Tails From
The Top Dog

9/22/04
Well, my Polka people it's time for another installment of updates from the road.

We flew to Portland Oregon two weeks ago for the Sandy Oktoberfest and had a great time there with our host Bud Abraham. He's been running this show for several years and has done a fine job of growing the event which will undoubtedly get even bigger. Even though it was rainy, we got to see Mt. Hood and some of the surrounding areas. Absolutely beautiful out there.

We started out Friday morning at the AM Northwest show. It's a morning talk/local news program that's kinda like Regis and....whoever he's with these days. It was only Young Dave's second time to play with us and he was visibly nervous as the sweat beads dripped from his forehead and onto his snare drum. We decided to play "Norman" for our TV performance and Young Dave was doing splendidly right up through the first half of the solo and then.......we got to the breaks! Since it was only the second time he'd ever played the song and he woke up late and had to do the show with no make up and sleep lines on his face (don't worry dude, I'm sure nobody noticed), he didn't get a chance to listen one last time before taking a stab at it with a few hundred thousand people watching him. Fortunately Tim, the veteran bass player stepped up to the plate and said and volunteered to show YD just where the cues were....only trouble was he cued Young Dave in the WRONG PLACE! This of course through Lynn...Marie off and well, it wasn't a train wreck and nobody probably ever knew, but Young Dave beat himself up over it when he should have just beat Tim up over it!!

To add insult to injury, Dave was forced, to his dismay, to play somebody elses drums once again that same evening. Dave does not like to play other people's drums! We assured him that the next gig he'd get to use his own kit, if he could just hang on through this one. (See the updates for the Addison Tx. show to find out if he really does get to use his own drums. Eight ball says 'doubtful') We had a great turnout in spit of the light rain and once again, we turned people who normally don't care for Polka into die hard fans. At least they're now fans of Lynn....Marie and the Boxhounds, I can't vouch for anyone else. But, we are succeeding in our mission to give people a new style of Polka that they can get into and enjoy instead of dreading! We had good Chicken dancers and a couple who got a serious X rated groove going on the dance floor to our version of "The Beer Barrel Polka". I guess they didn't realize we were on Holy Ground seeing as the event took place at the local Catholic church! Of course me egging them on probably didn't help either, but hey, that's my job! The highlight of the weekend though, may have been one guy in the "Too Fat" contest who Lynn....Marie had to ask permission from both his wife and his girlfriend before she could sit on his lap! I guess the Mormons are venturing out of Utah these days! But, it wasn't just swingers and pimps folks, Lynn.....Marie actually got a vocabulary lesson while we we there and learned that O-R-E-G-O-N is pronounced Ore-gin or Ore-gun, but never Ore-gahn.

We had a great time, got to eat some good food, drank some great beer, saw Bigfoot, you know the usual Oktoberfest kinda stuff.....except for that Bigfoot thing.

Thanks again to Bud Abraham and the Sandy Oktoberfest staff and sponsers, we hope to see you again next year!

The next weekend, we drove to Addison Texas for their city wide Oktoberfest. A huge event with what must have been five to seven thousand people under one giant tent!

We pulled up to the back of the tent and Young Dave eagerly unloaded his drum set, delightfully anticipating his first gig with his own kit. As we hauled our gear inside, Young Dave's excitement quickly turned to depression, anger, fear and disappointment as he walked up to a house drum kit all miked up and ready to go. Sorry, YD, hang in there buddy I promise next weekend in Indiana, you'll get to use your own drums! (Stayed tuned Polka fans to see if Young Dave ever gets to play his own drums anywhere other than his own apartment .....ever again!)

The first set of the night was pretty uneventful, it was kinda the family hour and it seemed like the audience was 100 feet from the stage.....and they were! It was a bit of an odd setup, with the stage being so far from the dance floor, but as our story unfolds, you'll see how that changes. We did the "Too Fat" bit which we never have problems with musically, but maybe Tim was still reeling from his misplaced cues back in Oregon, possibly he was wanting to make up for it here....in Addison....on the "Too Fat" song! Well, we were vamping along just fine as Lynn brought her first victim to the stage and then Young Dave started to count us in..."One"...."Two"....."Thr"...ONE! Before Dave got to three Ol' Tim was already at one, which is the big crescendo note. Typically not a problem unless it throws everybody else off....which it did. But, we're all pro's and we held it together so well that know one noticed...except Dave who is hard on himself when these things happen! Oh well, we'll be in Tim's home town next weekend and I bet he'll be clam free!

The second set was rip, roaring, alternative Polka Rock done the Boxhounds way and It didn't hurt that some of Dave's Texas buddies came in (half baked!) ready to party. Gradually people made their way closer to the stage as we romped our way though a couple of rocking polka instrumentals with Lynn....Marie playing out in the crowd on tables. We immediately followed with our "Sanford and Son" styled version of "The Chicken Dance" and invited Young Dave's crazy chicken dancing friends up on stage to "do it their way". Of course you can't have two early twenty something kids on stage without every early twenty something kid in the house up there as well. (Oh hell, I must be getting old, I'm calling people in their twenties kids!) At any rate it was like a Polka mosh pit, yet it remained tame enough that no security was needed, which was very cool of the kids to have fun without getting too crazy. At this point, the whole tent is rocking, everybody is on their feet and feeling the Boxhounds. These are young people and older people, mission accomplished! We finished them off with "Saturday Night", "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and "In Heaven There Is No Beer" in our punk Peter Frampton kinda way! As we approached the stage for our group bow, Young Dave thrust his house kit playin' clenched fist in the air in a triumphant, "Yes, I'm a &$%#ing Polka star", way that only a drummer can. He reminded me of my old pal Tico Torres from Bon Jovi. I teared up a little and felt kinda proud for Young Dave! (see the photo of his Rock star pose in the gallery section)

Once again, we converted a few non Polka people and gained new respect from some regular Polka people.

So, onward and upward in our never ending love....I mean our never ending pursuit of spreading new polka to a new generation

On our way home, the AC belt flew off and took the fan belt with it, which of course causes the engine to over heat, but due to quick thinkin' and "attention while you're driving" payin', we avoided uneccessary damage to ol' Whinny's engine. Of course this happened in Arkansas, not the best place in the world to break down. But, everybody kept their cool, and we watched a movie while a guy from a local roadside service, called "Deliverance", got us a new fan belt, installed it then financially raped us. But, he did get us back on the road without making us "squeal like pigs".

This weekend, the Rathskeller in Indiannapolis.

Til next time,

AMF,
CK