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

  • 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
  • I went to the fair, thinking it would be another ho hum affair. But there she was, I knew her, an area artist, now painted as the fairest of the fair. But I do declare, if only the rest of the Fox fair, was of the same caliber of affair. But going rarin’ for bear, there will be another opp come October, but well before Halloween is the scene.
Being a Wisconsinite, west side, I’ve seen a few people I know pop up at the Minnesota State Fair, now and then and again, but not like this time, with a pop-up-stand artist at a talk show.I was with a friend and we sat down in the bleachers, and a guest was brought up that turned out to be — someone who I knew from back in Hudson, an artist with a co-op gallery she owned set up in the middle of the downtown a few years ago. When I had moved to that part of town, I crossed paths...
Read More
  • ‘Urban Table’ reopens after five months, minus the olive and vine name, but keeping the same old ambiance. It adds a coffee and wine bar, $3 premium drinks prepared under the eye of a barista and the advanced eatery knowledge that comes from the new owner, Ben Jung, a face you’ll recognize from nearby Hudco To Go, who says music is on the way, too, back to this staple Hudson venue.
They’ve added a coffee bar, so you can have a foray of seating for four on stools in front of it, a wine bar and a petite table for two directly in front of the southwest window, and plenty of inexpensive drinks, but other than that The Urban Table as it is known is much like the former Urban Olive and Vine before it. The man who is the brains behind Hudco To Go has brought those $3 premium drinks and more to the restaurant that is kitty-corner to the, again, southwest when you take Locust Street and venture onto...
Read More
  • What will Bruce, the top dogg, and Maiden mew about concerning the world when they make a stop in Shakopee? Plenty of tramau to pick from, even if they do not get irate about Iran, or emulate. But closer to home, others of my ilk have been to Italy and more lately, or just out in the garden tending to flowers and kitties.
So many problems in our world, US and UK. How and when to bitch? Waiting for them to be named by a sizeable band, if they shed light on politics and ethical behavior in general, can make you numb. Has anyone else noticed, as we get older and grayer, the similarity in facial look between two who are on vocals, first a rapper and second a metal singer, knotted-side-hair Snoop Dogg and long and straight-to-collar Bruce Dickinson, one who spews island drinks as opposed to the other homemade beer, as Iron Maiden continues on in their latest with a gigantic gaggle of groups with requisite...
Read More
  • Deaths and memorials. They do not stop with that given by Miley Cyrus for Dolly Parton. In what follows, I recount the recent musical remembrances of a local musician, as his father lay passing, and that by me in song for my own dad. And the resemblances therein. And a dream reflecting it all. (And newly added, we’ll Curry favor and Frank, and more on Dolly and the God she is close to.)
Just over two years ago, I sang solo an Iron Maiden song, Blood Brothers, slowly strummed via my cell phone to provide the instrumental, as the exact moment my dad was laid to his final rest under clay. A few weeks ago, one-man-band professional Jeff Loven, one of the best musicians I have ever heard and one with whom I have sung for 25 years, strummed the favorite Johnny Cash songs his father loved in the background for the last hour his dad had on this earth, the troubles of which Cash so frequently sang. Certainly, one of them was Hurt,...
Read More
  • Elsewhere on these pages: Bark at the cheese on the moon puns, and Brewers win 22-0 to reply while Twins sweep a contender. REplay to replenish.
Read More
Scroll to Top