TD and I just got back from Thatch Meadow Farm in St. James, where we'll be playing on Saturday night. We had been under the impression that there was a private party going on, but we just learned it's open to the public! There are only two conditions to be met:

1. That you come in costume - after all, it is Halloween, and

2. That you come ready to make a donation to the entertainment.

The venue itself is pretty cool - 20 acres nestled at the headwaters of the Nissequogue River. It's a collection of buildings forming a court yard, and we'll be playing on the outdoor stage. The band Forensics will be in the smaller inside venue.

The crew at the farm was hard at work today making the place as spooky as possible for the party. So if you guys are up to it, come on out on Saturday and party with us at one of the most unusual venues we've ever been booked into.

Yeah, it's been a while. We've been maintaining radio silence over the summer, but now we're getting ready to go for the Fall. Here's what's up...

This Saturday, we're celebrating the birthdays of TD's wife Colleen and Donny at O'Reilly's. We're going to have food, birthday cake, and lots of new tunes.

Showtime is early this time - 9:00. Come by early, have some food and catch the band at a special early start time.

And this on'es just the beginning. We've got a month of shows coming up. I'll fill you in tomorrow...

Our first time in at Brock's Bar & Grill was a smashing good time - although we veered off-script and winged it all night.

We put together set lists pretty heavy on the newer material, and about halfway through the first set we noticed it wasn't really working - so we started asking for requests. We played a lot more Classic Rock - SRV, Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, like that. We even got talked into playing one of our favorite songs that we don't do - 'A Girl Like you' by Smithereens. I totally cocked up the lyrics, but the music actually sounded pretty good. We might end up adding that one to the list after all.

The second set was more requests and Classic stuff, then we veered back into the newer stuff for the last set and a half. The third set was off the scale - STP, Nirvana, Motorhead, RATM, Chili Peppers and more. By the time we got done I felt like I got physically beaten, but that's a sign that we were rocking hard enough.

We will be back to Brock's. That club was just too much fun. Thanks to Randy, Kristen and Phil for making us feel so welcome.

We took last week off, what with it being a holiday week and all.

We got a call from our old friend Randy from the Double R Bar. Randy also owns a bar in West Sayville called Brock's Bar And Grille, and he contacted us because he needed a band to play the club's fifth anniversary party.

Naturally, we said yes.

The show will take place on Saturday, June 13, with a 10:00 showtime. I'm told the place is a little on the small side, so there's a real good chance we're gonna pack it out.

Hopefully, a lot of you guys will turn out to support us in a new club. You know we're gonna rock it.

Looks like the devil Insomnia has got me tonight, so I might as well write about the gig on Saturday.

It was our friend Rob's 50th birthday, and we were asked to play the party about 6 months ago. It was held at the Suffolk Boat Club, right on the water out in Patchogue. Even though the weather was kinda nasty in the morning, we caught a break and the skies cleared for most of the afternoon.

Our first set was pretty subdued - there were a lot of older people (besides us!) there, and we kept the volume down so as to not scare everybody away. We let loose a little in the second set (and featured our frined Nancy Goetz on vocals for half the set, and by the third we threw away the set list, cranked it up and took requests from the crowd.

Rob was happy that we did the party, and his guests had a lot of great things to say about the band. We had a really good time playing for a bunch of friends and helping Rob turn 50 while rocking the night away.

Back to work this week - we have two rehearsals to get that new set of tunes ready for O'Reilly's.

This weekend was an odd one, in terms of the gigs we played and the circumstances of each one.

On Friday, I sat in with KC at Fadeley's Pub out in Patchogue - TD sits in with KC quite often, and when KC extended the invite to me I figured I'd give it a go. KC plays a lot of older American R&B, country and blues - no British stuff allowed. I ended up playing mostly slide with him on a few tunes by Hank Williams and some other old R&B stuff. It kinda moved me out of my comfort zone a bit, but overall it was pretty enjoyable. If you get a chance to see KC, check him out. He's a very entertaining dude.

On Saturday we played our usual monthly gig at O'Reilly's, and it was the first month in nearly half a year that we didn't have a huge crowd. We didn't play to an empty room by any means, but the club wasn't as completely mobbed as it has been for our gigs dating back to last winter. Still, a lot of fun.

Yesterday we played a benefit for our friends Emil and Pam at the Outfield Pub, right around the corner from my house. While we were happy to do the gig, this one was just pretty weird.

First off, we played outside - and it was pretty cold throughout the afternoon thanks to those sea breezes. We spent the better part of the afternoon standing outside and freezing waiting to go on. We were originally supposed to open the show, but Soulstice decided at the last minute that they wanted to play earlier. We, being nice guys, let them go first and as a result hung out in the cold all day.

Stevie wasn't available to play yesterday - he had family commitments, so we decided to play the show with our friend Tommy Mizell. As a result, we went with more of a classic rock set than what we usually do. It was probably the smart way to go considering that it was an older crowd at the gig, but it was much different than your usual Diesel set list.

