Contact us
Back to All Posts

Toast the Vikings and then Packers with a couple bucks, then find a couple of cover bands

Two (dollars) will get you one; it’s better in drink specials than in moving the football yardsticks.
— This is what’s said to be the best and most comprehensive local/regional slate of drink specials — except maybe if you’re in a college town — for when you’re taking in your NFL football. The Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt has $2 domestic beer and rail drinks on Sundays from noon until 6 p.m., which takes in both this Sunday’s noon start (Vikings vs. Lions) and the doubleheader game (Packers vs. Colts). This shout-out came originally from bartender Sue at the Village Inn in North Hudson, who has worked there for years, is broadly connected and also knows what’s going on about town and even a bit farther afield.
— The Some Shitty Cover Band blends pop, rock and alternative from the ’80s, ’90s and today, and will do so at the Smilin’ Moose on Friday, Nov. 4. You gotta love a group that pokes fun at itself, and the guys note that theirs is not just a name, it’s an insurance policy! Some Shitty Cover Band features members of successful groups such as Quietdrive, All The Right Moves, Take Cover and also self deprecating, The Usual Things. Influences include Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182, All American Rejects and since they’re playing in Wisconsin, Beer.
— Speaking of The Moose, Sweet Siren played a return engagement there last Friday, and the percussion was amped up loud enough that it could be heard in the parking behind the former Dibbo’s — someplace where you’d more certainly have expected it. As is the practice of bringing back old gems, you can expect The Siren back at The Moose sometime in the next few months.
— He could be the son of a preacherman — and yes he’s a guy — with another throwback band playing at Juniors in River Falls on Friday starting early at 8 p.m. Patty and The Buttons preach the gospel of hot rhythm and happy feet, they say. The band is similar to what you’d find in a dancehall, cafe or speakeasy between 1920 and 1940. The lead man and accordionist Patty spent the early part of his life playing on street corners around the world while learning tunes from the old masters of traditional music. His eclectic taste gives the band diverse influences including New Orleans traditional brass bands, early blues, Gypsy jazz and 1920s popular song. The core instrumentation of accordion, clarinet, guitar and bass is light and swift but also melancholic and lush when it needs to be. Patty’s lead vocals are inspired by the soulful old time hollers and croons from the dawn of recording.
— And as a last (dying) gasp of Halloween, the brew named Black-o-Lantern has been popping up around the area, complete with a higher alcohol content, which could conceivably lead to a blackout. (Insert some type of Black Sabbath reference here!) And I will myself add one more, again with a Halloween theme. The sign at Green Mill had a back side that featured all the candy falling out of the bottom of a trick-or-treaters bag but was ripe for recovery. (I think that would qualify as a trick). It’s like the late Ronnie James Dio so famously sang with Sabbath, “you get to keep the gold that falls,” Sugar as currency.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • I’ll be brief and punchy with this headline notation, as we transition to giving you more and sometimes shorter choices. And you may notice some of that as you beckon forward. It’s circular. Like a flush. Be careful what you mix, heads vs. text, drinks vs. food, and all kinds of potions — that may go bump in the night. —– Punchy, potentially, but I digress or progress with a new patriotic addition.
My mom has told me not to be a potty mouth when I write, as she certainly would not appreciate hardly any of the standup humor on say, Comedy Central Radio. SNL maybe. But after 11:30 p.m. … But there comes a time where a man must make a stand. And for this jokester, it was now when he had to choose whether to pass on the opportunity that would otherwise bite him in the butt, for in front of and behind him is the Mother Lode. Or should I say load. Or “Mothers” of Invention. Heh heh, heh heh, Butthead, look...
Read More
  • This coulda been Vanna White’s next Big gig In The Sky, if the scaffolding was not so high. So this is how the project went, by the letters and numbers, of get Trump’s name erased from the Kennedy Center. The $250 bill might be tougher. Sad but true. So, What are there more of going on right now, wars or Trump pet construction projects?
So the wall is down. Of letters, that is. Not down by Mexico. Cemented into the concrete. Of the Kennedy Center. Where music has sat. (Near where a now defunct wrestling arena rusts in peace. Or a bloodied White House lawn. With leftover paper cups and plates, more likely bowls and small utensils, anyone?) Or more ornate than inside? A tarp the size of Pennsylvania, the predominant battle state, covers workers as they chip. So geez, how big are the letters? Four times 50 living workers high? But now none remain, or so we are told by flunkies. Or is...
Read More
  • Stressed out as a caregiver? She’s back at yah. This is a rare case of a husband and wife being joint caregivers — for each other — aided and abbetted by the fact that they have a lot of the same disabling conditions. So she shovels snow using a walker/scooter, while he cooks gingerly using a microwave and offers her a plate when she sits down, in an easy chair, in a reversal and new take on traditional roles. Whatever it takes. Necessity is the mother of invention. —– In a new add, Towns and the champion Knicks got kicked around but still got their kicks in the long run … As do Norwegian dancers.
A few years back, I wrote an article about Hudson Deacon Tom Kroll and how he did so many extra dutiful tasks, his living out the Gospels tirelessly, when his wife was ill, in addition to his regular job. I was inspired at the time to pen this, about my own lovely, disabled wife — we were separated briefly but now back together with our 40th anniversary this month, as wholehearted caregiving has many strains — and how an atypical view of standard roles, out of necessity, made things work, as far as our approach to work and home that’s...
Read More
  • He says, and goes fishing with the boys. She says, then goes to the middle of Texas, inviting her mates to a ranch/villa built for the ages. The bachelor and bachelorette parties were on the same night, but though very different, they had some things in common … like the snakes, at least three kinds, to avoid. (None with exotic dancer.) But while away, they did not avoid each other, completely. He made a phone call. —– Just added, last call included a Carolina cowpoke.
What do fishing, maybe in the dark, thus a Texas ranch, snakes of various types and do they come or stay out after dusk, eating either and only fine food or snacks, and a game of cards — likely just one each — have in common. And no strippers or Chippendales. And an only half or quarter, not full Monty. (Who is Monty anyway?) Or cowboy or cowgirl hats. Although there was some dress-up. More Barbie than boots on, I think. It’s an easy answer, connected and conflicting, but not in all or dirty ways, bachelor and bachelorette parties. One of each...
Read More
  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, a when jumping inside, inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
Scroll to Top