I have fond memories of weekends on Lake Erie on a friend's boat, hitting Kelly's Island and Put-In-Bay. Kelly's Island was more family oriented, as I recall.
Just realized this week is 35 years…
- Thread starter Jakedog
- Start date
Still is. I call it Put-In-Bay for grownups. Lol.
Whoa. My band played our first professional gig on May 10, 1968.
Oh man, Chelsea St Pub! I musta played at least a hundred of those gigs. The last one I remember still being open was in the mall in Lubbock. The last time I played there was ‘95.
My
It’s an ACC campus now.
The other was in Northcross Mall.
The mall still exists, and is home to Guitar Center.
Those were loud, rowdy, drunken places.
Drink specials encouraged drunkenness.
We went over well.
John was good looking and personable.
The drinking age was 18.
I was tall, and had a bit of face fuzz, so I “passed” for 18.
That Martin sounded great, and played like a dream.
Great memories!
There were two in Austin, the first was in the long defunct Highland Mall.
It’s an ACC campus now.
The other was in Northcross Mall.
The mall still exists, and is home to Guitar Center.
Those were loud, rowdy, drunken places.
Drink specials encouraged drunkenness.
We went over well.
John was good looking and personable.
The drinking age was 18.
I was tall, and had a bit of face fuzz, so I “passed” for 18.
That Martin sounded great, and played like a dream.
Great memories!
I must say, I am so envious of you guys, who obviously have real love for the audience. Sadly for me (and I figured this out a long time ago) I started resenting the audiences that didn't seem enough impressed with what I was doing and when my performing wasn't going well, I questioned the standards of the audience. My hat is off to those of you, who look out at the faces and have mostly good thoughts and feelings.
There's more to music than just the music, isn't there?
There's more to music than just the music, isn't there?
Congrats @Jakedog (and others)! It's quite an accomplishment especially when I think about friends I know who stopped playing. This September it'll be 37 years for me. First professional gig was when I was 19 opening up for a very popular local band to a packed house. We were so nervous I think we played our 30 minute set in about 20 minutes time! It got better after that and we gigged regularly at a club that had you play from 9pm to 2am. Sometimes three or four nights in a row.
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Telecaster582
Tele-Afflicted
Yeah, I've only played at church so far but I plan on busking at the farmers market this summer so I can buy me a new guitar.
I once lived on a place that boarded horses. One day some people came by to take their horse for a spin. At the same time, my band was dinking around testing amps or something. Spontaneously, we fell into playing Help!, quickly putting the arrangement and parts together. We were playing pretty loud and just enjoying the hell out of that. In my memory, the song gave us goosebumps. We were playing strictly for ourselves and on a plane where the music took over, with little talking or fooling around. Without saying anything, we were just doing it by ear.
I might be conflating events, but this may have been the time that we auditioned a young drummer named Scott Frost. He was the son of Rich Frost, who had played drums with Elvis, Rick Nelson, and other early 60s artists.
During a break, someone knocked at the door. It could have been Rich Frost, who had opened his own restaurant nearby. Thinking hard about it, it wasn't Rich at the door. It was probably one of the horse owners. Anyway, the person who knocked was stunned to see that he had been listening to a real band, not a record.
Who knows why, but we never had Help! on our setlists. But I'm sure TDPRIers of my age will remember goofing around with different styles and such. The Beatles used to do this all the time in the studio.
In the early 70s, we played 5 hours a night. I somehow got it into my head that one of my idols (usually Larry Coryell) was standing in the back of the room. This helped me remember to always, ALWAYS play at the highest level I could. I'm not talking about showing off with the solos. Rather, I wanted to convey the idea that I would try to "serve the song" as people say these days. Sometimes, instead of Coryell in the back of the room, I imagined that the guitarist who played on the record was back there listening like a hawk.
