Monday May 19th gig at The Palms

Derek Jones (Cirque's "Ka") subbed on bass for Rochon and blew it out! Blew it out, man. His MySpace pages are here (electric) and here (doublebass), BTW. Great music of Derek's on both of those.

Dave Phillipus subbed on 'bone for Nathan, and he too blew it out. It was a thundering evening.
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OK, 10:10 pm, I'm sittin' back in the dressing room while cats are milling in and out. Jerry's sitting there running scales and arpeggios up & down on his acoustic. He, Jamie, Tony, and Tyriq are fixin' to do a quick vocal rehearsal on some tunes that Tony has yet to do onstage with the band.

Jerry's cell phone rings; it's Nathan Tanouye. Babysitter is a no-show and unreachable. Screwed.

Meanwhile, Dave Phillipus, episodic Fat City Horns trombone sub and now with "The Green Valley Horns" (LOL) of Michael Grimm's great new band, is skulking about in flip-flops and shorts in the backstage hallway. He'd just dropped by to pick up something from one of the guys. No axe with him or nothin'.

More frantic cell phone calls. Then, at 10:32 pm, Dave Phillipus emerges from the backstage entrance, trombone held aloft triumphantly (his roomate scurried over with it) to loud cheers as Jerry explains in summation to the crowd what had gone down. Jerry laughs and shrugs: "...I dunno, this gig just somehow happens."

Dave proceeded to simply blow the book like he'd been slated for the gig all along. Seamless. Thank you, bro'.

Tellin' ya, you gotta go catch Michael's new band over at Green Valley Ranch (Ovation Showroom 6 - 9 pm, Fridays & Saturdays. Free show). Totally, totally fine.

Below, more of my Derek Jones photo stash:

To me, Rochon is so the perfect bass cat -- with his mix of mindlessly effortless blazing chops, total sense of rhythm, and soaring melodic fluidity -- that I don't like hearing that he's gonna be off, nothwithstanding that we have so many great bass players in town who can step up. But, I gotta say, this night was all Derek's. And the crowd gave it up effusively in recognition. He was all over the hump all night, and his fretless bass ride blew everyone away. Wow. "Living For The City," no less. On fretless!

More shots from the gig...

Below, Jerry jumped all over the stunning new Dave Richardson original "Si Te Vas" like never before. His vocal was towering. The audience was speechless.

Above, Michito in the house!

The mystery of the new axe is resolved. That's one of Mundo's (Jerry's awesome Brother-in-Law, Principal Guitarist in "Mamma Mia," and leader of The Hot Club of Las Vegas). Jerry sent the neck from his own guitar off to Fender, where they're building him a custom axe.
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Below, OK, who's who (w/respect to the Santa Fe archival "history" photo)?

LOL! too cool.

CHECK THIS OUT

OK, here are a couple of cruise ship entertainers throwin' down in a different, utterly heroic way.


Emergency radio call from the sinking ship's bridge: "What is your rank?...I don't have a rank, I'm a guitarist."

That is amazing. (Props to Cuz Jojo for the video link.)

A NOTE OF THANKS

Cheryl quietly handles the CD/DVD/posters/T-shirts etc sales every week for the band, sitting in the back while I'm crawlin' all over shooting pics. I know all the cats appreciate it totally. I certainly do.

WEDNESDAY QUICK UPDATE

Tonight, Yellow Brick Road begins a stint in the Ovation Lounge at Green Valley Ranch (same venue where Michael Grimm now appears every Friday and Saturday). Gig time is 9 pm - 11:30 pm.

I have yet to see these cats (feel bad about that), so I'm goin' to check 'em out and shoot some pics for the blog. BTW, their MySpace page is here.