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TricksBlog 2021

^{Blog - December 2021}

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^{Dec 31 - Tricks at Allegan Eagles for New Year's Eve}



Tricks has played several NYE parties at the Allegan Eagles. It's almost becoming a tradition. And we love it. The Allegan friends and fans come out for some drinking and dancing. There was some yummy crockpot food and party treats. Low drink prices at the club always helps. No entry fee or reservations this year, and everything worked out just fine. A full house of rock n roll party people. In 2021 Tricks was celebrating 45 years in the rock band business. So, for this final night of 2021, we set up our educational timeline of Tricks History from 1976 to 2021, showing all the versions and Tricks and all the venues we've played and other tidbits of trivia from that long stretch of 45 years.
An added bonus is the new Allegan City "Social District" ordinance that legalizes bar hopping on foot around the downtown bars and restaurants. People could leave one bar with their drink in hand and walk to another. The city had vendors and fireworks on the Riverfront. That was all good, except that we lost our crowd at about quarter to midnight, when nearly everyone left to watch the midnight Happy New Year fireworks. When you look at our photo album, the pictures with only a couple dozen people are the photos from after midnight. We were done playing at 12:30 and we had a blast with the loyal hangers-on for that final half hour. Tricks will be back here next year for New Year 2023. Amazing!

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^{Dec 18 - Tricks at Fennville VFW for Ugly Sweater Party}


 

^{This annual Ugly Sweater Party is hosted by Tommy & Tara Phelps, along with the Fennville VFW. The Ugly Sweater party idea came up when we were trying to come up with a "Winter Phelpstock" party idea. After moving to Fennville and gaining neighbor friends in that area, Tommy & Tara wanted to do a winter "Phelpstock" party down south in Fennville, and the usual summer "Phelpstock" party up north in Irons. The "down south" party idea quickly evolved into a "Ugly Christmas Sweater" party. The first two were held in the old horse stable at their property. In 2019, two things happened: the Fennville VFW offered their bar for the party location, and Steve agreed to play drums for us, making it a full-blown Tricks Party. The VFW has an open license for the night, so non-members can buy drinks at the low club prices. We also have a potluck dinner and prizes for the best Ugly Sweaters. This annual party is a chance for people to shake off those December doldrums and cabin fever. Thanks so much to the VFW and the Phelps family and friends. Thank you dancers!}  

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^{Blog - October 2021}

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^{Oct 30 - Tricks at Holland American Legion for Halloween}
 
 
Tricks finally gets back to one of our favorite places; the Holland American Legion. Great sounding room, great party crowd, great dancing action. We expected a lot of Halloween costumes, but they didn't do much of that. Just the usual party people. We always see some Trendway friends here. Thanks to everyone for hanging and banging with Tricks. Thank you, dancers. See you next year.

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^{Oct 23 - Tricks Boys Trio at Kentwood American Legion}
 
Our first date ever at Kentwood American Legion. Steve booked this gig in Kentwood thanks to his American Legion connections. Krystal was already booked for a hiking weekend that day, so we asked Steve if it was alright to go ahead with a "Tricks Boys Trio". Everything turned out fine, lots of dancing action on their big dance floor, lots of love for our classic hard-rocking tunes. Several of our Grand Rapids area Tricks fans showed up to rock with us. The Legion already asked us back for several dates in early 2022, but we narrowed them down to just one. We don't want to wear out our welcome here.

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^{Oct 2 - Tricks Garage Party - Charlie & Erica Kimber's "Trap Shack" 3rd Annual  Fest}



Krys and Rick played the first annual Indian Shores "Harvest Fest" 5 years ago at neighbor Jack's huge barn. When Jack moved to Florida in late 2019, the folks who lived across the street from Jack offered to take over hosting the annual party with our Lake Allegan neighbors. Charlie and Erica Kimber had the 2019 and 2020 parties with the Tricks Trio, Krys, Rick, and Ozzy (with Don Welsh added for some great lead singing). After Steve bought his e-drums in summer of 2021, Rick contacted Charlie and Erica to let them know that we could do their Garage Party with the "real deal" Steve on drums. Charlie jumped at the chance, since he had been asking for the entire Tricks band from the beginning in 2019. Rick kept telling him that the big Tricks band wouldn't fit into his little garage and it would also be way too loud in the space of his 2-stall garage. Now that Steve has his edrums, we told Steve that he was going to see how fun our little Tricks Trio shows can be... only it would be the authentic Tricks quartet with Steve added to the mix. And sure enough, Steve kept saying all night, "this is a fun party". Everyone was eating, drinking, and dancing, like the party "lake people" that they are. Krys and Rick have our neighbors well trained, ... or maybe they have US well trained. Thanks to our soundman Dave, we were able to rock it hard but keep the overall volume down to a sane level. Very cool and impressive. Thanks to Steve and Dave for the work they are putting in to tweak those electronic drums until they sound just right, but not too loud. We want to blow people away with quality sound, not quantity.

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^{Blog - September 2021}

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^{Sep 11- Tricks at Patty & Kyle's Wedding}

Tricks had this one on the books for the last year and a half. Our longtime friends, the Bykerk family, reserved this date for a TRICKS wedding reception as well as Krys & Rick for the ceremony music. Patty Bykerk has been our Tricks friend for a long time, and is a hair stylist in Byron Center. This wedding reception was not much different from other wedding receptions; the band music was much delayed and the young friends of the bride and groom were a lot more interested in dancing to the hip-hop music that we played during our breaks. This was third gig playing with his new electronic drums, and it was the first indoor gig with the new drums. Everything worked out okay, but we need a good hard rocking gig to put Steve's e-drums through their paces. That might be coming up in a few weeks, when Steve plays for the rocking crowd on Lake Allegan.
Thanks to Craig and Jane for letting Tricks be part of your family's important occasion. Thanks to Patty and Kyle and we wish you all the best in your new life together.

