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Gig Updates Saturday, June 30-2007 Dock on the Yough: Portvue, Pa. The evening sun was shining. The river was calm. The joint was jumpin wit barbecue, beer, n’ Pittsburgh rock n’ roll. The two hour first set took a few twists and turns. “If I Had a Child” was smoking. Love you long time. “Burn’in Up” caught fire. Love you long time. A tune we rarely play “Bare Footin”, the old Bobby Parker tune, was a gas. That’s beatnik talk. Cool, huh? Boat people rock. Know what I mean man? “Boilermaker” opened set two, and folks was starting to dance n’ get goofy. “Nothin To Lose” came up strong. I made the solo at the end long and manful. Love you long time. Set three opened with “You Really Got A Hold On Me”. An ole friend then joined us onstage, Kenny Blake. We did a minor key laid back blues thing to warm up Kenny, but Kenny didn’t need warmed up. Kenny came gig ready. We blasted into Junior Walker’s “Shotgun”. Kenny put down the alto and picked up the tenor sax. Things got funky. We did a blues shuffle and three different harp players got up and did their own take on the same tune. The show closed down after four hours of playing on our part, with Kenny Blake blowin his way thru “I Shall Be Released”. Love you long time.
Friday, June 29-2007 Excuses: Pittsburgh, Pa., Not a giant crowd, but most everyone stayed all night. What a blast we had. It had been a while since we played “White Trash Tragedy”. Let me say, it hit a homerun on this occasion. Phil Brontz, tenor sax man of 8th Street Rox was in da house and did a remarkable four song set before a very appreciative audience. ‘T- Bird”, “Sidewalk Romeo”, “Weekend” and “Burn’n Up” all took me places I needed to go. Nice playing with Phil. “People Takin Care” got me going. We sent out “Till the Cows Come Home” to the guy that inspired it, Paul Shook. “Little Things” lit it up in set three. “Ain’t It Amazin” quieted the joint down. “Son Of A Gun” brought the rock. A young girl name a’ Kate took her second crack at singing “Be My Baby’, this time I put her in a better key to sing the d*m song. Kate nailed it. This was a wonderful and magic evening. I am blessed. Saturday, June 23-2007 Billy’s Roadhouse: Wexford, Pa. I had a lot of sadness in my soul not long before I had to leave for the gig. I got a call from brother Ron that informed me of the passing of my ex band mate and ole friend Paul Shook. I’m Paul Shook up. The party now atmosphere at Billy’s on this night was so powerful it lifted my spirits. “Lazybones”, “Good Rockin Man”, I thought about Shook and started playing “Amazing Grace”, my mind drifted back to 1980, Fat City, Swissvale and a young kid from Millvale with a whole lotta heart. Folks was dancing and boozing and yelling out requests like “Ready Freddy” & “Heat Of The Night” & “Burnin Up” so we played em’ all and more, like “T- Bird” & “That Girl”, all the old Tiger tunes. We did a strong take on “Weekend” that got a nice response. A couple of Elvis tunes for Dodo spiced up the mix, a “Happy Birthday” for Shelly. “Ain’t It Amazin” is starting to stand out. Glitter was partying like a rock star. Dat’s how we roll. There’s a ton o’ folks that’s gonna miss Paul Shook. God took a piece a’ me When God took Paul. Friday, June 22-2007 B&O Station: Youngstown, Ohio We played indoors after the Donnie Iris and the Cruisers outdoor show. Vinny Q was playing with us on this good rocking evening. “Boilermaker”, “Ready Freddy”, “Rock n’ Roll City”, we was rollin. V.Q. was kicking on ”Heat Of The Night”. A steaming version of “Weekend” warmed the stage up. “Amazing Grace” and “You Go Your Way” both felt strong. A smoking “End Of The Line” let everybody know we wasn’t messin. We then brought up Donnie’s drummer and my dear friend Brice Foster to play drums on the Chuck Berry classic “Round n’ Round”. Whitey got out front to sing “Shama Lama Ding Dong” which got over very well with the crowd. I got off big time playing slide on “Shake Your Moneymaker”. I called Donnie’s bass player Paul up onstage to play “Work Together”, “Not Fade Away” and “Bow Legged Woman”. Both Paul and Brice sounded great. As always, it felt good to get Whitey and Harry back on stage to finish out the set with “That Girl”, “Rich Kid” and “Graceland”.
Saturday, June 16-2007 The Shining Stone: Uniontown, Pa. The first set we played three piece and geared the music for the older folks in da house. “Git By” got it all goin. We threw a few cool cover tunes down just for fun: “Ring Of Fire” and “Help Me Make It Thru The Night”. The joint was starting to fill up for set two; we brought up semi regular band member Vinny Q for some good rockin. “Who Dat Do Dat” moved me major. Set three started with “Round n’ Round” followed by a serious take on “Nothin To Lose”. We did a make shift version of “Till the Cows Come Home” which rocked the house. A spiritual “I Shall Be Released” washed away all our sins and sent everybody home, fresh as a daisy.
