It has been a year since Brian's retirement and his retirement party Escape From Transit l so what better course of action than to celebrate the one year anniversary of his retireabration with an anniversary of the event itself under the banner Escape From Transit ll.
As a mildly seasoned musician (chili powder, cumin and bay leaves notwithstanding) it was ironic and quite humorous to leave my apartment with two used pairs of drumsticks in a rite-aid shopping bag as opposed to a carload of drum gear and a garden gnome in tow but I am certainly grateful about my light luggage.
(Thanks go out to Phil for providing the Tama drum kit & Eugene for the Zildjian cymbals).
This afternoon's spot held great promise as Joe pulled his back out so much and was in such discomfort that he considered performing this gig in a sitting position (of which he did not) and this was my first time back behind the drums since I recently had an organ removed of which I am thankfully in full recovery and we had not played together in some months with no rehearsal for today's spot as well but I personally like it like that and we sallied forth as Yeggs United.
Looked like this afternoon might be a performance by The Wounded Yeggs but we delivered.
The removed organ (three octaves as you can see).
Brian's friends & family put on quite the bash for him at the GJOA (pronounced Joya) sporting club in beautiful Sunset Park (the neighborhood in which I was raised in) with the promise of Free Food & Free Beer which almost always ends prematurely and lands flat especially with a lot like us but the promise was fulfilled entirely as there was no shortage of food items or drink stuffs at anytime.
The Dillon Lane Syndicate - Brian (vocals, guitar), Sylvester (vocals), Phil (drums), Thomas (bass), Joe (guitar).
Guesting tonight as syndicate members was our very own Thomas "the fish" Roberto on Bass and Joe Vasquez on Guitar.
These guys are up and coming and gigging quite a bit. Well,... with Sylvester as front man I am frankly not surprised at all.
The Good Yeggs - We went on at 5 p.m. and played our normal set, nothing outstandingly different here except we swapped out a few numbers and were asked for two encores. Since we do an absolute minimum of on stage patter great vistas of time open up for us to fill our allotted quota. The crowd did enjoy the Johnny Cash numbers so we added "Folsom Prison Blues" following "Ring Of Fire".
Brian graciously purchased us all a whiskey on the rocks which was proffered by our third number.
In this photo we see Joe telling me to "Get on with it and stop taking pictures for the Blog !!!" as we were ready to proceed with our set.
photo courtesy of DLS/Facebook.
Nohrmal - ?... Bill (Everything)
It is always something different with this guy. Dare I call him a performance artist or just plain THE performance.
As I was preparing to leave the stage after The Good Yeggs set Bill offered me the opportunity to sit in with him in a "if you want to stay and play the drums then go ahead but don't play anything for the first three verses" kind of style.
Aside from this being a "flying by the seat of your pants" performance for myself I feel this is great for any musician, mind you Bill is vocals and electric guitar unfettered by guitar effects or much in the dynamics department which a challenge does make and I love a challenge. We performed "Creep" by Radiohead, David Bowie's "Five Years" (accompanied by Brian Dillon on backing vox) & Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as well as a few other tunes.
As a much added plus I got to duet with a drummer from our clique of whom I admire, Phil was on Cajon so kit and sticking dynamics on my part of the unobtrusive kind was just the ticket.
Low pressure, jamming fun gig and we had a nice time.
photo courtesy DLS/Facebook.
Black Death - Brian (vocals, guitar), Vlad (vocals, guitar), Sal (guitar, vocals), Phil (drums).
Like always Black Death performed a 45 minute set of family fun and kids songs for people of all ages. Free balloons and cotton candy were NOT on offer.
(L to R) - Beef Empanada, Sweet Italian Sausage, Vegetable Samosa.
I have been "jonesing" for some Indian food and there it was, A Samosa.
The GJOA Sporting Club.
Digital Ad Campaign.
This Is Show # 24
- Spike
