Traverse City, Mi
red light special 4.13.06
note – this is the first of six shows in our “michigan impossible” which was mariqueen’s nickname for the run of dates…
dear traverse city, thank you for being the first black spot on our tour. the promotion of our show at union st station flat out sucked ass…so bad it was embarrassing….it cant be beat – out of the 20 shows we will have played on this tour you will win hands down for being the worst. its funny cos of all the show reports i write (ie every single show we ever play) i have never said this about a venue yet. adding insult to injury, the door man thought we were a cover band…cool. this gig was sad and its a shame music fans in the area werent told about it because its not often that national touring bands make it up to of all places traverse city michigan. (please note that: i am very fond of the city…traverse city) i feel bad for taking the band there. its not like we dont have better things to do than to waste the gas and our time than to play in front of a mostly disinterested bar during thursday pool night. once again union st station, thank you for wasting our time. ps- if the money for this show was close to being respectable i wouldnt be bitching at all. but it wasnt – it sucked. once again, the promoter for traverse city sucked ass.
the one bright spot of the evening was that one of my old old friends kenny olsen (who went on to achieve fame as kid rock’s guitarist) was there. kenny is actually a traverse city native and happened to be back in town for a while. they have a shrine up in the bar for kenny as well as having named the stage after him. anyway, it turns out that kenny was in the bar while we were there setting up and still had no clue we were even in town. this town is very small people – that’s how bad the word got out about this show. the other cool thing about the night was that we jammed out a new song aptly named “traverse city blues”. we rounded the evening up (of course) by playing (and betting on) some thursday night pool before we split. score: west indian girl 1 – michigan 0
big cherry festival thanx to: the few people that were in the bar that cared ie the thursday night pool regulars. janine, a flight attendant, bought a shirt….remember her name.
rider and dressing room wrap up: reminiscent of northampton but not nearly as nice, this dressing room was in the basement of the club. it’s out of the way and sort of like a dark clubhouse…no real reason to hang out down there. traverse city did give us some food – their clam chowder was good. no rider to speak of – i remember paying for my drinks and that’s never a good sign when you’re the entertainment.
Mariqueen’s Mind
The City: well i didn’t see any of the town. traverse city didn’t seem much different from any other city in michigan except that it was a complete pain in the ass to get to. i suppose it didn’t help that it started raining as soon as we got there. i should’ve took that as a bad omen…
The Venue: was a decent bar. buttt… the promoter sucked, the patrons stunk, we had to pay for our alcohol, the food wasn’t even that good and to top it all off, i had no throat coat and no apples. alright union st. station! way to be completely useless.
The Show: i guess the optimist in me would say at least i got paid to rehearse [in front of a bunch of drunks]. hooo… rah. at least rob and fran got to work on their comedy routine. we actually made up a new song that night and nathan named it “traverse city balls”…
What Were You Thinking While Playing: well at one point in the show mark was pretending to ram his drum stick in his head and i was pretending to hang myself with my necklace and slashing my wrists with my tambourines. i kept chanting out loud to him rehearsal rehearsal rehearsal. it would’ve been a nice day off… i spent most of the show daydreaming about rose’s [fran’s lovely mother] beautiful breakfast and fran capturing my sleepy happiness with his camera and thanking god that i decided not to wear my contacts so i didn’t have to see the mess around me.
Interesting Things After The Show: a very inebriated woman went up on stage to molest rob… then her husband took her home… apparently she also ran up to nathan and gave him a kiss on the lips. classy. after that charade everyone got drunk because it was the only way we could deal with being in that venue. fran and i lost a game of pool to mark and nathan… thennnn rob and ian won a game against mark and nathan because nathan tried to get showboaty and failed. moral of the story is: don’t be a show-off and don’t ever play a show at the union st. station in traverse city.
THE JAMES REPORT
We knew we were in for a long night when the promoter/bar thought we were a cover band. Thank our lucky charms that local hero/resident and friend Kenny Olsen happened to be in town. It was great catching up buddy. We had a blast on stage even writing an impromptu song “Traverse City Balls”. At first, Fran had a look of horror but eventually loosened up.
“traverse city balls”
don’t they look ecstatic?
rob and kenny – a magical guitarist moment
nathan and mariqueen soaking it in
francis penn & robert teller
F10
About The Author
Francis Ten
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Yes U.S.S. is not a preferred venue anymore… I’d say it’s even worse than when you were here years ago. Hope your still out there making it happen.
