple of hours. Cheers, WC1
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby draglist » Sun Feb 14, 2010 11:26 pm

The adventure continues... thanks, John. bp
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby WildcatOne » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:19 pm

For some reason, I haven't been able to sleep hardly at all for the last couple of months. It could be attributable to a number of things, but one thing that has been affected is that my memory seems to be deteriorating along with my hearing. Other than that, I'm of course, perfect in every way. I don't remember where we played last week or the week before that, but I know we did. I had to stop and concentrate to remember that we played Friday night in Santa Fe at the VFW, doing a benefit for the Shriner Burns Hospital in Galveston. The entertainment business, particularly our band, is still going strong, but there were a lot of empty tables there. It was a hefty cover charge. Those folks can check out our website and find out they can see us for free next week over in Dickinson at Backe's Bullpen. But I do remember last night. Yesterday afternoon, I laid down and tried to take a one-hour nap, but I just laid there fully awake. I had 3 hours of sleep in the previous 36 hours. I sprained my left wrist this week starting my lawnmower and I'm wearing a magnet wristband which does a little to relieve the arthritic movement that accompanies strained ligaments. At the end of the quiet hour, I sat up and collected my thoughts. I said out loud: "I am going to rock that place down tonight." Then I got up and got ready to go. I picked Sylvester up and we went to Galveston to play the notorious Club 21. We hadn't played there since before Ike. They rebuilt and called but Pee Wee stood up to them and told them they have to pay us full scale or we won't do it. We don't need it. They said OK and we were booked into there this month and next month. It's a beautiful place, on a corner in old downtown Galveston and they did a terrific job on the renovation after having 9 feet of salt water in there back in 2008. Saturday is the slower night for Club 21, but we had a full house, 90% of which was women who came to dance. We played and I pulled out all the stops. I played my dead-level best. The ladies danced to every note all night long. There is no stage there so we are flat-lined across the South wall with our backs to the Postoffice Street windows. We went over like the frigging Beatles. I wish one of these days that somebody could go to a Club 21 gig with me, so you could see I'm not blowing smoke up your you-know-what about it. I kicked. I duck-walked (first time since my leg got operated on over a year ago). I jumped. I sang. I danced. I walked out into the crowd and boogied. I played solos. I assumed all 15 of the heroic guitar player poses that I memorized years ago. I did that show with every ounce of power, energy, creativity and passion that I could deliver. At the end of the night, Pee Wee called me over..."John, I need to talk to you for a minute." I thought, here it comes. He said "I just want you to know I've always admired you." I said Thank you. Then he said "But tonight...you played your A$$ off. You sang, played, and performed the best I've ever seen you do. I just wanted you to know I saw all of it. GREAT job, John." I reached over and shook his hand and I said Thank you for that, Pee Wee. You just made my day, in more ways than you know. He gripped my hand and pulled me in and looked me straight in the eye and said "I DO know...ALL of it. YOU are the man." On the way home, Sylvester also complimented me highly on playing the best show he'd ever seen me do. He said between Pee Wee and me, we've got it all covered...and he said we've got the world by the tail and it's just looking better all the time. He made me feel pretty good...but the original inspiration came from inside me...I said I was going to do that to myself (I also talk to myself these days) and I did it. Couldn't sleep all night, got a few Z's in between 7 and 10 this morning. I hear Ronnie has a big crowd and party lined up for Backe's Bullpen this coming Friday night. I don't know if I can play every gig like last night. I hurt all over. And some gigs require restraint. But not Club 21. I hope they decide we're worth full-scale and give us 2 nights in a row like they used to. We'll see. Glory is fleeting. This is a rambling post, but it's the Night Shift. I just miss my wife. She'll be back in late April. Hope everybody enjoyed the March Meet, it finishes up tomorrow. Cheers, WC1
Last edited by WildcatOne on Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Night Shift... Continues!

Postby draglist » Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:04 am

As always, great reading, John. You are THE MAN over here, too. bp
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