Of rockers and wannabe rockers:
— Bon Jovi rocked the Twin Cities as spring approached, and it made me recall the tale a young women told me at Dick’s Bar and Grill. Her brother was in a band that had won a contest and got to open for the veteran rockers. The woman continued to say that she would catch a red-eye flight whenever she could to go see them, even when they were many states away, and then be back by morning. I hope for all her trouble, the guy at least got her backstage passes, but you know how brothers can treat their older sisters!
— Hinder also was in the Cities a few months back, and would you know that on an earlier tour Hudson almost got them to come hither. A few years back, a night owl store clerk I talk to said that he knew members of the band, and that they were looking for a nightclub to play and fill a gap in their schedule while traveling between Minneapolis and Milwaukee. I asked Dibbo’s manager Chuck McGee about that, and he said that scenario had played out with a name band before in his tenure, sometimes if only to have a place to rehearse. However, the money they’d have to pay to have a group like Hinder actually take the stage for patrons would probably be prohibitively expensive.
— When the winter weather was still upon us, and somewhat warmer dress the rule, a man dressed like an Amish farmer, complete with suspenders and floppy hat, was dancing the night away at Dick’s and mugging in the window at dancers with a camera at Ellie’s on Main. Seems a peculiar set of vocations.
— Around that same time, Saturday Night Live was starting its run in the news for its anniversary of being on the air. And of course there was plenty of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin to be seen. Reminds me of the day right after her surprise nomination for vice president, when she was not anything of a household name, that a bartender at Pudge’s said he had met her while she was stumping in her native Alaska. The guy said he could tell that she wasn’t listening to anything he was saying, just vacuously nodding her head.
— What would this column be without a One Man Band reference. After one of his Name That Tune questions, Jeff Loven started strumming the intro chords to Black Dog by Led Zeppelin, and I started singing along, wanting to complete the song. Jeff said that he wouldn’t allow it without the song being wailed in its correct high key, ala Robert Plant. I assured him I could do just that, but it didn’t go very far.
But one other time on the same stage, prior to Loven’s long run on Sunday nights at Dick’s, it did. This was in the days of Open Mike Night, and during a break bassist Jason was laying down the opening track for Fairies Wear Boots by Black Sabbath. I ran onstage, grabbed the mike and started singing. Than one by one, ad lib, the guitarists and drummer joined me and we completed the entire song.
Not to bore you, but one other Sabbath reference follows. I was singing some Dio at Ellie’s karaoke night, and a group of four pool players stopped their game, got in front of the table and started a very high-kicking chorus line. Their feet got almost as elevated as the top of 5-foot-4 Dio’s head.
— During the previous year’s dart league, a man played a trick at Guv’s Place in Houlton by saying that he could hit score well with his back turned. Someone took him up on the bet. The catch? The thrower said he didn’t specify where the shooting line would be, then backed his way to within inches of the board before tossing and was able to win the loot.

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