Last night I once again did a Hired Gun gig w/ the band White Noise-filling in on bass. Originally this was going to be like the other shows, but apparently there was a double booking involved, so the night was split between White Noise & Acoustic act Bill Oeinck. Bill went on 1st, then White Noise and then Bill closed the night.

I was originally going to wear a bald cap but we didn’t have all the materials needed for it — or the time, actually. By chance, Jen (my lovely, beautiful sexy girlfriend who I love so much), happened to find in my makeup box (which has my KISS makeup in it) two cans of spray-on dark blonde hair dye. She then came up with this great idea to use them–on me(!) I said, “Sure!” not knowing what was going to happen later. My hair turned out more gold than blonde, and then Jen decided that I should have it braided. I came up with the headband. (What a hunk of man, right?) I have no idea what I was supposed to be, but it made people laugh, so it was cool with me.

Anyway, we arrived at Greene’s Ale House while Bill was playing. We got the gear in, and settled down before playing. We ran into some old friends and played a little bit of catch up. Here’s tonight’s set list:

Set One

Hey Jealousy (The Gin Blossoms)
When I Come Around (Green Day)
8675309 (Tommy Tuotone)
The Ballad of Mary Jane (Tom Petty)
You Really Got Me (The Kinks)
Talking in Your Sleep (The Romantics)
Rock in the USA (John Mellencamp)
Something So Strong (Crowded House)
I Ran (Flock of Seagulls)
Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong (Spin Doctors)
Living After Midnight (Judas Priest)
I Saw Her Standing There (The Beatles)
Kryptonite (3 Doors Down)
Hash Pipe (Weezer)

Set Two

Found Out About You (The Gin Blossoms)
Surrender (Cheap Trick)
The Monster Mash (?)
Cumbersome (Seven Mary Three)
She Hates Me (Puddle of Mudd)
Play that Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
Every Rose Has its Thorn (Poison)

We started at around eleven o’clock. I later found out that there would be a costume contest inbetween the sets. The bar got more and more crowded as we went through the first set. No surprises in the first set, and it went off as well as expected. Because of the way I was dressed up, I was being quite the cornball on stage doing stuff that I normally don’t do–ever.

Please note that for this gig, I did buy a light for my music stand so I had no problems with seeing my sheet music. Ironically enough, I didn’t look at the sheet music very much throughout the night. By the time the first set ended, Greene’s was pretty packed with costumed people waiting for the contest to begin. At one point, for some reason, the microphone was handed to me to run the festivities. Not only did I not know what was going on, but it was my first time being in the bar–but I tried to do the best I could. At some point, things got a little hectic when people in the crowd got a hold of the mic and started running the contest themselves. Eventually the winners were announced and we continued on to set two, which saw more than half the people leaving the bar–probably in search of another costume contest. (Side note: Jen should have won the sexiest costume award–not that I’m biased or anything…)

We started the second set, and, of course, this wouldn’t be a White Noise show without George throwing in a song that I had no idea was on the list–let alone knew how to play. The only surprise was that it was limited to one. (Hurray! HA!) That was The Monster Mash, which he admitted to having thought about adding to the set earlier that day. One thing that was really cool about the night was the last song, which George dedicated to his parents–who were there and celebrating their forty-seventh wedding anniversary. The second set ended shorter than expected, and I went about searching for Jen’s lost cellphone, which turned out to be in the bottom of her purse the entire time. At the end of the night, we said our goodbyes, I got paid, and we went home.

I’d like to thank White Noise for having me fill in for them again. It’s always fun and as long as I am not busy, I’m available for future fill-ins if needed. This was my first time to Greene’s Ale House and it’s a pretty cool place. I also want to thank all the people who came out this night. It was great to see some familiar faces that we haven’t seen in awhile. Pics should be up shortly. Warning–there’s a lot of them–and please feel free to laugh at my expense. 🙂 It was a fun night and I had a great time, even more so because I was able to spend it with my baby Jen.