We played two dates in December -- the Sandtrap in Limerick and a private Christmas Party in Clayton, Delaware.
The 'Trap was awesome, as always; the great food and cheer was all around, and TLE featured a guest vocalist, Samantha Hoffman. Sam is a friend of keyboardist Eric Stimmler and his family. He had found out that she could really sing, and asked her to do a couple of songs with us at the Sandtrap. She was great! - Though her back-up band (yes; THAT back-up band) could have been better...At practice, we had tried one of her tunes in 3 different keys to find the best one for her vocal range. This, it turned out, ended up causing a bit of confusion 'live'.... interestingly enough, the rhythm-guitarist-who-shall-not-be-named found his missing kaypo as the song ended. Oops. Look for Sam to join us for an encore some time soon -- and at least 4 of us in the back-up band will play in the same key; promise!
The other event was an annual Christmas Party for a Dover, Delaware area Fire company. This was on December 14th; you may recall this was the day of the ice storm in the Phila-Pottstown area... We navigated our way S L O W L Y through the building snow, and found that it was raining south of the PA/Delaware line. What a break! The party was a blast; lots of dancers and great rock n roll! We went back to one of our traditions and placed our song list on the tables; guests were asked to request any song from it that they wanted to hear. (The band has to be quick on our feet to do this, as there are about 120 songs ---- and we don't get to play all of them a lot!) This went over quite well, and the party - and especially the food - was super.
The real adventure was the return trip, and what happened to Smoky (the bassist) afterwards. Heading back north around 1:30 AM, roads were a bit dicey; Buddy did a masterful job of getting us back to Left Edge HQ (Jack's house) safely. We found that we had to trudge through a half-inch ice blanket on top of about 5" of snow, though, and it took a while to clear the cars of it before we could head home. I (Smoky) was digging through the ice, trying to locate my PT Cruiser as Buddy, Eric and Tom left. By this time it was around 4:15 or so... When I was leaving, I quickly found that the car wanted to follow gravity rather than the direction I pointed it... unfortunately, where I was parked was slanted down INTO Jack's back yard, rather than towards the road. After several futile attempts to defy gravity and get to Farmington Avenue rather than Jack's picnic pavilion, I/we gave up, and I crashed (in a spare bedroom, rather than into a pole or an abutment, fortunately) at Jack's... My wife rescued me Sunday morning, and the next day we were able to drag the PT out. Just another day/night/morning in the life of a rock star. LOL!
So it is written, so let it be done! - Smoky P
The 'Trap was awesome, as always; the great food and cheer was all around, and TLE featured a guest vocalist, Samantha Hoffman. Sam is a friend of keyboardist Eric Stimmler and his family. He had found out that she could really sing, and asked her to do a couple of songs with us at the Sandtrap. She was great! - Though her back-up band (yes; THAT back-up band) could have been better...At practice, we had tried one of her tunes in 3 different keys to find the best one for her vocal range. This, it turned out, ended up causing a bit of confusion 'live'.... interestingly enough, the rhythm-guitarist-who-shall-not-be-named found his missing kaypo as the song ended. Oops. Look for Sam to join us for an encore some time soon -- and at least 4 of us in the back-up band will play in the same key; promise!
The other event was an annual Christmas Party for a Dover, Delaware area Fire company. This was on December 14th; you may recall this was the day of the ice storm in the Phila-Pottstown area... We navigated our way S L O W L Y through the building snow, and found that it was raining south of the PA/Delaware line. What a break! The party was a blast; lots of dancers and great rock n roll! We went back to one of our traditions and placed our song list on the tables; guests were asked to request any song from it that they wanted to hear. (The band has to be quick on our feet to do this, as there are about 120 songs ---- and we don't get to play all of them a lot!) This went over quite well, and the party - and especially the food - was super.
The real adventure was the return trip, and what happened to Smoky (the bassist) afterwards. Heading back north around 1:30 AM, roads were a bit dicey; Buddy did a masterful job of getting us back to Left Edge HQ (Jack's house) safely. We found that we had to trudge through a half-inch ice blanket on top of about 5" of snow, though, and it took a while to clear the cars of it before we could head home. I (Smoky) was digging through the ice, trying to locate my PT Cruiser as Buddy, Eric and Tom left. By this time it was around 4:15 or so... When I was leaving, I quickly found that the car wanted to follow gravity rather than the direction I pointed it... unfortunately, where I was parked was slanted down INTO Jack's back yard, rather than towards the road. After several futile attempts to defy gravity and get to Farmington Avenue rather than Jack's picnic pavilion, I/we gave up, and I crashed (in a spare bedroom, rather than into a pole or an abutment, fortunately) at Jack's... My wife rescued me Sunday morning, and the next day we were able to drag the PT out. Just another day/night/morning in the life of a rock star. LOL!
So it is written, so let it be done! - Smoky P