From Tricks Newsletter 08.01, January, 2008
Tricks Report from the Basement 2008.
Although the Tricks family of fans and friends is very sad that Tim Clifford will no longer be playing and singing with Tricks, we are happy that we didn't take very long to find a new bass player.
We were very worried that we might not find a suitable bass player in time to fulfill our 2008 commitments. We were afraid that we wouldn't find someone until late January or February, with auditions and painful choices, and no time to learn very many songs, much less anything new for our Tricks repertoire. We talked about cancelling our spring dates. But, we didn't see that a convergence of places, people, and events was going to make Tricks a happy and whole band once again . . . without missing a beat, as they say.
In November, we sent out an e-mail to about 80 of our closest musical friends, asking "Know any good bass players"? We are grateful to Rod Lane that he forwarded this e-mail to his large e-mail address book from his contacts in the local Rock 'n' Roll scene. One of the recipients of Rod's forwarded Tricks e-mail was Dave Trierweiler, bassist/vocalist of the band Meanstreak.
There were interesting coincidences where Dave and Tricks had crossed paths several times in the past. First of all, on the weekend of May 29th in 1977 Dave's band played with Tricks at a 3-day rock and roll party up in Irons. This party was one of our "best ever" fun times with Tricks during "the Michael years". Dave says that they were just teenagers who aspired "to be like Tricks". See our Tricks 1977 History page for the low-down on this historic Tricks gig.
Again, in 1978, when Michael left the Tricks band, Dave spent lots of time hanging around with the same crowd that Michael was hanging out with. Dave says he recalls many times thinking that he would like to get ahold of Rick and Steve and help them form a new band. Ironically, it was during this period of the late 70's and early 80's that Rick and Steve wasted lots of time with abortive attempts at forming a "new Tricks", and our the main problem was that we couldn't find an acceptable bass player.
Many years later, for a short time Dave dated Ann Erwood, who later would play keyboards with Tricks from 1992 thru 1994.
Last year (2007), after Tricks lost 2 venues, and we were scouting new venues to play at, Rick, Krys, and a bunch of our Hudsonville fans went over to the Log Cabin on a Saturday night in early February, 2007. We were only there to check out the bar and what type of crowd and bands they had.
The band that night at the Log Cabin was Meanstreak, and the remarkable thing was that the drummer was a guy named Skip who, when he was 13 years old, used to live near Hopkins, next door to the house that Rick and Steve lived in. This is right around the time when Tricks was looking for a good bass player. Skip's older sisters used to come and hang out in the yard while Tricks was practicing, and we used to invite them inside once in a while. (Incidentally, Rick went over to their place to tune their mom's piano one time, and Skip's mom did the flowers for Krys and Rick's wedding.)
We only stayed for the first 2 Meanstreak sets that night at the Log Cabin, but we remembered the Meanstreak band quite well. Meanstreak was a bit more heavy metal than Tricks, but we especially liked the singing. Meanstreak was professional and had a good song selection and a tight sound. That made a good first-impression on Rick and Krys. (This was one of the last nights Meanstreak played before Meanstreak guitarist Dan dropped out and they began a fruitless search for a new guitarist.)
Frustrated by the long search for a new guitarist, Dave called Rick after getting a forwarded "Tricks needs a bass player" e-mail from Rod Lane. We talked about all of these coincidences and synchronicities. We were impressed that Dave needed to talk with his wife, his bandmates, and his bandmates wives before deserting Meanstreak. It was that kind of devotion to family and friends that told us that Dave was a good match for Tricks. Then, out of the blue, Dave says "you're my customer". I said, "huh, what"? "Yeah, you're one of my customers". Again, I said, "What? . . . You mean Trendway"? It turns out that Dave was the Quality Manager of Soundtech in G.R., and they sell acoustical insulation for making office panels at Trendway, where I worked (Rick, that is).
So, to make a long story longer,...
On the strength of all this history, the fact that we have very similar work ethic, respect for family and friends, musical tastes, and early influences, and after lots of e-mails and phone calls, and after a couple short evenings auditioning each other, we selected Dave to be our new Tricks bass player. And Dave selected Tricks to be his new band.
• Mover - 1989 - 1991 - A really fun band of guys from up North. We did everything from Bon Jovi to Joe Satriani, along with some really eclectic "off cut" tunes as well. 
Auditioning in Steve's Basement in November, 2007
"Love at First Bite!"
Adam's Apple, Fire Woman, Ride On, Hey Baby
Wishing Well, Strange Face of Love, Talk To Ya Later
Lick It Up, Nobody Said It Was Easy, Whole Lotta Rosie
Domino, Rock Candy, Seasons Of Wither
Armageddon It, Hard to Handle, Black Velvet
Kryptonite, When The Smoke is Going Down
Once Bitten Twice Shy, Free For All, (We have 60 songs learned with Dave so far!)
Like the Tricks family in general, Dave is a nice friendly guy who loves his wife and family, and he works hard all week, but he needs to (you know I gotta say it) PLAY HARD on the weekends. Good thing his wife Debbie likes to play hard as well. Debbie had a birthday party a couple weeks ago, and we did a Tricks Lite set for Dave and Debbie's family and friends. I think they like us.
The Unplugged Trial - Debbie's 50th Birthday in Middleville, Jan 2008.
