The Most Fun I have Had Yet, Jellybean and a Banana Suit.

If you do not like long posts, skip this one……..  There is a ton to cover and a lot of thank you(s) to be distributed.

I am writing this at about midnight on Sunday, March 19th, two nights after the St. Patty's day show at Pub 78, a place that has been great to us in the last couple of years.  I am still buzzed with fun and adrenaline.  It was a crazy experience, but as I told the band, it is the most fun I have had to date, and I have a great time every time we play.
 
I had a ton of anxiety about this particular show because it was the first one in which we were trying out a brand new digital board, replacing our old one.  Eventually,  we will be running all of our instruments out of the board, but for the Pub, which is a smaller place, we only ran the vocals (Lisa, Richie as leads, and Ron and Ellen on backing vocals, and me on idiot commentary) and Ellen's nineteen (well 3) keyboards through it.  I asked Jake Helm, seriously, a kid genius, to run the board for us.  Jake works at "A Sound Education" (Sound Ed Webpage)  and has his own recording studio in his home with the same board.  He plays in multiple projects and plays multiple instruments.   The challenge is how do you mix those things with Jimmy and Joe's screaming guitars and the bass as they are coming out amps equally with the stuff coming out of the board.  We only had room for two monitors because we are a seven piece band and the stage area is built for a four piece, so that poses another challenge.  Jake came in and helped set up and worked his butt off the entire night.  Given the evening, the circumstances, I think the kid did an amazing job.  I am also incredibly jealous of his hair, his age and his skills.  What a great kid, and he really is a freakin' kid!!!!! 
 
My second piece of anxiousness was getting all the crap to the show.  Two woofers, two speakers, the board, (the back up board, our old one just in case – {yes I am neurotic when it comes to that stuff – I mean, I am a shitty bassist and I bring three basses to the show and two amps in case something doesn't work…}. – Billy the Barrel, because he has not missed a show, the box of never-ending chords and cables, the bear rug…. You get the picture) and Rob Blair was out of town.  I asked my son's friend, Mitch Beasley to drive my son's giant monster truck to the show because there is no way I am driving that thing, and along with Cielo Oviedo, help bring in and break down equipment.  Cielo, also in addition to having equally fantastic hair as Jake, was invaluable.  He helped bring in equipment, set up and break down and assisted Ronnie with the drum assembly and break down, which as Ronnie will tell you sucks, big time.  Cielo also took the majority of the photos that can be found on the photos page for the last two shows.    Mitchell and Cielo were super helpful and the band really appreciates all that they did.  Additionally, Tom Wiener, an Illinois State communication and production graduate helped wind up chords properly after the show.  The man is a magician, because every time I do it, they end up a spaghetti mess.

First things first… I have to give a huge shout out to three distinct groups:

1.  "The Neighborhood" which is defined as the people Jimmy and Ronnie grew up with in the City – they came out in numbers and all of them went up to Mrs. Cavanaugh to tell her how cool she is. 
2. "The Westchester folks" – Smitty, the Kadens, the Rollags, Laurie Murray, Tom Wiener (yes we have a friend named wiener) Alicia Blair, Sara Blair, The entire Adam's family (I just realized how funny that sounded) and if I missed someone, I am sorry. They came out in numbers and partied hard! 
3. The third group is the "Cavanaugh clan" so friends of, brothers, nephews, nieces, and cousins of Jimmy show up at nearly every show.  Chris and Kevin (& his wife Jackie), two of Jimmys' brothers rarely miss and his sister in law, Trisha was out of town or she would have been there.  A HUUUUUUUGE THANK YOU TO YOU three groups for all the support and for making that night a crazy good time.

