Cut back to 11/2/2024 and as the band completes the last notes of "Purple Rain", little did everyone in that room and especially Lisa, Ellen and Rob know that the next performance would be very different. BiPolar Bear has prided itself in a couple of things; one – to play a different show every time, whether that is a different set list, different songs etc, and two, to have a good time. That last show of 2024 was a really fun one. But it was the end of something. After that show, we as a band knew that David "Evad" Gonzalez was leaving because he was only sitting in for the last 4 shows of the year when Sebastian Marecki left earlier in 2024. The band did not know that Jimmy Cavanaugh and Paul Wilhelm, two huge anchors of BiPolar Bear would be leaving also. Lisa, Ellen and Rob, after recovering from such a crash of those departures decided to move forward and see if they could put together Humpty Bipolar Bear Dumpty.
The steps in putting that band (egg) back together are detailed in Band Story Part 3 . If you are offended by gushing about and complimenting people, please stop reading….. So fast forward with only 6 full rehearsals under our collective belt to Heroes West in Lemont, 7 PM on February 15 and Don the sound guy yells, "You're Live." Note, This is the most nervous I have been since the very first show in Jimmy's back yard in August of 2019 where I felt I was going to pass out during the first set. Doctor Keith Taddei starts strumming the beginning chords of "Closing Time", Ellen joins in with the keyboard part and then the wonderful and amazing voice of BPB (Lisa) starts the initial verse. Oh my, all is good in the world again. The adrenaline is intoxicating (which my bandmates will tell you, I am usually 'high" on the show for a week. Eventually there is a horrible post show crash, which leaves me in a puddle of sadness when all the dopamine departs, but that is a story for another day). We rip through a 60 minute set in about 62 minutes (which was the official count of the recording…) I butcher "Uninvited" because my G string (not what you are thinking, pervs…) is completely out of tune making my octave jumps sound as if a speeding Etzel has plowed into a screaming Ostrich. Kevin Vesel, who played an amazing show on drums, prematurely moves to the second section of "LaGrange" without allowing the stupid vocal intro, before Professor Mike Morsovillo calms us all down and directs us to float back to the beginning so we can give it the proper initial verse are really the only two burps besides us stopping "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" to change out my bass. The rest of it was pretty freakin' fun! The crowd was really responsive and appreciative. According to Pete Covelli from Eleven the Band, all tables were sold out. Doctor Keith Taddai, playing his first live show in 10 years, destroyed the house with his killer work all night (sizzled on "Rock You Like A Hurricane". Professor Mike Morsovillo is just a cool cat, and his bluesy licks were devoured by those in attendance. I think the guy who deserves the most credit here despite the amazing chops of the two fellas mentioned before is Kevin "Stoic Squirrel" Vesel. He plays drums in Like A Stone and they just played a 3 hour set on New Years Eve, and then he had to learn all of our stuff for this show. He was awesome (except when he cuts me off from my verse in "LaGrange"). He held the band together with his solid rhythm and cool percussion parts. It allowed everyone else to do their thing with confidence. Don't get me wrong, it was not a perfect show….I don't think there ever is one, but it was our first show together, live without a net. Lisa and Ellen were their usual stellar selves. I think other than my ruining "Uninvited" that night, it is still my favorite song to play and listen to; Lisa and Ellen's harmonies are ethereal and intoxicating and Keith's work on the song is absolutely amazing. Mike was awesome all night but his singing and his sizzling solo work on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" were mesmerizing, plus he slaughtered the Lukather solo in "Hold the Line". That was the first live performance of that song since the August of 2019 backyard debut of the BPB and I don't see it leaving the set list for a while. I cannot say how incredibly happy and honored I am to play in a band with these people. I am pretty enchanted that they put up with me. They are really amazing players, but they also are really good people! They are talented, funny and kind. Thanks for everyone who continues to support us, especially our families. I really want to again emphasize how lucky we are that we found Keith, Mike and Kevin and They saved the band, really. So, now onto the next one, our home, Pub 78 on ST. Patty's day weekend. Dr. Keith will be on assignment (what does that mean, is he inventing a new Physics Theorem to save the world, is he working on a secret coup for the CIA……? We just don't know), and Jimmy and Dave will be back to help us through the insanity that will be that show. The Pub is always nuts, but St. Patty's day will be even more crazy. Hope to see you all on March 15th at the Pub.
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It has taken me a while to write this because it sucks when a year ends for the band. It does feel that we are in year cycles. Starts in January when we start to plan what we are doing, and unfortunately we seem to have to deal with the reality of personnel changes. We knew Dave was subbing in on guitar and that he was helping us out until the year ended. We are all so glad he did, because we played six really fun shows this year, two with Sebastian on guitar at Pub 78 and Bannerman’s, and 4 with Dave. Those “Dave” shows were equally crazy and fun. We started opening for the True Villains at “Westchester Fun Fest”, journeyed out to McHenry County and played Bugsy’s, opened for Eleven at Heroes’ West in Lemont and finished up with the show I am going to summarize in the following post.
