Norman Nardini Gig Updates!

Gig Updates

July 26 - 2003 Excuses - Pittsburgh PA- Excuses, South Side:
It's always a great night when Norman and the guys play this room dating back 15 years. A two hour first set mixing the old with the new, featuring great versions of "Play", "Burnin Up" (with a lot of good bull shit). Harry sang a great version of Marty Robbins' "Singin' the Blues". A one hour second set ended up with the old Pittsburgh rock n roll classic "Rock You".
Notables in Attendance: Angelo, Terry, Patty & Ron, Young Eric and his boys, Wonderful Tom, Hockey Hall of Fame's Mike Lange and various friends of Alisa (the mad booze scientist from Cleveland, Ohio (Home of the Cleveland Clowns) ;-)

July 29 - 2003 - Buddy's Parking Lot - Waynesburg PA:
A rain day celebration. A white trash funfest with people yelling requests the whole show. It was not a giant audience, but one with a lot of character. What the $%*! kind of summed up the whole evening. Ray the soundman played the last song of the night with the guys a cool version of "I Hate A Nickel"
Notables in attendance: Crazy, Bobby, Bobby Moore (who looked great and everybody was glad to see him), Larry, the Kid Man and our gracious host Buddy.

July 30 - 2003 Frederick's: (In West Hills Shopping Center next to Ladbrokes) Norm with Herman & David Granati
The three greaseballs and an Irishman Crash McCracken on drums. Question: Who's shorter? Herman? David? or Norman? A whole lot of fun just playing old cover songs, except for when Norman decided to torture the musicians and made them play a couple of new originals "Mr. Right Now" and "Who Dat Do Dat". Also of note, Alison Granati (Joey's daughter), sang an R & B number and kicked all ass.
Notables in attendance: Mary Ann, Nicky and Alison Granati, Ted Thompson, Alan & Debbie, Christin from Car Hops, Scott Talerico and Michelle (the recipe collector)

July 31 - 2003 Parkway Tavern: 312 Center Rd, Monroeville, PA
A rainy night in Pittsburgh, Norman and the guys were rippin' right from the start. Killer versions of "Lazy Bones", "Good Rockin Man", "The Bottom Of This Bottle". Then the second set started off rippin' too. A guy from the audience got up and sang background vocals to "Up Jumps The Devil" and embarrassed his wife. Then the Rat Man got up and sang "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" (took of his pants but kept his shirt on). He also embarrassed his wife.
Notables in attendance: Shades & Debbie, John & Lorrie Grieco, Rat, Betty & Donna, Dave & Carol, Sue & Marcia, Lee from Car Hops East, Mike Shehee, E.J. & T.J.

July 20 - 2003 Donzi's (Bike Night) Strip District- Pittsburgh, PA
The guys were still hot from the night before. Norman noted that his face hurt. For some reason, it just sounded great from the start. The first set featured a lot of Norman's old bluesier numbers, like "Send You Back", "Good Rockin' Man" and the sometimes scary "When I die and go to Hell". The second set was all new songs, except for Whitey doing a great version of "Shamalama Ding Dong". It was a beautiful evening and a good time was had by one and all.
Notables in Attendance: Chris & Eric, The Jan Man, Gary Cow Pants, Biker Doug, former starting tackle of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Justin Strelzyk who made Norman really look short.

July 19 -2003 - Moondog's - Blawnox, PA
The guys kicked things off around 10:30p.m. and once again performed almost all new songs for around an hour. Then they brought up Norman's old friend from Junior high school Frank Giove on guitar and Moondog's regular Perry on harp. They performed old T-Bird's classic "Walkin' To My Baby". Norman's "Bow Legged Woman" and closed the set with a fired up version of "Got My Mojo Workin". It was a great fired up first set. Norman and the guys opened the second set on fire and quickly brought up Wayne Baker Brooks (Lonnie Brook's son) on guitar, Biscuit on bass and Mike on drums (Lonnie Brook's rhythm section). These boys from Chicago kicked ass in the true Chicago Blues tradition. They played 3 tunes and brought the house down. Thanks for comin' out guys! Norman and his boys took back the stage with Pittsburgh's own Jimmy Adler on guitar and performed the old T-Bird's classic "Let's Start All Over Again". Then before you knew it Wayne Baker Brooks came back up to close out the night with Moondog singing lead on "I Shall Be Released". Norman played a smokin solo and all was right with the world. And if that wasn't enough, around 2:15am, Rat Man came up and did a semi-nude version of "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" and pretty much scared he shit out of everyone who was still standin. There's a rumor goin around that Norman, Whitey, Harry, Moondog and Wayne Brooks partied till 6 in the morning.
Notables in attendance: Gil & Sue, Patty, Mary & Craig, a large gathering of rowdy's from the Blues Festival dominated the audience.

