Mayfair Park, a forgotten introduction and yes, more Cavanaughs!

Having completed three shows in 5 weeks, the band had to be pooped at the conclusion of the Mayfair Field show on August 3rd.   This show had a lot of crazy external weather things going on well before the band started to set up at 5 PM that day.  

The weather was absolutely bizarre.  I suspect that the bands very own Tom Skilling (Jimmy Cavanaugh) stayed up all night studying barometric pressure, wind charts, the farmer’s almanac, and the theory of rain (thegeoroom.co.zw/climatology/rainfall-formatio​n-theories/).  Monday and Tuesday were warm cloudless days, and Wednesday started off that way, and then depending if you stood in your back yard or front, it was monsooning (I believe that is a made up word, but you get the picture) on one side and sunny on the other.

When the band began carrying the equipment to the stage, the clouds would alternately clear, and then drizzle.  Forcing the band to start and stop setting up, start and then cover the equipment with tarps and garbage bags.  Did I mention it was humid as a Florida gator swamp  (img-aws.ehowcdn.com/700x/cdn.onlyinyourstate.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/20160319-132629-largejpg-700x394.jpg?).  Doing the best, he could with the equipment he had, Nick Madsen tried to get the sound right.  But as this reporter is learning, this is an elusive and challenging art.  The Mayfair stage was set up on some planks and bricks in the outfield of the East Field, so there is no shell to really base the sound against.  The drizzle, the humidity and the gremlins that apparently follow the band around to these outdoor shows were affecting lots of things, but Nick and the band soldiered on giving it the old college try.

Hats off to both Lisa Strzelecki and Danny Dunn (open.spotify.com/artist/7muPMJKYfmShWtkfVEXZh2) on lead vocals.  These outdoor shows are not easy between the heat and finicky monitors, but they dug in and blasted through 20 songs.  The gremlins were particularly angry with the idiot bassist as his normally trusty wireless system failed him.  He could not wander about, scaring the patrons with his bare feet.  Instead, he was tethered to be near his amp and mic.  As a result of this stress, moronically, he had to be reminded to introduce Lisa because he simply forgot.

The purple Gatorade award goes to Ron “Rolly Tolly” Townsend, who frighteningly drummed so hard in the heat, he lost 1/3 of his body weight.  Carrying the percussion around, setting them up, breaking them down, unloading and resetting up in the rehearsal space is a pain in the keister.  Rob Blair, super roadie, was again there to help Ron, but it is still a challenging task.

The band dusted off a few cuts they had not played in a while.  Dishwalla’s “Counting Blue Cars” and Harvey Danger’s “Flag Pole Sitta” were back for the show. For only the second time, the band got to blast out the Scorps’ cover of Soft Cell’s, “Tainted Love.”  Scorpions’ version is quite a different feel than the camp of Soft Cell.

Jimmy Cavanaugh debuted a “Mad Max” shirt he got on Etsy in front of his hometown crowd.  Sadly Aldo wore a hat, concealing his rock star hair.  Once again, many people in the audience were in fact related to Mr. Cavanaugh. Quite frankly, at the conclusion of the Mayfair show, the 12th in band history, I am starting to believe there could be a town or a province which could be densely populated by people only of Cavanaugh descent!  Thank goodness they show up to these events and that they reproduce at such a high rate!

​Zippy McWiggy