Gig Report - St Catherines Carnival

Last night the band I play with, "U-Godda-Wanna" played at St Catherines Carnival in Oak Lawn IL. What a great night last night. This so far has been my best gig EVER. This was my first "festival" type gig. Last year, when I wasn't with the band they opened the carnival on a Wed night. Our singer told me the crowd then was 1/3 the size of last night's. After that gig the organizer said "Oh no, you guys are definitely a weekend band" and so we were booked to close the carnival this year. The organizer said afterwards that our Sunday crowd was bigger than the Saturday crowd. Wow...word must be getting around?

We played in a HUGE open sided beer tent and the forecast called for storms, some severe last night. Fortunately we didn't get any rain at all. When I arrived at the carnival I turned left off the main street and for blocks...there were nothing but cars parked on both sides of the street! I was like "holy crap"...look at all the people here. So I crawled my way to the entrance to unload my gear and I moved a barracade and parked my car in a "no parking zone". I had the bright idea to place a sign on the driver's side window that read "BAND" in big bold letters and I didn't get a ticket so maybe that helped.

When we got to the stage there was an "opening band" called the Bolts. They were 5th/6th graders playing newer material and playing it very well. Before we started we made sure to thank The Bolts for coming out and playing so well and we gave them another round of applause. They even played one of the songs we played last night so right before we played ours we said "We stole this one from The Bolts..." and went right into it. That was funny.

During our first set we added some new tunes for the kids that are popular now (Taylor Swift "Love Story" and Metro Station's "Shake Shake"). When we played Taylor Swifts "Love Story" all the little girls were fixated on Jenni and REALLY singing along. We had a little girl come up on stage with us and play the tambourine with us...it was great!!! Shake Shake went over well with the younger audience too. I saw some little girls dancing on my side of the stage outside the tent to that one. We really played it up too jumping around on stage like the 80's hair metal bands used too. We also added Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" and during the last part of the chorus our male lead changed the words from "Sweet Home Alabama" to "Sweet Home Chicago...all summer long". That went over really well.

During the second set I started using my wireless guitar unit. But after the first song I was getting so much whistling/interference that I went back to using the cord. During the second set me and the other guitar player do this dueling call/response during the intro to Foghat's "Just Wanna Make Love Too You" and using the wireless just makes it easier. I think it was due to being so close to the lights that was affecting it. After Foghat we started our Melissa Etheridge/Journey medley. ALL the ladies were singing along now. From there we went into Carrie Underwood's Before He Cheats (still singing) into Brown Eye Girl (more singing, add in dancing) and then into The Door's Roadhouse Blues. By now EVERYONE is singing back to us "I GOT MY-SELF A BEER"!!! I have never experienced a crowd singing that loud back at me before. It was AMAZING!! THAT was a rush. Come to think of it, we should have done "Sweet Caroline" too (BOM! BOM! BOM!). Maybe next year. Our male lead singer's daughter sang along with her father during Roadhouse Blues and she commented to him and I that I ROCKED the lead to that tune. That was nice of her.

We opened the 3rd set with Journey's "Dont Stop Believin" and then kicked into a bunch of dancing tunes. We had a crowd in front of the stage dancing until the end. During our encore of Mustang Sally we even had some people on the stage with us. I had a lady whom I didn't know playing guitar with me singing the chorus "Ride...Sally Ride". I would say to her "get ready", I would stop playing, point to the crowd and sing with them..."Ride...Sally Ride"! It was cool as hell. I saw her afterwards when I was loading my gear and she said "You guys were awesome"!!

We recieved a lot of great compliments last night and the band praised me on my playing last night too. The last time they commented on my playing was my first gig with them back in Feb so hearing compliments from them was very cool. Honestly, I did feel like last night was the best I've ever played with them to date. It was a lot of fun and you could really tell from the way the band interacted on stage we were having a blast! Actually I had so much fun last night that...I took the day off today!!

Next Gig: 6/28 Taste of Chicago !!!!

We will be playing the Taste Stage from noon-1:15pm. We are part of the "Cover Bands Through the Decades". We are the first band so we'll play songs from 1999-2009 and the band after us plays from 1989-1999 etc. all the way back to the 60's. We are VERY EXCITED to have the opportunity to be playing the Taste this year. My wife and I already have decided that we are going to stay downtown after the gig and invite our friends to an "after party" at the Hard Rock Hotel's lounge.

Now THAT'S rock n roll !!!