Late 2010 TricksBlog

TricksBlog - January 2011 Dec Jan 7 & 8 - Tricks End of an Era - Farewell Bassbeast - at Hilliards Friday was mostly a party for the snowmobilers who stopped in by the dozens, to warm up with a drink and a bite to eat at the corner. Rick's son Dan showed up with several of his rocking friends, out on the town with the boys. That was a fun night. They knew it was Bassbeast's final weekend, so they kept up the hooting and hollering and head-banging, all night long. But then came Saturday. Last gig of our Tricks 2010 "fiscal year". And huge send-off for Dave "Bassbeast" Trierweiler. Words cannot describe the final party for Bassbeast. Dave had friends from North, South, East, and West, all converging on Hilliards Corner Lounge to wish Dave well on his new path of "semi retirement" from the music business. The pictures do a good job of telling the story. We also had birthday parties going on for three girls; Nikki, Debbie, and Alicia. Happy Birthday to you. You girls picked a wild night for your birthday party at the Corner. Party of the Year, for sure! We even had a large group of well-wishers from the Sidetrack bar. They wanted to be part of the Bassbeast finale party with Tricks. And we also had a few waitresses from the Wayland Hotel. There were lots of cameras, so I'm sure there will lots of Facebook pages with pictures from last night. Thanks so much to everyone for coming out and being part of our fond farewell to Dave Bassbeast (and Debbie the BassMistress). Thanks to Roger for the audio and visual recording, running errands, and providing a motor-home break-room in the parking lot. Thanks to Rod Lane for recording video, and for laser lightshow fun. Thanks to Debbie for still pictures. Thanks to Fred for awesome SLR camera work. Thanks to all the birthday parties for bringing your friends to hang and bang with Tricks. Thanks to the snowmobilers for stopping in. Thanks to the Sidetrack and Hotel people who left someone else minding the store, in order to join in the special Tricks night. Thanks to Eric the owner, and your great staff. We know it was a madhouse, but you kept up with the demanding hordes. Thanks to everyone who traveled to Hilliards on slippery roads, all for Bassbeast. Tons of fun, hugs, and kisses for Bassbeast. The band was hot, the dance-floor was packed with wild girls and guys. Here's what Bassbeast has to say about it all: BASSBEAST SPEAKS: All, • To my TRICKS extended family: Thanks so much for an unbelievable ride. The words come very hard today because I'm very conflicted as you can imagine. However, I know what I must do and stick to my plan for all the right reasons. • To my beautiful Wife: I am looking forward to spending more quality time together. Thank you for being there logging the miles with me through blizzards and missing sunsets in order to make it to the gig on time. You are the best. • To Steve, I have never played with a Drummer with more chops than you have. Your drumming is as solid as the man you are I don't know if there is any more that I can say Bro'. • To Dave, Always willing to try new things, buy new toys and keep your mind in the game as the unsung "5th Trickster". I probably should have relayed more of the compliments we always get on the sound but there I go again, taking for granted what is always there. • To Krys, The life of the party, always up, always adding that spark, always the consumate entertainer with the looks and voice to match. • To Rick, You are a taskmaster and it's made me a better person for it. Your work ethic is unmatched, your mind and fingers never rest always searching for perfection. Unbelievable musical memory. I hope you spawn 1000 others through your teaching, West Michigan music would be all the better for it. Few people can play the many tunes you know and make them their own. Debbie and I will be enjoying your talents with TRICKS and "Doogie" gigs in the years to come. • To all the TRICKS fans past and present, you are some of the best fans ever. Coming from all over in all sorts of weather, your support is what makes TRICKS the great band it is. After all, what is a band without followers but a bunch of frustrated and unsatisfied musicians! You have to have a reason to do this and the fans ARE the reason. Good people = good times = win, win for everybody. Gonna miss playing for you