Dec 7, 2009 - Hackney's Swing Session

We had a great band in the house tonight, and the Christmas Spirit is slowly creeping into our bells. Talk about your serious trumpet sections, we not only had Terry Connell, but Kirk Garrison as well. Mercy. As promised in last month's post, Filthy McNasty made a comeback and was resplendent in its groovieness.

Gina Knight sat in as 1st Drum call extraordinairre, and swang hard, baby. Vince, Ed and Claudia got to pull out their once a year vocal trio, Santa Claus, Baby.

Set 1

O Christmas Tree, Down For Double, I'm Beginning To See The Ligh, '720' in the Books, Christmas Time Is Here, Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Sway, Perdido, Nice n Easy, More

Set 2
Jingle Bell Jazz, Santa Claus Baby, Boogie Blues, 9:20 Special, Just In Time, Jersey Bounce, Filthy McNasty, Why Don’t You Do Right, Our Love Is Here To Stay, Choo Choo Ch Boogie, Roseland Shuffle

Nov 5, 2009 - Hackney's Swing Session

To our great amusement, things got off to a rocky start tonight. While the band opened with a nice deep swingin Splanky, our guitarist Rob decided to start his night with A Train, which didn't really work too well. A Train changes over a Splanky intro sounds "all messed up and stuff". We all got a good laugh and moved on to the aforementioned A Train, where pianist Meg promptly played the old Nestico arrangment instead of the new and improved one. So instead of the nice piano intro everyone knows and loves, we got a thundering whole note. I tell the guys to turn in old charts when we replace them, but no one listens. Time to clean the books out. And while I'm at it, what the hell is it with Filthy McNasty? We've tried to play this chart every month for half the year, but it keeps changing numbers and disappearing from books. Its like some evil force is saying "oh no you don't'. As God is my witness, this chart will be performed in December.

The joint was jumpin and all tables were filled, which is always nice. The group from Arlington Heights made another drive out to hear us, God bless 'em, and OJDrummer #2 Gina Knight even came out for the hang. She brought with her a young man visiting from Germany. She sat in for a few numbers, and really sounded great on Cottontail.

Set 1
Splanky, A Train, Orange Colored Sky, Rockabye Basie, Come Rain Or Come Shine, Shortstop, Sophisticated Lady, Pick Yourself Up, You Don’t Know Me, Please Don’t Talk About Me, On The Street

Set 2
I Can't Stop Loving You, Every Day I Have The Blues, Sing Sing, Cottontail, The Very Thought of You, I Could Write A Book, Come Fly With Me, Big Spender

October 9 , 2009 - Ritz Carlton Chicago

The Ritz Carlton is a wonderfully run venue, with a great, attentive staff who work hard to make the experience a pleasant one. That being said, it is still the absolute worst load in ever. We complain every time we come here, but it is what is. This time around, the equipment transportation/load-in/set-up responsibilities fell to Vince and John because Chris went to Disney.

V & J, being the rock solid dependable folk that they are, left at 4:15pm, hoping to get there at 5:30, after telling the catering staff they'd be there at 5:45, and contracting for a 6:30pm arrival. Get all that? Traffic and rain made travel just brutal, so we got there at 6:45. Thats right, 2 and a half hours to get from Orland to downtown. After a frantic set up, following 4 trips thru the bowels of the Ritz (video here), Vince & John retired to the employee locker room, where John enjoyed a refreshing shower before returning to the ballroom.

As always, the Cystic Fibrosis people put on a great event. WGN's Jackie Bange was the mistress with the mostest, and was a charming emcee. This year's crowd was very lively and hung out all the way thru midnight. Gina Knight rocked the house on drums, Chris Gorcik brought in a beautiful wooden electric upright bass, and the bone section featured the tandem sub duo of Rich and April. We were on, chart after chart, no fillers - relentless swing baby, and the crowd loved it. I will say this, this sort of gig tells me that the Monday night rehearsals are worth it.

So, back to the equipment truck. Vince took a calculated risk and left the truck parked down in the loading area of the Ritz. It was tucked away in an inconspicuous spot, but illegally parked nonetheless. No worries, we came down and found the truck where we left it.

We should have left well enough alone. But no. So we finished loading out at around 1am. Vince, John and Ed decide it had been awhile since a visit to our old haunt, the South Loop Club. We had several delicious beverages and a nice order of cheese fries. Vince played some Little Feat on the jukebox, and then we left.

The truck is gone.

Hilarity ensues as John and Vince realize that the truck, and all the equipment, is gone, and start yelling for Ed, who has walked off the other way. One thing about Outcasts, we are a silver lining lot, so instead bemoaning the fact that we'd been towed, we looked on the bright side and talked about how thankful we were that the truck wasn't stolen. Thanks to Ed for driving us to 17th and Western. Here we see Vince at 2:20am, asking for the '1st Tow Free' special. The clerk was not amused. Talk about a buzz killer.