A Plunge, A Tent and a killer debut by The Baron!

I was not real sure what to think when Jimmy Cavanaugh presented the idea of playing the polar plunge at Lawler's bar in Chicago.  A Sunday afternoon show in the city after some brave souls jump in Lake Michigan to raise money for the Special Olympics was yet another different venue for band.

It was an absolute beautiful day (March 5th) and I am sure the plungers (is that the word?) appreciated the sunshine and warmer weather as opposed to snow and death defying below temperatures.  Ronnie, Jimmy, Ellen and Rob (along with roadies Rob Blair and Cielo Oviedo) arrived pretty early as the tent was finishing being constructed.  They got an early start on setting up when we realized Ronnie's cymbals were still in Jimmy C's garage.  Ian Cavanaugh came to the rescue and brought them out in plenty of time.

The band had not played a show since August and worked with the newest part of the Bear, Joe "The Baron Von Tappin" Smith on the set list as well as adding new songs.  Wow, did the Baron deliver, ripping note for note solos by Steve Lukather, Neil Schon and Prince.   Holy Shi*, did he slay Purple Rain!

Perhaps my favorite part of the entire experience featured Richie getting a few of the Athletes in a circle and getting them dancing and singing during the first set.  Those kids were out there for a good chunk of the first set.  Dancing later occurred as several of the (overserved???) patrons were flying like airplanes during the REO – "Time for Me to Fly" classic.

I do not know how to spell Joe "the sound guy's" last name (phonetically it is Boe – Sell -ie, I think).  He plays in several bands all over Chicago including a country and Americana cover band.  He did a killer job on sound.  Perhaps we were a little loud because we were on one side of the tent and a good chunk of the audience was in back, eating, singing and drinking.  In my opinion, sound is such a challenging thing, especially with a seven piece band. Rik Kroll, Kevin Cavanaugh and Nick Madsen have done awesome jobs for us previously and Tailgater's was phenomenal.  Joe did a great job and I heard several comments that the vocals were mixed real well so everyone could hear Lisa and Richie clearly with no squeaking etc. as well as the background work of Ellen and Ron. 

A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO ROB BLAIR AND CIELO OVIEDO for all the help in setting up and breaking down and loading equipment.  Cielo also took the pictures on the page for this event  {www.bipolarbearband.net/polar-bear-plunge---352023.html.}

It was a pretty cool experience, and we might just go back next year, you never know.

Rob, the idiot bass player!