Since it’s been a ‘busier than usual’ few weeks here for Out of the Ashes, Brad said I should write
about it. It started out by us being selected to perform at the Hard Rock Café’s Pass the Mic, their version of a Battle of the Bands. Lot’s of south Florida talent competing for prizes. We were excited to be among the chosen acts. While our preliminary round was postponed a week, we still managed to have many friends in attendance and won our way into the finals against two other very talented bands. This was a
very emotional show for me, as The Bayside Hard Rock Café was the last place Jack (RIP) and I performed together many years ago before he passed less than a week after that show. The fact that Mike broke one of his bass strings, something he has NEVER done it, let me know that Jack was with us! A few days later, we were packed in a big green van, dubbed ‘Little Green’ by the owner of the van, that also owns Battle Rig BBQ, and on our way up to St Augustine opened for Mike Tramp on his solo acoustic tour. Mike is the singer and front-man of the 80s band White Lion.
I was a big fan of theirs back then and was really excited for this opportunity. After several hours on the road we arrived at the original Cafe 11. It’s a bar/restaurant with a nice size stage. As we were setting up, Mike Tramp walked in and was very friendly. It was a decent crowd for a Thursday night. We played our 40-minute set and then sat back while Mike took the stage. He did all of the White Lion hits throughout his 90 minutes with some very interesting stories in between the tunes. It was a good night and we made some new friends. The next day we were off to Ft Myers, the next step of our 3-day adventure. After a stop at Buc-Ees, west coast bound we were. The traffic was worse than we had anticipated and we arrived at Stet’s Bar a tad later than we had hoped. The bar, owned by Stet Howland, who has drummed with WASP, Metal Church, and Lita Ford among others, was eagerly awaiting us and his crew helped get us up and ready to go in no time. This place was one of the best spots I have been a part of! A traditional looking bar in front with a small band set up for regular activities, and a big warehouse behind it with a huge stage set up for big shows. We opened the show and Stet’s band, 10,000 Views followed. Their set was highlighted by Stet’s drum solo, that ended with him playing with empty beer bottles as sticks!
With every crash, I swore that those bottles were going to explode, but he didn’t break either of them. I
asked him later how long it took him to learn to do the solo without breaking bottles, he replied it took
years, and that they still break from time to time. We met more folks on this Friday night and really
enjoyed our time there. Mike came out and finished the night off. This set was slightly different than the
night before.
As we got ready to leave and head back home, Stet said he’d like to have us back in the near future. We
can’t wait to make that a reality. We got back to Miami very early Saturday morning.
We were able to get some rest, then up to Nectar Lounge in the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek.
We mixed a bunch of our original songs in with the many cover tunes we played and the crowd seemed
to enjoy our show. As this night drew to a close, we were just an hour drive away from finally being able to get some real rest. All I can say is, we are ready for the next adventure!