There is something really special for us about Pub 78. Each and every time we play there, it feels ridiculously fun. Every show is fun, seriously, but Pub 78 shows seem to be even a bit more. It is such an intimate experience, the audience is on top of the performance area, the turnout is always great and you never know what is going to happen. This time did not disappoint. We were able to get Ellen’s boyfriend, Dennis Melzer to join the band on “Secret Agent Man” after we ripped through a few tunes including “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and “My Own Worst Enemy”. After Dennis did a great job, it was time for frequent guest, Jerry Madsen to lend some vocals. Jerry guested on Badfinger’s “Not Matter What” and The Ides of March’s “Vehicle” to which Jimmy C lended a closing scream to the conclusion. Jerry then hit his vocal effects pedal and channeled Satan as he growled through the first few verses of ZZ Top’s “LaGrange”. Billy Gibbons sings it low, but Jerry went Beelzebub low! We worked in some of our newer songs like “What’s Up” and “Closing Time” and Creed’s “My Sacrifice”. The wheels came off during the second set. Ma Cavanaugh, dressed as a banana got on stage and danced. I do not remember what song it was, but I remember my bass bouncing off my midsection because I couldn’t stop laughing. What a great sport Ma Cavanaugh is to just get up and have a great time! Later, Jen the co owner of Pub 78, dressed in the banana suit, was dirty dancing with me during a song (check the picture page) and later another Banana joined us on stage. That is a three banana show! I also laid on floor during the entire “Rocky Mountain Way” and my brother walked away in disgust (well that was what Jimmy Cavanaugh thought, but Jimmy Smola just had to use the washroom). When Dave finished ripping the solo in “Purple Rain” we thought we were done. But the crowd (a large portion who did stay for the second set), started to chant, “One more song, one more song.” So, we plugged back in and played the one hit wonder “Flag Pole Sitta”. Okay, now we should be done, but the crowd demanded one more. We were able to give them The Foo Fighter’s “Learn to Fly”. That was it, we were spent! But what a great time and super cool to play 2 encores. We did one encore two years ago at Salerno’s but this was a new record for us. Lisa sounded amazing that night. Paul was his usual incredible self and Ellen was awesome on harmonies and keys. At the end of the evening when all of us posed for a picture, I took a deep breath and was thankful for yet another year with this band. BiPolar Bear 2.0 had rebuilt and completed six shows and countless rehearsals. I would like to thank Lisa, Paul, Ellen, Sebastian and Dave for making music with me this year. I want to thank Jen Cavanaugh and Jimmy for providing the rehearsal space for us this year and our practice space since 2015 when Jimmy and I started on this goofy journey. I want to thank Jimmy C for asking me to join him in this pursuit; it has been an amazing journey since we started. I want to acknowledge our families for all their support in regards to the time we spend pursuing our hobby! Most of all I want to thank everyone who booked us, came out to a show or said a kind word of encouragement. The boys in Eleven, True Villains who we had the amazing privilege of opening for, we are grateful for the friendship and the musical encouragement. I do not know what the future holds, the winds of change seem to always stir as we begin to plot the next year. I can promise you, Bipolar Bear will be back, playing again, and as soon as we know when, we will let you know!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE SLEEPING BEAR!!!! BPB had a crazy schedule during last weekend of Sept and the first weekend of October, with back-to-back shows on consecutive Saturdays. Up first, affectionately and unofficially known as “where Jesus left his sandals” the Bear played a full show up in McHenry County at Bugsy’s Bar and Grill! (Bugy's on Facebook ). First and foremost, we have to thank our friends and family for the support. Lisa’s family travelled to the show, Jimmy had friends from Milwaukee stop in, Dave’s Dad and his wife made an appearance. Boober’s brother Jimmy who rarely misses a show, nor smiles, drove 2 hours to the gig and Lisa Smola had her two cousins Mark (Pedro the house boy) Ponce and Gerry Sotelo with their ladyfriends (I just love that word!!!) Kristine and Amy. Boober’s cousin Jerry Madsen (who was selected to sing “No Matter What” in the middle of the first set without his prior knowledge) and his wife Shelly also made the trek. BPB alum Joe Smith was in the house for the first set with his lovely wife Sue, but we could not get him to come and play a song with us. Sarge, the killer guitar player from Betrayer was also on hand. We as a band are incredibly thankful for all the folks who have come to shows (23 in all since the first one in Jimmy’s back yard in 2019). We have been remarkably fortunate over the last 6 years (maybe 5, take out the COVID year where we practiced in the Goshen lounge in complete body condoms) (Picture for your reference from the Naked Gun ). We have had amazing support and attendance at shows. Modest showings at the Walker Park in Pleasant Dale and Cuzin’s in Tinley were still decent size crowds of over 60 folks and were very responsive. We have been asked back to each and every bar/restaurant we have played. Thank