June 16th gig at The Palms

OK, it's almost 2:30 a.m., I been hangin' with the cats in the afterglow of a magical night. Just got home and dumped 125 pics into iPhoto from my camera. Gettin' a late start, but I am gonna try to stay with it and post til I get through all these photos and my observations from the evening. Got a lot to upload and discuss. Also gotta rummage through the fridge and find some chow...

Gonna do this incrementally, so that the early blog surfers will at least have something to start with. Lemme get underway with some shots of Pepe and Gabriel.

OK, just back from the kitchen and fridge. Expediency says 'peanut butter and jelly on the leftover Smith's French bread.' Yummie (ugh). Wash it down with some OJ.

Fat City Horns II were up tonight, as Danny, Gill, Nathan, Jerry Merra, Phil, and Rob are back in rehearsals in L.A. for the re-start of Bette Midler. Eric Tewalt was again in the mix, on bari and flute. He's now sorta both Fat City Horns I and II. Lucky for us.

While I knew that Bette Midler was starting up again this weekend and the guys would have to be back in rehearsals this week, I'd not realized that they'd not be at The Palms tonight. FCH II stepped up and delivered majorly. There were a couple of early rough patches (the "Intermission" and "South American Sojourn" charts), but they settled in and found the grooves and screamed the night away, starting with the "Brother to Brother" arrangement, which they nailed. The energy level was so high tonight. Our bro' Sean G from MOSAIC came to hang tonight and sat with me. We compared amazement notes all night. It was a great Healing

BTW, Bette and the guys are doing Leno this Friday (The Tonight Show). I'll post the YouTube clip as soon as I get ahold of it. They're also gonna tape a segment of The View. I'll try to get that clip as well.

More...

Dave Stambaugh on alto -- Yikes. Below Dave Phillipus, now also with Michael Grimm.

More to come...

Exceptional tunes tonight included "Higher Ground," "San Diego," "Soul Trilogy," "Take My Heart Away," "Wishing Well," "Earth, Wind, and Fire Medley," and "We Are Nothing" -- with which they ended the show. It was the nastiest groove I'd ever heard them do on that tune. "Wishing Well" was also off-the-hook nasty. They blew the house away tonight. It was awesome. Great crowd. Thanks to everyone for coming.

Don't forget we're dark next Monday.

Hmmm...I have a bit of cash in the kitty, maybe we could hire a licensed therapist and hold a support group meeting at my house, hmmm...

Seriously, as I learn what else will be happening around town next Monday, I'll post it. Also, check back for updates on other gigs this week.

UPDATE

A belated "Happy Father's Day" to all the dads out there among our blog readers. I was gonna do a Fathers' Day post, but opted to leave my Adrian Garcia tribute post up for an additional day instead. He was a Dad as well. Below, his sweet daughter Lauren. She plays bass too. I am now blessed to know her.

This is my first ever Fathers' Day in 62 years absent my own Pop. Would have liked just one more. But, I can't complain; we had a good final year after I moved him here from Florida.