UPDATED: One year later, I found that Kevin Simnacher recorded some of the highlights of The EGADS first and only gig, for a benefit. I remember that Tim Nemec had to pull out of the gig, he was there but he ended up getting ill. I didn't bring my drumset so Kim Bean was kind enough to have his drums there, but he and Rich Toomsen played drums, I played guitar the whole way through. On previous jams, I damn near destroyed Kim's set with my over the top playing, I can't blame him for that. But he did help us out a lot.
Looking at the video, I was suffering from stage fright and if there's was the Anti Rock Star, that would have been me, in my oddball outfit, Gilligan's Hat, Eyeball shirt and those awful orange pants, to which they got donated to Goodwill soon afterwards. So I jumped around, mugged at the camera and led this motley crew of players to a 45 minute set to which we still had dancers at the end. At least we didn't scare them away. But it was all for a good cause.
As for failed actress/troll specialist Arian Asghari trying to replace Simon on America's Got Talent as critic, nothing has been heard from her since her thumbs down and comment of "kill me" after watching this on You Tube. It's safe to say, she didn't get the job and went back to listening to Insane Clown Posse and Kane Brown.
The EGADS never did play with a full lineup.
Setlist (from what I remembered so the songs will be out of order) (All photos by Kevin Simnacher)
Kansas City
Blue Bayou
Ring Of Fire
For What Its Worth
Come Together
Ain't No Sunshine
Johnny B Goode
Sweet Home Chicago
Working Man Blues
I Hear You Knocking
Let's Work Together
Everybody's Talking
The Egads Band:
Belinda James-Vocals
Mark Randolph-Guitar
Rodney Smith-Vocals and guitar
With:
Mike Clair-Guitar (Johnny B Goode, Sweet Home Chicago, Working Man Blues plus lead vocal)
Jeff Langenburg-Bass
Barth Walter-Bass
Kim Bean-Drums (all tracks except where Rich Toomsen played drums on)
Rich Toomsen-Drums (Kansas City, Blue Bayou, Ring Of Fire)
It's been a dry month, no rain whatsoever. You know how to make it rain? Get a gig and play outdoors!
It is no secret that I've been jamming with Belinda and Mark for a while now, to the point that we can do a set list of songs just in case we get to do a gig or benefit. We have off and on practiced with Larry Axelman and Tim Nemec on the band collective called The Egads! to which I thought up the name as a running joke and Belinda took off with it. There was talk about doing some shows in the future but when Mike Clair was doing a benefit for Scott Van Wrey who had inoperable cancer. Wooden Nickel Lottery was playing, so was Robin Banks and after that would be a jam of sorts. In turned out to be The Egads! debut.
It was a humid day and by the time I got there to see WNL, it begin to rain and a thunderstorm hit for about an half hour before winding down. To which the wind died down and the damn mosquitoes came out of nowhere, eating everybody alive. And it made me wonder if this worth doing in the first place, outdoors by the Cedar River were it's skeeter hell. Julie and Ryan showed up later but didn't play, poor Julie was eating alive by those bloodsuckers. I got bit about five times too. I tried my best to keep moving and not stand stationary. I was practicing guitar for a bit but that made me a target for the fucking bloodsuckers. So I made three trips around downtown Vinton trying to stay ahead a couple steps from the bugs. Vinton is what I consider to be a nice town that reminds me of the old days, what Marion used to be but not now. They still got old store signs up downtown (Camerons), the neon green of Micheal and Dowd Furniture, plus a movie theater, and of course a Chinese and Mexican restaurant and...a Pizza Ranch. If you live in Iowa you might have a Pizza Ranch in your area. I made two trips to Casey's to refill my tea cup and told the woman up there if I came up there a third time I might ask you out on a date since you're getting to know me quite well. She got a laugh out of that I think. When I got back to the car, I got the guitar out and started strumming away and had a bunch of young kids looking at me funny. One little girl shyly remarked that she likes guitar players and then proceeded to run off with the rest of the kiddies. Ah to be young like that again. I had to smile on that.
