Check out this Tricks Newsletter chronicling the summer of 2008,

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Blog / News from TRICKS - January 2009

Jan 10 - Paula's Surprise Birthday Party, Dorr American Legion Hall -

Mark threw a Tricks Party for his wife, Paula's 40th Birthday. Paula is Rick & Steve's sister, and a big-time Tricks regular. Mark and Paula love to dance and head-bang with Tricks on a regular basis, so it was an obvious choice: Paula needed a surprise Tricks Party for her big Four-Oh. The surprise worked out superbly. Paula thought she was going to a Griffins Hockey game in Grand Rapids. Lots of people had to tell white lies to Paula in order to keep this big party a surprise. Like Mark said "this party was over a year in the making". Mark booked Tricks for this date way back in November of 2007.

And what a party it was. Dave Bassbeast says, "I haven't had a bad time here yet". The Dorr Legion Hall is quite small, but it makes a cozy party place. We just kick the tables aside and make our own dance floor. Krys said, "I went to the back of the room during a song where I don't sing, and I looked at the room and the chairs were all empty - everyone was up dancing"! We had lots of good food and went through 2 kegs of beer. And everyone just wanted to dance, dance, dance the night away. See pictures for the empirical evidence of that fact!

How about some words from Paula?:

WOW!  How special can a girl be?!?!!  What a great bunch of friends and family members you all are.  I was really floored to see all of you at the Legion to celebrate my birthday...I had no clue until I stepped in the door.  I really just wanted it to be low key...who wants to think about getting older?  But seriously, like many of the cards I received say - You are only as old as you feel (and act!).  And with TRICKS playing our theme music, we'll keep rockin' til we die!!
 
Thank you all for making me feel so special and loved!  Special thanks to TRICKS for sacrificing precious "new song learning time" - you have played the song in my head since I was in the cradle...Just don't EVER play IRON MAN!!  Thanks to the Birman family and all who made it possible to use the Legion as the party place.  Thanks to Elly and the cake lady at Dick's - IT WAS SOOOO COOL!  Did everyone see the cake?  Can I shamelessly put in a plug to "buy your next party cake at Dick's Market!"  Thanks to my future sister-in-law (RIGHT PAUL?!?!!) Tanya and her girls for decorating.  And of course, thank you to my love - Mark.  I can't imagine all the work you did to pull this off.  I can't say enough how much I love you!  And thanks to everyone for coming (even through the crappy weather!) and celebrating with me...I felt like George Bailey at the end of "It's A Wonderful Life" - the richest gal in town!

^{Party Pics | Debbie Pics Debbie}

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Jan 3 - Mike & Kayleigh's Wedding, at Bowen's Mill, Yankee Springs -

Tricks had the supreme pleasure and honor to play for Kayleigh & Mike's wedding at Bowen's Mill, near Gun Lake^. Kayleigh is Steve's daughter, so this was a big family affair for Tricks. Kayleigh has already had one big Tricks party, for her graduation three years ago. What a fantastic wedding day; clear sunny weather, very nice ceremony at the Catholic church, with the famous Williams Family providing music at the church, great-looking bridesmaids and groomsmen, great bus ride for the wedding party in Roger's motor home, great reception hall at Bowen's Mill, great food, great Dee-Jay music provided by our cousin Steve Weideman & his wife Kathy of "DanceTracks", Tricks giving it our all, great crowd of family and friends who were ready to dance. What fun!
This qualifies as the Party-Of-The-Year for 2009 (even though Tricks is still in fiscal year '08).
Ricks says: "I've sung for a hundred wedding ceremonies and played in bands at a hundred wedding receptions, and I don't recall being involved in a wedding where everything went perfectly as planned. But, now I've seen everything, because this wedding was perfect and the funnest ever. Good job to all the planners and workers"!

Let's hear what Father-of-the-Bride Steve has to say (here goes):
My favorite recollections of this most memorable occasion include:
My first sight of the beautiful Bride and her gorgeous sisters. Wow girls!
2 year old Noah Slyker stealing the show with his strut down the aisle.
The Happy Couple seemed almost euphoric as they said their vows. Tammy said that Kayleigh was almost laughing so that she wouldn’t burst into tears.
The hilarious & touching toasts given by Dustin Moseley, Erika, & Shannon Dutkiewicz. Such as Dustin’s observation that, “Mike’s name is Michael David Dumond and Dave’s name is David Michael Dumond, obviously there is a lot of creativity in the family!”

