Thursday, June 9, 2016

Personnel

5YJ went through a ton of folks. I mentioned that Chad was probably the longest member, having only missed a year or so while he was in France. Next, I guess, was me - I missed the last year and some change.  After that was Pat who was in two times, never really had any bad blood with any one, and showed up here and there. There were three full time bass players: Erik Panyko, Todd Graham and Jay Olaszek. Ron Donavon and Matt McCain were both guitar players as was Chris Bauler.

We played a bunch of shows with Pete Dell and Tom Wilson as the Blues Brothers. They hired us for a gig, asked to sit in and we kept on inviting them back. They will always be members to me. Ask me sometime about the exhibition game between the Bears and the Sandwich Police Dept. We were a part of the half time show.

I think after I left there was a bass player who's name starts with an L that I am completely forgetting. Lionel? Linus? I don't know.

We had a few subs here and there.  Justin Marcellus played bass with us once because Jay couldn't make it. It was a really great time, Justin was a fabulous bass player. I think I musta majorly miscommunicated with him because he showed up for the next gig thinking he was in the band because of how much we all enjoyed playing with him. He was pretty pissed at me when I let him know that Jay was the guy. I feel bad about it. I liked Justin a ton but after that he was pretty much done with me.

Come to think of it the only 5YJ bass player that's still facebook friends with me is Jay. Erik and Todd both unfriended me at some point. I guess I have a problem with bass players liking me.

And so it goes.

While Chad was out of country we used a couple of subs. We played at least two shows with Matt Karl, who was the ultimate gentlemen and a solid fill in. I think he probably thought we were all fucking batshit. At the time it was Pat, Jay and I. Actually, that's likely the tamest we ever were. Right around that time we played a party with Jay on drums, me on bass and Pat. I remember being terrible.

Nevertheless, the great sub story is from that same time. I worked with a guy who played drums and we needed to cover Chad for a gig at Pages. Damn I wish I could remember his name. I remember he was Mike Macintosh's cousin and his girlfriend was named Star and they were from Florida. He was a fine player, solid time and I liked the dude. We did a few rehearsals and played a backyard party and everything was groovy as hell. We got to E.C Pages, set up Jay's drums for him, he showed up with some sticks and his girl and we settled in and played the first set.  It was starting out fun and we had some beer in our guts and got going. Me and Pat were screaming over the tunes, getting him going - we thought.  It was drunken merriment and encouragement from our point of view. His was different. He thought we were being total dicks. So after the first set he and the girlfriend left. I recall Pan and I finding this hilarious. We went up for the second set and politely let the bar know our drummer bailed but that we'd do our damndest to not let that spoil any fun. Some dude comes up and says he plays. Being without any drummer we figured it was no time to check credentials and told him to sit on down.

And he did. And he was good. We got him some free beers and gave him some cash and had a merry old time. We counted every song in and came in together. You could tell he played more metal, but folks danced and we put it in the win ledger.

I can't remember his name, either.

1 comment:

  1. Wasn't Mike's brother named Eric? I'm pretty sure it was Eric. I don't remember that drummer's name, but I remember being at the show and he was having a pretty great time.

    --Krista

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