you all very, very much. Back to Bugsy’s. The stage was a pretty small one but the band (currently a six piece) put four on the stage, Paul in back, Dave in front with Lisa and Jimmy together, while Ellen and Rob set up off stage right. This tightness led to Lisa not on purpose (or maybe on purpose a time or two) unplugging Jimmy’s guitar 6 times during the show. Meanwhile, Ryan and Anthony, part of the house, ran the sound and lights. As stated many times in the blog, sound is an incredibly challenging thing to do. Dave had an issue with a short in his guitar which was a challenge for Ryan at the board. Anthony ran the lights and for the second set, blasted out some smoke as part of Set 2, which at first I had mistakenly thought Jimmy was eating peppers he should never eat and breaking wind (click here for A Documentary about Farts!). The band played several new songs including opening with “Closing Time” by Semisonic. That song had been scheduled for the last two shows but was cut each time. A strategic decision was made to place it first so it would be played. Also new, at the suggestion of Paul, we played the Dandy Warhols “Bohemian like You.” Additionally, Andy Taylor from Duran Duran's obscure one hit wonder “Take it Easy” debuted. Note, the song was featured in the Janet Jones (now Gretzsky) and Mitch Gaylord Gymnastics film, American Anthem (American Anthem Movie Link, come on you want to watch it). Hopefully we can get back there next year. The next Saturday we were given the opportunity to open and play 60 minutes for Eleven (Eleven's Facebook Page) at Heroes West in Lemont. What a great place to play. Stage was amazing, even though gear for two bands were crammed on it during our set, sound was great. The house guy there was AMAZING!!!! We got though 12 of the 13 songs we had planned and continue to get really good responses to Creed’s “My Sacrifice”, 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” and Alanis Morrissette’s “Uninvited”. Eleven delivered (as they always do) a great show! Damn them, I could not get Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses” out of my head for three days! A couple of notes about when opening. Playing is the best part, but the hustle to set up, then break down is challenging and exhausting. Paul “The Maven” Wilhelm, the drummer should be studied. He is a course in efficiency. He has the most stuff to set up and break down, yet he is usually the first done and the first off stage deconstructed. How does he do this? Lisa has two microphone stands and an IPAD, and Paul gets set up and off quicker than her, WTF? One last show for the year left on November 2nd at Pub 78. That will be our 5th show there, clearly our home field! I hope to see you there, because those shows are always nuts! Dancing bananas, guitars tuned wrong, guest players and singers, Jimmy Cavanaugh's outfits which can only be described as "combat love gear" that he wears at the Pub 78 shows, you just never know what will happen. One last note, this was written and posted at approximately 2:41 AM, and I am sure there are some errors in the writing above. Lisa Smola, who wears a T-shirt with the words "I am secretly correcting your grammar" will be letting me know what I did wrong when she peruses this blog, so I will have to go back and fix it later. Unfortunately, she is asleep and can not fix it before it goes out! Again, thanks everyone, we appreciate it! ** This post was re-posted after the aforementioned Lisa Smola corrected three grammatical errors by the author! BiPolar Bear got the awesome opportunity to play Westchester’s party in the park on July 13, day 2 of fest opening for the National Act, True Villains. Jimmy Cavanaugh was like a kid 2 days before Christmas, nearly leaping out of his skin desperate to open his presents before December 25. As a side note, I think Jimmy is the kind of kid who would unwrap his presents before the big day, wrap them back up and put them under the tree like nothing happened. My brother Jimmy Smola probably did that a couple of times I bet. But I digress, we all as a band had some excitement about the gig. The night before was super hot and Jimmy who stopped by Bond Street, said the fest was crowded. Triple Replay (Dr. Tom Sullivan’s band) and Arra, who headlined Friday night had them packed in the park. Day 2 was a beautiful but incredibly warm day. The weather reports were ominous, but it looked good all afternoon. The band arrived at the park and unloaded the equipment around 4:30 with a load time of 530ish and a start time of 6. High Stakes was on stage at 4 and doing a nice job when the generator ran out of gas, or someone accidentally tripped on some the extension cords. I am not sure what happened, but their set got interrupted. Then about 20 minutes later, Commissioner Gordon (not from Batman but Derek Gordon from the park district) got a severe weather warning and had to shut the fest down for 30 minutes. That meant High Stakes had to pull the plug again. They were troopers and put on a good show. After the all clear, we unloaded for the second time and waited for High Stakes to clear the stage and then we started setting up. This is always a challenge, we have 6 members of BPB, an associate member who plays some shows and often a guest singer or two (we had two for this one). That is a lot of equipment to mic. The sound guys had a smaller board than usual so our set up was a real challenge. They figured it