Originally the lineup for this show at the Roadhouse had been One Pump Chump and the Brodie Stewart Band. Apparently one member of OPC had to attend a wedding so they couldn't do the gig and we got the call to come in as a replacement with less than a week of notice.

No time to promote, no time to do anything -- but we were there anyway.

Then when we arrive at the gig, we discover that Brodie Stewart - who had been the lead singer of Frank Hannon's post Telsa band Moon Dog Mane -- also wasn't going to make it. Supposedly he'd had a falling out with the member of his band.

Hmmm..

Ok, so who were we playing with?

Nobody -- however there was a post wedding dance party scheduled to take place before our show.

Well - I secretly had always wanted to play a wedding. Actually I'd wanted to perform in a band at MY OWN wedding over ten years ago, but I didn't have a viable group at the time - not for lack of trying.

The wedding party was pretty interesting -- they were playing pop songs and Michael Jackson, but everybody was doing line-dancing to it. Kinda strange, but fun.

We got a record deal offer -- really -- before we ever played anything from this rather intoxicated fellow by the name of Carl. He'd come into a lot of money recently and was going to start a label. He was pretty funny.

Even though we were the only band we still didn't get a soundcheck, because the people for the wedding party arrived a little early. Treno (drums) found out first and decided to wait for our show time at home -- I have to admit I got a little worried because we didn't know exactly when he was going to be back. But he arrived right on time - five minutes before we started.

They've done some remodelling at the Roadhouse since our previous show -- moving the monitors off the stage for more room. The soundsystem has been upgraded and can now create three independant mixes -- two onstage and one for the audience. They have side-fill monitors and one huge monitor for the drummer. Still I think they had too much echo on the vocals and Darryl's vocal wasn't loud enough in his monitor - but it wasn't bad. The Roadhouse already had the best stage, now it may have the best sound of any club in town.

Since we had time to kill -- most of us waited for our time slot by checking out the pizza place that's across the street, next the AM/PM and gas station. It was small, but pretty cool. It had a decent atmosphere, well made pizza with not too much sauce and lots of cheese. I'd recommend it to anybody who comes out to a Roadhouse show. A lot of people feel the Roadhouse is off in the boonies of Rio Linda -- but the truth is that it's really only a block away from the I-80 freeway at the Raley Blvd off-ramp. Getting there is very fast and convenient. Rio Linda may have a bad rep, but the Roadhouse isn't really impacted by that. On one corner is the Arco station, and pizza place - on other is an industrial park and the third is an open field, so there is essential zero chance that Roadhouse will suffer the same fate as Mike Ragusa's former club - Big Shots had closed over a year ago. It even has a second stage outdoors, on an open patio with bar-b-que grills just ready for the summer. They have Jeff Healey booked in a couple months. All the need now is Patrict Swayze and pool que fight to start up.

Eventually came our time to play and we've really been hitting our stride since the Hard Luck show -- we keep getting better each time. But I still think this show floored a few people, even those who'd seen us before at our first Roadhouse show. We hadn't done "Shame" our new three-part vocal harmony song at the previous show. I think it's cool to keep adding new things with each performance and show so that people have a reason to come back and see you again.

I was a little concerned because some of our songs are pretty much about anger and hate -- and that isn't really a good way to start off a marriage, so I told the wedding party people that these songs were for all the *EX-boyfriends or girlfriends that they didn't have to deal with anymore, because now they've found the right person. So, songs like "Don't tell me", "Bullet" and "Not Like U" begin to work in that context.

Even Frank Hannon - who actually came by to catch us at this show - was really impressed and talked guitars with Darryl for a while after we finished.

We've done the wedding -- now we're ready for the Smuckler Bar-mitzvah. :)