Gig Report: Rock Brigade @ SHS Street Dance

Hi everyone! The 80s rock band that I'm in, Rock Brigade, had a gig at the annual Street Dance of the Summer at Grizzly's in Superior Wisconsin. This event is a fundraiser for all Superior High School extra-curricular activities. As a teacher at that school I'm very happy to have a hand in this event. Our LG is an alum and a former teacher there as well. He has since relocated and is still in education.

Our last gig was in December so we needed a rehearsal in my garage before the show to shake off the rust and put some new songs in. I've got a crappy little setup, including edrums, that gets the job done for low volume practice sessions.

Here's Glen confused as to why I'm taking pictures.
Ryan on keys and lead vocals and Aaron slinging that guitar.

Me sitting down and Matt on rhythm guitar hamming it up.

A view from part of the 7 minute drive to the show


A view of our stage. Glen is now in the spirit of things and poses for the pic. Apparently this stage was used during the Tribute Fest in Canal Park in Duluth, MN a couple weeks before our gig, ha!

Here's a view from the stage. You can see the bean bag toss tournament championship game being played.

Here's my rig set up and ready to go.

Aaron dialing in his sound.

The owner of the sound company, John, on on the left and the AD at SHS and host of the event Ray on the right. John got everything set up and sound checked and then had to leave to do another show.


Matt getting his Zakk Wylde guitar ready, and Truckie, our sound engineer, getting mics in place. Truckie had his hands full for the first set with a troublesome mic, but worked his tail off and got everything sorted out. Sound ended up great both onstage and out front. Note the fan on the edge of the stage. Mid 80s and humid - the fans were certainly appreciated!


Ryan mic checking.


The beer tent right next to the stage. These three brought beers and bottles of water on stage whenever we needed them. The true heroes!

Here's a pic of a good friend of mine, Jed, who works for the local newspaper. He was there to cover the event and take pictures for the band. The old, "I'll take a picture of the guy taking a picture of me," pic.

Here's a few pics I snapped on stage during Rock of Ages. Plenty of chugging eighth note Es allowed me to get these shots. A good portion of the kids (all 21+) in the third photo I either taught in class or coached. Very fun to put on a show for them

Here's a great action shot that my wonderful girlfriend took from the audience.


It was a great night! Once the sun went down and the alcohol flowed, the "dance floor" was packed. We had a great time and had a great reception from the crowd. I've got a couple videos that I'll try to get posted if I can figure out how to do that, and I should have a couple pro shots when Jed gets the files to me.

Thanks to all who post their own gigs. I thoroughly enjoy all of them and am thrilled to be able to share my own experience. I generally only have a dozen or so gigs a year, so not much to share from my end, but I'll definitely try to do this as much as I can.

 

Thanks for the response @BassCliff !

This stage was better than the one we had last year for this show. Some of the surfaces had pressed wood instead of metal, which seemed to help. I used my gramma pad this year and it helped tremendously for my stage sound. It was very loud on stage, but we had a good mix so it worked out. By the fourth set my ears were pretty fatigued and it was just a sonic mess, but hey, that's rock and roll, right? We thought we were in trouble while sound checking the drums when we had a severe slap back sound from the building across the street. Once the mains and subs were going and the whole band was playing it was waaaay too loud to hear any echo, lol!

Yeah, Matt has a great band look Has the Keith Urban look, has all the rock star moves, and does the best Bubbles impersonation I've ever heard!

I just uploaded the videos to my YT and will get them posted. Thanks for the tip!

 

Here's a couple videos from the show. Both are short, but we sound okay in them. I'm hoping a few more will pop up on social media this week.

This first one is posted mostly for the audio and not to embarrass anyone. I did ask my girlfriend to take some video of this guy because he was definitely in the moment! From the stage I saw him biking down the street and shortly thereafter he was dancing up a storm. Once the event staff realized he was a little too inebriated, they only served him water and pop and made sure he didn't hurt himself. The owner of the venue even made sure he got home safe.


The second one is short clip, again from my girlfriend, because Bon Jovi is her absolute favorite! Has seen them 18 times and has personalized license plates! Glad we have some in our sets for her


A good friend took this one and posted it on his FB.


Here's a couple pics from his FB post also:

 

Thank you! Yes, this a great bunch of guys. We're all friends and hang out when life allows The fact that we only do a few gigs a year probably helps the friendship aspect, lol!

 

Thanks! I got that blue tort just for the look and to have my own stage look While we do several Def Leppard songs, Rock Brigade is not one of them, go figure, ha!

 

Thank you! We definitely have fun and I think that comes through

 

Thank you! Fun was definitely had by all

 

Awesome! nice to hear from someone who knows the area.

I used to frequent the Cove in the early 90s when I was old enough to drink. Still the same carpet on the walls from the 70s - ewwww! Sadly, the place has changed hands and names a few times in the last 2 decades or so. Was a country bar for a while, not sure what it is now.

You're absolutely right, this place was on Tower Avenue where the Ponderosa restaurant used to be. Duluth still has a pretty good music scene, but Superior, not so much. Basically, the summer festivals and street dances are about the only real gigs for bands like us anymore. There's a few bars in the surrounding area that still have bands, but that's getting more sparse every year:-(

And yes, I am a teacher at SHS. Been there for 16 years now and love it! Was a football and track coach for many years as well. I no longer coach as this music thing is where my heart is at now

Thank you for the kind words and the nice side conversation

 

Thanks, Chuck! We've got a good thing going here in the land of the Frozen Tundra! I look forward to your reports - it is very nice to see reports from your home area

Thanks! Yeah, this is a 21 and over event, no high school kids on site! Our AD staffs the event with teachers to make sure no underage kids are let in. Pretty fun to see former students partying and having fun in the crowd We've done this show on 4 occasions now, and each time I see a few surprised kids in the crowd doing a version of, "Is that Mr. W? OMG! That's Mr. W in the band!" Lol, I love it!

There was not food served for us, sadly. After rehearsal we all had Little Caesar's Pizza, but I forgot to get a pic. Sorry @dbase I'll include a meal next time And thanks for the nice words!

(Hey, this multi-quote things works a lot better than individual replies!)