out, but it took some time. Commissioner Gordon (I really enjoy saying that!!) was a great MC, but he wanted us to get going and it just takes some time to mic, get the monitors going etc. Finally, we got the go ahead from the sound guys. A really nice sized crowd had wandered back into the park while the vendors were putting their tents back together and the band was loading and setting up. The early evening rain had cleared, and it was a beautiful but humid night to play. The park went from cleared to a nice size bunch of folks. Oh what fun and silliness followed. BPB got through 17 of the 18 planned songs (we had to cut 1), Lisa blasted her voice all through Westchester, Dave “Evad” Gonzalez, Guitarist Emeritus, returned for this gig and shredded his way to Hillside. Jimmy “Guns” Cavanaugh was smiling, and I think semi flexing his biceps all show. Paul “The Maven” Wilhelm continues to show the brilliant drummer he is by keeping the band in tempo and adding interesting fills everywhere like a drunken Christmas elf filling stockings with tons of stuff that are cool but unsanctioned by Santa. Ellen was adding interesting keyboard parts all night, blew people’s minds with her Vocoder work on “Rocky Mountain Way and added great harmony vocals especially on “Uninvited.” Associate member Colleen Cavanaugh provided her amazing energy and stage presence and the moron bassist seemed to live in crowd, unable to find the stage, including laying down on the grass while playing the aforementioned “Rocky Mountain Way” and kicking his feet like a baby. The thrill of playing such an event and events like it has been in the band’s goals for a while, so we can check that one off, and pursue more as we proceed. Playing Party in the Park, a festival if you will, opening for an amazing band like True Villans is like crack, I think we want a lot more, but please kids don’t do crack. We can not thank a host of people enough. Commissioner Gordon (Derek), the entire Park District Board – Commisioners - Steven Busa, Joe Christopher, Daniel Maldonado, and Marianne Nagl. The citizen advisory board - Wayne Rollag – President, Ryan Wright - Vice President, .Joslyn Kane – Secretary, Judy Saraceno-Swenson, Kathryn Sloan Smith and Tom Wiener. Thanks to the Village, Mayor and trustees and the Chamber of Commerce. Annie Canavan from the Office of Community Development did not sit down once during the weekend, always working, always coordinating, always helping. This was an amazing event for Westchester and the organizers did an amazing job. Westchester deserves cool fun things, it is a great town. Jimmy has lived there for nearly 30 years and Rob lived there for 19 and had his business office there for 13 before just moving last week (building was sold). As a band, we have to thank those that come to see us. We have some great friends who make it a point to see us no matter where we play. To Jen Cavanaugh, Lisa Smola, Dennis Melzer, Cielo Oviedo, Gaby Smola and the great Rob Blair, who helped us get on and off that stage with all our equipment (for a shi**y bass player, I have a ton of stuff). We absolutely love Pete Covelli, Dave, Sarge, Diesel, and Mike Lindsey (a drum God and Westchester resident). Those guys in Eleven/Betrayer are our friends, great players and a killer band(s). Pete has sung with us a couple of shows and he does not disappoint. Always fun to have Pete with us, see their shows or just hang with them. www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063700560412&sk=followers Other than listening to Dave “EVAD” shred on songs like “Rock you Like A Hurricane”, “Runaway” and “Purple Rain,” (and do amazing things on everything he touches) and the great drumming of Paul or the vocals of Lisa (also trying to make her laugh when she sings is really fun, but she wants to kill me when I do that), the after show hang was my favorite part of the night. Watching Lisa dance with Ellen (doing the gimp dance – Lisa bad shoulder, Ellen new titanium knee) or hearing the wicked wit of Paul, it was awesome to just hang out after a show. Everyone above helped us load up quickly so we could just sit back, hang out and watch an amazing band have fun and play a tight set of rock and country with precision and delight. Jimmy somehow became friends with Beau and next thing you know, we are opening for the True Villains at a fest! As great of players as they are, they are terrific people. Jimmy and Jen had an after party and after nearly everyone left (even thru more crazy stormy weather) Jimmy and I hung out with 4/5 of the band in his garage til 3AM. They have been through a lot as a band and as people, opening for Buckcherry and other huge acts, playing in other bands etc. Tim (guitar, vocals) Beau (lead vocals) Greg (keys, vocals) and Matt (drums) had us both mesmerized and peeing our pants with stories. Barry (bass, vocals) was unable to make it to most of the after party for… well, being Barry (you had to hear the stories). Support these guys anyway you can. https://truevillainsnashville.com/ We are planning three more shows this year, and as soon as the details are ready, we will post here and on Facebook. Again, if there is someone I forgot, thank you too!! Rob, the idiot bassist Bipolar Bear journeyed out to Bartlett for a show at Bannerman's on 6/22/24 and it was a doozy. The band debuted 4 songs not played before by this or any other line up and had another ready to go if the darn time had not run out.
