Early 2007 Tricks

May 2007

May 26 - Dylan Party with Rick & Krys and 2 other music groups

Not a Tricks Party, but still a contender for "Party-of-the-Year 2007". Last fall, our good friend Dylan bought a great house in Plainwell, right across from the library, in a nice quiet residential district on the East side of town. It must be a good neighborhood because all the neighbors were there at Dylan's party. We had live jammin' acoustic guitar music with 3 groups in Dylan's big garage from 8pm until past midnight. And there was lots of hootin' & hollerin' & dancin' & singin' along. Rick and Krys provided the sound system and started the night with a short set of good party tunes. After that, we had a great set of songs from the acoustic guitar trio "Bean Soup", with Dennis and Kurt Nelson and Steve Thorn singing plenty of good 3-part harmony blues, country rock, and folk. Then Rick and Krys got up for another drunken set. After that, "Diverge", with Anna, Lisa, and Benjo, got up and took us past midnight with all kinds of great acoustic crowd-pleasers - lots of singing along and dancing and drumming. Check out the pictures. It was a great musical Fiesta!! Very cool! Great food! And we finished off a couple kegs of Bell's Oberon Ale. Despite the crappy rainy Memorial Day weekend weather, we had over 100 crazy party people to help Dylan break in his house and his neighbors. Thanks to everyone who helped with the food, music, drinks, and all that good stuff. I can see this turning into an annual thing . . . Stay tuned to this channel!
-

May 18 & 19 - Sue's SideTrack in Fennville

Tricks had a very fun night on Friday, and then Saturday was the big "blow-out" last night where we shut down all braking systems and just kick out the jams. Great crowd. We had lots of regular Tricks insiders, and we were happy to see Marsha and her girlfriends because they love to dance and get crazy and scream and all that good stuff. Thanks so much for coming out, everyone. Tricks loves you! It's always more fun when we have some crazy dancers to get in our face while we crank out the "premium" rock and roll. Thanks to our bartenders Rick and Don for helping everyone with their beverages. Also thanks to the cooks and waitresses. Sue has a great party place out there in Pearl. Thanks so much for having us. And I can't say enough good things about the food at the Sidetrack - they always have a huge crowd on Mondays for Taco Monday, but every day is a good day to get out to the SideTrack for dinner and drinks.
At our Saturday night Blow-Out, we were glad to have our good friend Denny Velduis with his big Mega-Cam. I posted an extra album of pictures from Denny. Denny's pictures are always a bit more rich in color and detail than the pics from our regular cheapy-cam. Thanks Denny for the pics. We know it's a bit scary bringing that expensive camera gear into the crazy rock and roll party scene. We appreciate your great work.
Thanks again to everyone! We'll see you again in September for the big biker bash. I'll send out info after I talk to Sue.

|Denny Pics

May 11 & 12 - Sue's SideTrack in Fennville

Finally! Tricks is back at the Track - Sue's SideTrack way out in the country, at least a 30 minute drive from Anywhere, U.S.A. (Go to google maps and put in "Pearl, Michigan" and see what I mean.) The SideTrack is the perfect spot for crazy partying and dancing to Tricks Rock Music. I don't know about you, but I always seem to need a designated driver when I party at the Sidetrack. What's up with that? Don does a good job pouring the drinks at the bar. Sue's entire staff is a bunch of Motorcycle-Loving guys and gals. Sue hosts lots of Bike runs and charity bike events at the SideTrack. It seems like they always have an upcoming event to prepare for.
Lucky for us, Tricks will be playing at the big annual end-of-summer, All-Day-Long Biker Party at the SideTrack on September 8 this year. Sue says it will be a mob scene, with bikers packing the parking lot, the picnic area and the bar. I'll get more info on that for our Tricks Biker friends. Stay tuned!
Oh yeah, what about this weekend? This weekend was, like I was saying, "too much fun" for the band. Very friendly Tricks fans came out to the SideTrack and danced with us all night. Did I mention the good food at Sue's SideTrack? - Well, the food is marvelous. We like to go out to the SideTrack for Taco Monday whenever we can. And the dance floor is simply the most hugest dance floor you ever saw at a bar. By the way, the bathrooms are the cleanest you'll ever see in a bar. And, wonder of wonders, Sue is a bar owner who actually puts money into her bar now and then. She keeps making improvements. For a big example: they just added about 3,000 dollars of custom lighting for the stage. (See the picture on left) Wow! How cool is that? Most bar owners, . . . well, let's just say they usually like making money, not so much spending money. Tricks looks forward to lots more great times at the SideTrack in 2007 and into the future... See my pictures from Friday and Saturday.

