Riverside Gingerbread Man - 3/16/01 - St. Patrick’s Day Eve

Riverside Gingerbread Man - 3/16/01 - St. Patrick’s Day Eve - Pete and Jeff of the Badlees

We arrived after 8 o’clock and Anne and Greg met our usual party of 4 for dinner. While waiting in line at the hostess podium (who, by the way, kept changing her hairstyle all night) the security dude asked Melanie for ID. She gave him the huh?-I-don’t-know-what-you-mean look and he said, yeah, ID. A driver’s license or something. Shannon spoke up and told him we were there with parents. He replied saying, oh, ok, as long as you are with a parent or guardian.

Pete Palladino arrived and Shannon’s parents spoke to him while we perused the MODE magazines we had picked up. We then handed Pete a green harmonica and fake green carnation, scented with cucumber melon for St. Patrick’s Day.

Our party of 6 was seated behind the hostess podium, a great location to watch Pete and Jeff after dinner. Shannon overheard the security guy saying how he felt dumb asking us for IDs. Shannon’s dad found his chair to be too wobbly and had to switch it for another. We both ordered Alfredo with chicken, which turned out to be a mistake. Too many noodles, too much green onion and tomato for prettiness, and too spicy chicken. We went through about 3 glasses of water each through the entire night. During the second of 3 sets, we had the peanut butter pie. Melanie thought the peanut butter cup “crumbles” on top were too big and layered too thick. Shannon decided to let her dad finish hers.

Back to Pete and Jeff…After we ate our food, Pete and Jeff lugged in their equipment in from outside, which left us freezing and reaching for our coats. (The door they were using was right across from our table.) By then the 3 tables that were there had been moved and the TVs turned off. Before Pete and Jeff began their set at 10, Shannon went up to Jeff to give him his fake, green carnation. Melanie went up with her for support

The first set started and included a dedication of “Diamonds in the Coal” to their good friend, Janice Radocha. After a few songs, a couple (a quite drunken couple) started to…we guess it would be dancing…directly in front of Pete and Jeff. Let's just say that they were really into their dancing. Pete and Jeff seemed to be giggling to themselves, and Pete jokingly said he couldn't concentrate. After a song or two, the dirty dancers sat back down. Pete and Jeff wished us all a happy St. Patrick's day and then they tried to think of good Irish songs to sing. They ended up making a few short ones of their own. Lucky charrrrms! Anyway, we had both brought cameras to snap pictures of Pete and Jeff. Shannon finally got the courage to take a picture (flash on) and after doing so, the flash surprised Pete, and Shannon hid from embarrassment. Poor lads were blinded! After that, we decided no more flash. Hah, too bad the only picture that actually turned out, was the one that Shannon used the flash on. Oops!

After the first set, Mr. Bedard, Melanie’s gym teacher and Shannon’s gym teacher from last year came over to say hi and chat! Shannon’s dad and Pete went to the entrance doors to talk and afterward Pete appeared behind us for a photo. Shannon's parents also chatted to a nice Mike Myers look-a-like who we've seen at a few other Badlees shows. Also during the break we decided it was time for a bathroom break and when we were in there, a random lady came in and commented on how she liked Shannon's scarf a lot. Shannon said thank you and felt special, and the lady rambled on for a bit about how she normally wouldn't like "a scarf like that" and she asked where Shannon got it. Shannon said that Melanie gave it to her last Christmas. After a bit more scarf talk, the woman said to excuse her because she was drunk. We left the bathroom a bit puzzled and amused, then we took our seats.

The second set started and there were quite a few requests. It started by someone handing Jeff a note with $3.00 and a song request. Jeff said to buy everyone a round with it. Hehe. A few songs later, the same people requested a new song, but this time they only included $2.00 with the note. Pete and Jeff joked about how the amount of money was decreasing, but being the nice lads that they are, they played the song for only 2 bucks. They ended up doing yet another request after a gal handed them a note with the song request and a message saying "Sorry I'm broke." A wee bit later, Jeff whipped out the green flower Shannon handed to him earlier, and he said that he would wear it for the song he was about to sing. Then he said how it smelled really good and he asked if we sprayed something on it and we all yelled "Cucumber Melon!" Silly boy, smelling a fake flower.

After the second set, Greg left because he had to get up early the next morning (They are Shannon's neighbors, so we just drove Anne home after all of the sets). Shannon's mom asked Shannon again which song it was that was her favorite Badlees song. She replied saying, "Thinking in Ways." So, Shannon's mom decided to write a request to Pete and Jeff for "Thinking in Ways" on a doily. Melanie suggested writing it around the edges and Shannon’s mom decided to draw a shamrock in the center. Anne said that she liked the song a lot as well, so Shannon's mom said that "Shannon and Anne really like Thinking in Ways…" The shamrock drawing got messy and Shannon’s mom scribbled it out. But Shannon saved the day by peeling off sticker from the Budwiser table decoration and covering up the scribble. We asked why Shannon's mom couldn't just go up to Pete or Jeff and ask them to play it and we never really got an answer. Being the dorky mom that she is, Shannon's mom, along with Anne, went up to Pete and handed him the doily with the request. Shannon's mom introduced Anne to Pete and they chatted for a wee bit. Soon the third set started up.

Towards the beginning of the set, Pete dedicated "Complicated Choreography," a song from his soon-to-be-released album, "Sweet Siren of the Reconnected" to Vikki (Shannon's dad’s friend from work). She felt special. Later on, Pete and Jeff invited up a pal of theirs who was sitting at a table, to play guitar with them. They said he was a fantastic guitarist and that he has played with them many times before. Too bad we forgot his name…sorry! Pete announced that the next song, "Thinking in Ways" was for "Shannon and Anne" and he pointed towards our table. Yay!

After the last set, which ended about 1:30, we got photos with both Pete and Jeff. We're dorks. Shannon thanked Pete again for playing "Thinking in Ways" and a few minutes later, we headed home.