We’ve all heard the rumors, “Jeremy’s joining the real Journey!”

Well here’ s what really happened:http://www.roanoke.com/entertainment/wb/146327


For those of you who don’t know my ex-boyfriend used to be in Frontiers so I’ve spent a lot of time with these guys. Despite the little beef I had with them over a blog a while back, I’ve always said what great guys they were and how talented they are. Because they really are. I’ve always bragged to anyone who would listen about what a great job Jeremy does as Steve Perry despite what he may have thought.

Jeremy’s wife (along with the other wives) has always been super nice to me and I had lots of fun with that group. I know Sabrina wanted kids for a long time so, for this to happen as they were having their first was probably very tough on her so kudos to Jeremy for making a damned tough decision for his family.

I can’t imagine having a dream and then being faced with the reality of the situation. The real life business, the real life decisions, real life personalities. Now I don’t know how much validity there is to this but a very reliable friend of mine who is a friend of their former singer told me the way that he was fired was from a roadie that came up to him and said, “We’ll miss you man.” Again I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but from what I can gather from Tad’s article it would seem to fit.

So it seems to me that Jeremy made the best decision he could not only for himself but for his family as well. Good job Jeremy. You can check Frontiers out at the Jefferson Center this Friday. www.journeytributeband.com

Great article Tad!

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Last week…

Uhhh, I meant, last month…

Uh-oh, I meant, last season?

I guess I completely missed the entire summer here on the ol’ Band Girl blog, eh? So here it is, in one handy, dandy, quick (well maybe not because I tend to drone on sometimes) my “Super Fun Summer of Aught 7 Recap!” Seriously stop jumping up and down like that, you’re embarrassing yourself.

It’s all kind of a blur really. There were road trips, cake fights, rasslin’ shows and of course the always lovely visit from the Wytheville Police Department. Just your typical summer.

There’s no better way to start off the summer than with a birthday party at Bill’s pool and hot tub (oh yea, Bill was there too.) It was like any other birthday party with streamers, balloons and a big ol’ birthday cake that probably would have fed 50 people.

The cake tasted great, well at least the little biddy tiny piece I tasted did. I would have loved to have had a much bigger piece except the entire cake had been spread from one end of the house to the other in massive cake fight. There was cake everywhere from the kitchen to the living room, under the tv, in the fireplace and inside the stove. Please, someone tell me how cake gets INSIDE a stove? Everyone was covered in cake. Kira, the birthday girl, made a lovely icing mask for her face which we’ll definitely have to figure out how to bottle because icing apparently leaves your face very smooth and silky. Of course now you are wondering how we got all the cake off of us? Yup, everybody jumped into the pool and hot tub. I’m not sure if we’re invited back.

After the BirthdayHa and subsequent clean-up we headed on a road trip to see TK-421 at The Music Farm in Charleston, SC and visit our old friends Jen and Doug. Kira and I made the 6 hour trip on Saturday afternoon and met the guys in Charleston. I would like to tell you more about this trip but Kira and I decided it would be a great night to try every different kind of shot in the world. Memories are fuzzy at best. I know that Kira and I spent all night dancing on the side of the stage beside the sign that read, “Band Only” and taking pictures of ourselves, not the band. I know that the band after TK, Swyrl (who in fact were really bad,) made me really mad because their singer made a smart-ass comment as soon as they took the stage. I know I felt really bad the next morning. I know Jen and Doug are awesome.

After a memory-less night at The Music Farm, Kira, Bill and I headed to the beach in Charleston for some sun and recovery. On the way back to Roanoke, we stopped off at the Cheesecake Factory in Charlotte and ate ourselves into cheesecake oblivion. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Yum.

The rest of the summer was full of the typical shows, well I guess “typical” is relative. There was the typical night in Wytheville when the fine officers of the Wytheville Police Department decided to drop by our hotel room for a friendly, “SHUT UP” chat. The funniest thing about Wytheville is that usually when we get into the most trouble is when we are causing the least amount of chaos. We were banned from The Econolodge in Wytheville right after proclaiming amongst ourselves, “Wow, this is the most intact we’ve ever left these rooms!”

This time there was merely a group of us hanging out in my room talking. Seriously. There was no drunken screaming, there were no calls from the front desk, there was no tossing of furniture and all the throwing of beer cans from the top floor had happened much earlier in the night (they slipped out of my hands, I swear!) Although the funniest part of the whole night was that the cop had stopped at Steve’s door first. Which initially doesn’t seem funny at all but we often kid Mr. McSleepy Steve because his room is always the quietest and as soon as Steve gets a Kangaroo Biscuit (the gas station not the animal) in his little belly, he’s out like a light. Steve pointed them in the right direction. I’m not sure if we’re invited back there either.

We also made another mini-road trip to Danville (I know, how glamorous right?) This was to be a different kind of show, though. Rock and Professional Wrestling. Yes, wrestling. Muscular men in tights? Sure, I’m in! TK was to go on last after the main event (of wrestlers that were so popular they weren’t even listed on their companies talent roster.) It was supposed to be huge! It was at the Carrington Pavilion which is a really cool outdoor amphitheater with a capacity of over 6,000. It would be packed we were assured! Several thousand people, for sure!

When we got there, Kira, Stacy and I from backstage peered around the corner of the curtains where the main event was in progress. We had heard on the way down that the crowd was less than they had hoped for. So, I expected to see a few hundred people in the crowd and that was cool because it was a few hundred that probably had never seen TK before. I’m ok with that. I looked around the corner and then looked back at Kira and started to laugh. My best guesstimation would be approximately 35 people there. 35 people isn’t enough to fill This’ll Dew much less Carrington Pavillion. Wow.

After the big wrestling match, which luckily was nearly over by the time we got there, the 35 people dwindled down to about 5. But the show must go on (even if the beer truck wouldn’t stay!) So TK-421 played like there were 3,000 people in the audience and the 3+ of us that were there tried to scream really loud for them. Oh and I did see one hot, muscley wrestler…as he wheeled his pink suitcase down the ramp. Boo.

So there you have it. The Summer is over and I think I remembered nearly all of it. I’ll try to stop in again before Christmas.

