Thursday, April 30, 2009

Markel Farkel ... Thursday

I know! It's Thursday and I'm Markel Farkeling.

I'm not going to be in front of a computer tomorrow and I want to make sure that LadyBug has her weekly Markel Farkel dose of Internety goodness.

So without further ado:


Make sure you click on the "Love-quiz" and read about how one woman put the zing back in her marriage.



Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Riveter opens for Bret Michaels: Part 2 Bret plays

So as I was saying, Riveter opened for Bret Michaels and his band, the Bret Michaels Band.*

We played well. We rocked the house and we loved every single second of it. The crowd was amazing and it was hard to pack up my stuff and get off the stage.

But Bret was a-coming, so off we went.

As we were loading out our gear, Big John was there to greet us.

He said that we did a great job and that he really enjoyed us. He commented on our cover of Betty Blowtorch's "Hell on Wheels" — the song we lead with.

Big John was a friend of the lead singer and bass player, Bianca — one of the most bad-ass rock 'n' roll chicks I've ever heard of. John said as we started to play, he said, "That's Bianca's song."

That kicked ass.

Not only did he know the band we were covering but was good friends with the chick who made it all happen and someone we all think was the most rockin' chick.

So we all had a moment that put a beautiful cherry on top of getting to play for Bret Michaels' awesome fans.

We hung around the back of the club, waiting to see if we'd be able to meet Bret who had just come in on a plane.

We watched the small group of fans get moved to the other side of the parking lot so that Bret could make his jog from the bus to the stage door — while we got to stand inside the barricaded corral (which totally added to our rock-star experience).

The introductions happened just as Big John said they would in his pre-show security meeting and then he was walking to Bret's bus with Bret's silver cowboy hat in hand.

Moments later, the bus door opened and the wee figure of Bret Michaels stepped out followed closely by Big John.

Bret is much shorter than I imagined — probably around 5'7" or so — and much better looking.

He waved to his fans and as he jogged by we three Riveter girls, he smiled, waved and said, "Sorry I can't chat."

Next thing we knew, the band was striking up the chords to "Talk Dirty to Me" — the Poison song that we've been covering for a couple years.

We squeezed our way on to the packed dance floor and watched the pro work the stage and the crowd.

Dude knows how to put on a mofo excellent show.
The crowd of mostly becleavaged girls got what they had waited hours to see. Bret Michaels in concert.
They played Poison songs, Bret's originals and a host of covers that songs we were truly excited to hear.
All the while, Big John was videotaping the show from on stage. Bret later shared that they upload the video and send it over to for the troops to watch in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The band was great, the music was great and Bret Michaels exceeded all of our expectations.

After the show, we watched Bill sticker up Bret fan after Bret fan — which you read about here.

We lingered with the other fans out back, hoping to get to meet Bret and to even get on the now famous bus.

But ultimately we decided that we'd had our share of rock-star fun — meeting Bret would've been fun, but not meeting him didn't dampen a truly amazing experience.

This is one story that we'll be telling and reliving for a long time to come.

Thank you, Bret Michaels.



*The Bret Michaels Band is actually the band, Evick, just without Bret. It's headed up by Pete Evick who is a really cool guy and his band RAWKS. I totally go see them even without Bret (just don't tell Bret).

Here's Pete and I after the show:

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Riveter opens for Bret Michaels: Part 1 Riveter plays

Let me start off this story by saying that if anyone had ever told me that I'd be in a band that was opening for the lead singer of '80s mega-hair-band Poison, I would have laughed in their faces and then probably kicked them in the ding dong for being stupid.

I mean look at the facts people:
  • I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in art history. Art history. Not music.
  • For the last seven years, I've been the executive secretary to a newspaper publisher. Secretary, not musician.
  • I'm a mom and a wife. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
  • I never played any instruments at all until six years ago this August (well I did play the clarinet in middle school, but that didn't leave me with much musical experience).
  • I'm 38 years old.
Nothing on that list spells "rock star in training," but that's what I love about our band. We don't sit back and do what's expected, we reach out and snatch opportunities even when we don't think opportunities exist.

So, yeah, Friday night.

I got off work and went home to start the prep work that goes into being a part-time rock star.

I was curling the hair and gluing on eyelashes, packing my stage clothes and loading my equipment into the car when Bill and Mar got home.

As soon as they got home, my excited rushed out of the house like air out of a stomped on balloon. You can read about that over here, but it's depressing. Let's just chalk it up to my kid looking for her share of the attention.

I was determined to have a good time, child be damned (OK not really damned, but if there wasn't blood, it could wait as far as I was concerned). But my and Bill's mood was definitely dampened by the events that proceeded our trip to the club.

