CLOWNBOY'S PICTURES HERE - ANIMALIENS PICTURES HERE
SHOW REPORT
Below
Got to the Club around 1PM with guitar, Drumheads
in hand. Clownboy was already there fielding the array of phone calls.
Slowly within the next hour, people started to show up ordering Bloody
Mary’s and burgers. Beth from CBB showed up to prepare giving the gift
bags to the people. Our bus driver today was Bill (not Bob… sorry.
Inside joke only a few will get – Kal?).
The total with CB and myself was 31. Just enough to
seat everyone comfortably on the Bus. We headed out just a little after
two with gift packs in hand (Thank you Beth!). Wendy from SunSpot had a
little surprise, too – but we’ll talk about that more later.
The first stop was the Klinic for Atomic Blue.
http://theatomicblue.com. A 3 piece band playing a mix of covers and
originals. Awesome group – they were tight and had a full sound. The
group was out dancing and rockin! Little Lisa tried to help me brush off
my swing dancing skills. They still need a little more work. Mike was an
awesome host and had a sweet poll that many of us danced on. To
accommodate smokers, the Klinic has a deck in back. Something for
everyone.
From the Klinic to the Dry Bean, Remo had indulged
us with a song on the guitar. Artie and friend Otto were driving by the
bus with the camera. PBR and shots of Dr’s. were the drinks on board.
We got to a pretty empty Dry Bean. Old Dogs New
Trick (http://www.olddogsnewtrick.com/)
was getting set up for sound check – they even played a couple using the
drummer for “Naked”, a BoDeans tribute band (http://www.voicesband.com).
Ryan and Jeff – both employees of the Bean – were there having a drink
and decided to join us on the tour via their bikes for a couple stops
before they had to work the evening. Down the street from the Bean there
is a “Buddy Jesus” lookin statue, so some of the bussers decided to go
get their picture taken in front of it. We got some great Podcast
material from Remo, Wendy, Clownboy, Kevin from ODNT and Caroline.
A real cool part of the day was during each stop we
were giving away prizes, and at the Bean they chipped in a gift
certificate which was won by Bill – the bus driver. We also found out it
was Bill and Karens’ 37th wedding anniversary. Karen had her
car at the Bean just in case she decided to head out at that time, but
she was enjoying the tour so much she decided to hang out for the rest
of the day. Do these guys rock, or what?
With good food and good drink in our tummies, we
headed to the Warehouse Stage. Denise had brought along Clown noses for
all to wear inside, and with that, everybody got a free shot. Thanks
Denise!
Fish and Dave were working on getting the sound
and lights ready – Dave showed off some new “heatless” lights. It was
cool to stand under such bright lights and not feel like your in the
Mohave Desert. Fish had just did some rewiring on the sound system and
showed me the new ability to record from the sound booth. Bands can
bring recording devices and get a good sound recording by one of the
best mixers.
Since there was no band there, I decided to get up
on stage and show everybody that this guitar not only plays well, but
sounds pretty good. Messed up on a couple songs. Turned out to be a big
sing – a – long. Awesome! Everyone has a great voice. We even sang Happy
Anniversary to Bill and Karen as they brought out cupcakes with candles.
See? We accommodate EVERYONE!
The rain started coming down at that point. It
held the bus at bay for only a couple minutes. Then it was off to the
Hod….. oh wait. I almost forgot the “quick stop” to Quaker Steak and
Lube. Well, actually we didn’t really STOP there, for if we did, we
probably would have been kicked out since half the bus MOONED the bar.
So anyway, we went to the Hody Bar and grill. The
biggest issue was that they were not expecting us since we didn’t get a
chance to talk to them. But they were more than able to host the tour,
and even gave a prize for the drawing.
The band “Arkansas Mel” (http://sbband.com/)
was working on their sound check, but after seeing the group dancing,
decided to play a couple songs just for the tour! Thanks guys! You guys
sounded great and we had a lot of fun.
The Surprise stop was next – Cheeseburger in
Paradise to see the Blue Olives (http://www.blueolives.com/).
During the drive to CIP, we had to maneuver around a downed tree. BILL
ROCKS ON DRIVING THE BUS! He got us through and we got to CIP where we
rocked to BO for about a good hour.
Finally, the last stop was at hand. The Club
Tavern was pretty hopping when we got there, and we then burned the
house down. CBB (http://www.clearbluebetty.com)
was on stage within 5 minutes and they had John Masino in tow to play a
few songs with them including “Bulletproof”. Wendy had made “I survived
the Bus” pins (remember the surprise?) and we handed them out as people
walked into the Club.
The final drawings happened for the signed Drum
Heads and the signed Guitar. Skip and Marge won the drumheads, in which
I understand Skip then gave her winnings to Beth from CBB because of the
great gift bags we got. Kudos to Skip (Dana)!
However, the winner of the guitar was none other
than…..
…..wait a minute….. I can’t remember who won the
guitar…..
….who was that…… Alanis Morrisette? No. George
Clooney? No. Alicia Silverstone? No. Clownboy? No……
….hmmmmm…..
OH YEAH! It was WENDY from SUNSPOT!!! Lucky girl.
Wish I had a fully signed guitar…..
And with that, the tour was over. CBB finished out
the night and we all said our goodbyes. I met a lot of new friends.
Lovely Lisa, Teesha, Phil.. I mean Bill. Bill and Karen the bus driving
duo. Clownboy’s HOT niece (sorry CB, had to do it). Marge and many many
others. The Tour also got to see the bands Atomic Blue, Old Dogs New
Trick, Arkansas Mel, the Blue Olives and Clear Blue Betty – more bands
than we ever expected!! All in all a great day and the best event on a
little yellow school bus.
So many thanks to give out. Music Go Round for the
guitar. Drums n Moore for the drum heads, all the bands for their
contributions. The Klinic, The Dry Bean, The Warehouse Stage, The Hody
and Club Tavern for their donations to the drawing. Elroys’ Little
Sister (Amy) for helping procure the bus. Bill and Karen for driving our
drunk bodies around.
Most importantly – Thanks to Clownboy. This was his
idea and he did a lot of footwork on it. I couldn’t ask for a better
cohort.
The success from this event will definitely fuel
another Bus Trip. So if you didn’t get a chance to make the first one,
watch for the next – it will be coming soon!
LINKS