Just a quick note of business while you are thoroughly captivated (Jackie! WAKE UP!) There’s a guy I talked about in one of my very first blogs, his name is Pete Evick. Pete has, I guarantee you, the biggest smile on any person you will ever meet. His excitement on stage is absolutely contagious. Pete’s band, Evick, will be playing at Corned Beef (I know, I know) on September 21. Please, please, please come out and support Pete, Brad, Ray, Rob and Chuck. Some other interesting facts about this band, they have another project they play for when not playing as Evick. They are in a band called, The Brett Michaels Band. Yep, that Brett Micheals. For anyone who watched Rock of Love on VH1 recently you heard some guitar work from Pete and Brad and also caught a glimpse of Pete on the show. FRIDAY, September 21st.

Check Evick out in this clip from Rock of Love:

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Let’s talk about heart. Heart of a community. Heart of brothers. Heart of a friend.

Maybe it was because this was our backyard. Maybe it was because we lost friends. Maybe it’s because we were horrified. Maybe it’s simply because we cared. But the Roanoke music community stepped up in a huge way to help the families and victims of that horrible day.

The world of booking bands is a notoriously difficult job. From payment negations and contracts to scheduling conflicts, to book one band for a single show can be a lengthy process for both the bands and club personnel. So, for a single club manager to get the ball rolling and have not one but 15 bands organized into a single event in a few short hours is incredible. But that’s exactly what Barry Caldwell of Awful Arthur’s did. With the help of Eventzone, corporate sponsors, personal volunteers and dozens of local musicians, Roanoke saw probably the single biggest day of music in it’s modern history. It should make each and everyone one of us proud of our community.

The weather started off beautifully that day. Sunny, mid-70’s with only a slight chance of scattered storms. “Scattered,” I thought, “maybe they’ll just scatter somewhere else.” I rushing home from work early to catch as many of the 4-11 shift of bands that I could when I noticed the big dark cloud starting to form over top of Elmwood Park. I called Bill Schlueter (TK-421, who was scheduled to go on last) and told him, “It doesn’t look good Bubba.”

Despite the darkening skies and occasional drops of rain, it seemed that the storm was going to miss us. Then at around 9:00, the occasional drops became more steady and then the skies just opened up and our mini-monsoon began. Chinese Fire Drill seem to take the brunt of the “Superbowl Prince-ish” show. Not only did they play through the downpour but they seemed inspired by every drop of rain.

While I expected to see everyone run for their cars, the people that remained not only stayed but rushed to the edge of the stage to dance and sing along with all the bands that were playing through the rain. Finally just as TK was to close out the show, the rain subsided. Even though they were cold and wet, not only did the crowd stick around but they all squeezed as close as they possibly could to TK.

One thing you may not have seen was all that the musicians were doing behind the scenes to help the event. CFD actually gave up a paid gig in order to offer their support to this night. The Pop Rivets and TK-421 donated drums, cabinets and other stuff I have no idea what it’s called and would sound stupid trying to pretend I did. Ted from The Pop Rivets gave a tv interview and insisted it be done in front of TK-421’s merch board because TK was donating all of the profits from the event to Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund.

I think I may have seen nearly every local musician I know at the event that night even if they weren’t playing. It was heartwarming despite our cold, wet clothes.

Thanks to a late Thursday night because of the benefit and a late Friday Burning Bridges night, my Saturday started off very sluggish. I honestly wanted to just stay home and sleep. Me, stay home on a Saturday? You know I was tired! But I had some new, old friends to meet. Yes, I know that doesn’t make sense, stick with me here.

Anyone remember waaaaaaaay back to my second Band Girl blog about what a jerk I thought Brett Michaels from Poison had been? Long story short, Brett’s back up band is a band called Evick. I saw Evick years ago when they opened for Brett in Harrisonburg. The singer, Pete was a smiling ball of energy and after the show, even before I started in this whole band scene thing, I would follow Evick through their website. So I was excited to see Pete playing that night and it broke my heart when Brett started yelling at him on stage and stopping in the middle of songs to berate Pete. Click here for the full version if you don’t remember it.

A few years later I actually became friends of Evick’s good friends in the band, JunkFood and of their guitar player, Brad Puckett. So I was excited when Evick booked their first show in Roanoke. Pete was there with that same big, huge smile and that same energy I remembered from the past. I kept waiting for the band to take a break so I could introduce myself. They never did.

From 9:30 until 1:30, these guys through out everything from Warrant, the essentially required Poison songs to Vanilla Ice (yes, that Vanilla Ice) and Rage Against The Machine. After the show finally ended I was able to talk to Pete who it turns out actually read my silly little blog. Pete was as nice in person as you would expect from that smile.

Pete was very adamant about telling me how everything really unfolded at that show years ago in Waynesboro. How Brett had apologized to Pete that night for the show, how great a person Brett was, how great a friend Brett had been to him and how supportive Brett was of Evick. How could you not believe a guy like that?

It was evident that Pete’s heart was as big as his smile.

Shows you should check out this week:
TK-421 at The Clinic all weekend in Wytheville.
Bitter Rain at Turn One all weekend in Wytheville.
Burning Bridges at Rocktown in Harrisonburg on Friday and Club Rio’s/Rivals in Charlottesville
The Worx at The Fifth Quarter in Danville Friday.
Drivn at Mulligans in Staunton on Saturday.
The Pop Rivets are at the new Awful Arthurs in Blacksburg on Friday.

Also as a reminder, pictures from Thursday’s benefit are available on my website at www.bndgrl.com/Benefit. I am making these pictures available for purchase only and then I will donate all the proceeds to The Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund.

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Just a quick post to remind everyone to come out Thursday, April, 26 to the Roanoke’s Rockn Remembrance show to benefit the United Way’s efforts to help the victims of the horrible events at Virginia Tech last week.

I will be there taking pictures of all the bands I can get to. After the event I will be selling all photographs for $1 ea. ALL proceeds will go to United In Caring Fund for Victims of the Virginia Tech Tragedy through United Way. Details to come after the event.