all, now I get to be a fan as well!! Love to all and so long! Bassbeast ^{Fri\| Debbie Sat \| FredPix \|} TricksBlog - December 2010 Dec 31 - Tricks New Year's Eve Party at Hilliards Eric, the owner of Hilliards Corner Lounge, says that he wants Tricks to be his house band every New Year's Eve from now on. Sounds good to us, if we can keep bringing in the same quality and quantity of crowd like this New Year's Eve party. What a blast! It was "asses & elbows" on the dance floor, and every table and chair in the place was occupied. Plenty of smiling faces and hugs and kisses going around among friends and lovers on this New Year's "Auld Lang Syne". Everyone seemed to be in a romantic party mood, with many drinking from the "cup of kindness". We had party people from all over; Allegan, Wayland, Dorr, Middleville, Caledonia, Hudsonville, Grandville, and beyond. Tricks offered to given anyone a ride home who was in a less than sober driving condition, but we had not takers. It looked like most of the heavy drinkers had designated drivers watching over them carefully. That's what we encourage - responsible drunkenness! Besides the New Year celebreation, we also had a couple birthday celebrations. Brenda was there celebrating her birthday with friends. And we had Megan Walowicz there with her family, celebrating Megan's 21st birthday on the 29th. Our friend Megan has been coming with ma & pa to see Tricks since she was 18 and headed to the US Naval Academy. Now that she's 21, she can come and see Tricks without ma & pa chaperoning. Look out! Thanks to all the old and young Tricks fans and friends for coming out and ringing in 2011 with Tricks at the Corner. Thanks to everyone who traveled a distance to be there. Thanks to Eric and his crew for the great service. Thanks to our Tricks helpers, especially Roger for pictures, video, and audio recording, and Debbie for pictures. Dec 17 & 18 - Tricks at Sue's Sidetrack, Weekend 2 of 2 Lots of people stayed away from the bars this weekend. We got a report from Dave Hiscock, who is the "man on the scene" with Hiscock's Wrecker service. Dave said that all the bars in Allegan were like ghost-towns. Most be everyone has Christmas and family stuff going on. Kids home from school, traveling to grandma's house, and all that "over the river and through the woods" stuff. Speaking of that, we didn't even get and snowmobilers at Sue's Sidetrack, because the State Trails are still closed. Our friend, Scott Chenard was hoping to bring an army of snowmobilers out to the Sidetrack this night, but there wasn't enough snow. Scott made the trek out to Sue's by jeep instead. Even though it was just the Sidetrack regulars partying with us on Bassbeast's final Tricks Sidetrack date, it almost seems appropriate. Sue and her gang are the most generous and loving bunch of party animals you can imagine. With all of the Sidetrack's special Charity events and bike-runs, that makes the Sidetrack, "the classiest place that Tricks plays at". And Bassbeast said those exact words in a short "farewell speech" after Tricks' final encore of the night. It touched everyone's hearts. And, besides all that mushy stuff, there is plenty to say about the Tricks performance. The band was tight and aggressive. More so than usual. As Steve always points out, Tricks is always at their kick-ass tightest in the final fun months of the year. That's because we learn new songs on our winter break, and then we tighten up our performance as we get repetitions in over all those bar weekends. There are several favorite songs that are getting their last Tricks plays, these last few gigs with Bassbeast. There are a few Bassbeast songs that we might attempt with someone else singing, but it won't be the same. And, these songs are definitely falling by the wayside when Dave leaves us; "Shook Me", "Whole Lotta Rosie", "Man In The Box", The Cult songs, "Slide It In", "Adam's Apple", "Rock n Roll Train", "Chain of Fools", "Cold Hard Bitch", "Seasons of Wither". In their place, Tricks is scrambling to find new and old faves to add to the setlist. Don't worry, there are still plenty of fun songs to be had, but if you think you're going to miss hearing and dancing to these songs, think of how much we're going to miss performing them. Thanks to all of our Sidetrack friends who came out to wish Bassbeast a fond farewll. As