The crowd was flat out amazing. Lisa had a strong showing of friends, family and co-workers and they were vocal in support of the show. It is still a rush to hear people singing along when the band is playing. We could hear lots of voices joining Lisa on Creed's "My Sacrifice" and 4 Non-Blondes "What’s up?" The handsome and talented Pete Covelli, the incredibly ballsy Diesel and bad ass Sarge from the bands Betrayer and Eleven (except Sarge, he only plays in Betrayer, metal is his thing, party rock, alt etc is not!) made huge contributions to the show. Diesel walks on stage and sings and dances on Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" with the band to start the show. Pete sang lead on 4 tunes and provided harmonies on a bunch of others and absolutely blew the room away with Lisa on "Bring me to Life." At the end of the night, Sarge helped us load up all the equipment and all I had to do was buy him one Miller Lite big can. If you all have a chance to catch Eleven/Betrayer Facebook Page, please do. Those guys are killer players and put on great show! Let's talk about Jake Helm. This young man is brilliant. He has done sound for us over the last couple of years at different shows. When Lisa emailed the sound guy from Bannerman's 9 days before the show to check in, she received an e-mail on Monday from the sound guy. It read as follows: "I won't be there Saturday, Good Luck, Larry." Immediately we asked Jake if he could do the show. He called Larry (no the kindest cat in the world) and got some info, but walked in cold on Saturday and did the sound. Mic'd everything including the drums (mind you there are as many as 8 of us on stage at one time) and ran a sound board he had never seen. He was familiar with the model, but still never worked this board. There were a few snafus, but man, the kid got the job done and did it well. I listened to a recording of it and the levels are pretty darn clear. Jake gets part of an MVP vote. If you need sound done, your show recorded on video and audio, or buy an instrument, you can find Jake at a sound education in Brookfield when he is not in school or working on a variety of musical projects (kid is a mean ass bass player too) Sound Ed Web page. Paul Wilhelm continues to amaze with his great time keeping and imaginative fills. He is super fun to play with because he always plays something interesting, while keeping great time (if we could only get the bassist to be nearly as consistent, we might have something, Sherlock). Of course, this was a "home game" for Lisa and she delivered. Whether blasting with power through "The Story" or Quarterflash's "Find Another Fool" or bringing her range down a bit to tackle "Just What I Needed" by the Cars or "Champagne Supernova" she was in fine voice and the crowd ate it up. She even kept a straight face as the idiot bassist laid down on the bar floor while playing "Rocky Mountain Way." That woman is professional. Two highlights of the evening have to do with Sebastian Marecki and the color purple. The second to last song of the first set was an alt polka called "Start Wearing Purple" by the band Gogol Bordello. Sebastian's vocal performance part genius, part Borat is worth the price of admission. The sincerity and commitment he delivers is awe inspiring. I hope Sebastian sings that at every show he plays, it is ridiculously entertaining. Conversely when he plays the solo in Purple Rain and channels the little Purple one while adding his own seasoning to it is another showstopper. Ellen really had some great keyboard moments in the Pete Covelli sang, "Runaway" (Bon Jovi) and the Cars, "Just What I Needed". "Just", "Start Wearing Purple", "Runaway" and "My Sacrifice were all first-time performances. Thank you so very much for your support. The opportunity to play these songs with these folks in front of you is a pleasure and a privilege we do not take for granted. We truly enjoy and love it. I think you can tell we have a great time. See you at the next one, I hope. Rob – I have been mistaken for Dr. Bunson Honeydew of Muppet Labs! People, it has been nearly 9 months since the Bear went to sleep. If you do not like long posts, change the screen now, it has been a long time and the Pub crowd did not disappoint. This was an amazingly fun time.
I don't know if Sebastian "The Sardonic Pope" Marecki, the new lead guitarist brought any cheese to the show, but he sure brought a shredder, and his leads were killing all night. The funny thing is he remarked to me that he was fighting with the outlet all night and had to fight with his pedals to get sound. I don't think anyone noticed as he soaked the sound with colorful guitar fills on "Secret Agent Man", "Counting Blue Cars" and "Ain't It Fun." He really let it rip on Quarterflash's "Find Another Fool", Benetar's "Heartbreaker" and his electric solo on "Purple Rain." BPB played five songs that no line-up has ever played. The aforementioned Quarterflash "…Fool" and Johnny Rivers' "Secret..," as well as STP's "Interstate Love Song", Old Dominion's "Make It Sweet" and the crazy crowd sing along, "What's Up" by Four Non Blondes. Lisa's amazing vocals were almost drowned out by the crowd singing along. For our first show back the six of us (Lisa, Ellen, Paul, Sebastian, Jimmy and the idiot bassist) wanted to make it as fun as we could. So, we asked some folks to join us on stage. For me, Jerry Madsen, my cousin, has been playing in a band for around 50 years. He is a self-taught keyboardist and singer. His band, Canyon played every wedding venue around the area and then some. We asked Jerry to lend his voice for three songs. The opener "Secret Agent Man", Badfinger's "No Matter What", and "Vehicle" by the Ides of March. Jerry was a trooper. Of course we didn't put those songs together so he had to keep hopping back up and down the stage and he has some mobility issues. It was an amazing thrill for me to share the stage with him because I have seen him play forever. It was great that Canyon's guitarist, Don Hartman (not sure if there are 2 Ns or not) was there to see Jerry play. We are gonna have to figure out how to get a mini Canyon reunion on stage with the two of them