Also TK-421 has announced that all profits from the sale of any merchandise that night they will be donating to the same charity. So, come out and buy some TK swag, not only because they rock but for a good cause! I challenge all other bands to be equally as generous.

To Barry, of Awful Arthur’s, and all the people who helped him put this event together in amazing time, Thank You.

See you there! Here’s the line up:

12 noon -11pm12:00-2:00pm - FREE (No admission)
The Kind
Groova Scape
Electric Chameleon

4:00pm-11:00pm ($5 Donation at door)
Jerry Wimmer
Half Moon
Chinese Fire Drill
Shayar & Krooshal Force
The Pop Rivets
Hot Like Cajun
Illbotz
Built To Write
Mid Atlantic Kingz
Crobar Cane
Drivn
TK-421

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Schlueter (Bill, from TK-421) asked me the other day, “So do you still write that Roanoke Times thing?” I guess the fact that we are all sitting here together right now means, “YES!” (I also just totally pictured us all sitting in a circle, Indian-style, holding hands.)

There’s a reason I haven’t been writing much lately (well, not here anyway) and that’s because I simply haven’t had anything interesting to write about. Aside from the occasional waking up on Saturday morning with my pants stuffed full of Fruit Loops and no idea how they got there…coughCHADcough…(King, from Bitter Rain,) it’s been a lot of weekends of the same old, same old.

Things seem to be picking up around here though. In the past couple of weeks I actually saw a new band for the first time in ages!

I get requests from bands on Myspace all the time, shocking, I know. Usually I’ll add them if they are local just because they are local. If it’s a regional band, I don’t add them unless they are really good. I don’t add very many regional bands because quite honestly, I just don’t like very many of them.

A few weeks ago however, I got a request from the fan club of a North Carolina band called DL Token. I took a listen to their songs and loved what I heard. It turns out that their singer, Jeremy Strothers, was an alternate on the tv-reality show, INXS Rockstar. His guitar player, Xeno, was actually in one of the Children of the Corn movies as well (not that that has anything to do with the band but still kind of cool.) So I added the fan club and the band. Also noting that they were going to be playing in the area soon, I made contact with Jeremy so I could say “Hi” before the show.

Oh and I have mentioned these guys were super hot? I mean SUPER hot.

Nikki had been begging me to go see some new bands with her so we could hear some new music and make some new friends. But it’s hard sometimes to leave your comfort zone. It’s hard to leave the spotlight of being friends with the band to go somewhere where no one will know you and you are just two more people in the crowd. It’s also hard to justify not going to see my friends like The Pop Rivets or Bitter Rain who I hardly ever get to see when I actually have a free weekend away from TK-421 or Burning Bridges. Not to mention the fact that TK had added an impromptu show the same night that Nikki wanted to see DL Token. But I acquiesced and decided a night of anonymity might do me (and my over inflated ego) some good.

We had been at the club just long enough to order our first drinks when I saw Jeremy approaching us. He introduced himself and his other guitar player, Jayme. Not only were these guys super hot but they were super nice.

For the rest of the night Nikki and I danced around like fools, got followed around by an adorable little 18 year-old who loved taking pictures of us on his cell phone (which oddly also included pictures of Chuck and Troy, Johnson and Winemiller, from TK-421.) But strangely enough our assumed anonymity was short lived. The owner of Parrot Bay, John, walked up to me and said, “You’re The Band B****!” I said, “You want to talk about TK, right?” Really, could the night get any better?

Uhm, apparently not. Nikki and I headed back downstairs to talk to the guys in the band at the end of the night when we were stopped by the bouncer and told no one was allowed back down there. So we yelled over the railing to Jeremy that we had to leave. He rushed up the stairs and tried to convince the bouncer that we were helping them load out by “wrapping cables.” See? I told you, super nice! But, I guess we didn’t really have the “wrapping cables” look about us and the bouncer sent us on our way.

But, Jeremy said he’d stop by after load out so we could hang out some more. Have you ever had to wait on load out at 2:00 am after a long night of drinking and dancing? It’s very long, very boring and will put you straight to sleep just like it did to us. Sometime around dawn:30 Jeremy came to our room and invited us over to hear some acoustic tunes they were working on. I sat up, looked at Nikki, yelled her name a couple of times, she slept like a baby. Finally, in one last ditch valiant effort to salvage a night with super hot, super nice guys, I picked up the phone book and flung it as hard as I could at her. It whacked her hard and loud right on the arm. Did she move? No.

Well so much for being able to hang out with a new band. But at least we’ve seemed to have made some new friends (hot musicians, 18 year-olds and club owners.)

OK, here’s some stuff for ya:
-There’s a new band in town you need to check out, Bad Casper. Craig, Chuck, Gary and Josh are all local music vets you will recognize and are sure to rock!! So, go see them!

-The Sweetwater Ampitheater (the proposed Smith Mountain Lake Amphitheater that will hold 7,000) received another round of good news when their re-zoning request was approved unanimously by Bedford County Planning Commission. Only one more hearing next month by the Board of Supervisors before they can receive final approval. This is a great project that will bring lots of quality entertainment to our area so everyone needs to get behind it!

Visit their website: http://www.sweetwateramphitheater.com/ to learn more or find out how you can support them!

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Have I ever told you the story about a bar called The Warehouse and their fabulous band room? I’ve only been to The Warehouse once but that band room made it one of the most memorable nights of my lights. There was the faux Mardi Gras, left over bottles of New Years Eve champagne and of course that big pile of people in the loft.

There aren’t many clubs left that have an official “band room,” most don’t have anything close. Awful Arthur’s at Towers has a hall with some folding chairs, The Pub in Harrisonburg has a tiny room that’s big enough for three small people standing shoulder to shoulder and a couch that would probably light up brighter than The Roanoke Star under a black light. Oh and a ladder, for some reason there’s always an extension ladder beside the couch (don’t ask me.)

So when Ginger was telling me over The New Year’s weekend about the club her band, TMI and TK-421 were playing at the following weekend in Burlington, NC called, The Raven, I asked what the club was like. In her description she talked about the two floors, the pool tables, the leather couches, the band room. Wait! What? Did she say, “band room?!” I regaled her with my Warehouse story, the leather couches, the loft, the mini-kitchen. She seemed unimpressed.