Dave said in his farewill words, I'm sure we'll get Dave & Debbie to come out next year some time when Tricks is at the Sidetrack. Thanks to Roger for always being there for us. Thanks to Sue and the Sidetrack crew for being so cool. We'll see you on Sidetrack Taco Mondays. We love the Sidetrack, and hope Sue can keep it afloat in these hard and trying times. ^{Rick & Krys, Friday-}^{Tricks, Saturday-} Dec 10 & 11 - Tricks at Sue's Sidetrack, Weekend 1 of 2 It was terrible winter storm weather this weekend. Icy, rainy, windy, cold. But that didn't stop the diehards from coming out to the Sidetrack to party with Tricks. The nasty weather made our party all the more intimate. Friday was Rick & Krys acoustic show, and we had a nice little bunch out there. Hello to our new friends from South Haven who stayed up late with Rick & Krys, dancing and drinking. We appreciate that you braved the elements to come out to the Sidetrack. Thanks for being there. We also had some artists come out to the Sidetrack, after the Allegan Art Hop that was Friday afternoon. On Saturday, it was the mighty Tricks band in command of entertainment. Krystal brought some artist friends out to party, and Debbie had a party bunch at the Bassbeast table. We were happy that our bassist-in-training John "Ozzy" Bosscher and his wife Flo hitched a ride with Roger so they could check out the Sidetrack scene. We were expecting some snowmobilers, but the rainy weather kept the trails closed. We have a bunch of Allegan snowmobilers lined up for next Saturday, though. Thanks to everyone who came out. You are the hardcore party elite. Thanks to our picture takers, Roger & Debbie. Thanks to Sue and her crew and all the Sidetrack regulars for making Tricks feel the love at Sidetrack. Love ya, man! ^{Fri \| Sat} TricksBlog - November 2010 Nov 24, 26, and 27 - Tricks at Wayland, 3rd Weekend of 3 Tricks' final weekend at the Hotel for 2010. Our last weekend ever at the Hotel with Bassbeast. And what a weekend! Every night was special. Of course, Wednesday Night "Thanksgiving Eve" was a big one. All kinds of friends and family meeting up for some holiday cheer in downtown Wayland. This is the night that the cooks kick everyone out of the house, so they can get their pies made and all the other dinner preparations. So, everyone ends up at the clubs for some drinking and dancing. This Thanksgiving Eve was no exception, even though it was miserable wet and cold weather. Dave and Debbie had a good group of party people who stayed for the duration. Friday night was even more crazy and fun than Thanksgiving Eve, due to one factor: it was Dave Dumond's 50th. Big party, lots of dancers. Happy birthday, Dave - and many more! What a fun time! Since the Dumond family is Steve's daughter Kayleigh's in-laws, we'll let Steve have a few words: Drummer Steve speaks: Friday night we all celebrated Dave Dumond turning 50! He really had a huge group at the Hotel and they're a fun bunch of people. I know they are a favorite group of Mary Kay's. Dave & Linda are my daughter Kayleigh's inlaws. It's been great having Kayleigh & Mike home from St Louis for the holiday. There was a whole bunch of their young friends in attendance reminding and jabbing Dave on just how old 50 is. Speaking of birthdays, Steve had a birthday to celebrate this weekend as well. We spent Saturday night trying to get the drummer drunk. It took a while, but we finally got him tipsy by midnight, for his Sunday birthday. Again, let's hear from Steve. Steve speaks again: Last night was a really fun little birthday party. I'm glad the band and dancers could adjust to the less than steady beat I kept while going with some drunken urges. It seemed like many of my added embellishments to the songs worked really well at the time. But this morning I'm recalling the old joke about the four stages of Tequila: I'm witty; I'm attractive; I can sing; and I'm invisible. So thanks to everyone that hung around and partied to the bitter end of a loooong party weekend. Wow! Thanks for all the shots and especially, thanks Dave for the ride home. Also on Saturday, Krys brought a big contingent of friends from Allegan, who partied and danced with Tricks for all 4 sets. Thanks to everyone for coming out to hang and bang with the band; we couldn't do it without you. No, ... seriously, Tricks wouldn't get