What Did the Bear Say?
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!
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