After a rainy, foggy drive down 220, 68 and 40, Liz (aka, “Punk”) and I finally made it to Burlington where we met my friend Lori, who lives in the area, at The Raven. The rest of the band, et al. were meeting at Ginger’s house first and coming over from there but knowing how I am late everywhere I go I wasn’t even sure we’d make it to the club before the show started so we went directly there. Walking up the side of the building, I said to Punk and Lori, “This place looks like an old Golden Corral, I hope the salad bar is good.”

We walked into the bar and headed straight for the bathroom (I don’t believe in stopping on a road trip.) We laughed as we looked around at the bathroom with the horseshoe door handle and the stall without a door. “Uhhhh, this should be interesting,” I said.

We wandered around the club looking for the guys who I assumed would all ready be in the “band room” Ginger mentioned to me the weekend before. I expected this “band room” wouldn’t be much more than a hallway or a closet with a disgusting couch. The security guard (who was extremely hot in case you were wondering,) removed the chain blocking the steps, pointed upstairs and said, “first door on the left,” when we asked where this “band room” was.

It was like opening the gates of heaven. Our mouths dropped open but instead of being greeted by a choir of angels we were met by an 7 foot Elvis with rotating disco lights coming out his crotch. It was rock-n-roll heaven baby! Oh and Wayne, Wayne was there stretched out on one of the three white leather sofas in front of the big screen tv. As we walked in we screamed like little girls at the mere thought of all the debauchery that could be had in this room that was probably bigger than my entire apartment. The couches, the big screen, the air hockey table, the Elvis!! Pointing to a door behind him, Wayne said, “Go in there.” “Huh?” I said, “What is it? A closet?” “No,” he said laughing, “Just go in there.”

I opened the door, one of a couple in the room, and again my mouth was agape. This time I was speechless. There sat a lone leather love seat and a single full-length mirror turned sideways on the wall. “Uhh,” I said, “Remind me not to sit on THAT couch.” Wayne just laughed.

When TMI, TK and the rest of the crew finally arrived I ran around like a 5 year-old at Christmas opening the door to the smaller room and making the same tired joke about not sticking to the couch to anyone who was within my reach. They all had the same, “I’m not sitting on that couch” reaction.

We didn’t make it back up to the band room until between the TK and TMI sets when we had all had enough alcohol in us that whatever remained on that couch no longer mattered to us. We piled various configurations of people onto the couch acting silly, taking pictures and even though there were three other couches outside everyone seemed to congregate to the one couch that was probably hazardous to our health.

TK and TMI both put on great shows! Ginger Loy did one hell of a great job singing her heart out for TMI. This was an especially nerve racking, special show for her since she has spent many years following the guys in TK-421 and now they were watching her on stage. The rest of bar turned out to be great as well. There was a small but energetic crowd who was buying merch and definitely buying drinks. The security staff was hot, the bartenders (all male, yay) were way hot, it was a great night indeed. But it was the band room that was the star of this night. The little room, Elvis and his lighted crotch, the big pile of TK on a couch, air hockey. It’s going to be hard to go back to those folding chairs.

Thanks for sticking around to the end. Since you’ve been good boys and girls here are the results MY 2006 Music Poll. Thanks to everybody who voted! I know there were a lot of voting things going on at once so to those of you who took a few more minutes to show some appreciation to the musicians in this town, I definitely appreciate it and I’m going to go out on a limb and say they do too. My comments are in red.

Best Guitar Player:
(1) Troy Winemiller, TK-421
(2) Kenny Seay, Burning Bridges
(3) Jason Hill, The Pop Rivets (tie)
Chris Rakes, Drivn (tie)

Best Bass Player:
(1) Steven Layne, TK-421
(2) Brian Holt, The Pop Rivets
(3) Dave Porter, Burning Bridges

Best Drummer:
(1) Bill Schlueter, TK-421
(2) Cameron Vaught, Drivn
(3) Mike Feamster, Burning Bridges

Best Rock Band:
(1) TK-421
(2) Drivn
no clear 3rd

Best Cover or Tribute Band:
(1) Burning Bridges
(2) TK-421
(3) Bitter Rain

Best Metal Band:
(1) TK-421 (uhhh, ok.)
(2) Dark Ruin
no clear 3rd

Best Jam Band:
(1) The Seed
(2) TK-421 (Really people?? TK certainly can jam but isn’t a “Jam” band by any stretch of the imagination, but thanks for the support I suppose. *Looks for tie-dye shirt*)
(3) What? Huh? Who cares?

Best Rap Group/DJ:
(1) Illbotz
(2) I don’t know, no answer, huh?
Definitely nothing even close to a 3rd, I couldn’t even get a second choice out of this category.

Best Country Band:
(1) Cimmaron
(2) Burning Bridges (1st set maybe)
No enough responses for a 3rd place.

Best Original Song:
(1) Disengaged-TK-421
(2) Bed of Stone-TK-421
(3) View from Heaven-Drivn

Best Cover of a Song (by local artist):
(1) Crazy Bitch-Everybody
It seemed in this category everyone had their own favorite except for Crazy Bitch. Everybody loves Crazy Bitch apparently. It’s a good thing nearly every band is covering it right now.

Now for the fun ones:

Miss Congeniality (Best Band Attitude):
(1) TK-421
(2) The Pop Rivets
No clear winner for 3rd

Best Band No one Ever Sees:
(1) Bitter Rain
(2) TK-421 (Apparently someone is going to see them since they have won nearly every category, I’m confused.)

Most Fun Band:
(1) TK-421
(2) Burning Bridges
(3) The Pop Rivets

Most Drunk Band
(1) TK-421
(2) Burning Bridges
(3) Drivn

Best Dressed Band:
(1) TK-421
(2) Drivn
(3) The Pop Rivets

Here’s a shocker!
Best Looking Musician:
(1) Troy Winemiller, TK-421 (Uhm, wow!! Aww, he’s gonna hate this. ;))
(2) Trampus Stamper, Drivn
(3) Chuck Johnson, TK-421
And you thought, The Seed winning Band of The Year was surprising!

