Status: Single
City: HILLSBOROUGH
State: North Carolina
Country: US
Signup Date: 6/11/2006
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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Current mood:  complacent Category: Music
Part II of our West Virginia Odyssey:
We gathered together over at KF’s Home Base in Hillsborough after our Friday day jobs came to an end, to load up the latest rental van. Rusty managed to swing us a sweet deal (free!) on another Ford, but this monster was just a 9-passenger model, not the 15-passenger band-vehicle-of-choice we had before So, the equipment–ours plus Judy’s–got alternately stuffed into the smaller van and into Sherwood, my Subaru wagon. I named my car Sherwood initially as a pun on its’ model name (Sherwood Forester–get it?), but lately “Sherwood” has become shorthand for “Sure would be nice if it didn’t need to get fixed all the time,” Lucky for all of us, the little blue beast yielded nary a complaint the entire trip.
The trip there was uneventful; save the unintentional comedy coming from my bosses’ borrowed GPS system. Judy and I had learned the hard way that these rascals are confused by mountains. We previously tried to use one to get to a funky general store near Martinsville, VA, and it ended up taking us on a lengthy tour of every goat path and Moonshiner trail in Floyd County. Logic told us that the quickest way there was to hit 85 south, work our way onto 73 North near Winston-Salem, which would eventually take us to the West Virginia Turnpike. The GPS instead insisted we head north on small roads up to Roanoke, then take more cow paths and abandoned mineshafts into Charleston, avoiding the Turnpike at all costs. We chose to ignore the power of global positioning, and went the shorter way as planned, the whole while watching the “Navigator” insist we were sooooo freakin’ lost, and must change our route now! I found it hilarious; Judy just wanted to throw the thing out the window.
Five hours later, with no help from the Garman, we made it to Charleston. Two funny things: Sherwood literally ran out of gas as we pulled onto our hotel exit (where there was thankfully a gas station), and Bryon, after being refused entrance into a quickie mart, since it was after curfew, was suddenly let in with welcome arms, thanks to his wearing of a DW drums T-shirt. Never under estimate the power of RAWK to make friends and influence people!
The next morning after a Bob Evans breakfast, we headed into town to play our big gig. We were on the “City Market Stage”, and on the FestivALL’s website, it looked promising; A big covered stage standing majestically in a big open field. Little did we know that this picture came up on the website no matter which stage you were playing!
We arrived at the Market (a big open-air farmer’s market smack dab in downtown Charlieville), and went looking for the stage. To call it a “stage” was generous; you’d have trouble putting an outhouse on top if its’ footprint. But there was a quality soundman and a decent PA, and also a whole lot of opening bands that were more or less one or two folks floggin’ their banjos, singing songs of the hills. Clearly, we had brought a bunch of bazookas to a spork fight. While waiting for the other acts to do their thing, we played a whole mess of “shoulda woulda’ coulda” in our heads (should have brought the smaller amps, then maybe we would have all fit in one vehicle, and could have money on gas and tolls...etc, etc). When we finally got our big chance to shine, the crowd, seeing amps for the first time, and big ones at that, scattered to the far flung corners of the area, like cowering dogs afeared we were gonna whack ‘em with the mother of all rolled up newspapers. They needn’t have worried; we dialed in the amps so we were actually quieter than most of the acoustic acts!
Did I also mention we sucked? Sad to say, but we did. Our overcompensation to be quiet left us sounding dinky and unfocused, and all that working on Judy’s songs left Killer Fillers’ songs sounding rough all over. Putting the final nail in the coffin was Pete’s Holland amp conking out in mid-set, and that pretty much killed any momentum we had for the day. The crowd wasn’t wowed, but at least was sympathetic; when Pete finally managed to get his amp running long enough for a solo, they cheered him warmly.
Capping it all off was the handing over of our 500 dollar paycheck; I had asked well in advance that the check be written out to me, as KF is not yet in a money-making position that demands a separate business account. The check alas, was written out to Killer Filler, but someone had crossed that out with a pen, and hastily wrote “Kris Buss” in its' place! “Your bank will cash this, right?” What’s a nice way to say, “Are you out of your freakin’ mind”? No problem, I was told–they’d fix it by the time we returned to play Judy’s set the next day.
In the meantime, we had about six hours before our joint show in Hamlin, so we wandered around downtown, checking out some of the other acts playing. The son of Polka king Frankie Yankovic played a mean accordion in a nearby gazebo, a dog act nearly lost some of its’ critters to the lure of nearby junk food, and an avant-garde puppet show did their thing in front of an office park. All other acts seemed to be having trouble getting their sound equipment going. We adjourned to grab some chow–including a Charleston-style fried bologna sandwich dipped in “Bog” sauce. Good eatin!
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Sometime later, and after getting split up a few times, we made it to the American Legion Hall in Hamlin. Jude and I had been secretly worried there’d be trouble, but we were instead greeted warmly by the locals, who let us in their private house of beer and set up in the rec room. It was a classic basement-style setup: wood paneled walls, a minimal PA. We had to set up in reverse order, with me stage left instead of right, as my keyboard rig would have blocked the way into the men’s bathroom. We hoped maybe some of Judy’s local family and friends would show up to watch, but few did.
In the end, maybe a dozen people saw us there, and we didn’t make a dime. But man, oh man–did we sound good! From the first chord Judy struck on her Harmony Rocket, every note was perfect and balanced, and the band grooved like it never grooved before. Bryon and Pete played some of the best solos of their life in that room, and I had a few nice moments on the kordeen myself. We even whipped up a number on the spot, ad-libbing “In the Pines” to cover a request from the audience. The Killer Filler set was even more masterful; after our stumble in the morning, the boys flat knocked it out of the park. If only we could have recorded that show! It could have been our Live at Leeds.
At the end of the night, Matt Quintrel made a mad run to his house and back–he had something for me, and forgot to bring it the first time. When he returned, he handed me a framed, autographed LP of Leon Redbone–one of my faves! Mr. Redbone had actually played Hamlin not that long before, thanks to Matt’s efforts, and while he was there had ‘em sign the record for me. This, my friends, was just too cool. Pete mentioned that in spite of not getting any money there, this was the sort of road gig he liked playing. I had to agree.
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The next day the big Muletrain FestivALL show was something of an anti-climax; other than my piano keyboard conking out before we started (due to a bad power supply), we played okay, and the crowd actually stuck it out and enjoyed what they heard. And Jude’s check was written out correctly, to much relief. Killer Filler’s alas, was still not ready, but would get to us eventually (after a complaint or two issued via email a few weeks later). Killer Fillers’ job was done for the weekend, although Judy’s was just beginning–she had to teach a mess of her songs to a whole new group–this one led my Mr. Quintrell–to play another festival during the 4th of July weekend six days away! (That one Judy’s family finally showed up for. Their reaction? “You’re too loud,”). The boys headed for North Cackalacky, save Pete, who agreed to sit with me in my now girlfriend-less car on the way back home. It would be a lonely week for yours truly, but KF had a big July 4th weekend ahead itself, and I couldn’t stay. Besides, someone had to watch over the cat. And Dog. And Chickens. And Neighbors.
Coming Up: Highlights and Lowlights from July!
10:03 PM
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