any gigs if you didn't come out to "support local music", as they say. And, I gotta tell ya, the Wayland Hotel owner, Mary Kay always raves to us about what a nice bunch of people we always get coming to the Hotel to see Tricks. Many times, Mary Kay has said, "I can always tell that Tricks is here just by looking out at the crowd, it's a bunch of smiling faces and happy people". Thanks to Mary Kay and her great staff for all the hard work. I know Tricks doesn't nag the crowd very much to "tip the waitresses", but we assume that a Tricks crowd is an intelligent and generous crowd who know that they need to show appreciation with good tips. Thanks again to our behind-the-scenes helpers. Thanks Debbie and Roger for pictures. Thanks Mark for the extension cord. Thanks to big Dave and everyone else who brought their special parties to the Wayland Hotel this weekend. One more major detail for this weekend. This was Bassbeast's final Wayland Hotel weekend with Tricks. Dave is going into musical retirement, or at least semi-retirement, after 2010. Now that this big Thanksgiving weekend if over, we only have 5 gigs left with Bassbeast. So, we have some words from Dave: Bassbeast speaks: I was glad the Wayland / Dorr contingent showed up for big Dave's 50th. They are a great bunch and I'll miss playing for them and folks like them in the future. Mary-Kay is thankful for patrons like that bunch and TRICKS fans in general I'm sure. It'll be great to come out and hang with a lot of these die-hards as a fan of TRICKS in the future at the Hotel. Thanksgiving Eve -^Roger\|^Debbie Fri \| Sat Nov 19 & 20- Tricks at Wayland, 2nd Weekend of 3 Tricks had two more great party nights at the Wayland Hotel. Not as wild and crazy as last weekend, but close enough for rock and roll. Friday night seemed to be the night for birthday parties. We had 4 birthday parties going on, all at once. Linda, Mitchell, Joe, and Ray all were kind enough to bring their party to the Wayland Hotel with Tricks at the helm. That was fun. Happy birthday to all you youngsters, and many more! On Saturday night we had some family and friends show up. More of the regular Tricks crowd. You know what that means; Lots of Dancing Action! I think the crowds were a bit thin both nights, because people are saving up their energy for the big long Thanksgiving weekend. Tricks will be playing for the "biggest bar night of the year", this coming Wednesday. And then we play Friday's holiday (and shopping) hang-over day. And then, Saturday night is the final Wayland Hotel Tricks night of the 2010, final night for "Tricks with Bassbeast" at the Wayland Hotel. So, I expect Saturday to be a "Blow Out" big party night - no net, no brakes. After the Thanksgiving weekend, Tricks only has 5 gigs left with Bassbeast. Very, very sad to see Dave go, but Dave's day-job has to take priority over his band life, understandably so. Thanks, Dave, for three fun and adventurous years. Thanks so much to Mary Kay for having Tricks at the Hotel. Thanks to the Hotel staff for everything you do to keep the party going. Thanks to our Tricks family, friend, and fans for the great support - sometimes, we can barely keep up with you guys! Thanks to Linda, Mitchell, Joe, and Ray for bringing your birthday parties to the Tricks show. Thanks to Debbie and Roger for pictures and odd jobs. Our job is a lot more pleasant with you there to help us. ^{- Fri\|Sat} Nov 12 & 13- Tricks at Wayland, 1st Weekend of 3 Tricks got a pleasant surprise this weekend; two, count 'em, two big nights in a row. But what do we expect from the Wayland Hotel? To tell the truth, ever since the smoking ban went into effect, Tricks has had slow nights at all of our regular venues. The slow economy, combined with the heavy-handed smoking ban, has resulted in an unprecedented number of slow nights this year. The Sidetrack has cut back and now is closed on Tue & Wed, with full bands only on Sat. The Hilliards bar gave up having bands during the summer months. Staff has also been cut - in case you think this ban is helping the "work environment", as it was touted. Even the Wayland Hotel, in the heart of Wayland City, has been slow most of the year. But not this weekend. We had a great Friday crowd and a great Saturday crowd. And they weren't those "fizzle out" crowds that leave by midnight. Most of the dancers and