And finally another shocker. I honestly debated a lot on whether or not to post the results of this category. But I decided to definitely do it after seeing the results. This category proves that opinions and polls are so subjective. So for the band that had the most votes in this category, know that the second place band is the undoubtebly one of the biggest, most successful bands in the state and/or region. Obviously there are many people that will disagree with these results and hopefully they’ll take the time to vote next year. No matter what people think, one thing I know is that anyone that steps on stage and plays every weekend has more balls than me.
Worst Band:
(1) Cobalt Media
(2) The Worx (WOW! HUH? I suspect there was a little more personal motivation here.)
No clear third but that’s because nearly every band in this area received at least one or two votes. My favorite response was, “This can be any band if they aren’t careful.” So true.
PS-Don’t shoot the messenger!!

Biggest Supporter of Local Music:
(1) ME!! (THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you guys!!)

The next couple of categories had so many different answers I wanted to share them all:

Song you never, ever want to hear played again (song and artist)

• anything by pink floyd
• Anything by the Worx
• anything from the Carpenters
• anything in which Jerry Wimmer raps
• Anything the Worx does
• Brickhouse
• brickhouse (tim wilson)
• dance dance
• Enter Sandman - Metallica
• Enter SandMan in the Box - Metallica n Chains
• ENTER SANDMAN-METALLICA
• Fight for Your Right To PARTY!!!! TK 421
• FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY—ANYONE WHO COVERS IT
• Free Bird
• Free Bird - Skynard
• Free Bird, by anyone ever.
• freebird by anybody
• Hard to Handle, Black Crowes (Please, please, pleeeeease!!!!)
• KISS medley- you know who you are
• Lips of an Angel (Hinder)
• Lips of an Angel (Hinder)
• man in the box
• Not enough space
• Prince- ANY
• Rapper’s Delight, Burning Bridges
• Rocky Top
• Rocky Top (this is VA, not Tenn.)
• slow ride-foghat
• Song you never, ever want to hear played again (song and artist)
• Stairway to Heaven; Led Zepplin
• Sweet Home Alabama
• Tush zz top

Create Your Own Category and Winner:

• Saxophones–Don Clifton
• Sound- Wayne
• Musician Most Likely to Destroy A Low Ceiling Above a Stage-Isiah Osbourn
• most supportive to the local community….Dark Ruin
• Most Make-up - TK421
• Most Likely to be found on MySpace Mike Lindsey
• Drunkest Groupie: Jessica Hot
• Biggest Jerk band_ The Worx
• Biggest Ego Band: The Worx
• BEST SPEAKER DANCER—TRACY MORRIS
• Best plugger of band website Chad King
• Best Place to Hear Live Music: Martin’s Bar and Grill
• Best Eyes - Travis Trip 9
• BEST BAND TO EVER PLAY @ 5TH QTR TK-421!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE ‘EM
• Best Band After Parties-Drivn
• BAND MOST LIKELY TO MAKE THEIR FEMALE FANS FLASH THEIR TITTIES… AND THE WINNER IS …TK IV II I
• Uh, best hair flip? Oh, Best soundman - Wayne
• Best Keyboardist: Jim Davis (Shakedown) Best Stage Show: TK421 Best Place to See Live Music: The Clinic, Wytheville Best Place to After-Party: Super 8, Wytheville

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First let’s start with a few business items this week but stay tuned for the end because there is some exciting news:

• Vote for me to be Santa’s Helper here! Thanks to all who have voted so far!

• Vote in the Roanoke Times 2006 Music Poll here!

• Apparently Greystone Tavern (aka-TopRail/Rail/Howlers/Shooters) has switched ownership yet again. From what I hear (completely unconfirmed from anyone at Greystone) Dale and Derrek Cupp have recently purchased the business from the current owner. Hopefully they will continue with Jeff’s (current owner) hopes of bringing in quality national acts to the area ala Cattle Annies.

• Speaking of Cattle Annie’s, by now you’ve heard that the TK-421 and Breaking Benjamin show was rescheduled…sort of. Despite an assurance that when the show was rescheduled TK would still be playing, apparently Breaking Benjamin decided to give TK the shaft and bring in their own bands to open. It was in fact a raw deal that I’m certain could have been handled much differently especially considering TK accepted the gig last minute after the original opener couldn’t do the show. I scratch your back and you stab me in mine. Nice Breaking Benjamin, very nice! I can’t really fault the club much I’m sure it was totally out of their control but you can’t tell me there wasn’t room to squeeze another band on that show. Again, all of this completely unconfirmed and totally my opinion. Either way it sucks.

• Also Josh Bittinger, bassist for Cobalt Media has decided to leave the band due to personality differences within the band. Josh is working a new project that we should be seeing very soon.

• A New Year’s update for you as well. Not only do we have a big Burning Bridges and Worx show but apparently the rock juggernauts in the area are teaming up as well. Drivn and TK-421 will be playing together on NYE at The Clinic in Wytheville. Two dream shows, one night, different cities. What am I supposed to do with that???

Ok, blah, blah, blah enough of that….

Last week Jessica and I hit The Big City! It’s not like neither one of us had ever been to Washington DC before but we had never been on a serious road trip together before. As usual, it’s never dull with us.

We were headed to DC to see Hinder at the 9:30 Club where were meeting up with Jackie (or Jackhole as you may prefer to call her) and her friend Diane. I had told Jackie that I didn’t want to come to the show unless I was right up front. I can’t stand to watch a concert from the back. Might as well watch it on tv. Jackie however didn’t like all the craziness that being upfront entailed (I’m currently envisioning Jackie slam dancing and crowd surfing.) “I’ll meet you after the show,” she said to me jokingly…sort of.

In order to get a spot up front Jackie said we’d need to be there to stand in line at 6:30 for the 8:00 show. No problem I thought, I had taken the day off from work, we could leave whenever. Ooops, I forgot Jessica had class. Ok, so we’d be leaving right after she got out which would put us there at 7ish. So needless to say, when we actually got to the show at 9:30 after somehow finding our way through DC without getting lost (despite oddly shaped street signs) we assumed we’d be far, far away from the stage. Especially considering the show had been sold-out for weeks.

