Valentine's
Day 2005 We've done
the Providence, RI gig for quite a few years now. If my memory serves
me right, I'm thinkin'...seven years in a row? Well, Carol booked us back in October, 2004, for this gig in February, 2005. Then Carol left the Johnson and Wales Inn and went on to bigger and better things. We miss her!! The gig this year in Seekonk wasn't quite the same without her... Kevin Levi (Sax), John E Coale (Drums) and Donkey Face (SM) arrived around 2:30 PM. The drive from Bawlmer wasn't so bad, except there had been an accident right past the George Washington Bridge in NYC, and it held us up for about 45 minutes. So after 9 hours in the car, it was schnooze time. We checked into the hotel, and I turned off all the phones and slept for about an hour. Big mistake. George Hazelrigg (Keyboards) arrived soon after we did. They didn't have his name on the rooming list. They tried to call me in my room. No Luck. Cell Phone? Same thing. Knocked on my door? No answer. I was out like a light. Well, when I showed up for soundcheck around 4:30 PM, George wasn't too happy. Apparently there had been a mix-up, and the room was in our former keyboard player's name, Rick O'Rick. Go figure. Not that we don't love Rick O' Rick--he must be nice, they named him twice.
We weren't scheduled to go on until 9:00 PM. I ordered room service. It was delicious--pan-seared wild salmon with steamed vegetables and wacky mashed potatoes. Then I took a shower, got dressed, and got ready to rock. My beloved Maryland Terrapins Men's basketball team was scheduled to play arch-rival Duke at 9:00 PM, so I was going to miss the Big Game. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our art! When I got down to the ballroom, the party was under way. The ballroom is huge, and tables and chairs were set up around a large dance floor which was covered with big red and white balloons. The band was set up on a temporary stage, and when I arrived, the folks had just eaten and were waiting for dessert. They asked us to start. We asked them to dim the lights. It took a while. Finally, the lights went dim, we took the stage, and started jammin'. We started off with "Overdose of You" and kept on going. Every now and then, one of those big balloons would pop. It sounded like gunfire. I hit the deck a couple of times. We took a
short break. I had a chance to talk with some Slim Peeps. One couple came all the way from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Another couple came all the way from Baltimore. And one couple came up to me to tell me that they had seen me in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2001. They were living in Germany, and moved back to the USA, and heard about the Slim Show, and made the trip. Wowza! During the
break, I went up to my room to catch the score of the Big Duke/Terps
Game Right before the second set, the banquet manager asked me to give away a dozen roses. A Gorgeous Gal came up, and drew a name from a large bowl, and I announced the winner. In the previous years, the winners had all been women. This year? A dude. Dude! I've never given a man a dozen roses before...not that there's anything wrong with that. And then, we played some music. And it was fun. Lots of fun. We had a bar tab. Not fun. In the past years, we'd never had a bar tab. They just let us drink away (big mistake). This year, without our Guardian Angel Carol...no free drinks. The tab at the end of the night was only 40 bucks, though (for the whole band--not just me!). The second set always has a different vibe than the first. Things tend to get a little bit nuts. I asked for a volunteer from the audience to play cowbell. A Guy Named Ed came up. He was with a party to the right of the stage, and it was without a doubt, the Party Table. Ed played cowbell. Actually, Ed mauled the cowbell. He hit it so hard, a few cows actually came into the ballroom from a few miles away. I sent Ed into the audience to start a conga line. Wow. Ed came back up onstage for the end of the song, and his nose was bleeding. He had been hitting the cowbell so violently, that he'd hit himself on the side of his nose with the drumstick, and he was bleeding, Special Ed. You rock, you bloody dude. After the Big V-Day show, we went upstairs to John E's room for a nightcap. Nobody had any booze, so we called it a night without the cap. The next morning, I tried to check us out of our rooms. They had charged us for the room service. I wouldn't have eaten so much If I knew I'd have to pay for it! Dinner was supposed to be included--it usually is, just about wherever we play. Lots of bands have detailed Orders in their contracts demanding for very specific (and sometimes hard to find and expensive) food and drink. The Slim Dudes? Room service and a glass of water! But they charged us for all of the room service. I had to go out in the car, dig up the contract, show it to the manager, and he took it off the bill (it showed up later on my cc bill, anyway). And then...they couldn't find our check. We left without getting paid. Am I bitchin' too much? Do I sound like a primadonna? I guess we're just getting spoiled in our old age. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, and I love the Slim Fellas. But you know how it is. It's not always smooth sailing. But the drive home was smooth. Smooth driving. It was a nice day, not too cold, sunny, and we cruised down I-95 to Bawlmer. We stopped at a Sbarro for a shlice of pizza. The glamorous life of Show Binniz... I got to the Slim Shack around 5:00 PM. 820 miles, total. I felt like I'd been rolling around in the back of a cement mixer. We used to drive 18-19 hours a day, back in 1995-96. One time, back in 1996, we drove from Oklahoma City to Needles, California in one day. It took us 20 hours. We traveled 1,000 miles. IN ONE DAY! I got the Sunday (Feb. 13, 2005) papers (the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times) and...the Terps beat Duke!! Go Terps! The next day, Monday, February 14, 2005, was our Big Valentines Day Gig in Bawlmer, Merlin. I drove about...25 miles or so from the Slim Shack to Towson, MD, home of the fabulous Recher Theatre. I got there around 4:30 PM. Traffic was a beast. We have some of the worst traffic in the USA in the Baltimore Washington area (what I like to call the Bal-Wash area). Am I bitchin' again? I'm really not complainin'--just esplainin'! John E Coale was already there and set up. So was Bobby B., a guitar player I had asked to sit in on a couple of songs. George arrived soon after I did. Howie (Hit Man Howie Z--percussion) got there late, and Kevin? He got there real late. Around 7:00 PM. Doors had already opened. Showtime was 8:00 PM. We went next door, to the Rec Room, had some sammies and burgers, and went back to the dressing room behind the stage to get ready for the big show. The Recher has new dressing rooms. The old dressing room was...well, it wasn't really a dressing room. There was no heat. There was no bathroom. There was no...no real dressing room, just a little cement hallway behind the stage. And now? They've got two huge dressing rooms, with video games, a pool table, HDTV, two bathrooms with showers, wireless Internet access, and heat! It was cozy. And there was a bucket full of booze!!! Yahoo! We came onstage and started with..."Overdose of You". It worked in Seekonk, and we were hoping it would work again. After that, I just started calling out songs off the top of my head (I've got a big head--My Dad calls me Horse Head, the band calls me Donkey Face).
