*Tuesday November 14th: Minneapolis, Minnesota. First Avenue. Arrived during the night. Spent most of the day hanging out by the pool, indoors, of course…
Showtime: The venue was dynamite-the same one where Prince filmed ‘Purple Rain’. I know, Prince is from a different dimension, but he does try to look like Little Richard, so that is cool in itself! Show went as usual, right on…great scene.
Took off in the middle of the night…missed all the alleged snow that was coming.
*Wednesday November 15th: Merrionette Park, Illinois; 115 Bourbon Street. On the edge of Chicago actually…a nice clean venue…all went as usual…I almost collided with one of the lovely Go-Go Girls (Sorry Whitney!) on the final song in our set, as the mic stand lasted until the last song, which usually doesn’t happen (it either gets trashed or Big Vic takes it away)!
*Thursday November 16th: Detroit, Michigan; St. Andrews Hall. Arrived early in the morning along with some drizzle and rain. Spent the day guzzling coffee and watching CNN…what else is there???
Showtime: A Great time! Detroit ROCKS. It’s not called Detroit Rock City for nothing! St. Andrews Hall, what a trip! The venue totally reeks of cool Motor City vibes-
Last time we played here was back in the 90’s with Vernon Reid’s Living Color. In any case, the crowd was a Motor City Cool crowd, and I believe the show fulfilled their expectations, at least from my point of view.
Our pal Wally from The Romantics (who were on the previous October, 2006 Little Steven’s Underground Garage Tour) came along with his entourage, which included the fantastic Johnny Bee, original drummer from the legendary Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, Jimmy Marinos, the original drummer from the Romantics and assorted Gore Gore Girls…
I can’t say enough about Detroit all I have to say is Bob Seger System, Scot Richard Case, Rationals, Hideout Records, Punch Records, Phalanx Records, Fenton Records, Ju-Jus, Terry Knight & The Pack, MC5, Stooges, Alice Cooper (who spent their heyday in Detroit), I could go on, but I think you get the picture!!!
*Friday November 17th: Cleveland, Ohio; Beachland Ballroom. Left at a decent hour, around 8:00am. Everything was cool until bus #2 had a wheel blow out, which delayed the arrival of the fantastic road crew, which, by the way, is the coolest bunch of guys.
Showtime: The Beachland Ballroom is a groovy place; reminds me of St. Andrews Hall. We did a Little Steven Extravaganza there almost a year and a half ago. It was a happening event, as are ALL of Little Steven’s Happenings. Show was a blast as expected.
*Saturday November 18th: Buffalo, New York; Town Ballroom. A real Ballroom Blitz! Almost like playing a ‘home’ show for us due to the fact that a ton of our pals from Rochester made the trek up, including the opening band NY Vaults who won the AT&T contest…
*Sunday November 19th: Arrival in Boston-Day Off!!! All right! A real swingin’’blast. Adam Parsons, the tour manager (who has the brilliance and patience to keep this whole circus on the road maintained and on schedule…no idea HOW he does it!!!) took the entire entourage out to dinner at a groovy sushi restaurant. I haven’t seen this much sake being soaked up since I watched “30 Seconds Over Tokyo!”
Afterwards, Eddie Spaghetti of the Supersuckers noticed there was a bowling alley (the Kingpin) located right next door to our hotel. So…we all (members of the Supersuckers, NY Dolls, Chesterfield Kings, Charms, assorted road crew AND Go-Go Girls!) decided that this would be a happening thing to do…and it WAS! We had organized (or at least we tried to organize) some ‘Guitar Players’ vs. ‘Bass Players’, and ‘Drummers vs. Lead Singers’ contests, but no one knows who really won, due to the fact that most of the contestants were either hammered, blitzed on sake, or didn’t care! I think Mike Boise, drummer of our line up had the highest score overall for a game with 186.
After a couple of miserable games I actually shot 156! Wowee! I couldn’t get a grip on other scoring due to the mass chaos and party atmosphere. The alleys were almost psychedelic, with red lights along the alleys and black lights being the predominant lighting-like bowling in the dark! Whitney Bryant (Main lovely Garage Girl A Go-Go) described it as ‘Cosmic bowling’.
Not only cosmic, but surrealistic as well! Watching the NY Dolls bass player Sam Yaffa battling it out with Andy Babiuk bass player in our line up, with this foreign sort of lighting was like being in a Fellini movie, or better yet, something that Salvador Dali might have dreamt up!
*Monday November 20th: Day of the show. Beautiful day. Cool, but sunny. Walked along Mass Ave and guzzled some coffee…a good way to start the day! Later, we just hung out by the pool, as usual. Cool by the pool!
Showtime: The Axis. An early showtime and curfew. Boston was a blast! Groovy club, the Bosstown crowd was ultracool as always. It was an early night, and it was real fun watching the dynamite Supersuckers sonic assault, followed by the NY Dolls rockin’ set. Oddly enough, as the Dolls finished up, Sam Yaffa immediately approached Andy (Babiuk) and said ‘Let’s go bowling, Man!!!’ We obviously though he was drunk or crazy, but he really wanted to go bowling again, a rematch of sorts from the night before! So… we all crashed back to the hotel, had a sandwich or something equally nutritionally worthless, Sam was ready to go man!
Sylvain Sylvain arrived, and after not having gone bowling for over thirty years, Sam somehow talked him into the spectacle as well! Another night of “cosmic bowling,” with more spectators than participants, due to the fact that most of the guys (myself included!) were sort of “bowled out” for lack of a better word! I think everyone just wanted to see Sylvain throw the ball! It somehow also ended up with Sam and Eddie Spaghetti in a fierce competition with Sam coming in with a whopping 141!!! A great night… and day!
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