Saturday, June 16, 2001 -
Gullifty’s - Unsung Hero Concert Series -
Brickfoot, Fidel, Weapons for Peace, Martini Bros.
Saturday, June 16, 2001
Gullifty’s - Unsung Hero Concert Series
Brickfoot, Fidel, Weapons for Peace, Martini Bros.
Arriving nearly a half-hour early, we strolled across the dance floor to where Martini Bros.
posse people were gathered. We did the general hello to the group after everyone said hello to us.
Mike then entered carrying a rug for Rej’s drum set. Melanie handed our gift bag to
Shannon, who waved Mike over to us. Telling him the gift was for him and his wife
Tina, Mike handed the rug off to another person. First, Mike took out the card and
acted enthusiastic. The card said: Oh Please-Not another lullaby! I want to hear
some rockabilly…Cruz begins sharing his daddy's musical taste right away.
Mike handed off the card to Tina and introduced us to her. We said little
hellos to one another. Tina had actually taken our photo with Mike at the Hilton
Toys for Tots benefit at the Hilton. Mike wrestled with the bag and tissue
paper to pull out a light blue tee that said “daddy’s little star” for his new son
Cruz. After awwing, Mike struggled with the bag again to discover a soft musical
star with a half circle teething ring. We each got a hug from the tall
mohawked Mike and thank yous.
We hadn’t been issued our pink bracelets yet, so before the place
officially opened we ventured back to the door. Joy showed looking not too bright
eyed due to lack of sleep. She put on our bracelets after chatting for a bit
and we went inside to sit and sip our water. Looking pretty empty
as the nine o’clock show time edged closer, Melanie asked if Liz Biz was
to be the Unsung Hero host of the party.
Shannon's dad was in quite the silly mood that night. After attempting to
pour water into his glass from the pitcher, he spilled the water all over
numerous times. He also went off into conversation about Belgium balls…supposedly
he was talking about pool balls, but we were still a little frightened of his topic of choice.
When Brickfoot took the stage a bit late, Liz Biz appeared on stage to introduce them.
Brickfoot consist of Steve Silver on lead vocals and guitar, and Frank D'Angelo
on guitar, Chipper on bass, and Jay T on drums. These guys from
Baltimore put on a funtastical show. Shannon commented that Chipper
looked like Chris Kattan. For those of you who don’t know who Chris Kattan is,
he is a current member of Saturday Night Live. We agreed that Frank
looked like Tony Kanal from No Doubt.
Next to perform was Fidel, also from B-more. Not all of Fidel was present.
It was an acoustic set with the lead singer on acoustic guitar and a DJ.
The lead singer (sorry, we don't know their names) said that their
drummer was at the Emmy's. As far as we know, this was the first time an
acoustic performance of Fidel was presented. The lead singer broke a
guitar string (see Mr. Shannon’s dad, strings do break…he was trying to
convince us that it was a bad thing to break strings). These guys
were also part of the group that was seated at “our” table.
The self-titled CD release, “Weapons for Peace” performance began next.
Not exactly the style we tend to enjoy. How to explain Weapons for Peace…crazy
loud scream rock? The floor was hopping and we just sat back to wait for
Deuce, Mike, and Rej to take the stage. Shannon spied Bryce of the J
ellybricks standing at the back of the dance area and pointed him out to
Melanie. Local rockers supporting local rockers! Deuce later
dedicated "Hillbilly Polka" to "Red Neck Bryce." Earlier that night,
Shannon's dad spotted a man sitting in the darkened corner, with sunglasses
and long hair, who resembled Jim Morrisson. Later on that night, the Morrison
lookalike let himself loose and ended up stomping his feet and doing amusing jigs
to the Martini Bros. (he especially seemed to enjoy "Hillbilly Polka").
After the band finished we stood to claim our spot for the Martini’s performance.
Jim approached us accompanied by Steve of Brickfoot, whom he introduced to us.
Steve held a CD, “Poly Carbon Lens,” and didn’t know if he should give it to Shannon or
Melanie. Steve held it out to us and after a several conflubbered seconds, Melanie
took it from him. Steve left and returned with another copy for Shannon.
(Thank you muchos!) He then took a seat on a speaker to wait for the performance.
The Martini’s made their entrance and began their extra long set. We stood by
Deuce and bopped around a bit while Shannon’s dad stood behind us enjoying
the show as well. Mike announced that tonight his lovely wife Tina made it out for
the first time to a show since their son was born. Mike acted quite silly that night:
knocking down parts of Rej’s drum kit twice, stepping on Deuce’s pedals, flicking
Deuce’s rhythm/treble switch and twisting his guitar’s knobs.
Since Mike made frequent trips over to bother Deuce, we took many Kodak
moment photos. Actually, all the photos we took that night are up because we
loved them all so much. The bubble machine was working and made for some
awesome photos of Deuce. At one point, Mike ventured over onto the speaker
by us and played bent over between the speakers for the people on that side.
(If you’ve been to Gulliftty’s, you know what we mean by Mike being in between
the speakers. If not, there are two speakers hanging from the ceiling and one
lying on the floor, leaving empty between.) Mike also came over and sat on the
floor speaker to play for us. Shannon automatically snaped a photo.
No zoom needed that time!
For “Nightmare (Party on Wheels),” Frank D'Angelo joined Mike to
sing some chorus. He also shared some Jack Daniels. Mike looked like he
took some, but Deuce looked like he took a fake sip. As Rej was drumming,
he tossed a stick to Scott (roadie) and missed. Oops! It made it’s landing
at Melanie’s foot. She didn’t realize it until it rolled and hit her shoe.
Scott made a dash over and snatched it off the floor.
Leaving at 1:30, we waited to catch Deuce’s eye so we could wave good-bye,
and we walked out to the car, where a flyer for Bullet was waiting for
us on the windshield.