Bands battling - good and bad

 HERE IS AN interesting event May 31 in Quincy - a battle of the bands, put on by Quincy Raceways.

Intriguing. There hasn't been a "battle of the bands" around here for a long time. When Second String Music started up we were involved in several of them, and while it was great to see local talent on the stage, the experiences weren't always the best for us.

For one thing you have to have judges, and judges are biased, no matter how experienced and fair they might seem. You would hope judges give each act a chance and decide how good they are by performance. 

And there's a telling statement in the Quincy Raceways promotion for people attending - "bring your best dance moves." Hmmm. Makes sense, because they want people to be entertained.

Right now there are not that many bands period, let alone younger bands, in the Quincy area. Twenty-five years ago when The Funions were around there were amazing younger bands like Fielder, SuperImposed, PreDawn Hour and many more. Now? I'm getting into trouble because I know there are younger bands out there, so my apologies are issued in advance.

This should be about bands, not people who play to tracks. There are performers out there who do this and are very good at it and that’s fine - but this for bands. There is something real about actual live performance. 

There is a thriving area metal scene and some seriously talented bands. They do what they do very well. But most local venues aren't going to pony up for that kind of scene. They. Just. Aren't. That's why you see great shows at places like The State Room, where five or six bands play on the bill. Those bands do it for the love of playing and I have a lot of respect for them.

Friends like Brad Fletcher and Ian Carlstrom are involved in such projects and they are incredible. They should be playing sold-out arena shows, not sharing the bill with five other bands in a cramped basement venue. Then again, bands like Continued Without A Finding love playing in cramped basement venues. Or Iceland at a death metal festival. It's who they are. Rock on!

Somewhere I hope there are younger people who want to play who are motivated by the Quincy Raceways event. Dreams, belief in what you do and the passion for playing are beautiful things. If it takes a battle of the bands and a $5,000 first place prize to stoke the fire, so be it. Do it!

Combat the cold by thinking Goony

Indian Mounds Park this morning.

 

  THERE IS SOMETHING lucid and searing about a cold and pristine winter morning. We just got back from an Indian Mounds Park walk - the dogs love careening through the snow and it's not bad if you keep moving.

But ... the snow and the cold can get you down. Do what I do if you want to combat the winter blues - think about a Lake Michigan beach and Goony Races!

 

Roland Hart, my cousin, sent the above photo from about 10 years ago. I think Sheryl may have taken it. Roland’s father, the late Peter Hart, is my uncle. Peter and Helen Hart lived on a wooded dune above Lake Michigan, and we spent countless sun-drenched days on his beach between Saugatuck and Holland.

You can see Peter's grandchildren and others lined up, ready do the Goony Race. I invented it, more than 20 years ago. Peter is just to the right, egging us all on. We all lined up and charged as fast as we could into the waves of Lake Michigan, acting as silly and "goony" as possible. At the end, the silliest person won. It was always me.

Uncle Peter could be a serious man who tackled serious issues, like world peace and conflict resolution. But he also delighted in the absurd and he took great joy in ... joy. So the Goony Race was right up his alley.

I'm feeling the warmth of the sun from this golden day a decade ago. It's probably on a Labor Day weekend. It looks to be early afternoon. The grandkids had been begging for a Goony Race for a while. When you are on the beach and listening to the waves and having good family conversation, you took your time before unleashing Goony.

Of course, the cold beverages ("rivers of beer" as Peter called them) didn't hurt either. And by late August or early September, Lake Michigan was warm enough to swim in and cool enough to take the sting out of the summer sun.

You can see Peter laughing as we all head to the water. He didn't go in, of course. It was his way of pranking us. But I also think we wanted to see all the silliness and sheer childish joy unfolding in front of him. Who can blame him?

I'm already feeling warmer while starting out the window at the winter landscape.

The snow will melt and the air will get warmer and soon I'll be making plans to go to that beach to help spread Peter's ashes. Maybe I'll be a little Goony when I do it.

Think warmer Goony thoughts and we will get through these cold winter days. In other words ... Just. Keep. Going.

Resolutions ... whatever

 NEW YEAR, NEW plans. Blah blah blah. I think New Year's resolutions are like Silly Putty - fun to play around with and stretch, but no practical application.

But ... I'm gonna try a few things. Why not? If you fail, you fail. Just. Keep. Going.

1. DRY JANUARY: Just got done with two awesome band gigs, at The Club Tavern on New Year's Eve and Jan. 1 afternoon show at Shorteez in Clayton. I had very little to drink NYE, and nothing to drink yesterday. I feel surprisingly good this morning. Hmmmm .... might be something to this whole not drinking thing. So, January is no booze month. We'll see how long it lasts.

2 LESS IS MORE: Santa brought me a Strymon Iridium pedal for Christmas. Actually, he made me pay for it and he charged me shipping, but that's another story. This thing is amazing, just a small box that replaces your amplifier. On stage, it means way less volume because you plug it right into the PA. I used it the past two gigs and it made a huge difference. How nice it is to not have your ears ringing for days! The moral of the story is that less is more. Musicians tend to get obsessed with gear. If you play in a band, nobody cares what kind of guitar or amp you have, they just want to hear good music.  I am a very average guitar players but the Iridium is helping me play better. So the less ends up being way more!

3. MORE, NOT LESS: I gotta do more of these blogs. I go long stretches where I'm struggling for ideas and unmotivated. That has to stop. The number of blog hits doesn't matter. I'm not great at it, but writing is therapeutic and rapidly becoming a lost art.

4. UNCLUTTER: I have a really nice Fender Blues Junior IV I don't use. I'm selling it. PM on Facebook if you want. I'm going to try and go upstairs into the junk room and slowly but surely get rid of stuff. 

5. EMBRACE IT: We have snow coming this weekend. Everybody around here is panicking already. Why? It's fun to play in and it's better than icy rain. When stuff comes up, you can bitch and moan, or face it and deal with it, even own it.

6. READ MORE BOOKS: Stop going down stupid social media rabbit holes less. And don't read the comments from the Web Warriors. Nuff said.

So there it is. 2025 - Just Keep Going. Here's to a better year.