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TricksBlog 2020

The TRICKS BAND only played 3 shows in 2020;
Gun Lake Casino, Holland Am Legion, and Sandy Pines
We played 17 other gigs without Steve, as a Trio or Duo.

^{Blog - August 2020}

^{Aug 1- Tricks at Sandy Pines, members only}

This was our 5th annual Tricks Show at Sandy Pines. We were worried that this was going to be our first ever rained-out show for the Sandy Pines event. The "event" is the annual benefit Color Run/Walk combined with a Dick's Market Brat Cook-out for lunchtime and a Tricks show on the lakeside after dinner in the evening. Because of COVID 19, the Run / Walk was canceled, but the Brat Cook-out and Tricks show went on like normal. We wondered whether fears and uncertainty would keep people away, but Steve says they sold out the Bratwurst at lunchtime, and the Tricks crowd was probably "best ever". It was a "cheerful crowd", as Krys observed. And the pre-teen crowd took the chance to show off their dancing and aerobic skills.
This was only our 3rd show of 2020, thanks to COVID shut-downs and cancelations. We still had our gear in Steve's basement from our winter break, and we've been getting together not and then to keep our chops up and work on a few new tunes. Notable new "winter break" adds to the Tricks repertoire are Alice Merton's "No Roots" for Krystal, Supertramp "Give A Little Bit" for Rick, and J Geils "First I Look At the Purse" for Steve. We weren't quite brave enough to try any of those 3 new songs on the Sandy Pines crowd; we know the popular classics are what works for this group. There was a big crowd response to songs like "Radar Love", "What's Your Name", "Black Betty", and "Crazy Train".
The sky looked like it wanted to rain, but it held off until the very end of packing up. Just as we loaded the last few things into the trailer, we started to feel raindrops.
Thanks to everyone for showing up and getting rowdy with Tricks. Lots of people came up to tell us, "we liked you guys a lot last year, so we made sure to come this year".
Saturday by the Lake

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^{Blog - February 2020}

^{Feb 1- Tricks at Holland American Legion}

Tricks is still pretty new to the Holland American Legion. I think this was our fourth time here in three years. Every night is memorable, but they kinda blur into one in our memory. We especially remember last year's golf outing. That was an epic crowd and those people love to dance (and drink). They really appreciate our rare selections; "Ballroom Blitz", "Radar Love", Grace Potter, Dire Straits, Steppenwolf, ... all those songs that most bands don't dare touch. Everyone seemed to be really connecting with us on those rare tunes. "Money For Nothing" and "Ballroom Blitz" really got the dance floor going. Steve kicks everyone's ass with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" every time - people love that drum solo stuff. Lots of head-bangers at the tables as well. "Table Dancers" is what we call those party people; If you don't want to dance, you can cheer on the band and the dancers from the comfort of your chair. Gotta keep an eye on those drinks, after all. Tricks will be back here on April 4, after our 8-week winter break. By then, we'll have a bunch of new songs in our refreshed repertoire. We were sad to miss our singer man, Don Welsh, but he'll be back with us in April. We texted him at 1am on the way back to Allegan, telling Don that he missed a real good one. Those Legion folks would go crazy over Don's classic favorites. But, we held our own without Don's reinforcement. Dozens of people were making a point to come up and tell us how good we sound (Thanks to sound man Dave), and what a great show we were putting on. "You guys look like you're having so much fun up there!" We could only respond with the truth, "the crowd is awesome, and we are nothing without a crowd to draw energy from". Thanks to our friends who came to Holland to make us feel at home - especially Debbie and Rhonda who were celebrating their birthdays this weekend. That gave us some familiar "Tricks Family" faces in a room full of "nearly" Tricks virgins. Thank you dancers! Thank you American Legion members. See you in April. Our very next TRICKS gig after winter "break".
Saturday

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Blog - January 2020
^{Jan 11, 2020 - Tricks at Gun Lake Casino - No pics allowed.}
Tricks is back in regular rotation at the Gun Lake Casino, after being away from GLC for about six years. Not sure why we fell off their radar, and not sure why we're back. There are pros and cons about playing the casino. The main "con" is the smoke that makes eyes start to itch after an hour or two. They also are sadly lacking a proper dance floor and the stage is way too high up in the air; we feel a little cut off from the crowd. But, we like the friendly staff and plenty of our local Tricks friends have made the Gun Lake Casino their party place of choice. Steve is a regular, so he knows a lot of the staff and regular crowd. Tricks brought their "A" game for the casino crowd. They have lots of top-notch bands, so we gotta do our best there. Thanks to the tribe, the management, and Wiser Productions for the gig. We love doing it for the festive casino crowd; every day is a party.