We took a break, and I had a chance to say hello to some folks. My sister and my niece and her friend came out. I love my Family. I gotta tell ya, I still miss my Mom incredibly. She came to almost all the Home Shows, even though she was real sick and wheelchair bound. But folks always show a lot of love at the Slim Shows. A gal named Vicki came up to me. She was a fan of my old band BootCamp, and she remembered us back when (1980!) we used to play Mack and Myer's, a wacky night club in beautiful downtown Essex, MD. Donna Jean, from Baltimore's new full-time Smooth Jazz station (WSMJ), came up and said hello. WSMJ sponsored the show, and they got the word out. And Donna had cut short her V-Day dinner at Tio Pepe's (a great Spanish restaurant in downtown Bawlmer) to come out to the show. Another lovely woman named Eileen came up to me and handed me a letter. I didn't have time to read it... And I didn't want to take too long a break, so I went back to the dressing room, gathered the troops, and we marched right back onstage. Bobby B. joined us after a few tunes, and the second set was a little...more rockin' than the first. We did a Led Zeppelin song (Kashmir). We did a new Bona Fide song(THE NEW BF CD, "Soul Lounge" COMES OUT IN MAY/JUNE!!!!!). During that stupendous second set, I pulled the letter from Eileen out of my leopard skin thong underwear, and read it to the crowd... Slim Daddy, Glad you came in the area, miss you on the radio. Just want to tell you a little story. I had a date with someone and he brought his music and I brought my music--favorite--Slim Man, of course. He is from Jamaica--we were listening and when "End of the Rainbow" came on he started singing it with me--I couldn't believe it!--his being from Jamaica and knowing it. Well it was fate--how could I not spend the rest of my life with my "Heart of Gold" that I found! We were married in Nov. 4. Just wanted to share our story. Happy Valentine's Day. Eileen and Junior Knight Pretty wild, huh? It makes it all worthwhile. Don't get me wrong, wild women and wine are fun. But true love is what we all want and need. Nat King Cole sang it best...The only thing, you'll ever learn, is to be loved and give love in return. And speaking of Nat, we did a slammin' version of Route 66. At the end of the set, we asked for a cowbell volunteer, and a Guy Named Warren came up. He was from Pikesville, a suburb of B-Mo. Warren was...quite energetic and entertaining. He hit that cowbell hard. Not as hard as Special Ed, but Warren rocked. Except he wasn't bleeding afterwards. The Boys in the band were disappointed, I'm sure. After the gig, what do ya do? Party all night with some Slim Babes? Drink until dawn with some Bona Fide Frauleins? Boogie till you barf? Nah. I packed up and drove off into the sunset. Before I left, I said goodbye to Howie and John E, who were hoisting at the Rec Room Bar. George left early--he had a long drive (back to Jersey). Kevin (Chocky) also had a bit of a drive (Sliver Spring), and left early. So I started to drive home, and listened to the new Bona Fide CD on the way. It is...well, I'm real proud of it. It's the best BF CD ever. My favorite by way far. I stopped by a Beautiful Babe's pad on the way home. My back was killing me from all the driving. I asked BB for some ibuprofen. She gave me a pill. I took it. I looked at the bottle. It turned out to be...codeine. I had knee surgery a few years ago. They gave me codeine for post-op pain. I didn't take it--it whacks me out. I had incredible back pain a few years back. Doc gave me pain pills. Couldn't take 'em--they whack me out to much. So, for the next few days after the Recher gig, I was whacked out. All I could do was lay on the couch. I couldn't even answer the phone. And to think people pay Big Money to feel like that! Big Thanks to All. Carol, and all the folks at the Johnson and Wales Inn. Thanks to Larry, the Sound Guy in RI. Thanks to all the folks who came to the V-Day show in RI. Huge Thanks to all the staff at the Recher Theatre. Big Thanks to Lori Lewis and Donna Jean at WSMJ, Bawlmer's new full-time Smooth Jazz station, for getting behind the show in a Big Way. Thanks to all who came out on V-Day in B-Mo, and we'll see y'all real soon now, hear? Oh, I almost forgot...thanks to the Cowbell Killers--Special Ed in Rhode Island, and Warren from Pikesville, MD. |
We
did our soundcheck, and then went back to the rooms to get ready for
the Big Slim Show. Valentine's Day. Well, actually, it was Saturday,
February 12th, but the V-Day party was already underway...folks in the
ballroom at Johnson and Wales started wining and dining at around 7:00
PM.
The
first set was too much fun. A few weeks before, I had seen a guitar
player named Bobby B. playing in a jazz trio with my drummer, John E
Coale. Bobby was real good (so was John E). I asked Bobby to sit in
at the Recher, and he fit right in. We had never rehearsed or played
with him before. He's a player. 