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What Did the Bear Say?
Jason Vorhees, a Hippy Girl, the Jumping Man from Twin Peaks, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew from the Muppets, a (slightly menacing) Clown and a Kitty Cat took the stage after a wonderful acoustic set from Nick “Joliet Jake Blues” Madsen to celebrate the Halloween Spooktacular (10/25/2025) at Pub 78. Anytime BPB plays Pub 78 (this was our 7th show) it is just a bit more fun than other shows. Don’t get me wrong, anytime we play out, we have an amazing time. It is such a privilege to be able to go out and play music (and have people show up), but the Pub adds an element of unpredictability and an energy from being in such a tight space that no other place does. Jen and Caryn and the staff of the Pub are always super fun. Jen dressed up as a banana (which many people seem to end up in that outfit at every show). The crowd may have been a bit smaller than some of our other shows at the Pub, but it was substantial (and fluctuated throughout the evening) and their energy raised the fun level. I guess that there were at least a dozen people in costumes other than the band. I saw Freddy Krueger, an Average Joe in addition to a Crayon, a Lady Bug, and Wednesday Addams. Three couples competed in the costume contest, plug and outlet, reverse (from Uno) cowgirl, and the winners the slinky dog from the Pixar classic, Toy Story.
This was our 8th show of the year (and 7th with BPB 3.0 lineup as Dr. Keith could not make the St. Pats show so Jimmy Cavanaugh and Dave “Evad” Gonalez filled in) and the 32nd in BPB history. My father who was a very talented craftsman; he could build or fix anything except for engines, was a very modest man, and even though my personality is obnoxious, you WILL NEVER EVER HEAR ME BRAG about myself. Raymond Smola, Sr. felt that your talents and achievements should speak for themselves. BUT, I am going to take the following space to brag about these amazing musicians that put up with me. Ellen (the Kitty Cat) Backlin played her tale (she was wearing one). We put a ton on her, including having her play a bunch of organ on a Bach composition and the solo on “House of the Rising Sun.” In addition to hitting those out of the park (and the keyboard riffs in Ghostbusters) she crushed her harmonies all night. Dr. Keith (Jumping Man) played the entire first set masked and shredded all night. In the second set, whether he snuck in a riff from the Addams family while ripping Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption or trying to keep the train on the tracks from my disastrous vocal performance on “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” he was killer and smiled, a lot which is a beautiful thing to see. Mike Morsovillo continues to make his presence known with his creative guitar work and vocals on songs like “Feelin' Alight?,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and his amazing Fred Schnieder influenced refrain in “Ghostbusters.” Lisa Strzelecki, the voice of BiPolar Bear is a freak of nature. She sings in the key each song was originally played seemingly effortlessly. This show was three hours and on the tunes that she is not singing, she is adding harmonies. Her voice (Ellen’s harmonies) and the contrasting amazing skills of the two guitarists are the (not so) secret sauce that drives BPB. Finally, I cannot praise Kevin Vesel enough. He played a three-hour show, picked out all the clips we played in between songs that had the Halloween theme and kicked the shit out of those songs. His work all night was killer, but during the Halloween Suite of songs, he was breathtaking. His drumming on “I Want Candy” was FUC#KING GREAT!!!!! He also is sneaky clever with a cowbell slipping in beats in “Feelin' Alight?” and “Ghostbusters.” The night had its fair share of surprises including great guest spots by band founder and rhythm guitarist, Jimmy Cavanaugh (who was introduced as returning to the stage like a case of Herpes) and the elegant and amazing Marie-Eve Vesel on bass and lead vocal for “Counting Blue Cars.” She is a great player and a ball of uncontainable energy, please go check her out (and Kevin) in Like A Stone. Marie-Eve crushed the tricky bridge in “Heartbreaker” and the band probably expects me to play it that well! The Halloween suite of five songs had never been played live at a show, and they were fun. RikRolling the audience may be highlight of my entire life (which may be a sad commentary on the excitement level of my existence), but seeing the bar smiling, singing, and dancing was amazing. Mike’s vocals on the chorus were fantastically amusing. My music stand decided to bend the wrong way and vomit my folder and lights to the floor three times. Perhaps that was the spirit of Halloween and ghosts of the Pub fuc*ing with me. Lisa had to deal with the dancing Jimmy Cav during the majority of the second set in which he kept doing things to make her laugh. She desperately tried to ignore him, even when he laid on his back like a turtle during the absolutely house shattering rendition of “Shout” featuring the ripping bass of Mike. This show completes the cycle for the year, and we played eight shows. We go into planning mode and cannot wait to get back out there. Perhaps we can target more next year. Special thanks to Trish Cavanaugh for creating the Halloween themed video behind us that played all night, Nick Madsen who opened and was amazing (as he has been on sound all year) and our families for their support as we continue to build BPB. Finally, besides the folks that go out to see us, which makes all the difference in the world, I have to mention Jerry and Shelly Madsen, who provide the rehearsal space. THANK YOU ALL! Till next time, Reginald, Rob, Rory, Boober, Al, Booby, Bobert, the idiot bassist
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