Contact us
Back to All Posts

They hail from Rice Lake and Fargo, and include kazoos, melodica, beatbox and banjo

This weekend’s music slate features two bands that hail from far afield and haven’t played the area much, both claiming to be high energy and each, oddly enough, having a group that doesn’t always get covered, the Violent Femmes, on their play list.
— Based out of Rice Lake, Sidekick Abbey “brings an energetic blend of your favorite country and rock hits,” according to their bio, to the Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt on Saturday night, Nov. 7. They feature the whaling vocals of Pam Dawn (winner across both states of numerous casino karaoke contests), Rob Storm (vocalist and guitarist from the popular cover bands Third Gear and My Device), veteran musician Ron the Riffster (Black Diamond, Quick Fire and No Refund), self-proclaimed as a talented bass geek Ryan Bocephus (Quick Fire), and Caveman on drums (Roadhouse and Wild Oats).
Interesting song choices of their play list are She Hates Me by Puddle of Mudd, Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes and I Think Were Alone Now by Tiffany. Also on the almost-60-song play list, as an example, are three songs by Little Big Town, and two each by Trick Pony, Billy Idol, Bryan Adams and Sheryl Crow. That means there are 50-plus artists represented on that list.
— Try to pigeonhole these guys! Tripwire from Fargo, a foursome of young guys who play the Smilin’ Moose on Friday night, have a post-grunge look about them but play virtually every genre and decade, with the possible exception of the really early rock and pop. Their instrumentation includes three musicians who play the kazoo, two who will pick up a trumpet, two who blow into a harmonica, and also fiddle, sax, mandolin, banjo and even melodica and beatbox. There 127-song play list goes right up to the present day.
— Halloween is past, but the drink specials live on, at least at Dick’s Bar and Grill, where its advertised that you can order Serpent’s Bite, which wouldn’t you know it includes not only whiskey, but also apple cider flavoring. The sign shows a snake with the fruit of knowledge in its mouth, (musta tricked Eve to parttake in this, since as Crosby, Stills and Nash sang, we’ve “gotta get ourselves back to the garden.”) If that weren’t enough, another sign at Dick’s, just a couple of feet away, is hawking Jim Beam Devil’s Cut.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Buddy, can you please spare me a can opener? Since mine doesn’t work. Again. So you can ‘spin’ it this way: The truisms of life today, in the USA, so many of them, can come down to the fact that a can opener tells all, coming full circle. That does, and the fact that its Octoberfest time, but so many seasons have still not arrived, even though it’s very near mid-terms, for both pupils and politicians at the polls.
It’s roughly mid-October in a roughly MAGA America and how is your rough life going? (Seems like early November, but only politically, not as far as the mal-adjusted seasons.) Well I’ll tell you about mine, thank you. And roughly. Halloween haunts — got to find some extra dough for candy and costumes for the kids and myself, more and more obligatory for adults, but all I have is some spare change, can you please bum me a dime? — are already becoming reality in our everyday lives. Note use of the word “everyday.” Master of Reality? Black Sabbath nailed it...
Read More
  • I’ll say it, and play it, again. And again. Pick one for how fast you can pick. With fingers or using a pick. How many notes per second on a guitar? This is real world, not guitar hero. So I asked a veteran blues man, sitting next to me at the music club. And that’s just for starters. —– PLay it again Sam; though a chore for the door and out on the floor, Halloween decor and more is now roaring in.
How fast can you swing the axe? Ask the axe-man not on stage but sitting next to you. Bar math can be fun, as I’ve said many a time, but especially when it’s coming from a decades-long blues man. Imagine going to a bar to have a drink, or two, and then end up talking to a musician about how many more (notes) than that he can play a second! Try five or maybe six. Off to Hudson Tap, and tapping into the knowledge of a guy older than I who is a veteran blues man, mostly — and I...
Read More
  • Oops, I did it again! I yes slipped up, as did Facebook, on teasing my last couple of posts. So read well past the two headline(s), down below, to get the whole football picture and put it on your grid, Facebook aside …
Thou protesteth too much?!? That be me. Computer geek? Can’t see. Omniscient? I am not He. If you are reading my attempted Facebook teaser, it was supposed to be All About The Football, or even futbal, in freeze frame or infinite loop, but that Alleged Giant, of social media, clipped off the wording top and bottom, front and back, fore and aft, day and night, (that last part is important), then sent the post anyway, a yammering of names! I tried to fix it, and must own up to my own part, but I was just shown more ads. I...
Read More
  • I hope these jokes fly well, by the zillions like the Brazilian goal keeper, and a stand-up comedian at night, I met downtown, who gave me her birdie! To keep. not a bogey. THat’s Seriously folks, not over par. But on par. I deed, I deed. Wait, that was Bugs Bunny, I think. But the birdies, and their owners and much more football and its related names, were plentiful during the Loony Tunes full and harvest moon, as just experienced in Hudson, as they were jumping from the rooftops after climbing up!
But seriously, folks … There is a moral to the story, if you read to the very end. Last weekend, we combined a full moon, along with the day and evening entering into it, with a harvest moon and its day-into-night when the applicable seasons change. If you go out on the town, the Hudson downtown, you go less than a block before you see it’s different, and skewed in a crazed direction, even more on Friday — and others reinforced this — the night before the full moon, when the seconds ticked away into Saturday. Bar workers will tell you...
Read More
  • Fall has it all, only starting with football. So this ref’s unofficial call, have a ball with it all, across the width of the valley. Because as you trek east or west, the two teams you’ll encounter are perhaps the gridiron’s biggest rivalry. (Some would take issue with me.) Prepped nationally well in advance. ESPN just for starters. In the long haul, the Vikes smacked the Pack, whose attack is not yet back, as word play scores better. And to paraphrase Motorhead, ‘don’t forget about Alary’s.’
The autumn season, just started officially, is now far enough along to bring the pro football season to an (extra) point where a team as of this weekend could have, conceivably, faced all the other rivals in their division. Depending on which one we’re in. If the division consists of five (teams), they’re still possibly alive, although Black and Blue. So I continue my nightlife writing anew, even though my favorite NFL team was not showing up as faithfully. So, maybe for now just amble over to the apple orchard and pick some (forbidden) fruit … Or: In our case, up in...
Read More
  • Had enough of the 9/11 hubbub? Making holy those who fell, quite literally, in the horror? (Not to disparage anyone’s loss.) Want some music instead? Tom Morello is offering a star-studded ‘day of peace, love, justice and music,’ in early October. Guess an Ozzy show wasn’t enough. And now there’s yet another side project …
Listen to your rock stars, not your politicians. And not those at wholesome or not, rally-around-the-flag hometown fests. Or seen on the city streets and federal freeways when Old Glory is shown in all its glory everywhere. And I walk and talk, and bawk and squawk, gingerly among them all. This as 9/11 is still all the rage, and at times being used not for glorifying the many fallen, but for gain, mostly political, whether in online forums or the hallowed halls of government, or by those who will take the opp to make a racial or culturally based point....
Read More
Scroll to Top