The Night Shift... Continues!

[WildcatOne]

I'm leaving shortly to play the first gig in a month with the Pee Wee Bowen Band. Lots of things changed with Hurricane Ike; probably the biggest change is that we are going to be playing clubs "inside the Loop", the freeway that surrounds the center area of Houston. It's "downtown" gigs. Tonight we're playing at the 1400 Club, tomorrow night at Hidden Palms in Santa Fe (back to familiar ground), but we're excited about the new horizons that downtown gigs will no doubt bring. The 1400 Club is very "Club 21-ish"...Club 21 will be closed at least until the end of December, while they rebuild it. After the gig tonight I'm driving to Galveston. I will spend the night in Ludwig, and tomorrow morning a crew of people will show up at my Dad's house to begin clearing it out. It took in 4 1/2 feet of salt water during the storm surge, and everything below that height is completely ruined and covered with mold, including the 2007 Focus wagon. It's heartbreaking and horrible, but at the same time, the insurance money they will receive will enable them to get a leg up on assisted living. Anyway, I gotta run. Everybody have a great weekend, I'll be back some time this weekend with reports on the gigs. Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

Thanks, John. Looking forward to new stories from new venues. bp

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Thanks for the update WC. I sure am sorry to hear about the trouble at your dad's place. I hope it, along with all the other good people down there, are able to get their lives back together soon.

[pro70z28]

Sorry about the damage at your Dad's house. But, at least he's O.K. Hope things can get back to some sort of normal for you all soon.

[WildcatOne]

Club 21 in Galveston went under 9 feet of water; they are rebuilding and will be open at the end of the year. T-Bone Tom's was completely submerged and ended up with all the trees, boats, furniture and litter in that area on top of it. They're also rebuilding and they will be back in mid-November from what I heard. Heads and Tales is back in business, I didn't hear about their damage. The Balinese Room in Galveston was completely blown away. It's gone. A lot of history went down there.
http://balineseroom.net/
We played the 1400 Club Friday night in town. Most of the crowd that was there expected the Norma Zenteno Band...
http://www.zenteno.com/
anyway, a lot of them stuck around and they ended up staying the whole night...Pee Wee sang his heart out to them and they all loved him! We're booked back in the next month and at their other club, the 6th Street Bar & Grill, across the street from Fitzgerald's in the Heights. It's amazing that we're playing downtown! I did see some ladies at the 1400 Club that kind of reminded me of Club 21 on a good night...they had a table and they danced the night away with us while we played...turns out they had seen us at Club 21 and when they heard we were playing the 1400 Club, they didn't miss it! Then Saturday night we played at a beautiful place down in Santa Fe called Hidden Palms for a local high school reunion, their 40th. I can remember playing for a dead audience, but it hasn't happened with this band, ever. That crowd was totally and completely stiff. I couldn't believe it! But we played the same 4 sets we played Friday night, and got our stage legs back. I ran into a lady who I went to high school with and I hadn't seen her since then...we didn't recognize each other but we knew each other's names! Her husband is a cool guy...kinda reminded me of Timothy Leary...it was great to see her again after all these years! I missed playing, as it turns out we had most of our shows get cancelled due to damage and setbacks from our patrons. Billy Bunsch, the hot rod genius whose 32 3-window coupe I showed in Photos From The Road last year, lost his house. He moved his cars upstream to high ground and they're OK. Our keyboard player, Hank, lost his house. Our drummer, Ron, had heavy damage to his house on Tiki Island but he said he's having it rebuilt...two of our favorite people who come out and dance at our shows, Ron and Jenni, lost everything in the storm. Everything. My Dad's house in Galveston is being gutted right now and will be refurbished and sold. I spent my teens and early adulthood there, it's been home base since 1961, it was very traumatic for Dad, he's had some episodes of disorientation...he'll settle down once they get into the assisted living place next week...God Bless him...my friend Jim Shortt died Tuesday, and I have been pretty down over it...I prayed for Jim every day, but the Lord had other plans for him and I accept His judgement...like my Dad was telling me in Galveston Saturday...I went down there and salvaged the half of his record collection that was above the water line, around 1500 albums...he said "I just can't believe this. It's not something I can fathom." I said "This was an act of God." He immediately perked up. He said "Yes, it was, wasn't it. Far be it from me to second-guess His decisions..." We'll be OK, we're still putting stuff back together here. Life is good. WC1

[draglist]

Hang tough, John. We're there with you in spirit. bp

[Rapid Randy Baker]

WC, you are a GREAT PERSON,,,thanks for sharing with us. Stay tough buddy it will work out.

[WildcatOne]

We played a wild show at Heads & Tails in Kemah Friday night to a packed, partying, dancing crowd...it felt great to be back. I went ahead and took responsibility for the band's website, which Maritime has taken into his FTP domain now that it's redirected there. Many, many thanks to Maritime...he has done a GREAT job with that site...I decided to make flyers to attach to the site, and so far they are getting raves from our clients. I ran into Lynn Raggio at Jim Shortt's wake and after exchanging pleasantries, we talked about hooking up in the future for some benefit shows and so forth. I made the flyer for a benefit he's putting on with some friends coming up in November. It's all good karma. They're going to get new equipment for musicians who lost their stuff in the hurricane. I went down to Pee Wee's house last week and changed the oil in George...Pee Wee has a lift and he lets me use it...I tellya, it sure beats paying $40 to a guy to do it for me when I can do it myself for about $6 plus gas to and from Pee Wee's house, plus we hung out and had a good time. Jerry, Pee Wee's wife and I have also become very close and we work on the website together a lot over the phone. We played the hot rod show at Carbide Park Sunday afternoon, and although there were over a hundred fantastic hot rods there, my camera pooped out after about 5 pictures (with brand-new batteries in it) and I had to just settle for what I could get, ya know. The band played for tips, and after the show, each of us collected $79...WOW...what I found out later was that Pee Wee refused to take his cut. He gave us his tips and played the show for free...I don't know if I've said this before, but there is only one Pee Wee Bowen...great guy. He was voted into the Autorama Thanksgiving weekend at Astrohall. His '56 Chevy will be on display along with a select few of the area's finest street rods. Getting voted into Autorama is a very special honor...it's like winning a national event or something. I'll be sure to go and hang out at his display. At the hot rod show, a guy pulled up in a 64 1/2 Mustang convertible, and the lady I was hanging out with, Dee Dee and I got to talking to him. He was a very nice guy and his car is a completely original 'Stang that has been restored to perfection. After talking to him for about 10 minutes, we discovered that he and I are both Phantom Kruizers! Then we were brothers...it's a small world, after all...as far as my musical performance went that day, I sucked. It happens from time to time, and as it turned out, a few other guys in the band also had that problem that day for some reason. But as a whole, we did fine. It just feels good to be back out there doing what we do and I've been enjoying the crowds, who have never been anything less than ecstatic with us. Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

Great job on Pee Wee's site, Cat. bp