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^{Blog - August 2021}

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^{Aug 28 - Tricks at the Final Dick's Market Brat Cookout}


 
 
 
Here's one for the record books. Steve's final Brat Cookout at Dick's Market. We have usually played acoustic music with Krys & Rick, or sometimes Ozzy & Rick. This time Steve wanted to do a big "Farewell, Turn The Page" event with cake and Tricks music. Too bad we just about killed ourselves in the hot sun. The people feasting on brats had tents to hide under, but we didn't think that we needed a big tent for the band - we could tough it out and take breaks as needed. Well then we got confronted with reality. It wasn't overly hot in air temperature, but the sun was beating down relentlessly. Normally, Rick is the one pushing to stretch out the sets and avoid too much break time, but, ... after just five songs, Rick turned on his chair and said to the band, "we need to take a break, or I'm going to fall down". It was an effort to draw in air while singing. Steve rushed indoors to the spend a little time in the walk-in freezer, while Rick went to his car and turned the air on full.
After 25 minutes or so, we regrouped with Bill Roelofs sitting in on drums so that Steve could work on organizing the Cookout. We played about six songs with Bill (thanks, Bill, we owe you one), then we did just a couple with Steve and went back inside the store to cool down. Ozzy & Rick went into the beer cooler. While we sat there, Mr. John Leppinks, his daughter, and grandchild came into the cooler to meet and greet. We were a little embarrassed because we were sitting on "his" cases of beer. We all introduced ourselves and he said he really liked the music. We wished him luck with the new Dorr Leppink's location and he said that maybe they would contact us to do music for their Leppink's Brat and Kielbasa cookouts next year.
We finally went back outside and did just a few more songs and called it quits because Steve said he was ready to drop dead in the sun. Steve went into the store again and the rest of the mighty Tricks band packed up as fast as we could (thanks Dave). We were out of there in record time. About halfway back to Allegan, Krys got a text from Steve, saying, "you guys just go ahead and pack up without me; I'll get my drums packed up later. He didn't realize that we were long gone already, with our car's air conditioner on full blast.

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^{Blog - July 2021}

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^{July 31- Tricks at Sandy Pines, Annual Color Run Festivities}

Tricks 6th annual show at Sandy Pines on their charity color run Saturday. You know, were they do a 5k walk/run and the spectators line the route and throw packets of colored powder at the participants. The kids love it whether they are giving or receiving the colored paintballs. This was Steve's first trial of his new Roland Electronic Drum kit that he bought for his retirement years - easier to transport and set up, better sounding at low volume for our garage parties and backyard parties. Don't worry, those drums can also be earth-shakingly loud, which is what we proved at this Sandy Pines show. Steve made the Classic Rock crowd happy with a rumbling drum solo for "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"..

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^{July 3 - Tricks at Dorr Fest, Pre-Fireworks Concert}


A long-time icon in Dorr history, Tricks has played for the Dorr 4th of July celebration, every other year or so, since 1981.
2021 was just as fun as ever, with young and old celebrating with Tricks in the park.

1981- You can tell how long ago this was by looking at skinny Rick and long-haired Steve.

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^{Blog - June 2021}

^{June 12 - Rockin' Rhonda Celebration of Life}



This was a sad get-together for our recently-passed friend Rhonda. She has been a huge Tricks fan and a close friend ever since we first met Rhonda when Dave "Bassbeast" came onboard as the Tricks bassist in 2008. There really are no words for our grief. Rhonda was always smiling and dancing. She lit up the room with her beautiful face and personality. Just a year ago, in Feb 2020, Krys & Rick talked Rhonda and Todd into coming with us to see Roger Hodgson at 4 Winds Casino. She always liked when Rick did his solo cover of Supertamp's "Even In The Quietest Moments". She actually got tears in her eyes when Rick surprised her with an mp3 CD filled with nearly all the Supertramp albums. Twisting her arm to attend the Roger Hodgson show with us, Rick said, "you know he's gonna play nearly all the Supertramp hits". Sure enough, Roger played all of his Supertramp compositions and sang like he was still 30 years old. Rick nudged Rhonda a few times during the show, saying, "what did I tell you"? What a great final memory with Rhonda... But there were so many others. Here is a photo album of happy times with Rhonda, selected from the Tricks history pages (choking back a few tears),
going back to 2008 when she first joined our Tricks family.:
For the memorial "Celebration of Life", Rhonda was such a fan of local rock bands, we had 3 bands playing for her afternoon Celebration of Life. Foolish Plezyer started the show, then came The Next, with Tricks serving up the final set in some scorching hot weather. Tricks learned Supertramp's "Give A Little Bit" for Rhonda earlier this year when Covid lockdowns had us doing rehearsals at the Dorr American Legion hall. I think Rhonda only heard us do it once, but that song will be for Rhonda from now on.

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^{Jun 5 - Ron & Mary Wind 50th Ron's 70th B-day}


Our first Tricks party of 2021 is a summer fest celebrating Ron & Mary Wind's 50th wedding anniversary and Ron's 70th birthday. A great party set-up. Great food, great drinks, great friends. This was a get-together of Ron & Mary's friends and family, which included many of our long-time Tricks fans and friends. Ron and Mary are friends with Craig & Jane Bykirk. They actually had another Tricks party for Ron's 55th b-day and Ron & Mary's 35th anniversary. That party was in the summer of 2006, and Steve couldn't make it, so we had Bill Roelofs playing drums for us that night . Just like 15 years ago, a wonderful time was had by all .Thanks to Ron & Mary for having Tricks as part of your milestone event. Thanks to all the family and friends who helped make it happen.