to guest on a song or two. In the further interest of patronage (and mind you, Sebastian and Paul killed it and Lisa was her usual powerhouse self), Colleen Cavanaugh, an official associate member of BiPolar Bear (I have to check the by-laws to see what that actually means) just stole the show with her cool laid back joyous approach. She sang background all night, sang lead on the ceiling collapsing "Flagpole Sitta." I thought the crowd could not get any louder when she took the mic. Then on "Make it Sweet", Sebastian got a break and she played guitar on that song. Much to Sebastian's chagrin, she broke a string on his guitar and could not play on "What's Up." Thank goodness that was the last song of the set. Our third and final singer of the evening was performer (from the famous Redmonds) and bartender, Katie Redmond, who after a dedication to Jimmy Cavanaugh's wife Jen (who was not there at the time, but her sisters were, so they accepted the dedication), sang the hell out of "Make It Sweet." Seeing Jimmy and Colleen playing together all night was really a treat. Yes, 63.7% of the capacity crowd probably shared the last name of Cavanaugh, but that was magic. In 2015, when BPB was just Jimmy, Rob, a blue tooth speaker and Rob Blair holding his ears at how bad it was, Colleen would come in and sing or play guitar. She was always an unofficial member of the band. But to have her on stage all night, man, she is a freaking star…. "Rocky Mountain Way" is featured on the front page and that was just crazy fun. To see Ellen utilize the Vocoder, is just as fun as it is effective. She does a great job, but it always makes me laugh. If you watch the entire video, I steal some cheese curds near the end of the song. That was really bad idea. I nearly choked on them for the next ten minutes. So, if there is something to learn, please do not eat and play, it could be fatal. If you look through the pictures, there are multiple sightings of a banana. I think multiple people wore that suit, but this is now becoming a thing at Pub 78 BPB shows. That Banana made an appearance at the St. Patty's day show. Which leads to the question, what is up with that banana? What does it mean? I guess the final thing to say is…. That was the most amazing crowd we have ever played in front of, ever. The crowd stayed for both sets, sang nearly every song and just was having a blast. We can not thank you enough. BPB has always been about fun, the goal is to have a great time with you! Thank you so very much for the support and showing up! If I could throw a few more bouquets out there, it would be to Jen and Caryn who always make us feel at home at Pub 78. We have played and enjoyed a lot of places, but we have played there the most, and I love the other places, but Pub 78 is our home bar. Additionally, to see Mike and Trish Cavanaugh make it out to a show, was the best part of the night. Mike has had some tough health issues lately, but that did not stop him from coming to the show, sitting in front of the bass player and taunting him all night! The bizarre film that played behind us in set 2 was put together by Trish (and Jimmy, who is an artist, just ask him). Big props to Nick Madsen who worked his butt off (with his assistant Andrea (don't kill me if I call her your assistant or spell her name wrong, Nick) who did our sound. That place is a real challenge and Nick did a great job all night. Another shout out to our roadies, Rob Blair and Ceilo Oviedo who help us load and unload a lot equipment. Thanks to Zach Smola, Zach Petrovic and Art Petrovic for also transporting the equipment to an from the venue. Finally, to our families who are patient with us and don't mind that we spend Tuesdays in rehearsal and devote a lot of other time to the band. We are so lucky to have the significant others we have. And one last thank you, to Lisa, Ellen, Sebastian, and Paul for waking up the Bear!!! Cheers, to many more! The Idiot Bassist 4/25/2024 In 2014 Jimmy Cavanaugh (who had been taking guitar lessons for a couple of years) asked his friend, Rob Smola, to take bass lessons so that maybe someday they could put together a cover band and play in some bars. Rob Blair used to sit in the Cavanaugh garage and listen to those two idiots struggle while they played to various songs thru a Blue Tooth Speaker. These practice sessions were the beginnings of their imaginary cover band, BiPolar Bear.
Between August of 2019 and August of 2023, Jimmy and Rob had the incredible pleasure of actually playing live gigs in backyards, bars and fundraisers with Ron Townsend (drums), Lisa Strzelecki (vocals), Richie LaFaire (vocals), Ellen Backlin (keyboards, harmony vocals), Dave Gonzalez (original lead guitarist), Aldo Kleine (second lead guitarist after replacing Dave) and the amazing Joe Smith (final lead guitarist). These are some incredible players and fun people. I am incredibly indebted to each for lending their time and talent to playing live music with us. Each of them taught us, contributed to an amazing four-year run and made our dreams come true. However, as we all know, change is the only constant. The band members decided to go their separate ways with the final decision being made on Labor Day (09/04/2023). I am sure interested folks will be asking us individually "Why? What happened?" Here is the answer you will get from me, "I truly believe that entities, relationships, work experiences and bands run their course. It seemed that this was the time for this line-up to end." That is the only answer you will get from me. Very few things last forever (does anything?). Rich is a talented singer who I am sure will be focusing on his DJ business and his health www.facebook.com/ripnrichentertainment/. Joe is a fantastic, awesome guitar player with crazy stage presence and cool – you will be able to catch in his killer band, Hard Wire hardwiremusic4.godaddysites.com/. I am sure that Ron will, at some point, emerge playing guitar or drums with a band, if that is what he chooses to do. He is just a natural musician. Lisa is someone I have known for a long, long time. I know she is a loving grandma, mom and wife, and she has a wedding for her son