 
Jake and the band kind of struggled through the first couple of songs to figure out the right levels.  I thought the crowd was super patient and everyone worked hard to get it right.  We seemed to find a grove around song 3 or 4 and went with it through the set.  We had several weird spinal tap like moments during the both sets.  All of the sudden, Joe cannot get sound.   Richie says, "Folks, we will be back in five."  Right after he says it in the mic, Joe connects a cable, or I think more than likely did an Arthur Fonzarelli (the Fonz – Click here to see who Joe Smith is really.... ) and cooly smacked his equipment and then it worked.  I could not remember the stupid note sequence and took four runs to actually start "Hot Child in the City."  Jimmy forgot to tune back after "Tainted Love" and needed a second before we could start, "Time for Me to Fly."  Lisa told me I had to stall because Joe had to go the bathroom, so I broke into a 5 joke Rodney Dangerfield imitation.  Jimmy says hold on, "I can't get any sound."  After a few seconds he realized he pulled out his chord and just had to plug it back into the guitar.  None of these things were all that bad, just funny things that happen when you are playing live. I am still learning, Joe, Lisa, Ron and Rich have played hundreds and hundreds of gigs, Jimmy and I are not even at 20 yet.  It only seemed to make the evening just more fun and crazy.  The first set settled in and I thought we gained momentum, The crowd really came alive when we ended the first set as Dave "Evad" Gonzalez, the original lead guitarist, taking Jimmy's place so Joe and him could rip it up.  They did not disappoint as we tore through versions of "When You Close your Eyes" and "LaGrange."  Damn that was fun watching those two trade off.  Joe is freakin' amazing  and it was cool to have Dave back even if only for two songs.  
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The highlights for me were five specific things amongst a crazy fun evening. 

• The first is how many people were singing along with Richie and Lisa all night.  Nearly every song had a bunch of people singing back at us.  That is an amazing feeling.  One of those folks, my cousin, Patti Vendegna and her buddy Nancy, sang all night long.  Super fun having your relatives at the show, as Jim can attest because half the people at any one show are named Cavanaugh.
• Lisa cranking out "Here's to Us: by Halestorm.  Every time she sings it, it gives me goose bumps.  The first time she sang it was Tailgater's right after her older brother had passed away.  Both her and Richie are freaking amazing, singing every song in the original key, no tuning down because these two are AMAZING FREAKS OF NATURE.   The emotion in how she delivers with Jimmy and Joe's subtle and elegant guitar playing make the song one of my favorites.
• "THE LAST IN LINE" by DIO absolutely destroyed the building.  Joe and Ronnie kicked the shit out of it, but man oh man, RICHIE DESTROYED IT.  There were a lot of rockers left in the house for the second set, but Wayne Rollag and Chris Cavanaugh lost their minds!!!!   It was AMAZING!!!!  That is not an easy tune to play or sing, and the crowd loved it.  We are BiPolar Bear and we are gonna play a Eurythmics tune ("Would I Lie to You") and an oldie like "Vehicle".  But with the collective varied taste in the band, we are also gonna give "Line" a shot, and as I said, those three musicians brought the house down!!!!!!
• Jen, the co-owner of Pub 78 said if everyone kept tipping well she was gonna dress up in a banana suit, and guess what she did!!!  I snuck behind the bar while we playing "Drunk" by Elle King and Miranda Lambert and the banana started dancing with me!!!! WTF!!!!  You can not make that up.
• Jim Cavanaugh's clothes were amazing.  I believe they may have been purchased here.. (Jim Cavanaugh endorsed rock clothing ).  Jimmy always puts a lot of thought in what he is gonna wear.  Ronnie, gonna dress in a t shirt and some comfortable pants to drum.  Joe is gonna wear a cool t-shirt some jeans and killer boots make of eel skin or something.  Jimmy, well you just never know and tonight he was off the charts.

 
I sense another t-shirt coming with the catch phrase, "no one has more fun at a BiPolar Bear show than "JELLYBEAN"!!!!!"  Jellybean (I will only say her first name to protect her professional image as an esthetician) is an old college friend of Lisa and Rob Smola.  She let the party rip, singing every song, dancing on tables, we LOVE JELLYBEAN!!!!   Honorable mention goes to a friend of mine, a proud St. Lawrence Mom and rocking mad woman, Sara Morelli.  She was singing and dancing and really went nuts during the second set.  Sara designed a digital flyer for the show on the 22nd which you can see on the shows page.
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As we were playing "Last in Line" and "Juke Box Hero" I kept thinking to myself, how lucky am I that I get to play with these super amazing talented people.  Joe is pushing us to another level.  Ellen adds such cool pieces on keyboards and her harmonies are spot on.  Ron is just a monster behind the kit.  Jimmy works hard and provides a key sonic piece in filling the rhythm of each song.  Our singers as I said are just freaks.  They let it loose and both have amazing power and touch.  I really can't remember them not giving it everything during the shows.  There are some great bands out there, with amazing musicians, but I will tell you, when you see us, even when goofy things happen, does anyone look like they are having any more fun than us (except Ronnie when he gives me dirty looks for a wrong note)??? No way, and it is because of our friends, family and the folks that go to the shows are crazy supportive.
 
All right, I am finally gonna shut up!!!!!
 
Hope to see you on the 22nd.
 
Rob, the idiot bassist!!!