We were somber and sad ... OK Bill was somber and sad. I was pissed.

Until we turned the corner and I saw two black buses and this trailer parked behind the Mesa Theater:
I immediately turned into a 13-year-old groupie and started screaming "Bret Michaels is here" over and over.

He wasn't there, of course, but his band was. As was Big John, his uber-cool security guy and friend.

As we loaded in my gear, we had to negotiate the buses and the barricades places around the back entrances to the club. I'd never seen anything like that before at the Mesa and it was pretty impressive.

The band was all there and we were trying to be nonchalant and hang around and be cool. Then it was our turn to load our gear on the stage. I set up my amp next to a giant rack of Bret's guitars which were being tended by Bret's guitar tech, Joey.

This is the stack of cases for the bands guitars and drums:
Like all the people associated with Bret, Joey was friendly and talked enthusiastically about the tour. He said they'd had great crowds with many sell outs.

Here we are hanging out with Joey before the show, right after he asked if we were all married:
After loading our gear on stage, we decided to spend some time getting all rockstared up. On go the fishnets and hooker boots, out came the hairspray and eyeshadow.

Once that was done, we had nothing to do but wait. There was about a half hour until the doors opened. While we were hanging around, I heard Big John gather the theater's security guys together for a briefing on how the evening would run.

I made Laurena sit with me and eavesdrop on the whole thing:

Oh man, it was interesting. They have their shows very closely choreographed and scheduled down to the minute. Anyone who knows me, knows that kind of stuff excites me (sad, but true). I think I audibly sighed in delight when Big John said, "... then the band will play a 72 to 75 minute set."

So now, not only did we know that Bret likes a plan, but we knew exactly where he'd be and what was going to happen.

Afterward, it was time to open the doors.

We were hoping there'd be a crowd for us as we opened. Boy were we in for a surprise.

First of all, the other opening band had another gig in town and asked if we could switch places with them.

That meant that they'd go first and we'd go ... right before Bret.

Um, hell's yeah! Awesome. We figured we'd have a better chance at getting a bigger crowd the later we played.

Silly girls.

When the doors opened, it look like this:
We were at the bar and the fans were pouring in.

They were stopping at the bar or hanging out. Nope, they were bee lining it straight to the front of the stage.

Where they stood until after Bret was done playing.

The place was packed. They were a few dozen tickets from selling out. It was amazing. I'd never seen the theater so packed for hours upon hours.

Now that the security work organized, Big John was hanging out, getting his picture taken with fans — like us:
We told Big John and we were the second band that night and he said, "Yeah, I know. I'm gonna come check you guys out." I then whipped out one of our "Snatch" EPs which included "Get Out" and told him about the song.

He genuinely seemed excited that we had recorded a song about his friend and the show that was making him famous (which is way more of a positive reaction than the one we got from Eddie Spaghetti when we opened for the Supersuckers and had TWO songs recorded about him).

Big John also said that he'd make sure to play the song for Bret.

Oh hell's yeah!


John is a very cool guy. Very laid back, not pretentious — he's totally someone that would be fun to be friends with. Plus he treated us great all night long.

8:30 came and Goodman, the first band, started belting out their hard rockin' covers. The crowd was into it. They were generous with their cheers and applause.

My excitement was building.

Then Scott started putting his drums together in the breezeway next to the stage. Unfortunately some asswipe decided the breezeway was a good place to blow chunks ... all over Scott's drums. Luckily they were still in their cases and he didn't have to play through the puke.

Before we knew it, Goodman was done and we were getting ready to play.
I stood on stage and gazed through the lights out to the packed club. And it was mostly packed with girls and their cleavage. It was like booby city out there.
I was nervous, but not terribly so. Really, I was excited. I wanted the crowd to like us. I wanted to play well. I wanted us to rock.

We got set up and the club owner introduced us — including in our introduction the fact that we begged and pleaded to get this show.

Then Scott clicked us in and we were off to the races.
And it was amazing.

Our songs were going well. We were rockin' really hard.
And the crowd really seemed to be digging us. Every song was followed by thunderous applause. It was intoxicating.
Our third song was "Get Out" which we wrote about Bret Michaels and Rock of Love. When I found Bill out in the audience, Big John was standing right beside him.

We played for 25 minutes, but it seemed like five. And while it happened so fast, I made sure to savor every moment, to try to play the best I could and look cool doing it.

And the crowd seemed to love us. Every time Kelley said the f-word or "Bret Michaels" they went crazy. They went crazy after every song. I can honestly say that Bret's fans are amazing and I'd play in front of them any day of the week.

