Drew's 1st Anniversary!
Blues on the Blacktop 2007 was Drew's first gig with the band. It was a rough first day on the job for the new guy. Drew's main bag is singing. We immediately loaded him with the bulk of the songs - most of the numbers I had been singing, plus a few new ones he wanted to do. We forced him onto the stage before he knew all of the words or the bass parts. I recall that "Pride and Joy" was a particularly loathsome. That gig also marked the debut of the man we now call "The Fifth Dog," Philip Howard The Swiss Sound Hound. Philips job is to deliver that unique KDOG sound with punch and clarity, so every mistake can be clearly heard and enjoyed.
A year later, Drew and Philip are still around. God knows why. We're lucky the band is still around. On July 13, we played Blues on the Blacktop 2008. It's an office party the construction management firm on the first floor of Kenton's building throws. Although it's not his party, Kenton goes invests considerable time and treasure in making the gig happen. This year, he rented an even larger stage with a canopy, which meant I only played the first set getting char-broasted by the late afternoon sun. My friend Ron Pinkerton, on the way to Oregon to visit his granddaughter, took more than 300 photos of the show. Drew looks like an incredibly badass rock and roller. I look 15 years younger than I did last year. That was the end of my "old man" outfits. The idea was to look like a real geezer - to exaggerate myself. The outfits were scarily effective. I look like I'm 65 in the pictures. I wore plaid shorts, a too-tight short-sleeved dress shirt and black dress shoes with black socks. I thought this look was an analog for the schoolboy uniform worn by Angus Young with AC/DC. It never really worked. I just liked I was trying to hard: "Look at me! I'm old! Get it?" People can see I'm closing in on my expiration date. This time I wore jeans, white pimp shoes and a Dickie's work shirt with Lucky 13 iron ons. The patch over the left breast pocket reads "old speed." All that remained were the thick, black glasses. Those work, for some reason.
The energy this year was better. Not so negative. We laughed and played our way through the mistakes instead of screaming at each other and shooting dirty looks. As Nick says, "The first rule of show business is never stop smiling and entertaining, no matter what."
Verdict: tighter sound, more together, great singing from Drew. Still too many mistakes.
This is Utterly Exhausting
After loading up all the gear, Kenton's able assistant, Pamela, informed us that we had to take down the tent awning that sheltered the stage. Unofficial KDOG Krew members Cliff Lynch figured out the technique, with muscle supplied by Kenton and Nick Cliff's son, C.J.
"This is utterly exhausting," said Drew. I agreed. And if Drew and I had actually been helping, it would have been totally debilitating.
Nothing makes you feel less like a rock star than assembling and taking down your own stage. Especially after working a full day, then enduring the eight-hour ordeal of loading, setting up, tearing down and reloading. I don't know how many year's I'll be able to do this. We only go thought this twice a month, on average. And we're not driving between gigs for 8 to 12 hours.
I once talked to some kids in in punk band called the New Bomb Turks after their gig at the Capitol Garage. They'd driven from L.A. that day, put on a outrageously energetic show, then were loading the van for a 10 hour overnight drive straight through to Portland. All in one van. The singer seemed quite happy with the whole arrangement. This is why rock is a young man's game.
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