In appreciation to everyone who attended the wedding ceremony and reception, Mr. & Mrs. Michael & Kayleigh Dumond would like to thank:
Father Christian & Rusty Dutkiewicz who both made the ceremony very warm by making a personal correlation with the couple.
• The Wedding Party: Erika Slyker, Shannon Dutkiewicz, Shannon Dumond, Renee Geil, Dustin Mosley, Daniel Ward, Adam Laursen, Tyson Geib. Flower Girls: Taylor Slyker, Ava Dutkiewicz. Ring-Bearer, Noah Slyker. Ushers: Mark Herrmann, Lucas Hedgecock.
• Rick Dutkiewicz, Video recording of the ceremony.
• Outstanding job by The M & M’s of Ceremony: Pati Adomaitis and Gary & Phyllis Nyenhuis
• Sierra O'Connell of O'Connell Photography. It was noted that we had unofficial photographers also such as Missy Stora and many others.
• The Music-Makers. The Williams Family. Steve & Kathy of Dance Tracks. And Dave, Rick, Krys, & Dave of TRICKS.
• Roger Schrag, Wedding Party tour bus driver & video photographer.
• Brann’s Catering. Great Food!
• Helene Matecki. The Wedding cake was exceptional (as usual).
• Water’s Edge Floral of Gun Lake.
• Finally, thanks to the families of the Bride & Groom. Their Sisters and Parents who spent months helping pull it all together.
The Newlyweds will fly out of G.R. Sunday night to their honeymoon in Ft Lauderdale at the Wyndham Palm Aire Resort. As soon as they return next weekend it’s off to their new residence in Chesterfield, MO as Mike begins his graduate studies in Chiropractic the following Tuesday and Kayleigh starts her new full time job that is awaiting her in St. Louis.
These two very special people have got it going on. Thanks for the much needed support to their new start in life from all who gave gifts at the wedding and showers.

• Thank You Phil Collins for the perfect song for our Father/Daughter dance:
Excerpt - "For one so small You seem so strong
My arms will hold you, Keep you safe and warm
This bond between us Can't be broken
I will be here Don't you cry, 'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes, you'll be in my heart from this day on Now and forever more
You'll be here in my heart Always I'll be with you
I'll be there for you always, Just look over your shoulder"

Here are 80 photos from the wedding reception. Sorry there are so many dark pictures.
The hall had that candle-lit romantic lighting, but not so good for photos:
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• The Dads, Dave & Steve apologize to everyone who constantly stood in line waiting for drinks. Grapevine Bartending Co. didn’t seem to take either one of us seriously when we warned them that the drink estimates given to us seemed light. We made a point of telling them prior to Saturday that the beer supply especially needed to be doubled which turned out to be right since they estimated one and a half barrels and we went thru three.
The bartenders did the best they could under the circumstances. Tammy was told by the guy that he was rocked from the get go. JoAnne, a longtime professional bartender herself commented how the twosome were pouring drinks very fast but were unable to keep up. It wasn’t the bartenders fault. Obviously this company has never seen the likes of us, (you animals).

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Blog / News from TRICKS - December 2008

Dec 19 & 20 - SideTrack Bar & Grill, Fennville -

Our final Tricks weekend of 2008, and we are in the middle of a pretty big Winter Storm. Lots of snowing and blowing on Friday, then clear during the day on Saturday, but then it kicked in again on Saturday evening. As a result, we had a cozy little party with a few regulars at the Sidetrack on Friday night. A couple groups of snowmobilers stopped in, making it seem like the party was picking up. But the snowmobilers were only interested in making a quick stop; one drink, a half-hour warm-up, and off they go into the wild white yonder. But the band had fun with the staff and the few party people who were hanging out at the Sidetrack with us. After all, it is our last Tricks gig for '08.
Saturday was entirely different. The weather cleared enough for a bunch of people to brave the storm and come out for our last big Tricks Blow-Out night of the year. Our friend Rodney was celebrating his birthday, so we had a table-full of friends from Holland, including a few Tricks Virgins. And we had plenty of locals who needed a final Tricks fix for the year. Best of all, we had a surprise visit from Bill and Sheryl Romanowski, from Indiana. Bill is a founding member of Tricks. With his penchant for experimental music and synthesizers, Bill largely influenced our avant-garde leanings, as modest as they may be. For more on Bill and Tricks' formative years, see the Tricks History pages for 1976 & '77.
Saturday night was also "get the guitar player drunk" night, in honor of Rick's upcoming birthday. 55 and still rocking as hard as ever! Rick says, "I'll probably have to hang it up in another 20 or 25 years".
Tricks thanks everyone at the Sidetrack for a great fun final fling for 2008. Thanks to Don, our bartender, thanks to the wait-staff and cooks, and thanks to Sue for having a great party place. We'll see you at the Sidetrack on Taco Monday.
Thanks to everyone for a great Tricks year! Thanks to The Tricks Inner Circle; you know who you are! We appreciate your love and support. Thanks to Roger for all the "beyond the call of duty" help throughout the year. Rock and Roll is sometimes a heavy drain on our life-energy, and it's our friends, fans, and families who keep us going through thick and thin. Remember: Tricks Loves You!
I'll be sending out a year-end Tricks News very soon.