May 5 - Cap'n Craig Party for Deb and Sam


Another awesome Tricks party at Craig and Jane Bykerk's place. To be precise, it was Cap'n Craig's Tricks party #7! How cool is that?
Although we've had one Tricks anniversary party and one Tricks wedding for the Bykerk bunch, Cap'n Craig specializes in Surprise Parties for Birthday Boys and Girls. This time the party was for two of our all-time top Tricks fans from the Tricks Inner Circle - Deb Peck and Sam Weidner.
The best part of the surprise is that Deb and Sam each knew about the party, but thought that it was only for the other one; Sam thought it was Deb's party and Deb thought it was Sam's party. Well, SURPRISE!! Both Deb and Sam have been heavily involved in past surprise parties, so we couldn't hide the fact that a party was in the making. In fact, Deb was there to help with band set-up on Tuesday, and she also helped with the food.
Deb said "this surprise was one for the books". She had no clue until she walked in the door and heard "Happy Birthday, Deb". Same with Sam; it was a great look on his face when he walked in the door. But the surprise wasn't even the best part. The best part was all the family and friends who came from near and far to celebrate with two of our favorite people.
Tricks had a hot time playing Craig's barn, because Craig has us all set up for good AC power, good light hanging poles, good drum riser, and everything a little band needs to get through a fun night of rock and roll without a hitch. Lots of great help setting up and tearing down as well. Thanks to everyone who helped make it "easy in and easy out". And need I mention that there were lots of dancers all night long?
Like usual, Cap'n Craig had the mouse game going during band breaks. Fun stuff! We had 4 mice escape - that was almost as fun aa playing the game. You should have heard the screaming.
Thanks to everyone who helped with food. There was great food. Yummy! Lots of good beverages. Special thanks to Jane for being the hostess with the mostest. We love ya! Thanks so much. We know you work hard to get your place ready for a party like this, and then you get to clean it all up when it's over. Thanks to everyone from Tricks!
Serious contender for Tricks Party of the Year 2007!
Here's the Party Pics.

News from TRICKS - April 2007

April 27 & 28 - Country Lanes - Cancelled! Shut-Down! Had to do some fancy footwork to get our gear out.

If you're curious about why this gig was cancelled, you should make sure you're signed up for the Tricks Newsletter. We will be sending out a new Tricks E-mail Newsletter in just a few days. Then, every 6 weeks or so, you'll hear all the latest Tricks Gossip that's worth hearing. How exciting!!

* * * Sign up - Tricks e-mail News * * *
Tricks News Only! - No Spam!

E-mail Address:

First Name (optional):
Last Name (optional):
Subscribe - Unsubscribe

April 20 & 21 - Country Lanes

It was such great weather, for a change . . . not many people wanting to go to the bar this weekend. On the way home, both nights it looked like Stan's was also pretty dead. Hey, not that we didn't have a couple fun nights with QUALITY crowds. Thanks for the regular support, Tricks friends! You know who you are! (see pics) The band was pretty aggressive both nights and getting better and better at those kick-ass new songs that we just learned. My new personal (Rick) faves are The Who "You Better, You Bet" and The Black Crowes "Sting Me". I'll probably put up a new YouTube video from the Saturday night video recording (thanks to Roger for being camera-man). I hope it rains next weekend, so we can have a little more QUANTITY with the crowds. We especially appreciate those friends who drove a bit to rock with Tricks this weekend, most notably, the Trendway people and the Hudsonville/Grandville gang. Thanks! Tricks wouldn't have had much fun without YOU!

News from TRICKS - March 2007

March 30 & 31 - Wayland Hotel

Our last weekend at Wayland Hotel, until next time... Tricks hosted several birthdays on Saturday night. Happy birthday to Mike, Willie, and Cap'n Craig. Tricks was most honored that you celebrated your special day with the loyal Tricks family and friends. The old birthday boys had some cocktails and shot some pool, while Mike and his gang got totally rowdy on the dance floor. We almost had a classic rock mosh-pit, with quite a bit of slam-dancing going on with the rough party boys. We shoulda had the video camera going; that would have made some good YouTube video to post. All in all, it was a good 3 weekends with Tricks at the Wayland Hotel. We got a chance to break-in 18 new classic songs that we learned during our Tricks winter break. The band is getting pretty hot and tight already, and the year is just getting going. It's gonna be a good 2007 with Tricks at the weekend rock and roll bars. Thanks for the great times in Wayland! See y'all next time!