I truly felt like a rock star.

I didn't want it to end.

It did, of course.

But the night didn't. Next time I'll write about our brief encounter with Bret, more about Big John and the Bret Michaels Band show.

Monday, April 27, 2009

OK, OK, here are some picture from the Bret Michaels show

Because y'all are making me feel like a slacker, here are just a couple photos of Riveter opening for Bret Michaels.

You'll have to wait for the details and pictures of wee Bret Michaels.




Living the rock-star life

I love tons and tons of stories and pictures and breathless moments to share from Friday night.

But since I'm sick and very busy at work and really tired, I'm just going to share probably the funniest thing that happened Friday night.

Hell, it might be the funniest thing that has ever happened with stickers.

A while back, we ordered a couple thousand stickers for our band that have our name and our contact information. They are inexpensive stickers and we like to stick them on everyone that comes to our shows.

Sometimes we just stick them on people even if we're not playing.

So Friday night before we opened for Bret Michaels (yes, I am going to say that about a million more times, because ... dudes, Bret Michaels ... I know), we were squeezing our way through the packed venue giving out stickers as we normally do.

After Bret (yes, Bret Michaels) was done (and his set was rockin' — seriously), we were lingering around, basking in our glory and having a few drinks.

Well, Bill had more than a few and he found himself in possession of our roll of Riveter stickers.

Somehow he convinced girls ... lots of girls ... to let him put Riveter stickers on their ... um, ... boobies. They agreed happily.

He kept yelling, "Robin, look at this."

I was too busy being a rock star to watch boob after boob being revealed and stickered.

One guy standing next to me wondered, "How is he doing that?"

Good question. But I think it was the power of Bret Michaels. His fans are hardcore and rock out with their ... well, uh ... boobies out.

After the theater kicked everyone out, we three Riveter girls lingered around talking to Big John and Bret's band while the security guys were trying to get the throngs of adoring Bret Michaels babes to move the hell away from the bus.

Bill, still with his roll of Riveter stickers, shouts out, "If you wanna get on the bus, you need a sticker." And with that he was engulfed in girls, boobs and the scent of coconut stripped oil.

It was quite a sight to behold, my husband standing outside Bret Michaels tour bus slapping Riveter stickers on rabid Bret fans.

Oh the power of rock 'n' roll.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Markel Farkel Friday

The new farmers tan:How the heck?
Don't mess with the garbage dudes:
Holy Kit Kat! Jesus' portrait:

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Persistence pays off

"You are the most persistent person I've ever met" — Chris Neal, Mid-Fi Guy and road manager for the Supersuckers.

Riveter got to open for the Supersuckers.

Of course, we also wrote a song about lead singer Eddie Spaghetti (called Spot the Bunny — that song title is a long story, but basically it's called that because Laurena is mean). We also wrote a song, called Creepy Girl, about how one of us in the band stalked the Supersuckers obsessively (OK, it's about me).

And now here we are.

Earlier this year we released our EP "Snatch" which includes "Get Out" — our song inspired by Bret Michaels and the glorious VH-1 show, Rock of Love.

We're opening for the Bret Michaels Band tomorrow at the Mesa Theater.

This didn't happen because we're lucky or were in the right place at the right time. This happened because we made it happen.

Our song (much to the contrary of popular opinion) "Snatch" is about seizing opportunity whenever possible.

We've had to beg, promise, cajole, plead, do a little dance, make many phone calls, send many e-mails, make many in-person visits and then work our asses off to get where we are today.

And you know what? It totally pays off.

On our way to dinner last night I was telling Margaret that this was a good opportunity for her to see how hard work and persistence does pay off.

This is how she replied: "Yeah, OK, but you don't have to be all crazy about it."

Having a rock-star mom who is opening for Bret Michaels tomorrow night is just so boring to an 8-year-old — but it's beyond exciting for her mama.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Riveter is opening for Bret Michaels Friday!

My band just got put on to the bill for the Bret Michaels show at the Mesa Theater in Grand Junction this Friday, April 24.

I am using every ounce of will power to not TYPE IN ALL CAPS because I'M SO FREAKIN' EXCITED.

See, we have watched every single episode of Rock of Love ... every single one and we have talked about that show before many a practice, so much so that we decided to write a song about Bret and Rock of Love.

You can listen to it over here. It's called "Get Out."

This is a very big deal for our band.

Thank you, Bret Michaels!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Our dear friends, the Flenards, talked us into to going to Geeks Who Drink last night.

It's been a while since we Geeked and our normal Geeking posse it mostly out of commission due to the impending addition to the Reed family (Greg and Sarah's baby boy is bound and determined to come sooner than later it seems).