coming up in the future. I got money that says she sings at the ceremony if she doesn't cry like a baby. I am sure Ellen will continue to come to the garage and practice with Jimmy and me until we can figure out what the next version will be. Ellen probably doesn't even care if she will be in the new band or not, she just likes to play music. It is sad, because it is the end of something. Jimmy and I find ourselves exactly where we were in 2015 – two old morons who want to play in a cover band. I think it will be scary, terrifying, aggravating, frustrating, wonderful and exciting to try to build BiPolar Bear -- Mach II. That is the plan, we shall see. No one can take away the last four years, which I would not trade for the world. Those people mentioned above I will always be grateful to for helping us realize our dream. I told Jimmy that I want to play till I am 65 and then re-evaluate. I am 56 . . . tick tock, that's less than nine years left. I can not thank all of our families for their encouragement, patience and attendance at the shows. It has been a thrill to play and to make complete boobs of ourselves in front of you, whether it was Jimmy's back yard, at Pub 78, a different bar, or at some park. We hope the hibernation won't last too long! Thank You! Rob, The Idiot Bassist Ellen, our keyboard player had a family emergency. Originally, she thought she would scramble back from Iowa in time for the show. The band put together a set list based on that information. Then, poor Ellen had more to deal with and informed the band that she would not make it back. So – the band put together another set list the morning of the show. I can not speak for anyone else, but that is a nervous situation for me. I like to play the set list at my leisure at home as far before a show as I can. This of course was an unforeseen circumstance, so that was not possible. I have learned from playing with Rich, Lisa, Joe, Rich, Ron and Jimmy, that it will be okay, no matter what. Also, I am learning that the fun of playing live is trying to adapt to whatever comes your way. At the Tailgater's show, I had two shots before the show on an empty stomach (I really am not much of a drinker, so it always takes the edge off). As we began playing, I had not turned on my amp. OOPS! You just have to figure it out and react appropriately. I can not commend the other 5 folks in the band enough, for stepping up and playing the best we could without 1/7 of our band.
This was a fundraiser for Fire Buddies www.facebook.com/projectfirebuddies/. Rich's brother is very involved in the charity and DJ'd the whole day before we started at about 6pm. Give that man a Fresca, that was a long day for him, but we all know he relishes it. He has not met a microphone he does not love. The man loves music and singing. He was in his element, happy as a pig in "Poop." Note - I am working on my swearing, we have played a lot of family shows lately and I truly enjoy colorful language but understand I have to do better. Jimmy once told me before a show, I only got 5 F-words, he put me on a budget. God knows at some of those Pub 78 shows, I hardly said any other words but that glorious F word. People passed in and out of the fundraiser, held in the giant parking lot of Duke's Drive In and the Great American Bagel in Mokena. When it was time for the show a modest but enthusiastic crowd had gathered. There was something about the evening that just made it ridiculously fun. Rik Kroll of (RAK Sound) did an amazing job managing the band's sound, at the risk of sounding effusive, it was down right magical. With no keyboards, Joe and Jimmy turned up the growl as we pounded out 1 ½ sets with a 2 song bonus after the big raffle to conclude the evening. It was super fun. Joe kept twirling bottle caps at me to get me to shut up. One even stuck to Rik's laptop! Lisa and Rich, along with Ron really did a great job on vocals and harmonies. Ellen is big part of the backing vocals and with her out, the three of them blended to cover the absence. Lisa and Rich are sounding like a well oiled machine (which I really don’t think either of them should oil each other)…. They blend and trade vocals brilliantly. It is a blast to hear them sing. "Counting Blue Cars" does not always make it into the set list, but hearing Joe add the texture and tones to that tune while Jimmy provides the rhythm guitar has become one of my favorite songs to (hear) play. I love that as much as when Lisa rips the crap out of "The Story" and Rich delivers "Fooled Around and Fell in Love." The show felt relaxed and a great freakin' time. Rik Kroll got called up to play, "Stay in Time," by Chicago's own Off Broadway. What a blast. How lucky am I? I get to play with Ronnie on the kit and then as a bonus, Rik who is also j a monster player. After a break, the band ripped through six more tunes before concluding with the show closer, "Purple Rain." After the drawing, Terry Lynn gloriously drummed the King's classic, "This Beat Goes on / Switchin' to Glide." She killed it, and that is a tough song to just wing it. It has several changes and is really two diffent songs sandwiched into one. To close the night, Rik was called back and the band ripped through a version of "Rock You Like a Hurricane." For those of you scoring at home, that is three drummers in one evening!!! I wish I could bottle that feeling! It was a magnificent night!!! The beautiful weather, the charity and Rik's amazing sound lined up for one crazy awesome time,,,, Rik's band info here: www.facebook.com/people/BLOCK-PARTY-BAND/100083476188846/?paipv=0&eav=AfbWrQJr9jWgaJkH8dZt4jwy5yjSkTLuYQMAfkfkn8z89me_Y7wZh3WIB82nluBdZeA&_rdr Terry Lynn's Bad Reputation (band) info here: www.thebadreputationchicago.com/ Weather, a trailer, harmonies, Joe "freakin" Smith and not getting through the Damn set list.8/13/2023 Jimmy and I were trying to put the rehearsal space back in order a couple days after the how and he looked at me and said, "Those outdoor shows are tough." There is such an unpredictability about them and at the risk of appearing daft by stating the obvious, I will. 1. You never know what the weather is going to be. Jimmy C is obsessed