^{Fri | Sat}

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Tricks performs "Domino" by Kiss. Friday Night, Dec 12, 2008

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Dec 12 & 13 - SideTrack Bar & Grill, Fennville -

Sue's Sidetrack is a Mecca of sorts for Rockers, Bikers, and Snowmobilers. Sue's crew at the Sidetrack plays host to many, many charity Biker Events during the summer months. And, during the winter months the local bikers are riding their snowmobiles, and they end up at Sue's Sidetrack for dinner. So, we get some great crowds at the Sidetrack, way out there in the back-country. But, during that time when the Harleys are tucked away for the winter, yet there isn't very good snow yet for snowmobiles, there might be a slump in business. Sue said that her last few weekend crowds have been not-so-big.
Tricks to the Rescue! We called out the Tricks Regulars and the Tricks Reserves, and cooked us up a great couple of nights at the Sidetrack. It's hard to say whether we had more fun on Friday or Saturday. We had some birthdays. Some of Doogie's friends from Trendway showed up. Some of Krystal's friends from Perrigo showed up. Both nights were exceptional fun; the crowds were out to have fun and cure their December Blahs, and the band was flying high. I'll post a YouTube video, so you can see that I wouldn't lie to you about this stuff. I'm not too much into hyping the fun if it wasn't really there.
Thanks to all the Tricks friends who braved the rainy, icy, crappy weather to come out and have a Hot Time with Tricks. We appreciate you staying up late with us! Thanks to neighbor Fred for the pictures. Thanks to Roger for video and audio recording, and other odd "go-fer, sho-fur" jobs. Thanks to Rick our bartender, thanks to the waitresses and cooks, and thanks to Sue for having us.
We look forward to playing at the SideTrack's big "Cops for Kids" bike run on July 11 '09.

^{Fri | Sat | Fred Pics (2 pages) -}

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Dec 5 & 6 - Wayland Hotel Bar & Grill, Wayland -

This was our last big weekend at the Wayland Hotel for 2008. The weather was, well, in a word; blizzardy. There was lots of snow and ice on the roads and it was very cold; around 16ºF. That put a damper on the Friday night crowds at every bar we heard about, including the Hotel. We had a nice intimate "crowd" of about 25 people on Friday, and it was a good little rock and roll party.
But on Saturday, even though the weather was worse than Friday, some people couldn't stand being cooped up at home. They came out to party with Tricks at the Hotel on our last blow-out Saturday night. What a great night on Saturday. Deb Peck says it was "one of best".
Chelsea, Rachel, and Deb deserve most of the credit for whipping up a great party on Saturday night - they were all celebrating birthdays. Happy birthday, girls! Tricks was honored to help celebrate your momentous event - Rock & Roll style! Everyone was partying with the 3 birthday girls and having fun getting a glow-on, dancing and jamming with the band. And, speaking of the band for a minute; Tricks was hitting the tunes mighty hard, with our end-of-the-year enthusiasm. We're going into our winter break pretty soon; We're gonna miss being onstage, and we might say "goodbye" to a few of these songs. That makes for an intense performance. Something had drummer Steve revved up from the very first song. I thought he would be worn out by last set, but Steve drove the band all night long, until we pounded and pummeled through the final 3 songs without letting up for a second; "Whole Lotta Rosie", "Rock of Ages", "Rock Candy". And let's not forget the dancers; they were right there with us to the very end, matching us beat-for-beat!
Thanks so much to Mary Kay and the Wayland Hotel staff - we can't say enough about your excellent party place; great food, great drinks, clean restrooms, friendly atmosphere, big dance floor and stage. We love it, that's why Tricks is here at the Hotel so often.
Thanks to our regular Tricks fans who show up on a regular basis - it's so good to have you there for support and inspiration. Thanks to all the regulars at the Hotel - thanks for letting Tricks invade your space! Thanks to Rich Decker for sound support and advice to our soundman Dave. And, finally, thanks to Deb for taking pictures and thanks to Roger for everything.