March 23 & 24 - Wayland Hotel

Tricks had a much more normal weekend at the Wayland Hotel this weekend. Normal crowds, normal fun, normal all-night rock and roll partyin' good times. The new songs are coming together for the band - our hard work is paying off. Not quite as much green in the room this weekend. . . But, we had lots of birthdays! So, thanks to everyone who was in on the birthday celebrations - Tricks is honored to be a part of your special night. Thanks to everyone for coming out with Tricks on this first weekend of Spring! Woo, woo! One more big weekend to go at the Wayland Hotel, for now. We love it here, it's such a great sounding room. And there's always a bunch of fun people who come to the Wayland Hotel to eat, drink, and dance, . . . and chit-chat with buddies. Great wait-staff to help keep the drinks flowing. Thanks to Mary Kay for having us and for being a good boss. You know how to run a great Bar and Grill - with touch of Sass and Class.

March 16 & 17 - Wayland Hotel - St. Patrick's Day Weekend!
Tricks came roaring back onto the bar scene after 10 weekends off. There was an electric feeling as Tricks tested the waters with 18 new classic covers: Are people going to dance to these songs? Will we remember all the little song parts that we tampered with? Will we remember the beginnings and the endings and the segues that we came up with in those 10 sober Friday night rehearsals? - Well, guess what? The new songs sound, look, and feel marvelous. Everyone likes Krystal's K.T. Tunstal song, with all the band getting percussive like restless natives. Everyone dances to the new Who "big 3". "Free Ride" is a huge dance floor hit. "Oh Well" and "Sting Me" are kick-ass premium classics, for sure. The James Gang stuff is well-loved. And everyone is raving happy that we brought back "Lips & Hips", "Won't Get Fooled Again", and "Message In A Bottle" from the Tricks Graveyard .
Tricks is so happy to be a the Wayland Hotel for our first bar gig of 2007. It's a fitting start for our new Tricks year. We confidently predict that this past Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2007, will rank in the Top 3 Big Nights for Tricks in 2007. Yes, . . . it was that good! Thanks to Mary Kay and her great staff for putting on an amazing party. Thanks to everyone for coming out to party at the Hotel with Tricks! Tricks loves you!

March 15, - Date With Tricks - Umprey's McGee / Adrian Belew Concert
Tricks had a hot date with the winner of last year's Grand Prize drawing from Tricks' 30 Year Anniversary. Our 2006 celebration of 30 Years of rocking West Michigan included giving away about 50 Tricks t-shirts and over 100 Tricks cooler cups. All of the entries from the entire year were put in a bag at the New Year's Eve party, and we drew Deb Peck's name as winner of the Grand Prize - a "date with Tricks" to see a concert of our choice.
The concert we picked was a Thursday concert at the Orbit Room with the amazing Chicago "jam band" Umphrey's McGee. Check out this YouTube video of Umphrey's guitarist Jake Cinninger, Krystal calls him "blurr-hand".
Playing a solo warm-up set and later joining Umphrey's onstage was special guest Adrian Belew, formerly with Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads, King Crimson, etc. . . "Special guest" my ass! Adrian Belew is a one-of-a-kind mad guitar god! And just an all-around fun-loving, smiling guy who loves to create ingenius sounds and songs. See this little MySpace video for a short but fascinating and humorous musical biography of Adrian Belew.
We thank Deb for giving us all an excuse to go see some amazing musicians, even though several in our entourage were a bit under the weather. Deb, Krys, Roger, Steve, Rick, Dylan, Mike, Tim, and Dave all rode to the concert in Roger's JAMboree magic bus. Thanks once again to Roger for being, among other things, our Show-Fur and Designated Driver! That Orbit Room sure is a dump after all these years. Most of us sat upstairs in the front row of the balcony; leaning on the railing up there was a great vantage point above the melee - and you had a good place to set your beer. But die-hard rockers Roger and Krys had to get up close with the mob scene on the dance floor in front of the stage. Krys needed to get close to see that blurr-hand, and Roger can't ever be close enough to the Rock and Roll action (and sound).
Thanks for the date, Deb. We'll do it again, but next time we go Dutch Treat.