There was a two hour delay as a benefit auction was taking place and I was getting bored in a hurry and kept in shape with my downtown walking visits. I got there so early in the afternoon that I did find a parking spot close to the stage and didn't need to drive on the park lawn. Then again I did not bring my drums set and we thought there would be a drum set up there. The only drum set there was Kim Bean's drums, he played for Robin Banks and I really didn't want to play drums, Kim was nice enough to sit in on our set and played drums, (Rich Toomsen did do a couple songs at the beginning) and for the first time ever on stage, I played guitar instead of drums.
This benefit marked the first time that I played in a band that I was a member in. Last time I did that, was for the Routers back in 1992. In terms of theory, this was the first time I ever led a band outside of The Townedgers playing guitar and singing. I have come a long way from December of last year when The Acousta Kitties coaxed me into doing a few songs playing guitar and I seemed to gotten better for it. Our band was missing a couple. Larry Axelman had to baby sit and couldn't get away and Tim Nemec fell ill while waiting for the rain to end. So we did the next best thing and improvise using the songs that we have played at jam sessions. I did no originals and did the songs that I didn't need cheat sheets with. Belinda did the majority of the songs, I did Everybody's Talking, Let's Work Together and For What Its Worth, and Ryan requested Ring Of Fire and he may have some video to that. Not sure how that came out. Also, Kevin Simnacher took photos and videos so I'm sure he's got some interesting photos to share, so I post them later on.
Credit has to be due to the musicians who stepped in for Tim, Barth Walter always been a stellar bass player, he's one of my favorite bass players and Jeff Langenburg also helped too. They are professional musicians who could follow my primitive and eclectic guitar playing. I'm still very self conscious about playing guitar, I never feel I'm good enough outside of the basic chords and such. but I'm getting more used to having the other guys take off what I am playing. Kim Bean is very good at playing drums and he's not a hard hitter unlike myself. For a first time having him providing the beat we really did quite well. It was very nice of him to help us out, he was in the hospital last weekend for a bad ear infection but he came to played tonight's gig with his band and with us. That meant a lot.
For the songs themselves, all were done at jams, no new songs or surprises but I did extend For What Its Worth and Everybody's Talking and Let's Work Together to have Mark Randolph play lead guitar. I did played Johnny B Goode on Guitar and Working Man Blues as well for the first time ever. Staying with the A,D,E chord progression made these songs easier to play too. And like Troy Mills, I ended up standing and playing guitar since I found a strap that fit the Ibanez guitar. And I managed to get around and replacing the broken string that happened last month.
Without having me playing drums, we didn't do certain songs. Oh we could have done Fever, or Stormy Monday but I think Belinda likes having me providing the beats to those songs. I play them in a certain way that brings out the soulful tune of Fever and the feeling of despair on the latter song. Everybody does rave on how great Belinda sings, that's no secret. Certainly Kim could provide the drumming for those songs, but I have done those songs with Belinda in such a way that nobody else could provide the emotional intensity of those songs. But if you played alongside people a while you develop a certain way on how to do the songs and make them your own. Julie is good at that too, but as I continue to work with Belinda and Mark, we are beginning to established our own sound and our own way of playing certain songs. To which chemistry is made of. Kinda like when Ryan and Julie, the more they work together, the more they develop that sound they are looking for. I don't take anything away from the rest of the female singers out there that I jam with, they are good at what they do and over time if i work with them again, something good might come out of that, be it Nikki D or Kim Trevillion. Julie needs no introduction, but I get more chances of working with Belinda and in return there's a bit more of a bond and chemistry sharing songs on stage. She's known enough of my songs to provide backup if need be. And I'm not one that wants to do things solo, having other participate makes the songs stand out. It really doesn't matter what I think, but I still believe that I work with the best vocalists in town.
And one of them plays in The Egads!
After Everybody's Talking, we decided that was all for tonight. I think we got tired of swatting fucking mosquitoes and all but a few faithful hang around towards the end. But they did mentioned we did a great job.
Thanks everybody!
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