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Blog / News from TRICKS - November 2008

Nov 28 & 29 - Wayland Hotel Bar & Grill, Wayland -

Friday night was Steve's Birthday! Tricks drummer-boy had a little too much fun with his party friends on Friday night. Great crowd of party people on this "Turkey Hangover" day. I was surprised there was such a lively packed house on Black Friday. After all that shopping, there was energy left to head-bang with Tricks. Besides Steve's birthday celebration, we also had a couple other birthdays, with plenty of friends along for the party. Lots of new and old Tricks friends, fans, and family. Thanks for coming out, it was a fun night.
The only word I can think of for Saturday is "festive". This was a long weekend for everyone, with tons of fun hanging out with friends and family. (I'll be glad to get back to work, so I can rest up. Don't tell my boss I said that.) This festive little crowd was no match for Thanksgiving Eve's rowdy bunch (see below), but it seemed like we had our core group of Tricks fans. This is the group that knows how to party with the band. We all had the same glow going. The band was as much into the crowd as the crowd was into the band. I don't know how to say it . . . see the pictures to get an idea of what a special night we had on Saturday. For those of you who had plans to be here, but had the "holiday burn-out" syndrome; we missed you.
So, one more time, a big round of "Thanks" in honor of Thanksgiving weekend: Thanks so much to our Tricks Insider crowd. Thanks to the "regulars"; the friends, family, and fans who show up regularly to make the Tricks Party happen. Thanks to all the new friends who came to see Tricks for their first time this Holiday weekend. Thanks to the Wayland Hotel workers - Thanks Mary Kay, we appreciate all that you do to make the Wayland Hotel a special place to party.
Thanks to Kenny & Dan for a fun night. Thanks to Craig and Jane for inspiring me do "Romeo & Juliet" with feeling... Thanks to Debbie and Roger for taking pictures always.
Thanks to Deb for the cookies. Great for breakfast!
^{Fri | Sat}

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Nov 26 - Thanksgiving Eve, Wayland Hotel Bar & Grill, Wayland -

Tricks played a WILD WEDNESDAY at Mary Kay's Wayland Hotel. It was the Big Bar-Party Night of the year, one of the biggest. The Wayland Hotel was definitely at capacity - elbow-to-elbow, among other things. We had all the usual fun; dancing, crazy head-banging, screaming, chatting, drinking, singing along, rocking into the night. Dave and Debbie had a table full of friends and family. Steve had a bunch there as well. And then there were our usual Tricks fans. You know who you are. We appreciate everyone coming out and making the Wayland Hotel their special place for that big Thanksgiving Eve party night.
We thank all the great wait-staff at the Hotel. Mary Kay went the extra mile and had some door prizes to give away; we gave away a bunch of t-shirts and hats, and a great big Busch Beer mirror. Good job, Mary Kay!! Very cool idea! That's what we expect from the Wayland Hotel; great parties, great fun, great food and service - and on top of all that - Great Prizes! That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Not much else you can say except "you had to be there"! (And, "the band was hot"!)
I've run out of exclamation points, so let's just look at the pictures. Thanks to Debbie, Roger and Deb for picture-taking.

Thanksgiving Eve -

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Nov 21 & 22 - Wayland Hotel Bar & Grill, Wayland -

Tricks returns to Wayland for our last triple weekend of fun and parties. As expected, the cold weather is stirring up the "cabin fever" syndrome. People are tired of sitting at home next to the heater, and they are in the mood for generating some heat of their own. We had Hot Crowds on both Friday and Saturday, with people hangin' and bangin' with Tricks . . . "All Night Long", as Joe Walsh would say. (See my pictures if you don't believe me.) Lots of friends and family, a few birthdays on both nights, and a big bunch of bodacious babes for Girls Night Out on Saturday night. Check it out!
Although Friday was very much a "chit-chat" crowd, we still had plenty of dancers to keep us happy. Everyone seemed to be in a dancing mood on Saturday, and that's where things get kinda wild and crazy.
Our soundman, Dave Lopez, got crazy with the band's money and bought 4 new 15" Eminence speakers for our Carvin speaker cabinets. That alone was reason for some heavy head-banging on the dance floor. The bass guitar and the kick drum sounded excellent with those new speakers.
Tricks is eternally grateful to Mary Kay and her crew at the Wayland Hotel. Thanks so much for tending to all of our Tricks party needs. Thanks to all the great Tricks friends who showed up this weekend. And, welcome to the new Tricks friends who we had such a good time with.

^{Fri | Sat}