|
A Smashing Weekend in Southern California
Mon., Oct. 2. 2006 2:30am EDT
The fine art of destroying one's instrument in the name of rock and roll originated with the Who, whose guitarist, Pete Townshend, and drummer, Keith Moon, routinely demolished the tools of their trade at the end of their shows.
 In a tragic case of life imitating "art," our keyboardist, Bill "Wild Thing" Hubauer, saw two of his instruments -- his keyboard and his violin -- get destroyed in one fell swoop after one of our three concerts this past weekend in the Los Angeles/Anaheim area of Southern California (Friday in Downey, Saturday in Westminster, and Sunday in Diamond Bar).
The incident occurred after Saturday's concert, when somebody accidentally pulled an extension cord that toppled a huge lighting rig, literally lowering the boom on Hubie's keyboard and fiddle. Ironically, we had played a new Who parody as part of our sound check before that concert. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. Instruments are replaceable; people aren't. Hubie thinks his violin may be salvageable once he replaces its strings, which were sliced off.
Up until that point in the weekend, our greatest loss had been before our initial flight out of Pittsburgh, when the TSA people confiscated J.'s private stash of Jif peanut butter. They almost took his spare foil pouch of Star Kist tuna as well, but reconsidered at the last moment. "Those are emergency rations," explains J., "for those nights after shows when we haven't eaten dinner and all the local restaurants and convenience stores are closed."
 Not to be outdone, the airline we flew did a number on Keith's bass case, but amazingly his bass was ok. They offered to replace the case right away. You can click the photos for a close up of the musical carnage.
Other than that, everything went well. The concerts were well attended, our audiences were enthusiastic, and our hosts were very gracious.
Thanks to:
Our concert coordinators: Rod E. Layman (Downey), Charles "Chuck" Shinn (Westminster), and Stanton and Marissa Letscher (Diamond Bar).
Our merchandise coordinators: Katie, Oneyda, and Oscar (Downey); JoAnne, Megan, Jackie, and Kathleen (Westminster); and Ward and Debbie (Diamond Bar).
Our sound and light crew: Kevin and Randy (Downey, Westminster, and Diamond Bar).
Our roadies: Joel (Downey, Westminster, and Diamond Bar).
Other notable guests included:
Stephen and Andrew Beck, twin brothers who came to all three concerts we played in Southern California on May 12-14, pulled off the trifecta again this past weekend, becoming the first fans to ever see ApologetiX in California six times in a single year.
Rev. Jeff McLaughlin and his family, missionaries to Gjakova, Kosovo, who are about to return to the mission field, but came to see us in May and also on Friday in Downey.
Randy and Stephen Starbuck, a father and son team who drove six and a half hours from San Francisco to come see us in Westminster. They've now seen us seven or eight times, all in California except for one in Michigan.
Please pray for Robby Shinn, the son of Chuck, our Westminster concert promoter. This courageous young man had a heart transplant when he was only 13 days old. Now, 14 years later, he is in need of another transplant and is on the waiting list. The excitement was a little much for him at Saturday night's concert (his dad says he's a big fan) and he had to be taken to the hospital for tests, but everything turned out O.K.
|