But last night, we three couples (oh and Serg, whose contribution was sarcasm) dubbed ourselves the Whispering Eyes (giggle, giggle, thatmeansvagina, giggle) and proceeded to kick all kinds of geek-drinking ass.

Now, you have to understand that I enjoy competition. I enjoy trivia. I enjoy playing games. But I LOVE winning Geeks Who Drink.

You know why?

Because it's hard.

There was an entire round last night on the Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Mofo Rings, people. I saw one of those movies and it annoyed me. I mean how many scenes do I need to see of that dude standing around holding that flippin' ring already?

Luckily for us our one of the couples, Wayne and Sandy, rocked that category. My contribution was to go to the bathroom and drink beer while they answered the questions.

Another category was on songs that had something to do with sisters. Tracee is a musical savant and kicked all kinds of ass on that one.

So basically everyone else answered questions while I drank beer.

But you know what? I was on the team of people who knew the most answers. So woo hoo, I'm a winner.

Winning is awesome.

Monday, April 20, 2009

No Markel Farkel Friday

I didn't Markel Farkel Friday last week. I know. Things at my job are getting more and more hectic and they aren't giving me enough free time to horse around AND get my blog updated. Stupid job getting in the way of my online life. Jeez.

No really, I'm super happy to have my job and super happy to be busy and not looking like someone that could be downsized, if you smell what I stepped in.

So I didn't get a chance to Markel Farkel Friday y'all.

So today I'll shower you with some pictures from an impromptu show Riveter played Saturday night.

See, we all went to the Peach Street Distillers to see The Freeman Social play at a big pig roast, bbq bash for the distillery's owner's birthday. After they were done, they said we could use their equipment and play some songs. So we did.

The Freeman Social

Bubba

Katie

Mike

It was fun. But, honestly, playing music is so much fun, I always wanna be doin' it.

You can tell by the casuallness of our attire that we had not planned on playing. But we rocked it rock 'n' roll style.

Yep, here we are rockin' The Freeman Social's equipment Riveter style.
Kelley belting out the tunes with me standing near the conveniently located porta potties.

Laurena being cute while trying to warm up her bass-playin' fingers.

Rockin' Mike's lovely vintage Gibson. Oh, how I love a Gibson.

Poor Boom Boom, this is how it always goes for the dummer — there's either the head of a guitar or a cymbal blocking their glamour shots.

Good times.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Puzzling

I always remember my gramma starting her day with a cup of coffee and the crossword in the local newspaper.

My mom, never a morning gal, starts her midday with tea (I grew up with her saying, "Coffee smells good, but tastes .. blech" — I believe she is correct ... although I've never actually drank coffee — yeah, I'm that lame) and the crossword in the local newspaper.

Recently, I started helping out at the front desk at my work. To pass my time, I've started doing the crossword puzzle.

And the Sudoku (which I have always loved, but never had time for) and the Jumble (which I've never liked but now do it anyway) and the Celebrity Cipher (I like if I can figure it out, otherwise, eh).

So yeah, let's add "puzzler" or "puzzler doer" or "crossword dork" to my lengthy list of issues/traits.

But you know what, I like the challenge — especially the crossword.

On those days that I can finish it completely, I am buoyed. I think of it as a smart day for ye olde Rivetergirl.

On those days that I need help, I am stop extra hard on my way to the bathroom, but whatever. It doesn't define me. But I know it does some.

A while back, when Bill and I were going through our documentary phase, we rented Word Play — aptly, a documentary about people who do and make crosswords. When I mentioned this my crossword pal, Boom Boom,* he said, "I bet it's full of freaks."

Well, yeah ... and no. Mostly it's just regular people who have found a love crosswords and love to compete. But there are those saucy crossword freaks that season the story oh so nicely.

I'm still trying to get through the daily puzzles without erasing through the paper and am still quite afraid of the giant Sunday puzzle.

I wonder how long this puzzle phase is going to last?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

That's two kitties on the bed with their little paws covering their little eyes. See why it's so hard to make the bed in the morning?

Whoops, I put words on Wordless Wednesday — screw the rules.

And since I already messed up by writing words above, I'll mention that I wrote about Bill's romantic streak over here.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Are you ready?

So. Where do you want to go?

Yeah, anywhere.

Me? I have a list. Here's my top three for today.

But the fact of the matter is that I will go pretty much anywhere.

I like seeing new places and eating different food.

My one life's regret is that I didn't travel more before I had Mar. But the lucky happenstance is that Margaret is a great traveler and loves to do all the things we love to do while traveling.

So that one regret can suck it.

Monday, April 13, 2009