February 03, 1986 - East St. Louis, IL

Show Day - Rain/Overcast

Me up first. Shower and make coffee. Everybody comes to life. Dave B., Joe and I go to music store. We leave Rockford 1PM. I drive. About 1.5 hours into to the trip the van acts up. Stop at LaSalle IL. gas station. The van drops power? Guy test drives - no problem? He tunes up and oil changes etc. We leave - OK for an hour - does it again then OK?

Oh great - our new van is acting up already! This is why the 'New Music Seminar's held in the late 80's used to have workshops on van repair for bands.

Arrive in Saint Louis at 8PM. Reminds me of Newport KY - rundown - rednecks. First band is a rock and roll cover band. 2nd is a young pop band. Guitar player is good and has that classic pop song voice. We set up and play - 1 hour or so. Small crowd is attentive - 50-75 people. I couldn't hear a thing. Bad PA - almost no light. Average show - we didn't care - they didn't either. Almost no promotion. Get paid and leave town - a few unfriendly types. Drive about 45 minutes and stay in Comfort Inn. $32 dollars for the 5 of us. $150 for the show. To bed at 3AM.

This was East St. Louis IL. In years later we would play St. Louis, MO at the Mississippi Nights club many times and enjoy it. Two of the live videos on our DVD are recorded there. I mention the lighting here. One of my (our) pet peeves throughout the years were poorly lit stages and lighting folks who liked to flash everything like a strobe light. And smoke machines - forgetaboutit.

Posted by Dean at February 3, 1986 10:27 PM
Comments

August 26, 1987: Some friends and I saw a show at Mississippi Nights. The old ticket stub says $5. I remember that we threw a tennis ball up on stage to Rodney (it had his name written on it). I don't know why. I recall that it was a great show and that Club Zero & The Bishops opened up.

Posted by: Kevin H. at July 1, 2004 09:56 PM