Brooklyn Bowl 1/24/11 Brooklyn, New York

I made a conscious effort tonight to "Rock Out" onstage a bit more as far as body language and thankfully didnt hurt myself or anyone around me. The band played great and we are becoming a well oiled machine firing on all cylinders. Our friend Sean from security helped Spiccoli with the backing vocals on Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" and the crowd was enjoying themselves as you can see briefly in the "Welcome to the Jungle" video posted below.

Probably our best show yet at the Bowl and we pulled out a lot of the songs that we havent performed in some time without incident. I have become so familiar with the green room that I noticed the installation of a smoke detector that wasnt there a week prior and for variety changed up the beverage choices of which tonight's was a Margarita, several glasses of wine (surprisingly of the boxed kind) and of course some Delicious Brooklyn Bowl Pale Ale.









Our friend & fan Steve who has been to so many of our shows over the years.













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- Animal

Rodeo Bar 1/22/11 New York City

One of the funnest and gratifying shows I have ever experienced due to a very receptive 80s crowd who really dressed the part. It looked like an infinite sea of dancers from my admittedly myopic vantage point. Spicoli had me cracking up a record number of times this evening and the entire band played a tight set with crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser pleasing the crowd.

There were a couple of White Wedding first's tonight, for one we did a Crazy Thing and played a song that we have NEVER Played Together EVER live onstage at a decent paying "private party" show (The Promise by When In Rome which was requested a few days gig-prior) that went over Big, and for another first (due to time constraints) the club turned off the microphones right after we finished our announced last number (Dont Stop Believing) but before our encore (what would have been Fight For Your Right) leaving the crowd Really Wanting more and going off to speak to the manager and sound engineer to no avail.

This was also the gig where I tried on a more exotically fashionable 80s pair of shades (non-prescription) which handicapped my view of the drumkit and fellow band members considerably and due to the glasses closer proximity to my face turned my eyelids into sweat factories and even worse than dropping a stick no drummer drumming or even anyone at all wants sweat in his/her eyes, This was a science experiment in convection proving that you can indeed be Blinded By Science.





Meanwhile Back in the States ....



Famished after the gig I seeked out a Gyro Cart for some Gyro Over Rice (Lamb & Rice as it is now called) with White Sauce and Hot Sauce which I had a few forkfuls of on the glamorous & aromatic 34th street D platform taking the remainder home. Either I havent had Gyro and Rice for some time (and I havent), I Was Starving (I was) or this particular cart knew how to make it really well (probably a combination of all three) but this was some Extremely Tasty Gyro & Rice.



- Animal

Brooklyn Bowl 1/17/11 Brooklyn, New York

Most of this performance was an Audience Request show (which JUSTKINDAHAPPENED and to no bandmember's dismay) but to our delight after looking at the "secret ballot" Request Board from the attendees we gleaned that the band does perform about ninety five percent of the material asked with remaining tunes/artists in the 80s spandex pipeline. The crowd was up and dancing once again and the shows are going Great at this coolest of coolest of venues.

Never have I met a kinder and more down to earth staff as at Williamsburg Brooklyn's Brooklyn Bowl. They Really make you feel at home and comfortable just by being cool people in a "Be Yourself" Employee Protocol Type Thingy (Well I hope that I'm guessing right) Theres an in-residence KINKS fan as well who spins the records of which I have Absolutely NO Qualms or piercing arrow's about (he/she even played Queen - Staying Power the other week, HOW FREAKIN' ODD)

Two More shows here this month, Life's A Joy.



Airborne.



Doc Brown



Amadeus



Diamond Dave



Animal - Vic Firth Timpani Mallets (foreground)



Thanks Very Much to Jamie, Richard and Steve for recording these moments for their photographic art and the posterity of these times.



Bowler Anna Jumped onstage and then off of it in Total Stagedive Glory, She IS Awesome and landed on her two feet as well so no need to worry action fans.







- Animal

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Bally Bunion -1/15/11 Brooklyn, NYC

Due to the recent frequency of our shows the high pressure gigs are becoming low pressure gigs and the low pressure gigs are becoming no pressure gigs so it was quite a bit of fun to return to the Bally Bunion for some Bay Ridge Brooklyn entertainment as only Bay Ridge Brooklyn can provide, Namely I had a nice time watching the crowd dance as we played away three sets into the night being entertained as we entertained, Always A Good Thing.







The DW snare drum sounded absolutely cracking tonight, Speaking of cracking so did my "not so old" Sabian AAX 14" X-Plosion Crash Cymbal !!! well a little crack on the leading edge but the fat lady has already sang her last 80s aria. When I first purchased my Sabian AAX set I exclaimed "Cymbals For Life!!!" I now duly eat my words less than a thousand hours later, What Gives??? ,...... these were only played maybe 400-500 hours!!!



My Sabian cymbal (foreground) when it was brand new just two years and four months ago (B.B. King's 10/17/08)



Cracked Sabian AAX 14" X-Plosion Crash (It happened onstage during Love Shack) (Bally Bunion 1/15/11)



The Bally Bunion Burger which always comes with Cheese and Bacon is Juicy and Delicious.



With our fans Lorie and Marlene.



White Wedding/Bally Bunion mainstay Clay won the trivia contest this time around and after all of the kinetic energy that he has entertained us with I am glad that he did.



- Animal

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Brooklyn Bowl 1/10/11 Brooklyn, New York

And right there positioned above is the graphic that The Brooklyn Bowl is using to promote our tenure this winter on their official website HERE which is always a nice thing to discover, especially if you didnt know about it.

Growing more familiar and at home on any concert stage can never be a bad thing and we are settling in as it were, I even defied my own rules and whacked away at the drumkit from stage while awaiting soundcheck.

By the finale of tonight's performance we won over the crowd and they didnt want us to leave the stage.



















- Animal

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Napper Tandy's 1/7/11 Miller Place, Long Island

THIS SHOW IS SNOWED OUT.

Brooklyn Bowl 1/3/11 Brooklyn, New York

Opening night of our January residency at Williamsburg's Brooklyn Bowl was a Rockin' yet Relaxin' affair. Doc Brown and myself arrived at five to soundcheck and then we had a few hours to fill until our 9 p.m. showtime, The band shared a few pitchers of most refreshing in-house Brooklyn Bowl Lager and we ate heartily from the extensive and impressive Foodstuff's menu of which more details can be seen HERE.

Compared to our previous show this was a sedate crowd but once the (99 Red) Balloon's came out more people congregated onto the dance floor and even I from my vantage point behind the Tama Starclassic's heard audible gasps during the "Risky Business" portion of our performance.









One of my Favorite Photo's Ever !!!



A Drummer's Life Is A Series Of Asses - Bill Bruford







- Animal

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