Globex Corporation Newsletter

Last night's performance at the Canyon Lake Chophouse followed a day of teaching high school band. When I say teaching, I mean staying the hell out of the way as the kids did what needed to be done. There was a pep rally at the high school and even though the director was gone, the band pretty much ran itself. I couldn't have been happier with the way things turned out. Pretty cool as it all turned out.

After a load of laundry at the folks' house, it was off to the Chophouse to help Mike set up. We got the show going shortly after 7pm and I must say I thought we sounded pretty good. There was a wedding recpeption upstairs and apparently they provided no entertainment of their own as the whole party ended up downstairs just before the start of the second set. Normally I would think that was pretty cool but this was an absolute white trash wedding. I know that white trashtends to be a derisive term, but I don't really mean it as such, just a description of the attendees to give you, the reader, an accurate idea of the type of people I'm talking about.

I don't ever mind people making requests, and I'll do my damndest to play something requested even if I only know half of the requested song. Then again, if you ask for a country song, Mike and I aren't going to know it. If you ask for another country song we're not going to know that one either. If you then rattle off the names of 15 of your favorite country artists asking if we know any songs by them, well, a pattern sesms to be emerging: Mike and Doug don't know any country songs. If you wanted country music at your wedding reception, you should have hired a country band. If you had a number of songs you wanted to hear at your wedding reception, you should have hired a band yourself instead of relying on whoever happened to be playing at the place you decided to have your reception.

That aside, Mike tried to keep 'em happy, the bride had been in bands and the two of them came up with Proud Mary which the bride sang remarkably. Mike said he hadn't played the song in about 20 years, so all in all it went pretty well. Even without a wedding reception I think the place would have been pretty busy. Coupled with the party going on, the Chophouse was packed and loud. Most of the time we couldn't hear ourselves all that well. While the first set went well, the next two were probably not nearly as good, though I can't really tell since I couldn't hear a whole lot.

After the show as we were packing up a table that was with the wedding party was having a heated discussion. I was carrying lots of stuff out to the car so I only caught parts of it, though it seemed to be a discussion on who was the better band, Bon Jovi or The Guess Who. Even though the participants in the discussion were pretty drunk, I actually thought about the subject matter: New Jersey's Bon Jovi, a pretty big deal in the 80's playing a pretty distinctive style of rock and roll vs. Canada's The Guess Who of such musical gems as These Eyes and American Woman (sans kazoo). I'd side with The Guess Who, but a valid arguement could be made that Bon Jovi was a better or "rockin' - er" or more influential band than The Guess Who. Both really were second tier rock bands, bands with some success and quite a few memorable songs.

The next time I came in for another load to take back out to the car I caught a little more of the argument. I was mistaken, in wasn't Bon Jovi vs. The Guess Who, it was Bon Jovi vs. The Who! I think Jon Bon Jovi's own mother would agree that The Who was a better band than Bon Jovi, but nothing would stop this drunken woman. "The Who sucks! They suck!" That was about the exent of her arguement. Wait, I forgot "Bon Jovi is sooo great!"

I left the bar without the issue being resolved by the particpants. As far as I know, the discussion could still be gong on. Given the depth of the debate, I suppose that tells you more about the participants than the subject matter.

BOJ