merry-makers stayed until the end of last set, at 1:30am. Now, that's more like it. Like I always say, Tricks can have a good time just playing to a handful of people, but if we had a choice, I'm pretty sure we'd take a room-full over a handful. We were already planning to bring it! But, with a pumped-up crowd of party-people, it made our job a lot easier. Friday's highlight was a birthday party for 21-year-old Emily. That's always fun, a 21st B-day. Happy birthday, Emily! And, thanks for bringing your special party out for a night with Tricks at the Hotel. Then on Saturday, we had a bunch of wild and crrrazy guys, celebrating what they called a "beer-camp bachelor party" for their friend Mark. Get it? "Beer-camp"? I get it. Funny boys! Friday was mostly a younger crowd of Hotel regulars. Saturday was more of the regular Tricks fans and friends. We thank you all for coming out, both Tricks and Hotel regulars. Thanks to our regular helpers, Roger and Debbie. Thanks to our dancing fans. We love to make you rock. Thanks again to Mark and Emily for bringing their party to the best party place in town, with the best "premium" classic rock band in town. We love ya, man! See ya next time. ^{- Fri\|Sat} Nov 6 - Tricks at 12th Annual Benefit Harvest Fest [This moment in Ozzy history - After BassBeast gave us notice that he had to leave Tricks at the end of 2010, we started auditioning bass players. On Friday night of Nov 5, 2010, after we set up for this party at the Dorr Legion, we auditioned John "Ozzy" Bosscher. Ozzy nailed a few songs, most notably "Radar Love" and "Jealous Again". We pretty much hired him on ths spot, and started rehearsing with him in December.] Tricks is honored to be the entertainment at the annual Dorr American Legion Benefit dinner / dance / party. This is held each year for the benefit of the Legion, and it is usually held on the first Saturday of November. Sort of an "October Fest in November". If you look at years past, you'll see that we usually start off with a mostly full hall and the crowd dwindles as the night pushes toward the midnight hour. This year, exactly the opposite. When the band showed up around 7:30 this Saturday, there were very few cars in the parking lot, and we wondered how they were going to make any money. If you look at this year's pics, you'll see that there were very few loyal Legion and Tricks supporters there during the first set. As the night went on, we gradually had more and more people trickling in, until the place was well over half full around midnight. It's normal to only have about 8 people hanging and banging with the band at the end of the last set. But, this year we had a whole bunch of people screaming at us for "one more". We obliged with Led Zepellin's "Misty Mountain Hop". A huge highlight of the evening was a guest appearance by Rich Heintzelman, our long-time friend and ex-Tricks bassist. Rich was bassist with Tricks for about 8 years. Rich played in Patchwork with Rick when they were in their late teens. So, you might say we go way back with Richie. Rich got up and played "Folsum Prison Blues, "Low Rider", and "Sweet Jane" (for our absent friend Jane). Lots of dancers while Rich was jamming - everyone wanted to get close to the Tricks reunion action with Richie. Not ready to be finished with the Richie jam, Rick launched into "Sympathy for The Devil" and Rich delivered on a song that we used to play back in, oooh, let's say, around 1973 - way before Tricks was even a gleam in Rick & Michael's eye. The Legion raffled off a Shotgun, a $100 Dick's gift card, and a $50 gas card. And we did a 50/50 drawing. All for the benefit of the Dorr American Legion Post 127. Tom Stein won the Shotgun. Steve Hitchcock won the $100 gift card from Dick's Market. And Lisa won the $50 gas card. The food was great, as usual at the Legion Hall. Pulled-pork barbecue from Dick's, scalloped potatoes, good home-cooked taste. Plus, the bar sells drinks at "near wholesale" prices just this one day of the year. Big thanks to Tammy, Steve, Lisa, and Sam for doing most of the work. Double thanks to Lisa Lain for being the Raffle Chair-person.Thanks to Roger for the pics, thanks to our helpers unloading at Friday night set-up, thanks to everyone who came out to support the Dorr American Legion and the same-ol', same-ol' Tricks band. It was a fun time. ^Sat