Friday, June 15-2007 The Starlite: Blawnox, Pa. The U.S. Open was being played right across the river at Oakmont Country Club, I was hoping Tiger Woods would show for a dose of Pittsburgh rock n’ roll, but it wasn’t meant to be. “Lazybones”, “Boilermaker”, and we were pressin on. Dear friend Chuck Koeler walked onstage and started talking about me having a birthday this week as Moondog brought a candle lit cake out. I must admit I got a little tear in my eye. Chuck and Whitey sang happy birthday. Cool. “Son Of A Gun”, “Hell’s Highway” and “Rainbow” all stood out on this evening. Happy birthday to me…………… Saturday, June 9-2007 Carhops: Dormont, Pa. I bet it has been a year since we’ve played this hi-level sandwich, pizza & music bar. The music sounded manful, just as soon as we started hackin. We kicked a strong “Rock n’ Roll City” in the tail early on. We did a lotta laughing in between songs. The setup of the club has this showy feel to it. “Pass the dust, I think I’m in Vegas”. It’s an easy stage to work on cause there are people sitting all around. We talked about “Da whole Hammer n’ nat”, “Don’t make me love you”……. During the second set we had a young girl Kate, come onstage with us and sing “Be My Baby”, she did a nice job. I think we could have helped her out by finding a better key for her to sing it in. “Mr. Right Now” came down real easy. Harry sang a swinging “Pot’s n Pans”. My new best friend the red telecaster, was singing high n’ lonesome. We called Crash McCrackin a young handsome drummer about town up on stage to help us backup Whitey Cooper’s twenty minute vocal onslaught.
Friday, June 8-2007 P.D.’s Pub: Pittsburgh, Pa. “Lazybones”, “Boilermaker”, “Somethin’s Cookin”…a fiery version of “Loverboy” got the dork in me all riled up & we was off n’ running. “Two Story House” played real smooth tonight. It all seemed to make more sense you know, the words rang out over the music just da way daddy likes it. We closed out set one with “Smoke Two Joints”. I could see folks at the bar starting to feel the power and the glory of this manful sound. “That Ain’t Gonna Happen” & “I Seen Too Much” both rang out proud n’ true in the second set. “Poor Little Rich Kid” opened set three and bull dozed off the stage as it rumbled my very bones. “Shake Your Money Maker” has been a lot of fun to play lately. Hope to be back at P.D.’s this fall. “Not Fade Away”………………… Saturday, June 2-2007 Burgi’s Round House: Altoona, Pa. The two and a half hour ride always seems to be worth it when we play this bar. Local musician Ryan introduced us and we were off and running. “Lazybones”, “Rock n’ Roll City”, “Good Rockin Man” all felt just right and folks were enjoying themselves. Cool. We did “Heart Break Shake” as a special request for boss man Chuck. Ryan got back onstage to play guitar while I sang “Shake Rattle and Roll”. The dance floor filled up, the joint was rockin. “Amazin Grace” got a lot of applause. Harry sang “Pot’s n’ Pans” and also got a ton of shoutin goin on. Set one closed with an outstanding version of “Smoke Two Joints”. Ole friend and DJ for local radio station Q-94 Jim Price introduced our second set with a bunch of gusto, then we proceeded to sing a rocking “Happy Birthday” to three gals as they danced center stage. Cool. One of my ex band mates was in the house, bass player Gerry Stanek. We got him on stage and he sang “Truck Drivin Man” and “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. He then stuck around to play bass on a couple Norman tunes we used to play together “Over Said And Done” and “Up Jumps The Devil”. We played a short third set that featured Whitey singing “Shama Lama Ding Dong”. The good rockin feelin in our souls carried us thru that two and a half hour ride home.
Friday, June 1-2007 Moondogs: Blawnox, Pa. Chuck and Sandy opened the show doing a couple acoustic type tunes, except Chuck played electric guitar, it came off pretty well. Whitey, Harry and I had Vinny Q with us tonight and everybody made the most of it. “Nightclub”, “Reddy Freddy”, “Shackin Up”, “Amazin Grace”, “You Go Your Way”, “Weekend”, we was all fired up. Vinny sang “You Better Move On” I was on a major bullsh*t roll so a whole lotta laughs was all over the joint. “Heat Of The Night”, “Burnin Up”, “Shake Your Moneymaker”. Set two came rumbing in wit “Boiler Maker” and “I Seen Too Much” we got Moondog himself to sing “I Shall Be Released” and “Dead Flowers”. My ole band mate George was in the house so we got him onstage to play drums while Whitey Cooper soul shouted four or five classics. I personally was moved by Whitey’s take on “Great Balls Of Fire”, but that’s just me.
Copyright © Norman Nardini 2002 - All rights reserved |