But never underestimate the power of The Band Girl and Jessica Hot. We maneuvered our way right up front to the corner of the stage almost instantly, how I’ll never know. I can find a hole in a crowd like nobody’s business though! About 10 pictures in, the bouncer decided my camera was too “professional” so he escorted us back through the club so I could have my camera confiscated. We were certain now we’d never make it back up to the front so we stopped to get a drink at the bar where we found Jackie and Diane (and no you can’t make the obvious Mellencamp joke because I all ready did.)

We grabbed the girls (and some over priced drinks) and headed back to the other side of the room to see if we could maneuver our way back up front which somehow we did! This time like a running back following his blocker we got behind some really big lady who wasn’t going to let anyone stand in her way. She pushed the crowd aside like she was parting the Sea of GalHOlea. We found our corner spot again where we watched Hinder, an awesome band called 18 Visions and Jackie in all of her drunkenness (”Oh my god y’all, I can’t believe I’m drunk on a Thursday night” “No, Jackie, for the hundredth time the bouncer will not take our picture now get behind the red line”) for the rest of the show. You know we loves ya Jackie.

After the show, the crowd dispersed outside where a couple of guys from the opening band, Lynam, were selling cds and taking pictures. It didn’t take long for Jessica and I go right over to them and start taking pictures (even though we had spent all of our money on the 18 Visions cds so we couldn’t buy theirs.) But we hugged on them, joked around with them, while drunk Jackie attempted to take pictures whilst holding the shutter button down (click, click, click, click, click) and taking pictures of the wrong guy in the band. He in turn repaid the favor by mooning her. I’m not really sure why but I’m almost positive he had duct tape on his butt too. I dunno, I just work here.

As Jessica and I plotted about how to get on the tour bus that stood directly in front of us, Jackie was screaming at us, “I’m not leaving until you get in a cab!I’m not leaving until you get in a cab!” Eventually we just got tired of her yelling at us and gave up on our tour bus plan and got ready to hop in a cab. Until I realized, “OH SH*T! We just spent all of our money on cds! Uhm, Jackie, can we have some money?”

After we finally got back to our hotel room, Jessica and I noticed that it was only 11:30. We can’t go to bed in DC at 11:30! So we do the smart, prudent thing and we decide to go visit the monuments. The great thing about visiting the monuments in DC at midnight is that there are no crowds and if you are just going to the Washington Monument, there’s great parking. However, the downside is anytime you see another person you are certain you are about to be stabbed and if you are trying to get to the other monuments there is absolutely nowhere safe or close by to park. Feel free however to jump in the lap of a random statue and take pictures.

After making dozens of trips around in a circle trying to find a way to the see the other monuments, we ended up making a wrong turn and another wrong turn where we quickly found ourselves on a one-way road into the Forrest of Death. There was no where to turn around, one strange, lone vehicle following us and a fox on the side of the road eating a dead deer (although he looked embarrassed when we caught him and quickly scurried away.) I was certain of death or ending up in Delaware, either way, it wasn’t going to be good. After much prayer and an Axl Rose dance, we found our saving grace! A “No U-turn” sign in front of the CIA. “I don’t give a bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep,” said Jessica, “This is where we are turning around.” And we did. I’m sure we are right under Wayne’s name on the some kind of CIA watch-list now, but at least we made it out of the Forrest of Death alive. Oh Deer.

Then we drove home, Maryland is lovely this time of year. Sheesh.

OK, enough of our silly shenanigans, let’s get to the big stuff!

As we are all aware, The Roanoke Times is currently conducting their annual Music Poll. I’ve heard from a bunch of people, myself included (because that’s usually the best conversation I have all day,) that their poll just doesn’t go far enough. What about the drummers, the bass players and guitar players in the area? Why aren’t they mentioned? Why is it just the singers (like they need bigger egos)? So I am conducting the first official “Band Girl Music Poll” as an addendum to the Roanoke Times Poll.

Here are the rules:
-Vote
-Tell all your friends
-Polls close at 5:00 pm, Friday, December 15.

Here’s the survey: http://bndgrl.com/survey/index.php?sid=2&newtest=Y

Now go forth and vote!

This weekend everyone is playing somewhere!

• TK is at AA’s Towers on Friday and the 5th Quarter in Danville on Saturday.
• The Pop Rivets make their debut it Marion all weekend.
• JunkFood is at The Pub in Harrisonburg on Saturday.
• Drivn is in Abington all weekend.
• Burning Bridges is at The Clinic Friday and in South Boston on Saturday
• The Worx is at Wolfies in C’ville on Fri. (Yea, look me plugging ‘em)
• Bitter Rain is at Mulligan’s in Staunton

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Thanksgiving isn’t officially over until the all the leftovers are gone, right? So I’d better hurry because cold stuffing makes a great breakfast.

Before I give you my list of all the things I am thankful for this year, we have some business to take care of. Coming into the end of the year, if you weren’t paying attention you may have missed the Great Bass Player Trade of Aught Six. Hmm, who to start with…Justin Tolley is rejoining The Worx (again) where he replaced Dave Porter (again) who is rejoining Burning Bridges (again.) Matt Owens from Burning Bridges is joining Bad Dog (for the first time) after Tim Wilson left Bad Dog (for the first time) to rejoin Shakedown (again.) Got all that? All Roanoke area bass players please take two steps to the left.

I should hurry, I just polished off all the deviled eggs.

Ok, here we go. This year once again has been full of great times, great people and great adventures (some printable, the best ones not printable.) Looking back at last year at this time I had just met Jackie, Nikki was all boyfriended up, I had just had one really great Friday night at Chisholm’s, I was still living in Harrisonburg and hating every minute of it. Fast forward to this year, Jackie just left my apartment after making me sick, I see boyfriend potential for Nikki soon, I just spent a really great Friday night at Mulligans in Staunton and I finally got the hell out of Harrisonburg even though I’m driving more now by moving to Roanoke than I did by living in Harrisonburg.