TricksBlog - October 2010 Oct 22 & 23 - Tricks at Log Cabin, G.R. Both Log Cabin Tricks nights were awesome; the band was good, the crowd was good. Owned by former Rampage Football player Matt Potter, the Log Cabin has a reputation for hard rocking and hard partying. Tricks is very much accustomed to being asked to "turn it down" so the waitresses can hear their orders. But, at the Log Cabin we were asked by Matt the owner to "Bring It". So, we turned up the bass and threw out our "ease into it" first set. We kicked it in the pants, right out of the starting gate. In return, we got a dance floor that was packed most of the night, on both Friday and Saturday. Lots of birthday parties on Saturday. One of our top Tricks fans from waaaayyyyy back, Lois brought her family and friends from Wayland to dance with Tricks on her birthday. Thanks Lois - see ya in a few weeks at the Hotel. Also worth mentioning is Brad's Busload celebrating his 30th Birthday. Also, Lori and Tanya both had big birthday parties going on. It was one big party. The Cabin has lots going on during the week, so the weekend bands have to set up and play on Friday, and then play and tear down on Saturday. That takes a lot out of you, even when you're young (Back in June, 1977, Tricks played 14 gigs in 30 days - requiring 8 equipment set-ups and 8 equipment tear-downs. Talk about "Bring It"!) Whenever Tricks plays in Grand Rapids, we always get a bunch of old Tricks fans from the '70s. I was talking with our long-time fan Brian, and he said "I was asking my friend if he remembered the Tricks party in Irons, and he said 'what, Irons?', so I knew he couldn't have been there" - See the Tricks History pages, 1977. It was a great time for rock and roll partying - the drinking age was 18, zero-tolerance was unheard of, Live bands were in demand - DeeJays, Disco, and Karaoke were barely getting started. We never knew we had it so good. But, we get a little re-creation of those days whenever Tricks plays the G.R. scene. We still got it going on. We still have the best rocking good times! Thanks to Matt and his great staff for all the hard work keeping the party going. Thanks so much to all the birthday friends - Lois, Brad, Lori, Tanya - HAPPY BIRTHDAY and MANY MORE! And, Thanks for bringing your party to the Log Cabin for some hanging and banging with Tricks. Thanks to Roger for pictures and sound recording. Thanks to Debbie for camera work, and for holding my mic during "Bad Girlfriend" - You're Hired! ^{Fri \|Sat} Oct 15 & 16 - Tricks at Hilliards Corner Lounge, Hilliards, Weekend 2 of 2 Friday was a very small crowd, but the band had a whole lotta fun anyway. You see, ... Tricks doesn't really need a big crowd of crazy party-people in order to have a really great time playing, but, ... it sure helps. On Friday, with little adult supervision, Tricks went far astray of the setlist, since no one seemed to care very much. Near the end of 4th set, we even did an extended version of "Low Rider", a song we haven't done in many months. We do more of the Blues Traveler version of that song, not quite that fast, but very "out on the limb" jamming. Fun stuff. And then, once again, there was another wild Saturday night at the Corner ... This Saturday was almost a carbon copy of last Saturday. (Doh! The words "carbon copy" are grandpa language, aren't they?) Tricks had all kinds of friends, family, and fans out for a wild time on Saturday night. Lots of deer widows making the scene - ready to dance the night away with Tricks. See pictures of all the dancing girls. Yee-ha!! We had a couple big birthday parties. The most notable birthday boy was Krys & Rick's neighbor Bill, from the Lake Allegan community of Indian Shores (we have plans to secede from the state, and change our name to "The Carp Republic"). Anyway, Bill brought a whole bunch of our party neighbors, including a few couples who live far off in Chicago and Detroit. Allegan County is the "Up North" getaway for these folks, and they say that Tricks is as good for weekend rocking as any bands in the big cities. Only, you can let your hair down more when you're out in the sticks with Tricks. Thanks so much to everyone who rocked our world on Saturday night. Hello to the new friends we met on Friday night. Thanks to Eric the owner and his wonderful and good-looking staff. Eric is the