Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Back together for the first time in a long time

This past weekend, Owner's Manual regular Al the Retired Army Guy performed a gig with his old band, including his brother and sister, and the Mayor of Brunswick, Ohio.

It is not possible to describe how fun it was watching these guys because they were having so much fun doing what they were doing. Unfortunately, your humble hostess's limited videography skills don't do near adequate justice to the show, but here you go just the same:



Al is in the blue tee on bass, and if I counted correctly, he had seven guitars at the ready.

The lead singer in the black and gold tee with the reddish hair is Al's sister Michelle. Babe city!

The gent on lead guitar dressed all in black is Al's brother Jay, to whom I shall refer in perpetuity as "the cute brother."

Mayor Gary Werner is on drums. He also sang vocals on "Abacab" and righteously ROCKED it. I am very sorry I didn't get a snippet of that, but watch closely and you'll see him sing back-up in "Mrs. Robinson."

Um ... cool!

* * *

17 comments:

sarahm59 said...

sweet!

Vince said...

Videoing while pissed(VWP), eh. :D

danb said...

Loved it!

By the way, what the hell were you doing up at 4:30 in the morning (besides posting)?

danb

Bill said...

Very cool Al. Thanks Erin.

JoJodancingbear said...

Hey I thought Al stayed in NC

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

Erin is correct - I did indeed have 7 basses there, all fretted, all four string. They were: '73 Fender Jazz Bass; '76 Fender Precision Bass; '76 Rickenbacker 4001; Martin BC-15E Acoustic-Electric; '74 Gibson Ripper; and my custom Alembic Series II John Entwistle Replica.

@ JoJo: you are correct - I do indeed reside in NC, but I drove up for the rehearsals/performance.

I must say I had a blast - we hadn't played together in 28 years. There were some rough edges, and it wasn't perfect, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Couple that with the fact that Erin and her family, and my brother Gene, sisters Lynne, Carole, and Janice, and numerous members of Gary Werner/Bob Werner's family were in the audience, and one gets the picture of a magical night - for us anyway!

Al
TRAG

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

Oh - I forgot, I had one more bass there - my Lakland 4-94, which I used the entire evening.

Al
TRAG

Leslie Morgan said...

Rock it, Al. god love ya!

Bill said...

At least Al gets capitalized. God, not so much. So, "god love ya" takes on a somewhat diminshed meaning?

Leslie Morgan said...

Get bent, Bill. Or maybe "get over it". I'm not ever going to do anything you approve of. Including capitalize god. Al, however, in my opinion, deserves capitalization. Go tweak at someone who will play with you or get pissed off at you and go off. That's not me.

Bill said...

Humor can sometimes be offensive. Evidently.

Anonymous said...

I know I need treatment. I tried not to post but this thing is bigger than me...

To wit,

Isn't 7 basses the Rock N' Roll equivalent of shock and awe?

Peace, Love and Music.

RJ

Al The Retired Army Guy said...

@ RJ: Had I brought my entire complement of basses (31 in all), that would indeed have been shock and awe. In this case, it was probably more like schlock and maul. ;-)

@ Leslie: Thanks. I did my best to rock it. Whether I succeeded or not is a matter of opinion, of course. I'm just glad at the ripe old age that I am that I did not expire in front of the audience. ;-) In any event, I'm not sure God (or god) loves me - I am a regular attendee at the Church of the Blessed Pillow every Sunday - I'm guessing God (god) is probably a bit pissed off .... ;-)

Al
TRAG

Leslie Morgan said...

Al, I'm even older, so I know about these things: you ROCKED! I am so glad EOB wrote this up. Thank you!

Hey, are you taking dedications? Maybe RJ and I . . never mind.

Erin O'Brien said...

Things certainly are getting randy around here!

And thank heavens for that, I'm deep into other obligations and relieved to see that this group can carry on, humble hostess or no humble hostess.

Is it just me, or is this thread a sign that the Lord has blessed Al's work?

jojodancingbear said...

Hey Al, I live in Kinston, NC - Not to far from you I think.

Leslie Morgan said...

Randy is good.I shall try to fill your shoes and will call upon you when I'm unsure what to do.