So this year I am thankful for obviously my family first. But I am also thankful for hillbilly teeth, go cart tracks, leaping across meadows, getting banned from hotels, The Super 8, lightning striking twice (or three times,) Blazing Saddles, movies on the ceiling and great naps. I am thankful for $300 room service bills, jumping in the pool with our clothes on, African Ant-eater rituals even if Patrick Dempsey missed them, popcorn balls and WWKD. I am thankful for Hopanese, spicy chicken birthday cakes with cigarette candles, Saturday afternoons and best friends who get you through the day. I am thankful for friends that’ll help you move, friends that’ll find you jobs and jobs you find on your own. I am thankful for the best birthday party in the history of birthday parties, promises for my next birthday and hot men in feathers on my couch. I am thankful for Wednesday Date Night, the Office, Guest Lists when the line is out the door, text messages, turkey buckets, Snickers fairies, boxes of wine and gallons of Jager. I am thankful for my camera and all the people who say nice things about my pictures. I am thankful for secret rooms in Wytheville and staying up all night talking. I am thankful for laying around with the tv off talking all day and sharing parts of you no one else would ever see. I am thankful for Nikki, Jessica, Jackie, TK-421, Burning Bridges, Drivn, Bitter Rain and The Pop Rivets and all the craziness that follows them all.

OK, so the stuffing is gone (it was actually gone about 10 minutes ago but I was on a roll. Yea, I ate them too.) So it’s officially the end of Thanksgiving but that doesn’t mean I’m not thankful each and everyday of the year for everybody that stops by here and reads my insane ramblings. So, Thanks. Now, I’m off to the Y to work off the massive amounts of turkey I have just ingested in the past two days.

*waddles to the door*

This weekend go see:
TK at The Clinic (I heart the Clinic) Friday and Saturday.
The Pop Rivets at Awful Arthurs Downtown Friday.
The Worx at Cattle Annies Friday. Welcome back JT!!

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I’m going to share with you a profound discovery I’ve made. Call it my contribution to man/musician kind. I really have no use for it myself so I will bestow my great wisdom on you (what can I say, I’m a giver.) So here it goes, are you ready? If you are planning a family and would like your future unborn child to be a musician (god help you) then you need to become pregnant within the months of December through February. Plan yourself a little Libra or Scorpio and the chances of you having a teeny tiny little rockstar of your very own increase enormously. Wait till March and you’re having an accountant.

Somehow I went from being the Band Girl to being the Birthday Girl. The keeper of some sort of un-official birthday calendar for the local music scene. Which is funny/sad since I completely missed both of my best friends from high school and college’s birthdays this year (and plenty of years past as well.) If my birthday wasn’t 04/04 (yes, that’s a hint) then I probably would have even forgotten it. So what started off as a way for me to not be such a birthday flake, turned into some kind of massive list of where the local musical birthday soirees would be.

It didn’t take long for me to notice a pattern though. Maybe it was the fact that I suddenly was attending birthday parties at an alarming rate or maybe I just actually looked at the calendar (yea, I’m bright like that.) Anyway, so what I noticed is that pretty much every musician I know has a birthday that falls sometime between mid-September and the end of November.

Starting in mid-September (9/15) we celebrated Sarah’s Birthday (ok so technically she’s not a musician but a musician-in-law) at the Drivn show with the normal goofy Barbie birthday hats and noise makers. Next up was Shane from Trip 9’s birthday on September 23 where we presented him with a pretty pink birthday cake and a giant pickle balloon (well, duh.)

Next stop on the birthday train were Wayne Sowder (Soundgod,) Chuck Johnson (TK-421,) and Kip Gaudette (formerly of Chameleon and Staxx fame.) For those of you keeping score at home, Troy and Steve (TK-421, Staxx and Chameleon) had lead singers with the same birthdays. Weird but, true. We celebrated Wayne and Chuck’s birthday in Wytheville by having all the girls at the show come dressed in pig-tails. Someone likes pig-tails (but I suspect neither one hated them.) It was all good until Crippler decided to wear Jessica’s pig-tail wig. If you’ve never met Crippler, sweet as he is, he does not make a pretty girl. Uh yea, Happy Birthday guys.

On October 9, the world was graced with presence of Jody Hanschew of Bitter Rain and Bart Harris of JunkFood. Although we weren’t there, I’m sure both Jody and Bart managed to have a dandy birthday without us. Certainly the Boone’s was flowing freely for Bart and Jody was probably partying it up in the periodicals.

The following week proved just as full. There was a surprise birthday party for Mike Feamster of Burning Bridges (10/11) at O’Charley’s were we dined on Jager cake and made jokes about the great mullet-ish hair Mike had in his High School band days.

Then we headed to Winston-Salem, NC to celebrate Bill and Steve’s birthday by freezing our arse’s off in sub-freezing temperatures at Ziggy’s for a TK-421 show where we all rocked out clad in our winter coats because apparently Ziggy’s doesn’t really feel the need to supply heat when it’s 20 degrees outside. The weekend heated up nicely though with TK playing the Fashion Rox Fashion Show at The Garage in Winston-Salem. Chuck got Crippler in pig-tails, Bill and Steve got models. Sorry Chuck.

At this point we are still only at Mid-October. See what I mean? How does this happen? What is it about these months? Sorry I digress, let’s continue with the birthday ho-haa’s.

Dave “Johnson” Johnson was on deck next with yet another surprise birthday party this time at Red Dragon where suprisingly we ended up talking “shop” with the manager of Red Dragon, Stan Thorn. What’s so significant about this? Stan was a founding member of the country group Shenandoah. If I was betting gal, I’d say his birthday was probably somewhere in September-November.

We rounded out the TK birthday season with Troy’s birthday on October 24th where we donned “Did you just push me” shirts made especially for Troy (in honor of him defending me from a drunken moron at Greystone one night.) In lieu of a birthday cake, we got Troy a birthday spicy chicken. Spicy Chicken is synonymous with Troy. Although since 7-11 was out of birthday candles, he had to settle for a birthday cigarette candle in his spicy chicken. Ewww.

