What Did the Bear Say?
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
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |