Popcorn Jam 1/29/17 End Of Month Thoughts From Crabby

With:

Julie And The Mad Dogs-
Julie Gordon-Guitar and Backing Vocal on Ain't No Sunshine
Dakota McWhorter-Guitar
Kevin Michel-Bass
Mike Serbousek-Drums and Vocal on Johnny B Goode
Ron LaFleur-Guitar and vocal on Ain't No Sunshine
R.Smith-Drums otherwise

Songs:
Ain't No Sunshine
Johnny B Goode


And:

Tommy Bruner-Guitar and vocal on Crossroads
John Hernandez-Bass Guitar
Herm Sarduy-Drums and Vocals (Hey Bartender, Some Kind Of Wonderful)
Terry McDowell-Drums
Rodney Smith-Drums

Songs:
Hey Bartender
Some Kind Of Wonderful
Crossroads Blues

I'm not a fan of the duel drumming set up.  The usual constant bitching from the other drummer.  Typical shit: You play too fast, you play too loud.  How could you tell Herman?  All I could hear was from you.  Don't get me wrong, I love sharing the stage with Herman but his ego does tend to get in the way it seems.   The reason why he can't hang around bands it seems.  Outside of dropping a stick on Some Kind Of Wonderful, (I had a spare stick waiting on the bass drum), I let Herman do most of the hard work drumming and soloing.  Herm could do the double high hat accent on Some Kind Of Wonderful, I can't do that very well so I played a straight half beat and colored outside the lines of Herm's drumming.  I think it worked to my advantage on Crossroads Blues to which Tommy Bruner did it as a straight funky blues.  But after that, I bailed out, I was fighting a major headache and really didn't want to subject my ears to Trevor's bash and crash today.

So I went to Cooters to see what the acoustic jam was all about and was disappointed by the results. They did a Black Dog medley of sorts and then took a long break.  To which the bartender was trading F bombs with a pissed off patron whose boyfriend got thrown out of the place.  I don't have a good history with Cooters and that may have been my only time of showing up at that acoustic jam.  I'll stick with Checkers or Stone City.  With time on my hands I hung around Half Price Books, found a few forty fives and a book to read and then off to Red Robin for my free birthday burger. Next time I'll order water (soft drinks are 2.99)

Plus the Acousta Kitties and the Checkers crowd is a bit more welcoming.   Plus I love the Acoutsa Kitties.

(Jean Gilmore: Photo credit)

Tommy Bruner had a close call on Friday, he suffered a minor stroke and was in the hospital for two days, only to get released and he made it to the jam.  The man is dedicated to music and playing.  God bless him.

Friday Night, I showed up late to Hot Shots to see the return of Julie And The Mad Dogs and managed to back Mike up on his song.  It was the first time I got to jam with Ron LaFleur on Ain't No Sunshine.  Enjoyed jamming with him.  But I think the long lay off kinda made the band rusty. Mike sounded good on drums though.  I did talked to him about the implosion of the project with Ron, all the while he was in the bar.  We complimented on each other's playing.  At the end, somebody gave a Tequila shot to Mike and he ended getting sick afterwards.   I can't do that crap myself either.  Me and Mike did talk about music and perhaps if he was up to it, do something with me on guitar, but only for fun.

Saturday, Russ and Deb were kind enough to pay for my birthday supper and got me a crab paperweight which I thought was kinda cute.  Of course we did talk tunes and the band and as always mostly talk but nothing in the foreseeable future.  Russ did mention he is up for a new picture of jamming. Well, pick a date then. 

