Tricks History 1981

Early 1981 - Searching for a bass player (The Dukie/Dale Band & John Cokes)
We know that Tricks Mk.II is going to be Rick and Dale on guitars, Steve on drums, and an as-yet unknown bass player. Dale, Steve, and Rick spend many uncomfortable evenings auditioning bass players in the attic of the Hopkins house. We jam with some bass players who are too country oriented, we jam with some bass players who are too heavy-metal oriented, we jam with some bass players who are way too full of themselves.
There is one very promising bassist named Dale who we rehearse with several times. We joke that we could name ourselves "The Dukie / Dale Band" because we have 2 Dales and 2 Dukies.
We also spend several hopeful sessions with John Cokes, a former bassist with Dale's "Opus" band. John is an amazing bassist, with an expensive Alembic bass guitar and a fancy Ampeg SVT bass amplifier. Although John is more of a funky jazzy bass player than we would prefer, we are sure that we finally have our bass man. John can play anything and everything we suggest to him. We're off and running, learning handfuls of songs at every rehearsal. Songs of interest include "The Song Remains The Same" by Led Zeppelin.
But Tricks II runs into a wall - one Friday night Rick, Steve, and Dale are huddled around the tape deck to listen to the parts of "Smokin' Whiskey, Drinkin' Cocaine" by Pat Travers, ... John interupts rehearsal work by packing his Alembic and leaving, saying something like, "I'm just not into this Smokin' Whiskey and some of these other songs that you're excited about doing".
Bang bang! Tricks II is dead in the water again.

May 26, 1981 - Tricks rehearsal with Tom Hudson
Dale has convinced former Opus bassist Tom Hudson to join the Tricks band. Now the band is 2 former Tricks members with mostly British rock tastes and 2 former Opus members with mostly American southern rock tastes. Of course we all love blending the styles together, but the song selections lean toward the southern rock style. There's lots of work with double lead guitars doing trade-off leads and harmony leads. It is also a bonus that Tom, Rick, Dale and Steve all can sing lead and harmony. Lots of work on covering songs by ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special, Rolling Stones, Wishbone Ash, Todd Rundgren, The Police, . . . a little bit of everything but steering clear of too many over-simplistic typical bar-band songs. Tricks doesn't want to bore themselves or their fans with the normal fare that is repeatedly heard on every weekend at every rock and roll bar in America.


Tricks v2.0, Outstanding in their field!
Tom Hudson, Steve Dutkiewicz, Dale Boysen, Rick Dutkiewicz

Hopkins House: From "Panic In The Attic" to "Tricks & The Cows"
Tom, Rick, Dale, and Steve have a few running jokes about these rehearsals in the attic.
The "Panic in the Attic" joke stems from the title of an obscure BeBop Deluxe song, "Panic In My World", that we learn but discard from the Scott Markle days. Talking about rehearsals always brings up the "Panic in the Attic" joke.
"Tricks and the Cows" comes later when Tricks is in the downstairs living room. Strangely, we notice that the dozens of cows in the pasture across the street always gravitate towards the nearest fence whenever Tricks is making rehearsal noise, as if the cows are vying for the closest spot at a concert. At the end of rehearsal, when everyone is carrying guitar cases out to their cars, the cows are always pressed against the fence in one big huddle. Funny as hell! Tricks is performing every rehearsal for an audience of Cows!

July 3, 1981 - Tricks Mk.II - 1st Gig for Rick, Steve, Tom, & Dale-
Tricks opens for "Asult" at Dorr Park
during the Independence Day Celebration.

