The Night Shift

[WildcatOne]

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Wheelz...
Cheers, WC1

[WildcatOne]

I started to put this post in the "What's On The Jukebox?" thread, but I'll put it in here because it's a summary of this week's events and happenings in my music trip...thank you for the very kind words for the Citykings, BP. Yesterday the band played at the St. Arnold's Brewery in near Northwest Houston after the brewery tour. An interesting note of the gig was perfectly in line with what I have been thinking as this band goes along. Last year, I was removed from Citykings practice for a couple of months. The last rehearsal I missed with the band was the weekend I went to Eddyville. When I got back and rejoined (I had been out of the band for 2 months, working the open-mic jams at the Cock-Eyed Seagull every Thursday...I quit doing that for a few reasons. First, I was getting $50 every time I played it, and spending $50 on travel, overhead and peripheral expenses, plus I didn't care at all for the music. Open mic nights are almost always a very big step down...most of the players are not fully developed into workably-formatted performers. That's about as nice as I can put it...) Anyway, when I got back and rejoined, I found that the band had started doing cover songs of 70s material, some obscure, some in an R&B vein and some songs that I had been doing at the open-mic nights. In case a Cityking reads this, I want you to know that yesterday, 4 people came up to me at the brewery gig and told me right off the top that they loved our original material and wanted to know about who, how and when we wrote the songs. They also scoffed at the band's playing cover songs (one guy called it "schlock"...I don't disagree), and they asked me why we are doing them when we obviously have superior material to play that we wrote. I could not honestly argue with anything those folks said. In case you didn't notice, CKs, I didn't do any covers yesterday. It wouldn't make sense to me, not just because we don't sound very good doing them, but they are songs everybody's heard thousands of times...that's it for that I have to say about the Citykings. I made $515 this week playing guitar for Pee Wee Bowen. The merry-go-round is spinning faster. A guy asked me last night at a wedding gig, where have you been playing? I went blank...I know where the gigs are and I know how to get home from them, but there are a lot of them (2 yesterday with 2 bands, and I actually had forgotten about the first gig I played that day when I was talking to the guy) and all I really pay attention to is how the stage is set up. That part of it remains pretty much the same and I am focused on that arrangement, but the location of the gigs, well, uh, they're out there...the band wants me to sing more and they're having a rehearsal week after next for me to bring in material that I'll be singing with them. It's cover songs, of course, but they are done extremely well in a show-band format, with a horn section and keyboards that simulate strings, big organ sounds and sophisticated arrangements that make the band marketable in the big-leagues in this region. When I got the gig with this band, I found myself in a very fortunate situation. It's a professional situation at a level I somehow managed to get plopped into. The Citykings know I'm doing it and they understand, but I would really love it if I could do both bands and do them with the CKs going all-original material. Gotta run, I have to go clean the mud off the dolly and my regular gig shoes from the Friday night gig we played at the Galveston County Fairgrounds. I remember that gig because I have to clean the mud up...I'll remember last night's gig because I'm looking at my black bowtie and cumberbun sitting on top of my tuxedo jacket draped over this chair. The management treated us like dirt, and Pee Wee mentioned to me that from now on, he's tripling our wedding gig fees. They gave us a lot of unnecessary trouble and finally the keyboard guy got pissed and told 'em no, I'm carrying my stuff out here instead of all the way around the block like you are telling me...next thing he knew, he had a cop on him, and Pee Wee had to get between them and make peace so we could get out of there...like I say, we were dirt. It sucks to be treated that way, but I went along with it and got my stuff (around 200 lbs of stuff for me...my amp weights 125 lbs) out of there around the other side of the block (instead of right outside the door within a few feet of the stage) and split. Gotta go. Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

Crazy, man. Pee Wee needs to up that price and then hire a few good guys to help with the load in/out... got to get good ones who won't screw up the stuff, though. (Probably very similar to racing crew in terms of getting good guys who will treat your stuff well). bp

[WildcatOne]