prettiest bar owner that Tricks works for. Thanks to Roger for camera work and audio recording - one of these days, we'll burn some CDs of Roger's audio, some of it is very kick-ass sounding. Thanks to Bill for bringing his birthday party out to hang and bang with Tricks at the Corner Lounge. Special thanks to our Carp Republic neighbor Fred for bringing out his good SLR camera. Those pictures will be up later on Monday. ^{Fri \| Sat \| Nice! Fred Pics} Oct 8 & 9 - Tricks at Hilliards Corner Lounge, Hilliards, Weekend 1 of 2 Tricks is back at the Hilliards Bar. Eric the owner decided not to have any bands during the summer months. So, finally, Tricks is starting things up again for the weekend Rock and Roll at Hilliards. Friday night was a bit slow, but everyone was in a party mood. The band was tight and Steve was tight in the corner of the Corner Lounge. . . if you know what I mean. You see, the Corner Lounge has a corner stage with limited room on the drum riser, so the poor drummer has a terrible time crawling in and out of his corner perch. Saturday was a top contender for "2010 Bar Night of the Year Award". It was packed, wall to wall. And everyone was in a dancing mood. That gets the band revved up, and then the crowd gets more revved up, and then the band gets even more revved up, and so on. How high can you go? When this happens, it's a unique chance for some daring "going out on the limb" in musical lingo. The band starts playing loose with the song arrangements, and sometimes we verge on being a "jam band". Drum solos happen, guitar leads get longer, and the bass thumping takes on a life of its own. That all adds up to a rolling and tumbling dance floor. Thanks to everyone for hanging and banging with Tricks. Without you, we couldn't have such fun. Congratulations to the bride and groom, Donna & Pat. Thanks for bringing your wedding reception over to party and dance with Tricks at the Corner. Have fun in Vegas! Happy birthday to our friend Rose, and thanks for coming out to celebrate with Tricks. Thanks to Eric and his good-looking staff. You people have it all going on! Special thanks to Eric and his dad for the remodeling job. It looks great! Eric says next year they will re-do the floors completely - new carpeting and new wood dance floor. Thanks to Roger, Marly, and everyone who grabbed the camera and took pictures. Sorry, we forgot the camera on Friday. I thought she had it, and she thought I had it. I would have liked more pictures from Saturday's wild scene, but I think everyone was caught up in the moment. You just had to be there. We'll do this again some time soon. Maybe next Fri or Sat. Who knows? You can never predict these things. It's called "spontaneity". "Noun: an action performed or occurring as a result of a sudden inner impulse or inclination and without premeditation or external stimulus." ^Sat Oct 1 & 2 - Tricks at Sue's Sidetrack, Pearl, Weekend 3 of 3 Rick & Krys Friday night was the liveliest yet. Happy birthday celebrations for Chris and Tommy. A good time was had by all. Lots and lots of compliments from a few musicians in the crowd. The more they drank, the better we sounded. And then came Krystal's "Girls Tricks Night Out" on Saturday. Krys went and picked up a few girls, so they could drink up without worry. Krys also had some friends come from South Haven. She had girlfriends from work, girlfriends from school, and girlfriends from the neighborhood. Debbie BassMistress also brought some girlfriends to add to the festivities. You get those girls drinking and partying, and you're gonna have lots of dancing action. Sure enough! Tricks did their best to keep up with the dancing girls. Fun times! Thanks so much to Sue for having Tricks and for working hard to keep the business going in these trying times. We'll be sure and hit Sue's Sidetrack for Monday Night Tacos. It all helps support local businesses and local bands. We're all in this boat together. Tricks will be back at the Tracks in December. Thanks to the hard-working bartenders, wait staff, and cooks at the Sidetrack. You are the greatest! Thanks to Krystal for rustling up a good girl crowd for Saturday. Thanks to those friends who drove from South Haven and Middleville to party with Tricks. Thanks Debbie. Thanks to the Sidetrack Regulars who are the nicest folks you would ever want to party with. Thanks