Signing on for songs, and some of the big NFL money that you might want to get your fingers into.
– The TVs at local sports bars reported that a pro football player who had a finger amputated after a fireworks accident had not yet signed his contract. Is that any wonder, that he would have difficulty “signing” his name with a finger missing? The offer was referred to as a “franchise tender.” I guess that his hand was, drum roll please, too tender to sign.
– A recent alternative music fest in Somerset sported seventy-or-so bands on several stages. Or, you could say that would be the number of singers signing on for “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” plus several more, (apologies to Iron Maiden). All I can say, to suscinctly invoke Zep, is that’s a whole lotta attitude.
– Heading the list of recent bartender departures, at places that include the following reference to Green Mill, is the longtime drink-pourer Bobbie. On staff there also for the last few months has been Billie Jo. All we need is a Betty Jo to make this seem like Petticoat Junction. OK, maybe that’s not something to strive for.
– The city of Hudson concert series on Thursday nights recently featured an Elvis impersonator, and a longtime (since preteenager) fan of the Graceland god, attended and like quite a few others bought a T-shirt, which apparently made some older women misty-eyed. He did have one concern, regarding the performance of an American Triology, which featured a youngster walking around waving a flag, which he thought that in these times was a bit over the top. One other thought he had, was that if you are older then the artist involved, than you are a “tribute band” rather than an impersonator.
– On another big recent music night, a man was seen playing guitar along the main drag sidewalk near the cigar store in hope of getting tips. He said that he’d done the same thing at River Falls Days. An odd twist was that he swapped a tip dollar or two for a cigarette. On a trek I did to Eau Claire, where I went to college long ago, I saw three such acts on Water Street — two duos and a solo singer.
– On Twin Cities radio station 93X, a comment was made concerning Rock Fest on the other side of Eau Claire, that they were playing a certain song, “so you don’t have to go to Wisconsin.” (Would that make it, as a notorious regional heavy metal song would have you believe, that this was a Wisconsin Death Trip?) I guess they’d rather keep concert-goers in the Gopher State for the simultaneously staged Moondance Jam, (oh wait, that would be a competing radio station).
– The British are coming! Or are they? It just so happened that on the afternoon of the Brit Fest car show on Walnut Street, I saw a classic car on Interstate 94. Alas, it was actually a 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint, not a Brit mobile. But then days later at the Smilin’ Moose, there were not one, but two groups of guys from England having a couple of brews, one of them looking much like Hugh Grant, (even the poofy hair was the same!) Then it came to light that one of the men actually might be from Sweden, the second time in a month that someone from that country has noticeably graced downtown Hudson. British vs. Swedish? At least both are from The Continent, and each from the upper part, no less.
– The smudging in North Hudson didn’t end with the Vulcans at Pepper Fest. On a following Thursday night at the Village Inn, during a combination of karaoke and bartender Devon’s birthday party, some of the mainstays celebrated by rubbing cake all over each other’s faces. Is there a song about this?
– A a recent Friday high school football night, the parents of the team opposing the Raiders, from Arrowhead, were said to have hit the downtown in droves after the final whistle. Might that have anything to do with the game’s outcome?
– Jeff Loven on a recent Sunday brought in an (occasional) second person to comprise his one-man-band act, a longtime musical cohort from way back, bassist Tom Davies. A friend Dan, who brought up that Davies had even played with the likes of the notorious band Slave Raider, went musically nuts over the collaboration.
Between sets, solo singer-guitarist Garret brought another notch to it, doing Machinehead by Bush. That’s a challenge for an acoustic performer. That reminds me of a Christian music fest a few years back at the Lakefront Park band shell, where a guitarist I photographed for the local paper was wearing a shirt that said simply Bush. I had to wonder aloud in my cutline, is that the band or the then-sitting president?