I'll be playing the keyboard with my oldster rock 'n' roll band The Tunebuckets. It will be my first time out with them. I joined the band as the drummer, but later switched to keys. I don't consider myself a keyboard player but I'm working hard at it. Because of my back issues and creeping arthritis playing drums was becoming painful. I really like the Tunebuckets and wanted to stay in the band. Last year at our annual "Sparkstock" July 4th block party I played Matt's Wurly with the Tunebuckets while Jim sat in on drums. The keyboard added a cool new dimension to the sound. I now. have a Nord Electro 3 that is a great little instrument and emulates the Wurly perfectly (also Farfisa, B3, Rhodes and Vox Jaguar). The 'buckets have a new drummer, a young guy named Matt (different Matt). We go on first at 9:30.
Then the Backorders will play at 10:30. We'll be playing "Grimace", of course. Last time out December at the Starry Plough) Robin and Greg were absent and Erin Lyman and Ken Mahru subbed for them (they did a GREAT job). Sam Douglass is now more or less permanent on lead guitar. I have moved to keys. I've actually been the keyboard player ever since Eric Kampman left the band early last year. The band will be full strength for this show it will be a first for a "Grimace"performance. The December show, as I said before, had no Robin and Greg and the two September (Stork Club and Red Devil Lounge) shows had no Sam (I was on lead guitar and there were no keys) - so this will be a treat!
Sam and Erin's band, the Fireflies, will perform at 11:30. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing them for the first time. I'm hoping that Erin will join us for our set-closing rendition of the old 60's hit "Sukiyaki" - sung in Japanese.
We are doing this show for a couple of reasons: 1. T.R. Hunt books first Fridays at the club and 2. I want my muse and poster model, the very beautiful May Mui, to have a chance to hear the album that she "inspired" before we record it. I am very proud of these songs and the Backorders know their way around them pretty good now.
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| Here's the poster - designed by me and executed with aplomb by Jim "Boom Boom" Usher |
April will be a quiet month but in May we'll be out again. The annual Spirit Vibrations-sponsored Bob Dylan birthday concert is happening on the 24th at the Red Devil Lounge and I'll be there with the Backorders (Erin and Ken will be subbing for Robin and Greg again) and earlier that month - the 11th - I'll be doing an "unplugged" show at Berkeley's new Hippie Gypsy Cafe with Robin and Greg. We're calling out trio N.O.S. for "New Old Stock". Matthew Joseph Payne has volunteered to be our opening act.
The other cool thing about the Friday show is that it will be our first "All Peavey All the Time" performance. Amps, guitars and drums are all Peavey! Some musicians turn up their snobby noses when I say that we are a Peavey-playin' band. It bothers me, but I understand. I used to be snobby about equipment until I realized that I was the one who was missing out. When I started collecting 70's-era R.O.C drums, some of my musician friends thought I was joking. - until they heard the drums. My Reuther drum set is my favorite of all the sets I've ever owned. I have recently aquired a - what else? - Peavey set - not the expensive "collectible" Radial Pro kind, but the cheap import "International" series. Put on some good heads and tuned 'em up and they sound GREAT.
So, why Peavey? Why not Fender or another brand? Well, I'll tell ya: I remember going to see Elvis Costello in Berkeley in 1978. He was with the Attractions on his first big tour of the States, playing songs from My Aim is True and the soon-to-be-released This Year's Model. I remember the Peavey amps they used and how tinny and awful the sound was. My opinion was: "Peavey, yuck!" Fast forward to last year. Greg and I were in the market for a 40 to 50 watt tube amps for our guitars. The Twin Reverbs were a little too heavy and powerful for the clubs we were playing. I was thinking Deluxe Reverb but damn they were expensive! One day Greg showed up with a Peavey Valve King 112, a beautiful, mellow little 50 watter that was perfect. I went out and got one right away. The guy who sold my amp to me also threw in a Peavey TNT bass amp. Then I remembered that somewhere in the basement was...a Peavey KB100 keyboard amp....and the rest, as they say, is history.
So let me say in closing: Peavey, Backorders, Tunebuckets, Fireflies, May, T.R., Spirit Vibrations, Friday night, Plough and Stars....BE THERE!!!
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