Monday Feb 26th at The Palms

Jerry Lopez- "We're Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns. Welcome to our show. We've got no lights tonight, but we've got sound, and that's all we need..."

[Bleep!] The light grid was again not working at showtime. They finally collared some cat from Engineering to come in and fix it, after the band had already started (pic above from early in the first set). Sorta fixed it. After a long delay, he got the front plain white cans running, and that was it for the night. So, again, it was difficult to get good pics, and I simply refuse to bail out to flash, 'cuz they look like amateur / tourist shots.

Whatever.

The guys roared right off into the Earth, Wind, & Fire medley, and just put up with the staging hassle. Great night tonight, the energy was way ramped up, crowd was sure diggin' it. Again, the two new originals, Dave's "Salvation" and Nathan's "Come With Me" are just off-the-scale fine. Jerry tells me that they're gonna be rehearsing more new originals later this week, too. Bring it on!

I've had guests this weekend, cousin Jojo from California (below, left) and our former drummer Steve (below, right) from our Seattle wild hippie band days back around 1970. Steve and his wife Lynn came to the gig tonight and were totally blown away. After Rochon's bass ride in "We Are Nothing," I looked back at Steve and he said in astonishment "I didn't know that was possible!"

I hear ya. It never gets old, hearing this band, always somethin' to leave you shaking your head in disbelief.

I guess I'd not seen Steve and Lynn in about 36 years (they've now been married 38 years! Awesome!). He was a fine drummer back when we gigged together in our little psychedelic "power trio" that did, among other things, a lot of Sons of Champlin tunes. We had a great time this weekend catching up and reminiscing. Jojo and Steve both brought a bunch of old pics and we scanned a bunch of 'em. Man! That hair! Where'd it all go?

Here are a few pics from the evening, after they got a bit of light working.

Nice to finally get a shot of Jerry Merra soloing on bari! He needs to do more of that, maybe sometime give us a flute ride as well. Below, Jojo got the only good shots of our own stunning homeboy Drew Zingg sitting in on "System of Survival."

Coda: a pic I shot a year ago of the guys at Boulder Station (below).

UPDATE: message from Joe Bergeron FYI

Rick Arroyo, Charlie Carrillo and I have been started to put together a Carlos Santana tribute show. We are looking for a bass player who digs Santana, and is willing to rehearse up a 90 minute show. Looking for a team player, vocals obviously a plus.

Joe Bergeron
H: (702) 566-5134
C: (702) 683-0664
joeybhs@cox.net
www.finalmixpercussion.com
www.myspace.com/finalmixpercussion

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TONIGHT AT THE E-STRING (Tuesday, Feb 27th, 9 p.m.)

Jerry Lopez, Tommy Alvarado, Chris Gordon, Joel Richman, and Bill Zappia will be again seriously throwin' it down at the E-String on East Sunset in Henderson. No cover, no minimum, the food is good, and the music will be fine. Come on out.

'NUTHER UPDATE: JENO KURUCZ

Jeno (friend of Eugene Balog and Zoltan) was at the gig last night and gave me a copy of his CD. Really fine jazz guitar work, kinda in that wonderful Robert Conti mode. Thanks, bro'.