When most of the Paraphernalia/Tyrus boys got together in 2015, it was a good feeling to get everybody in one place again.  And it did inspire me to start jamming again.  But to get everybody on stage once again is a dream and it's not going to happen.  Mike is retired and hasn't expressed an interest to get together on jam sessions, Dennis is now a pilot and hasn't played guitar in years, DeWayne has his grandkids and a wife to watch over.  I don't think Russ is that interested to play anymore, we continue to talk about doing something with Shawn McDonald but I've never heard Shawn and really don't know what his mindset is at.  Years ago, Russ and I jammed to a guy named John and that might have amounted to something.  We had some fucking good fun that day.  But I think when you get to be a certain age, you'd rather not haul all your stuff out and hope nobody steals anything.  in 1984, I bought everything out of the basement to do the OK Lounge show.  Nowadays, I might do the Jon Wilson method and take one snare, bass drum, cymbal and high hat to a gig.

I am an oddball musician.  I'm not interested in hair metal or grunge or modern rock, my specialty remains garage rock, originals and music I grew up with and I have dived back into the older songs of long ago and far away.  What else to explain If I Were A Carpenter or Spanish Harlem Incident or I Feel A Whole Lot Better.   When you work evenings, playing in a band is based only on weekends or nights off.  Certainly from my positive reaction from the crowd at Checkers when I did my songs that perhaps I should have done this years before.  I prided myself on being a damn good drummer, despite the usual crabbings from others of playing too loud or too fast.   I guess you can't win or find a happy medium upon this, so I sit there and manipulate on how to counter the other dueling drummer.  Sunday night, I simply decided to counter what Herman was playing, by keeping it simple or throw half rolls to his beats on Crossroads Blues.  Whatever I did must have worked, people still complimented me on my playing.  

And it should not be a me versus him mentality, but rather to compliment one another on enhancing the beat.  I don't think John really wanted to play the bass but he was a good trouper and played along.  But I think I followed him out the door after we got done playing.  And I think after a while you get bored with the same ole songs and the same ole criticism (thank God for spellchecker), we are who we are. Some adapt but some who been used to their own way tend to hog the spotlight and want things all for themselves.  And so I let them sweat more than I do,  Herm is awesome on Hey Bartender and he did play more cleaner than I, since I wasn't familiar with the song and only did one time before in my life time.  But this is not an audition for another band, it's a jam and it's supposed to be fun.   You would think.

I think the next Rumors' Duel Drumsets will be me taking part along with Terry, or that's what Terry has mentioned to me.  It will the first showcase for the Tama Set that I bought back in August and I'll dust off the Paiste cymbals that I used at Wrigleyville.  If Trevor wants to bang on the set or if Terry wants to, I won't say no.  But I'm very particular with the Zildjian K's so they'll be staying home.  By then I will have a working set list of 20 songs that Terry or Tommy can play, maybe perhaps Brook and Dan might take part.   It's a ways off but I'd say it's a 60/40 chance it may happen.

And Herman would be invited to try my drums out too.

And now a few words from Tommy.

I can barely find words to say thank you to everyone who showed up at the Popcorn Jam yesterday. Terry McDowell, James Gritman, Herm Sarduy, Rick & Andi Clay, Rodney Smith, Karie Skogman, Brook Hoover, Ian Jacoby, George Melichar, Danny Byal, Jean Gilmore, Kathy Runneals, Steve Black Wolf, Steve Harrison, Chad Johnson, Shari Bullard McDowell, and anyone I may have failed to mention . . . . having you all there was better medicine than I could have imagined. And of course Brenda, who is an absolute rock beyond all belief.

The good news is, full-function has completely returned. The neurologist says there is absolutely nothing on the MRI to indicate any further issues at all. She said as long as I take the prescribed medicine, lower my cholesterol and stop smoking gradually over the next couple of months, I can count on a bright future, and that with that particular prognosis the very best thing I can do is get right back on the horse, which is exactly what I'm doing and will continue to do. Yesterday I really learned how great it is to have friends who are there for you when the chips are down. To those folks and all the well-wishers, again, thank you so much!!

I also want to give a shout-out to my friend Kevin Burt who had the exact same thing happen this weekend. Apparently he is fine too which is good, because hearing his voice is one of the things in life that I love.