Roger for the pics and recording work. Rick & Krys - Fri Tricks - Sat TricksBlog - September 2010 Sep 24 & 25 - Tricks at Sue's Sidetrack, Pearl, Weekend 2 of 3 Once again, our Rick & Krys Friday night was very low-key. We had a handful of Sidetrack regulars and a few couples who came out to party with Rick & Krys. Thanks for coming out, Sue & Dave, Jen & Mark, Jamie & Rob. You made the night for us. The request was to keep the volume down, so we did our best with a low-volume acoustic show. Everyone kept saying that it sounded great, and they appreciated being able to carry on a conversation with some good background music from Rick & Krys. Sigh! No comment! Saturday was absolute mayhem, with rotating birthday parties. First 2 sets, we had Amanda celebrating her 21st birthday with a bunch of our "Tricks Hudsonville Fan Club". It was high-intensity fun, drinking and dancing. Amanda was under the table after a couple hours of that fun. Amanda and her parents, Gary & Pam had to leave earlier than planned. But everyone hung out and partied in Amanda's honor. Amanda says, "Thanks so much for last night! It was a blast:) I got drunk way too fast but i had such a great time!! Thanks again and thanks for the sex on the beach:) i felt really bad for leaving so soon, i blame it on the bar tenders they gave me too many drinks at once:( But i enjoyed the time i had there and you guys were great! Like always :)" After Amanda disappeared from the scene, and took her wild dancing dad Gary with her, Tricks had to find something else to focus on. Almost on cue, in walks another birthday party. This one was Cynthia and Cindy - a double birthday celebration. And this group was just as much into the dancing craziness as Amanda's family. And, we still had some of the Hudsonville group left, not to mention the local Sidetrack regular Tricks fans. It all added up to a very fun and slightly out-of-control party during the last two sets. Thanks to the Sidetrack staff for doing such a great job with our wild Tricks crowd. You know how to handle it well! Thanks to Sue for keeping on keeping on. Thanks to Roger for pictures and audio recording. Thanks to to the birthday girls; Amanda, Cynthia, and Cindy. Thanks to Patty for the Rick & Krys hairdos. Thanks to everyone who came out this weeked to hang and bang with the band. We love you, man! ^{Rick & Krys Fri -}^{Tricks Sat -} Sep 17 & 18 - Tricks at Sue's Sidetrack, Pearl, Weekend 1 of 3 Friday's Sidetrack party was just the regulars, with Rick & Krys entertaining. The regulars at Sidetrack are quite capable of stirring up a great party atmosphere with just a few people. They really like to rock and they know how to party. We had a good time with our first of three Rick & Krys Sidetrack Fridays. Sue has had to cut back because of the dip in business after the smoking ban took effect. Things were already slow because of the economy, but the smoking ban made business even slower. Sue decided to close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and to only have full bands on Saturday. Fridays will either be a solo or duet music act, or a DeeJay. Sue hopes that this isn't a permanent change. She says she'd like to be open 7 days a week, and she likes having full bands on Fri & Sat. But, desperate times call for desperate measures. Taco Mondays are still going strong - we were setting up lights last Monday evening, and the place was packed. Saturday was more like it. Tricks got a hot reception from the Sidetrack crowd. The place was full, not packed, but lots of dancers and wild party-people. The band was extra hot and tight. People kept saying "you guys are hot tonight". I could only answer, "I know it"! Thanks to Debbie for pictures. Thanks to everyone who came out to party with Tricks. Thanks to Sue for having Tricks. ^{Rick & Krys, Sidetrack Fri}^{Tricks, Sidetrack Sat} ^{to Mid 2010}^{to Early 2011} Tricksband.com website was started in March 2004. Rick is webmaster, with graphics help from Krystal. If you'd like to be informed of updates to the site, as well as any upcoming party information. Tricks News Only! - No Spam! Comments? Clichés? Conversation? Chatter? Cr-r-r-riticism? Send Tricks an E-mail Tricks is on - Be a fan! Share comments, messages, or pictures with the entire Tricks family. Remember, Tricks loves you! " There's Good Rockin' Tonight "