with weather, in fact when you see him looking at his phone, he is either looking at a new friend on Linked In who liked his post to Blue Murder Bassist Tony Franklin or he is analyzing some weather pattern. a. Our very first show in Jimmy's back yard, gave us great concern as it was cloudy and a bit drizzly, but by show time, it cleared up and was a pleasant night. Too bad I had no idea how to play. Ron, Rich, Dave and Jimmy did a great job that night (it was the only show we played as 5 piece band). That was 4 years ago (8/17/2019). b. In July of 2022 we had another semi drizzly night that played havoc with our sound at Kiwanis Park in Brookfield. It was a fun night and probably the largest audience we played in front of, but the weather was messing with us. It was warm and I think Ron forgot to turn on his fan. Drumming for 90 minutes in that heat is tough. c. The next month, we got the chance to kick off the Mayfair Park series and again, it was overcast and drizzly all day. That weather really was a bummer in that we had to occasionally cover the equipment while we were setting up. We got the show in, but that damn drizzle! d. Best weather was probably at the June 2023 show at Salerno's. Don't ask Ronnie about that show, he spent the night trying not to die and balancing his drums on the edge of a very small stage. Which brings us to the show at Walker Park. No drizzle, just humid as all heck! I think, as I write this some 10 days later, I may still have to yet another shower to get that sweat off myself. 2. Setting up the sound is a challenge no matter where you are at, but outdoors is definitely harder. Jake Helm (Rik Kroll, Kevin Cavanaugh and Nick Madsen have all done sound for us) does a great job, but sometimes weird stuff happens and you do the best you can. 3. Electricity. With outdoor shows, you are trying to figure out how to power everything without blowing a fuse. We again had chords going everywhere and the thought that kept dancing in my head was, "I hope no one pulls a chord out!" It is weird where extension chords and surge protectors are everywhere. There is a lot to power (not just Cavanaugh's outfits either). Amps, microphones, the board, fans, etc…. It worked out, but it is always a worry. 4. I think I like outdoor shows, but they are harder than indoor ones. I love the anxiety and challenge of having to adapt to the craziness of getting the equipment there, set up, getting the sound in place… then trying to play the show. Although as I get older, I am pretty pooped by the time we start. Playing live, without a net, you just have to figure it out. That is fun and scary. My son Zach was able to secure a giant trailer to get the gear there, and that is a huge advantage. Normally, everyone is cramming everything in their vehicles in the hopes that we can get it all to the venue. We are a 7 piece band. That is a lot of shit! Poor Ron. The man is a killer musician. He can do anything. He can play wicked guitar, he can play keyboards. You should hear him belt out "Simple Man" when we are farting around in practice by Skynyrd. He has done it all. Recorded, written and played in countless original and cover bands. Being the drummer sucks, though. It is a pain in the butt to set up and equally challenging to take down when you just played for three hours. At least he did not have to put it in his car. We were able to load and unload it for him. That trailer makes a huge difference. Thank God I do not have to drive it (although I am an excellent driver, not so much with my son's monster pick-up truck and trailer). For the second show in a row, I brought a speaker so I could have a monitor but had a problem hooking it up, so I had to rely on listening to the overall mix like everyone else. I really enjoyed Lisa, Richie, Ronnie and Ellen's harmonies. They are always good, but it sounded great that day to me. Those are four pretty talented people, and do not forget that Ellen and Ron are playing instruments while harmonizing! As usual, Lisa and Richie just do not disappoint. I really enjoy being able to listen to both of them do their thing. They bring such cool different factors to the songs they sing. Every time I write one of these things lately (when Zippy McWiggy lets me – the normal writer of this blog), I end up gushing about Joe Smith. He understands I am a moron, but that guy has it all. First things first. He IS A KILLER PLAYER. I cannot believe I have got the privilege to be on the same stage (well as you know I am rarely on stage, as I wander around, but you are aware of what I am saying) these last 4 shows. Our original guitarist Dave Gonzalez is also an amazing player, so I am just incredibly lucky to have had these experiences. The thing that Joe does when he starts ripping those solos, is he is in the moment. He just looks freaking cool when he does it, he has that stage presence that matches those chops!!! Pretty amazing that he is as comfortable ripping a Steve Lukather, Neil Schon, Prince solo or creating cool textures in a song like "Counting Blue Cars". He makes it look easy, and we all know it is not. I feel that way about the other 6 folks in the band, but sometimes when Joe is taking a solo, I almost want to put the bass down and go sit in the audience to watch and listen. When Richie rips into "Second Chance" (which we did not play) or Lisa sings "The Story" (which we did not play) I get goose bumps. I guess in my very annoying and verbose way I am saying how freaking lucky I have been to be playing music with these people. For the second show in a row, we were unable to get through the set list in the time allotted. Maybe I should shut up!!! Set lists are a challenge to put together (because everyone has ideas and favorites), but it seems lately, it is harder to get through them. At Salerno's, we only played a set and a half. At the park we played 16 of 18 songs we had planned. A special thanks to our friends and family who always show up, wherever we are playing. Another shout out to Laurie Murray, superintendent of recreation, who gave us the opportunity. I will shut up now! Rob, the idiot bassist.
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