March 10, - Open Tricks Rehearsal

Here's just the shock that Tricks needed to get ourselves out of "Work" mode. - A nice party with the Tricks Inner Circle - i.e., friends who come out to support Tricks at nearly every single bar and party that we play at. We can't thank you guys enough. We love ya, man! We had to have one last big Tricks rehearsal to go over all of our new material, as well as the most challenging tunes that we're carrying over from last year's set lists. I give the band about a B- for brain-farts and finger flubs. Funny, it seems like we handled most of the difficult parts that we've been going over and over, and the parts where we stumbled were the easier parts. We fumbled through a few easy parts because of memory over-load. After all, if you count the songs from the Tricks Hat (which we have to play on a moment's notice), Tricks has a total of 105 songs in our active song list. But, the party crowd gets A+ for helping Roger celebrate his birthday! Another A+ for helping Tricks get back in the saddle again. What a great start to 2007! Tricks is all pumped up now for the big St. Patty's weekend at the Wayland Hotel, which is our "back to the bars" weekend. Thanks everybody! Thanks Roger!

News from TRICKS - February 2007

February 2, 9, 16, 23 - 2007 - "Winter Break"

In a string of nine Friday evening rehearsals, Tricks has tackled 18 premium rock classics - everything from dance-able ditties like "Can't Explain" and "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin", to heavy duty hard rockers like "Snortin' Whiskey" and "All Lips And Hips", to challenging complexities like "You Better, You Bet" and "Sting Me', to tuneful love songs like "Angel Eyes" and "Sentimental Lady". We had to say "that's enough" when we got up to 18 songs, because our we were starting to bleed from our ears like Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnenomic, when he had too many terrabytes of data crammed into his brain. The work-in-process is starting to feel too much like, well, work. We can't wait to get back to the party atmosphere of the rock and roll bar scene (although, being a band of all non-smokers, we don't miss the smoke too much). But, whatever it takes, we need a big shot of Tricks-Party-Mania!!

News from TRICKS - January 2007

Dec 31, 2006 - Happy New Year 2007


Tricks and friends rang in 2007 with food, fun, drinks, and lots of dancing the night away! I mean it! The dance floor at St. Mary's hall is huge, and there were dancers out there dancing All Night Long! These people came to dance, that's what we like to see.
Special thanks to Lynette, the lady in charge of this annual fund-raiser. Thanks for having Tricks as a part of your celebration, We appreciate all the hard work that Lynette and her crew put into the job of throwing this big dinner/dance party. Great work from the cooks, the bartenders, the planners, the decorators, the clean-up crew, and all the other volunteers, Tricks says "Thanks so much"! Also, special thanks to Diane VerHey. And, happy birthday to Nicole and Sue.
Grand Prize Drawing
Just before midnight rolled around, Tricks did their Grand Prize Drawing for our year-long celebration of Tricks' 30th anniversary. The prize is 2 tickets to a concert & a night out with the whole Tricks band. All of the entry forms for the entire year of Tricks t-shirt and Tricks cooler cup nightly drawings were including in the Grand Prize drawing - hundreds and hundreds of names from every single Tricks gig of 2006. It's only fitting that the winner ended up being our best friend, Deb Peck - Deb is one of our most fun and loyal fans, she comes to see Tricks with her husband Willy almost every weekend (many times both weekend nights). She is our music-loving, dancing fiend, cookie making, dog-sitting, party girl, best rock and roll friend who we are honored to have as a TOP TRICKS FRIEND AND FAN!! We love ya! Deb, and we're glad you were the winner - (of course, I'm sure no one else had more pieces of paper in there than you did!)
Tricks wishes a Happy New Year 2007 to one and all, whether you were there or not. Best wishes for 2007 to all Tricks friends and family! Auld Lang Syne
Check out the pictures to see what a fun crowd we had on this last night of 2006.
|
Tricks Cooler Cups Winners - Marge McBride, Sue Kelly
Tricks T-Shirt Winners - Bob Mohn, Susan Paauwe, Robin Deur, Katie Coon
Grand Prize Winner !!! - Deb Peck

- to Late 2006
- to Mid 2007

Tricksband.com website was started in March 2004.
Rick is webmaster, with graphics help from Krystal.

If you'd like to be informed of updates to the site, as well as any upcoming party information.
Sign up for Tricks e-mail News -


Comments? Clichés? Conversation? Controversy? Chatter? Cr-r-r-riticism?
Send Tricks an E-mail


Tricks is on - Be a fan!
Share comments, messages, or pictures with the entire Tricks family.

Remember, Tricks loves you!

" There's Good Rockin' Tonight "