It's a nice warm July Friday evening, the first day of the 3-Day Dorr Independence Day Festival. Steve's band "ASULT" is hired to play for a crowd of people sitting on the tennis courts in the new north section of Dorr Park. The band is set up on one of Keith Hyde's flat-bed semi-truck trailers. The opening act for Asult is the newly reborn Tricks band - first ever gig with bassist Tom Hudson. The Tricks setlist is only 7 songs - "Gimme 3 Steps", "What's Your Name", "Couldn't I Just Tell You", "Hold On Loosely", "Backstreet Love". "Midnight Rambler", and "She Caught The Katy". 6-year-old Jeremy Dutkiewicz sits in front holding his dad Rick's cheap little tape recorder and records the entire 7-song performance. Tricks sounds nice and tight from all that hard rehearsal work.
The Asult band plays almost 2 hours and sounds extra good. Very good crowd - Jeremy, Danny, Paula, Ron and Cathy's family, Dick and Rusty, Krys and Nancy, Tom's Hudson's family, Steve Raab and Carrie, Rob W, Rick P, ... a whole bunch of Tricks friends and family along with a bunch of little kids and older folks as well.
Steve's comments on first gig with Dale and Tom:
"I remember when we first had the idea of the guys from Opus joining up with us; I was living in Dorr after Tammy and I were just married. I would bring my drums to Rick's place in Hopkins to rehearse with Dale & Tom in-between gigs with Asult. That was when we planned the Dorr 4th performance with both bands - TRICKS as warm-up for Asult. It wasn't until after that I gave Asult the word I was leaving, which they figured out at the same time I think. That was a wild night with Tricks and then Asult set up on a flat-bed truck on the new tennis courts - Like everyone was caged in with us - very cool memory.

First Video - After the Tricks II gig at the Dorr park, Tricks moves rehearsals into the living room of Rick's house in Hopkins, instead of the attic. On one evening, Dale's friend Bill Hannipel brings over his new VHS videotape camera and tapes video of the Tricks rehearsal in the living. Here is the actual footage from 3 songs:
(If you want full-screen, go to Rick's YouTube page. )

Tricks & The Cows - Backstreet Love (by Trapeze)

Tricks & The Cows - Flash Tan Queen (by REO Speedwagon)

Tricks & The Cows - Say Goodbye (by Wishbone Ash)

July 4, 1981 - Big Asult Band outdoor Party
It's a huge outdoor summer party on Snow Ave. Dave and Rick help with sound equipment and sound board. Steve plays a great drum solo and the crowd goes wild.

Oct 11, 1981 - Tricks at Krys and Rick's Wedding in Hopkins / 2nd gig for Tricks Mk.II
Krys and Rick are married in an outdoor ceremony in Krystal's parents' front yard. The 2-band wedding reception is in the old hall in downtown Hopkins. Rick's "Nightwind" wedding band plays for a couple hours and then Tricks plays for about an hour. Tricks plays pretty much the same set of songs that they did at the first gig. Notable additions to the setlist are Rush "Limelite" and Trapeze "Backstreet Love".

Oct 11, 1981 - Tricks 2nd gig with Tom & Dale, at Krys & Rick's Wedding in Hopkins
Krys and Rick are married in an outdoor ceremony in Krystal's parents front yard. The 2-band wedding reception is at the old hall in downtown Hopkins. Rick's "Nightwind" band plays for a couple hours and then Tricks plays for about an hour. Tricks does nearly the same setlist as they did at the Dorr concert in the park. Notable new additions are Rush "Limelight" and Trapeze "Backstreet Love". After the wedding gig, Tricks II moves rehearsals out of the Hopkins house and into Dale's basement at his house near Gobles.

Oct 31, 1981 - Tricks at Halloween Party at Jolly J's in Wayland
Tricks Mk. II's first bar gig, with pay. It's a packed-house Halloween party at Jolly J's in Wayland.
We have Dave Lopez helping on sound board and Steve Raab running light show.

December, 1981 - Bye bye Nightwind. Tricks auditions for gigs
Rick does his last few gigs with Nightwind; lots of high-paying company Christmas parties.
Tricks does showcase (audition) gigs at both the Royal Knight in Hilliards and the Left Bank in Saugatuck.
In the immortal words of John Lennon, "I hope the band passes the audition".

December 31, 1981 - Tricks at New Year's Eve Party at the Jolly Bar in Wayland
Happy New Year! And finally,...
Happy New Tricks. Tricks settles in for the long haul.
This is to be the longest-lived incarnation of the Tricks band.

Dale Boysen - guitar / vocals
Rick Dutkiewicz - guitar / vocals
Steve Dutkiewicz - drums/vocals
Tom Hudson - bass/vocals
With Technical Support from
Dave Lopez - sound
Steve Raab - lights

This version of the Tricks band will go on rocking for more than 10 great years
(Not counting 1987 when Rick is with Science Project - Um,... we'll talk later).

Here is Tricks posing in the front yard of their Hopkins practice house.
B&W Photography by Krystal.


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