July 18 - 2003 Moondog's - Blawnox, PA
After the Blues Festival Jam. The show didn't start till 11pm. but things got cookin real quick. Norman and the guys played almost all new material in the first set. The second set featured young Zack Weissinger who was smokin'! He performed to old Norman's instrumentals "Boilermaker" and "Nightclub". The Rat Man closed the show with a sick version of "Blue Suede Shoes".
Notables in attendance: Gil & Sue, Patty & Beverly, Grant & Tammy, Mark the Vet, Dave & Carol, Craig workin' the door and Mary behind the bar.

July 18 - 2003 Pittsburgh Blues Festival - Pittsburgh Brewing Company - (Lawrenceville), Pittsburgh, PA
A beautiful evening with a nice crowd of all ages. The Pittsburgh Blues All-Stars took the stage at around 8:15 with Zack Weissinger on guitar, Phil Bronson on tenor sax, Bob Adelman on trumpet, Harry Bottoms on bass, Whitey Cooper on drums and the manful handful on guitar. Kicked off the show with the old Norman instrumental "Bulldog" and got the whole house groovin'. Then Norm called up super fine lady Shari Richards to sing Jimmy Reed's "Hidin' and Peepin". In the middle of the song, Annie Sutton found her way to the gig, walked on stage in the middle of the song and finished it out. Timing is everything. Then they called the star of the show, Pittsburgh Blues Legend Chizmo Charles, to do his thing. He kicked it off with "Woman Go to Work" so Annie & Shari proceeded to go to work singin' and dancin' up a storm. Chiz followed with "Stormy Monday Blues", then he did an impromptu Happy Birthday to a lady in the crowd, (Betsy)? Then everybody sang a verse of the old Canned Heat tune "Work Together". Just goes to show how beautiful it can be when everybody does work together. They closed the set with the old "Shake Your Moneymaker". How cool it was having Chizmo at 75 years old singin' and Zack at 16 years old jammin' right along on guitar. Two generations joined together in one groove. Norman couldn't have been more proud.

July 3 - 2003 - Moondog's - Blawnox, PA
Not a big crowd, but definitely a fun crowd. July 4th weekend is a tough time to get people out to the bars. The band had a pretty good first set and did lot of the newer material. Rat came out on the second set and sang Me and Bobby McGee, while he ripped off his shirt and pants. Underneath, he was wearing a coconut bra and a hoola skirt! Norman said he messed up the words but no one seemed to notice. Then, Moondog got up and sang a great version of David Allen Coe's "You Don't Have To Call Me Darlin" Also, the womb sisters got up and sang background on "She's a friend of mine". They should be friends, they used to be womb-mates cause they're twins! Last but not least, Harry Bottoms sang the old Marty Robbin's song "Singin The Blues"...Love that!
Notables in Attendance: Mary, our favorite bartender, Craig, our favorite doorman, Rat & Crew, Ron, Patty & Beverly, Gil & Sue

Stay tuned for the latest updates! Better yet, come to one of the shows and experience "The Manful Handful" himself, first hand!

[ Norman Nardini Friends Links ] [ May-2008.htm ] [ April-2008.htm ] [ March-2008.htm ] [ February-2008 ] [ Jan-2008.htm ] [ December-2007.htm ] [ Nov-2007.htm ] [ Oct-2007.htm ] [ September-2007.htm ] [ Aug-2007 ] [ July-2007.htm ] [ Jun-2007.htm ] [ May-2007.htm ] [ Apr-2007.htm ] [ Mar-2007.htm ] [ Feb-2007.htm ] [ Jan-2007.htm ] [ Dec-2006.htm ] [ Nov-2006.htm ] [ Oct-2006.htm ] [ Sept-2006.htm ] [ Aug-2006.htm ] [ July-2006.htm ] [ June-2006.htm ] [ May-2006.htm ] [ Apr-2006.htm ] [ March-2006.htm ] [ Feb-2006.htm ] [ Jan-2006.htm ] [ December-2005.htm ] [ April-2005.htm ] [ Mar-2005.htm ] [ Feb-2005.htm ] [ Jan-2005.htm ] [ Dec-2004.htm ] [ Nov-2004.htm ] [ Oct-2004.htm ] [ Sept-2004.htm ] [ August-2004.htm ] [ July-2004.htm ] [ June-2004.htm ] [ may-2004.htm ] [ april-2004.htm ] [ march-2004.htm ] [ feb-2004.htm ] [ jan-2004.htm ] [ dec-2003.htm ] [ nov-2003.htm ] [ oct-2003.htm ] [ sept-2003.htm ] [ aug-2003.htm ] [ july-2003.htm ] [ june-2003.htm ] [ may-2003.htm ] [ april-2003.htm ]