I played 3 gigs this weekend. Made $300 even. It'll be the last 3-gig weekend I'll have for a long time. I played Friday night at the Haak Winery and Vineyard in Santa Fe for 300 dancing, partying yuppies, yesterday we played at a church festival in Dickinson from 1-3PM...major eye-candy...this chick that Pee Wee's wife knows that works out all the time showed up wearing short-shorts...she got right up in front of us during "Hold On, I'm Comin'" and she turned around, grabbed her ankles and did her thang and made sure we all got a good, long look...interesting what this music does to folks...even in a church parking lot...today I played a 2-hour set with the Whiskey Saints in League City to close out the annual Music and Art Festival. To my susprise, a big crowd showed up for us and they danced and partied until we had finished the last song and they wouldn't let us quit...we did an encore (634-5789) and left it there...it was a great musical weekend. I play keyboards with the Saints and guitar with Pee Wee. I was talking to the bass player with Pee Wee yesterday and I told him I'm looking at getting a new guitar. My '69 Les Paul has been a workhorse and I beat the living daylights out of it, and it's starting to get a little tired these days. I told Jeff I'm looking at Telecasters and he flipped...we talked for 15 minutes about Telecasters and how versatile, durable and wide-ranging they are...Roy Buchanan. Steve Cropper. Steve Morse. Danny Gatton. We must have named 20 guys who use them that are in the big leagues. I'm going to get an American Standard Tele. Bone-stock with no changes. I might only do one thing, and that will be to get graphite bridge saddles for it, but other than that, it's staying just like it will be when I pull it down off the wall at Guitar Center. Jeff said it will sound great with my Fender Twin Reverb amp, and he's right about that. The Telecaster is not the world's most beautiful guitar, but it is arguably the best deal for the money that you can get. Of course, the keyboard guy said no, get a Stratocaster. This is a Stratocaster band...well, I've got news for him. It USED to be a Stratocaster band. I'm not the last guitar player, I'm me, and that is who Pee Wee hired me to be and that is what he hired me to do. MY style. I'll get the Tele after all this other stuff gets done. It's a sensible and practical choice, and the guitar will no doubt outlive my musical career. I'll give it to one or both of my boys. Cheers, WC1
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&i ... ster&gbv=1

[draglist]

Cheers, Cat. It will sound amazing... bp

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, BP, I will have to put off the Telecaster until I get Sabbath's vacation paid for...but the beat goes on in the Night Shift. We played to an ecstatic crowd of 400-plus people down in Kemah at T-Bone Tom's Friday night. It's an outside gig and we had the dance floor full of people the whole time. A few weeks ago, we were doing a particularly hot Little Richard medley and when I saw Pee Wee jump up on a table and dance in the middle of the song and my ride came up, I got the Holy Ghost and I duck-walked out into the crowd on the dance floor and played my guitar solo whilst scooting across the floor with my instrument at knee-level...Pee Wee flipped and he told me afterwards that it's part of the act now...good call, because folks don't see that kind of stuff anymore and it adds a show-biz flavor to the night's entertainment. The crowd loves it...anyway, Friday night we had 'em jumping and that deal came up. I duck-walked out into the crowd and the next thing I know, I'm being climbed all over by a crazy chick that got lit-up somehow with this and I carried her back onstage with me, Pee Wee chuckling watching this, and she let go of me and went over and slammed into Clem, the sax man and liked to knocked him off the stage. Then Pee Wee grabbed her and steered he back towards the dance floor...word came around later that she's a retired schoolteacher and she got inspired to not be shy anymore from hearing us play these old songs about having fun that leads to you-know-what...she was brutal, man...she showed up again later and wrapped around me while we were playing "Old Time Rock 'n Roll"...I turned around and said "It's YOU again!" She was heaving ecstatically..."You guys are GREAT!!!" Honestly, I think we're good. "Great" is up to the audience. We just play the best we know how. Pee Wee encourages flourishes of entertaining visuals and musical adventures. His style is about as open-minded as it can be. He told me, be you and do your thing, baby. Knock 'em on their asses. Go for the throat on every note. The idea is to back up Pee Wee's voice and show, but he wants us to be as multifaceted and as entertaining as possible, and I like that about him and the band. It shows enthusiasm, excitement and it makes a regular gig like that a special event, something folks will remember and enjoy the memory of the show when they go home instead of "Yeah, this band played while we were there. They were OK. Let's see who's playing next weekend..." They're going to say "Have y'all seen Pee Wee's band? They got a SHOW, man...big-time...we had a BLAST!" Speaking of Blast, Nick (I mean Chris)'s band, Blastula, will be playing a set at Fitzgerald's in June, opening for another band here in town. I'll be there if I'm not playing that night...they're hardcore, and they rock. Buncha 15-year-old kids, man. I'm just amazed that my sons have without my realizing it, grown up in my own image and likeness. I'm watching it all happen with silent wonder. BTW, they wear earplugs. Smart kids. It'll be worth it to them in the long run. Cheers, WC1

[jim sanders]

great story !!