Kenny ~ You still ROCK though! (the kids got some talent)
T.C. will have some new venues soon that cater more to artists and musicians… so if a promoter in the future wants to head up here… consider giving us another chance.
Thanks…
I’ve never heard of you (not surprising, I don’t get around much) and I’ve never heard your music. You’ve never heard mine, and I’ve been writing for 40 years (this is just for our entertainment). There’s nothing more frustrating that working out music and not getting it out there. It make me wonder what it’s all for. Is there someone who is entertained by our music when were playing at home and no one’s around? Spirits? I will not give up, because it’s the music that has gotten me through the insanity. If somethings bothering me I write about it. Many times people are offended by what I feel, and it make a writer unpopular. But it’s either write what people want to hear, or write what you believe. I write what I believe and it’s 40 years of working a job and being a musician. Musicians don’t get much respect unless we’re willing do the nasty things it takes to be popular. If not you’re very lucky. Tell me I’m not a very good musician, and it’s by who’s opinion. You’re obviously a very good band and a bad night will not ever change that. So, hold your heads up and enjoy yourselves anyway. I’m sorry I missed you. I’ll be checking out your music. I used this search to find some new prospects and came across your site (‘play music in traverse city’).
Never give up, LAKEJOE.
Just happened to read your blog and was interested. I am from T.C. and my boyfriend plays in a band. I agree that the show promos around here suck and it is hard to get the people that appreciate music for all that it is to come out and listen (as well as give feedback). I like U.S.S. as a bar but I heard that when one of my all time favorite bands, Govt Mule, played there (maybe ’96) they had a poor response from the crowd. To me that is inferiorating. Govt Mule (and that was while there was with Allen Woody)deserves more then intoxicated people wandering through a bar and I am sure your band does also. I am sorry for your poor experience. I hope TC can redeem itself in your eyes: maybe not as a audience but at least a quaint place to vacation. Amanda in TC
hey buddy thanx for stopping bye. i think this “band” thing is sort of “working out” for me. im not quite sure if got the gist of my report. the club itself was great. the way i figure it, a few more years of playing the nursing home circuit im sure we’ll be big enough to play kresge. send me your email – let’s keep in touch.
F10
Too bad you had to play at USS. My grandparents go there. I grew up in TC and have not been there in awhile, but I have see some damn good shows there. Samples, Bela Fleck and Flecktones, Keller Williams, Medeski Martin Wood ect. Most were at the outdoor Interlochen ampitheatre (Kresge). Amazing venue. Well that might be out of your league since you seem like a garage band/old folks bar band. But if this “band” thing of yours ever works out and you gain some level of notoriety you should check out playing Kresge. Good luck with your “band.”
listen adam,if i knew kenny was gonna be in town ti would have asked him to make sure things didnt get fucked up. i hope we can play up there again. as i said before i really like tc. what’s your email addy – i will add you to our list?
thanx
F10
who are you guys? if your such good friends of kenny’s why didnt he promote the show? usually if he’s involved they jump through the windows to get in. but i also understand your animosity, there are no real promotion companies up here and there should be. you guys should check out a venue called streeters. http://www.streetersonline.com this guy has the loot and the expierience promoting huge shows that get awesome crowds. i didnt see how old this blog was and maybe you already heard of or played there. hopefully you wont let this one sucky expierience ruin the chance to get some good northern michigan exposure. if you guys come back ill check out your show..cool lataz…adam
hey rowdy, with all due respect i never stop learning from challanging situations but this wouldnt really stack up as one. were you there? we did play to the crowd and after a while quickly learned that it wasnt working. if we didnt play for ourselves we wouldnt have come up with the idea for a song that we are now recording for our second record. with that said – i think gaining a new song was a positive out come to the whole fiasco that was tc.
Gee Guys…..
Feel kind of down that this wasn’t your night…
Kind of sad you did not “feel”
the crowd out and play for the crowd…instead of yourself.
This could have been a learning opportunity for you.
I have always felt that diversity is a challenge and a great learning tool.
One door doesn’t close that another door doesn’t open…
of course, you do have to walk through that door.
Respectfully,
Rowdy.
Hey Q,
Tell us how you really feel about union st. station in traverse city LOL! It sucks to be them. Hope you are feeling better.
Frob