Currently we are in the midst of Jessica’s (again not a musician but a Rockstar nonetheless) birthday weekends (because she deserves more than one.) Last weekend was spent celebrating all weekend in Wytheville (it’s the best place to live according to the napkins) at Burning Bridges and Drivn shows. Jackie even made it all the way from DC to help us celebrate with Jesus candles and Suck-n-blows (not together.) Jess’ birthday dinner was last night at Kabuki with lots liquor in various flavors and various shaped glasses. Then we headed to Awful Arthur’s Towers to listen to Kevin Self and hang out with some of the hottest guys we know. We’ll finish her off this weekend at Drivn and TK.

We aren’t done yet, there’s more birthday work to be done. Jason Hill has a birthday coming up on November 9th which is sure to be a good time. Then Drakyn’s birthday is November 17 (even if he is only turning 4, he’s all ready started playing the drums.)
Kenny Seay of raygun, soupcan, popcorn ball and Burning Bridges fame brings us to the end of birthday overload on November 25th. *Update-Apparently there are two more birthdays to support my theory. Mike Lindsey of Bitter Rain celebrates on November 21st and our very own Phanton Blogger, the fabulously sarcastic and talented, Mr. John Persinger (big round of applause) celebrates on November 10.
*Updated again to add Tim Wilson’s of Shakedown’s on October 8.

Whew! If I have to buy one more birthday bottle of Jager…

Shows this weekend for you to pay particular attention to:

Burning Bridges will be at Greystone all weekend.
Drivn will be celebrating Jessica’s birthday again at Awful Arthur’s Towers on Friday night.
TK-421 makes their debut and caps of the Jessica Birthday Weeks at Awful Arthur’s Salem.

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(First of all, check me out in the TimesCast from Wednesday HERE!!)

The best part of the night is the stories. Not that the music isn’t incredible and fun but really I live for the moments that happen around the show.

Sometimes there are those moments when someone says something or makes an observation that even though it was an ordinary comment for some reason it becomes ridicously funny and begins to morph into way more than it was ever intended. Take for instance the night Jessica and I went to the Danielle Peck show at Greystone to see Burning Bridges (no, we didn’t know who she was either. But she’s a great performer and her band mates were incredibly nice!) Jessica made a quick jaunt to the bathroom before we headed home for the night. Having made jokes all night about it being a different crowd than we are used to (don’t see many cowboy hats at a TK show,) Jess came out of the bathroom giggling. “I was in the bathroom,” she said, “and this lady says, ‘That was a right good show.’ ” Typing it out, reading back over it, it’s not funny at all but, to hear Jessica say it has become the source of many jokes there after. “I swur fer gawd, the good lord willing and the creek don’t rise, that was a right good show.”

It’s especially funny when you are completely sober and someone who’s not so completely sober makes what appears to them to be a rational comment, notsomuch to the sober. Jessica had worn a pair of hot cream-colored tights underneath her shorts as only she can. As “hot” as they were, they eventually became really “hot” and she decided to take them off and just wear the shorts. A few minutes later on a set break, Troy walks up and is talking with us. He looks down and in drunken Triz he says, “Where’d your pants go?” Again, here, right this very second, I’m wondering why I even bothered to type that story out but then, it was absolutely hilarious.

That same night I was the uh…”lucky”…recipient of sweet young girl who “just wanted to get to know the band better.” She was an aspiring second year student studying to become a record producer in San Francisco…cough…bulls**t…cough… Wonder why I’m so cynical of her alleged major? It might have been the fact that she was professing her love for the “guitar player in the white shirt” while looking right at Steve, the bass player. I said, “You mean the bass player?” “Uh, yea,” she said. Then began flailing her arms about in what I can only assume is some type of weird mating dance she picked up in Haight Ashbury.

The best stories are always the “you had to be there” moments. The moments when someone says something to you that no matter how much inflection or emotion you put into retelling the story, it never quite gets the same reaction from other people. The stories you tell and just wait for an exclamation of your comedic prowess but are usually met by blank stares. As we were winding down our night back at our favorite little Super 8, Liz decided to show us every picture in her cell phone, which suddenly made me want to look at mine.

I flipped open my cell phone and looked at the first picture. “Hmm,” I thought quizzically to myself. *Yea, I know that’s the most retarded sentence I’ve ever written but it’s true.* I looked a little harder, “I have no idea what that is.” “Jess, what is this?” I asked Jessica. “Hmmm?” She said. “Hmmmmmmm?” We said. So there we sat for about 10 minutes trying to figure it out.

“OH! There’s a white shirt collar! It must be Chuck!” Jessica deduced. “Oh yea, I said, it’s his fist right there too.” I noticed. “And there’s part of a cymbal!” I continued. So there it was, it was Chuck in his Rebel Yell Billy Idol fist in the air pose. Until this followed:

*Tracy flips phone upside down*
Tracy and Jess in unison: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! It’s Troy!
*It was so obviously Troy*
Uproarious laughter.

See? Not funny now, but then, Jessica stopped breathing and I had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard. Although here’s the part you can appreciate. We wanted everyone to play our little “What’s this a picture of” game. We handed Bill the phone in it’s really confusing original orientation. As Bill looks at the phone for a moment he says, “I see a poodle.”

Ok, I guess you really did have to be there. But I’m cracking up just thinking about it.

Lots of great shows to see this week!
Thursday-Need a road trip? Go see The Pop Rivets at Bogarts in Richmond. Or just catch them Friday Night at Martins. Jason is playing playing with Charlie Hamill Saturday night at The Fork in the Alley.

Friday-You heard the forecast! It’s Burning Bridges in Danville at The 5th Quarter. You can also check out the big show at AA’s Towers with National Act, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack with our very own Cobalt Media opening the show for them.

Saturday-BB stays in Danville. TK-421 finally makes their way back to AA’s Towers (hopefully someone will clean up all the chicken feathers from Friday night.)

By the way people, it’s not too early to start thinking about New Year’s Eve. There are some great shows this year! TK-421 will be at the Clinic in Wytheville (where else would they be?) and Bitter Rain will be down the street at Turn One (what an after party that will be!) Also a big show with Burning Bridges AND The Worx at The 5th Quarter in Danville. Damned the choices!!

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