Daddy's Home!

OK, the bad news…… Since I have been back from Portugal, I have been so busy at work that I have not had the time nor the desire to spend much time on the internet during my time off. (For those that don’t already know, I am a web developer at a company and I spend a large part of my day on a computer on the internet). SO with that the OJJ blog as well as my personal myspace blog has suffered a little. So I won’t be doing this blog every single week.

The good news is that I am now going to try and recap every gig, even it means double up weekends on these blogs. I am gonna try to blog here every other week but they may be farther apart.

June 15^th 2006, Spartanburg, SC – Wild Wing Café

Our first venture into this particular Wing was a rather good one. When we got there, we discovered that the load in was a lot like Greenville, a pain in the arse. After all was said and done and we had heaved most of the equipment up the stairs, we were informed that there was an elevator on the side of the building. Luckily, we had yet to carry up the heaviest piece of equipment; the drummers stand case.

Speaking of drummers, filling in on drums that night was Scott Kelly of The Alternatives. Also filling in that night was Bart Byars on guitar. Bart has done several gigs with us now. He’s the one with the Mohawk. On vocals that night, as always, was Sean.

Going into Spartanburg, we had no idea what the crowd would think of us. We were thinking, based on reports from other bands, that they wouldn’t know how to takes us at first. Luckily, they were into it from the beginning! They seemed to understand us and dug us from the first note.

Some friends from Greenville were able to make it out that night; Katie S. (pictured with me on stage), Sandy, Brittney, and Mack.

There was no shortage of guests on stage, the ladies here weren’t shy. We even had some Biz Markee guy that coming up on stage. Normally we would stop playing when I guy comes up on stage, but this guy didn’t understand our ways so we just ushered him off the stage and kept going.

Overall, a good night. I’m sure we will be seeing more of Spartanburg.

June 16^th (Electric Boogaloo) & June 17^th (Stone Cold Fox), Asheville, NC – Wild Wing Café

Ahhh! A two nighter in Asheville! It seems like we haven’t done one of these in quite some time. Lately we have been in one town one night Asheville the other. Another change is that we did the Boogaloo only show on Friday. We dropped the costume change and the Crue. Until then we only did that in Atlanta. I think the Boogaloo only show works well for Greenville.

After driving back to the ATL after Spartanburg and working all day on Friday then driving to Asheville Friday night, I was pretty beat. Luckily I was able to ride with Scott on Thursday, and Bart rode with me on Friday so I got him to drive some of the way whilst I napped.

Chad was back on the drums, and Bart was with us the whole weekend.

The weekend in A town was good. The crowds were receptive as usual. Special thanks to Mack for hanging out with us both nights. It was good to see Will & Michelle and company. We also had a special visit from Greenville, Leslie the “Speaker Keeper” was out to see Stone Cold Fox. Great show on Saturday night.

Next up the another “A” Town, Alpharetta.

Special thanks to Mack for coming out to all three gigs this week and taking snas of the band and helping us stay hydrated.

June 23^rd (Electric Boogaloo) & June 24^th (The Dock Martins), Alpharetta, GA – Wild Wing Café

Back in the ATL once again, the Dock Martins were set to return to the Alphy Wing. The first time we did that show here, Sean was a bit under the weather and we had just started doing that show. So we were quite anxious to get back and hit it.

The first night, we had me, Sean, Bart and Scott from the Alternatives for the Boogaloo show. The crowd seemed a little small, but once we were a couple of songs into it, we had the dance floor packed. Frankie, formerly of Lixx, came out and sang with us.

Saturday Rich returned for the Dock Martins show. (Bart is heading to NYC , we wish him the best of luck.)The first couple of songs seemed to get a decent reaction, but once we were about 4 songs in, we had the crowd in the palm of our hands all night. Sean did a great job as usual holding the crowd. Hands down, the best DM gig we’ve had and possible one of the best out of all shows. Great Crowd, The staff couldn’t stop raving about us. That night Ashlee/Luna, also formerly of Lixx, came up and sang a couple with us. Mack was in attendance both nights.

Next up, the Fieldhouse in Dacula.

July 1^st (Stone Cold Fox), Dacula, GA – The Fieldhouse

Although a busy weekend, only one SCF show. I actually played with The Mighty McFly 3 nights during the extra extended July 4^th holiday weekend, but I will write about that in a separate blog on my myspace page. (http://www.myspace.com/joaobass).

Saturday night, we were in Dacula at the Fieldhouse. Great place to play. The staff and the folks there treat us like disco Funk party kings. That and the Fried Green Tomatoes are bad ass.

ON the roster that night; Richard, Sean, myself and Joey Baggett sitting in on drums.

The section in the room with the band was full by 8:00 with people that were planning to be there for the whole show. Even my co-worker Toni and some friends of her and her husband Joe couldn’t get a table up front. They ended up sitting out on the patio and coming in and out to watch us here and there.

In the end another great night in Dacula. Not sure when we will get in there again, nothing on the calendar through August.

July 7^th (The Dock Martins) & July 8th (Electric Boogaloo), Suwanee, GA – Wild Wing Café

On Friday night, we started a little on the rough side. The crowd seemed to enjoy the music, but we couldn’t seem to get them on the dance floor. I think they mayhave been holding back on the alcohol or something. The 2^nd set was a totally different story. From the first song on they were into it. We got them there and didn’t let go for the rest of the night. Towards the end our good friend Ashlee hoped up and did Hard to Handle with us. It was good to Skip in the house both nights.

Saturday night, whole different story. From the first set on, the crowd was with us and never let go. Once again Ashlee came up and sang a couple of songs. Special thanks to Jeff, Nikki, Scott, Virginia, Robin, Scottie, and Todd for coming out.

Next week, we return to Greenville after a 3 month lay off.

Til then………

OJJ