And all of the stage electricity was run out to us from one plug inside the bar. As a result, we ended up blowing the fuse 3 times during what turned out to be a drastically shortened show. One guy said that people were kicking the plug out of the wall and that was making the power go down, so I went inside with a roll of duct tape and taped the plug into the wall. Having sorted out that problem, I went outside and was told that the club owner was getting complaints from the neighborhood about the noise levels and that we were done. Fair enough.

But in the mean time, they started giving away the raffle prizes and were using our sound system to announce the winners. That meant another hour-plus out in the cold, waiting until they were done announcing raffle winners and we could finally pack up the truck and get someplace warm.

Like I said, we had no problem doing a benefit for friends of ours that have long supported the band. But between the weather, power issues, raffle giveaways and noise complaints, we ended up playing parts of four songs and staying an hour later than we should have.

And on top of that, we've been trying to book a show in one of the Outfield's owner's other clubs (what used to be Pub 454) and were told that this would help us get a date there. No date was offered - in fact, the club owner said pretty much nothing to us all day.

Like I said - just weird. And today I have a cold from standing in the weather all day yesterday. I'm glad we've got next weekend off, to be honest.

As promised, here's more info about Sunday's gig at Ollie's Point.

This show is a memorial for an old friend named Barry Ambrosio, who ran stage and sound at the Sparks clubs in Huntington and Deer Park in the late 80s through early 90s. Barry passed away in December, and this show is an all-day event to celebrate Barry's life.

The bands on the bill are either bands that played Sparks, or (like in our case) have members who played the club. A few bands are getting back together just for this event - Fallout (the band that Barry managed) is making their first appearance together in 19 years, and Black Jack Bomber's guitarist Paul Kayen is coming in from Florida to appear at the show.

Here's how the schedule breaks out:

-- DOORS OPEN 2:30 --

SHOW SCHEDULE:

3:30 - 4:00 Earth Eatz Dog! (Rodney & Mickey James - Freedom, Snakeyed Su)

4:45 - 5:45 Nurse Diesel & Guests (Donny Waller - South Of the Border, Up All Night, Snakeyed Su)

6:00 - 6:25 Fallout (Rich Orofino, Rob Lucchese, Rick Saijun & Andy Vegoda)

6:35 - 6:55 Strike Twice (Strike Mike, Robbie Luv, Trixx)

7:05 - 7:10 Mike Pont Solo

7:15 - 8:15 Stiff Richards Feat. George Cintron

8:30 - 9:30 Rondinelli Feat. Bobby & Teddy Rondinelli And Very Special Guests

9:45 - 10:15 Black Jack Bomber with Dominic Esposito, Paul Kayen, Rob DeMartino & Jeff Cropper

10:30 - 10:50 Bad Medicine Feat. Steve Sage

11:05 - 11:25 Mr. Murray Feat. Spencer From Knockoutt

---

GUEST ARTISTS:

Chuck Bonfante (Saraya, Ethel Mertz)
Frank Vestry (Devias, Last Temptation)
John Cappadona (Beggar's Opera)
John Sherry (Snakeyed Su, Gypsy Rose)
VERY SPECIAL SURPRISE GUESTS

----------

Admission is 10$, with door proceeds going to the American Cancer Society in Barry's name.

Ollie's Point is located at 140 Merrick Rd., at the southernmost end of Route 110.

If you're looking for something to do on Sunday afternoon, come on out and catch this show. I guarantee there will be a few surprises.

Another outstanding night at O'Reilly's.

This time, we had some help. For some reason, a whole bunch of singers showed up Saturday night and helped us kick it. Kevin from Dead Rock Stars sang some STP, Bowie and Lenny Kravitz. Nancy Goetz did some Blondie and Janis Joplin. Mikey D did a bunch of AC/DC. Mike Clemente did some Ratt and Motley Crue. Jason Di Angelo sang a song by Lit. John Cappadona sang some Whitesnake. And the boss, Tommy O'Reilly, sang 'Sober' by Tool.

Every one of them was great, and so was the crowd. This is the fourth show in a row at O'R's where the crowd got bigger than the last time, and the crowd rocked as hard as the band.

Thanks to everyone for getting on stage with us, and thanks to the unruly mob at O'Reilly's. You guys make it worth dragging the gear out to the club. See you next month.

TD and Donny will be appearing with Snakebite, the Whitesnake tribute band, at tomorrow night's Monsters Of Mock show at The Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale.



We'll be on at 8:30. See you there...

We started off our monthly gig at O'Reilly's on Saturday night, and it was a great end to a long week of music.

Steve said that the crowd was the biggest we've had since we started playing there - things looked kinda slow at the beginning of the night, but the crowd really picked up as the night went along. And it got wild.

We did a mostly-acoustic set to start, but when we got to the second set, we cranked it up and let it fly. The band was really on the money if I do say so myself, and the crowd was pretty into it. We were joined by Joe Scollo from Fullhouse who stayed all night and sang a bunch of tunes, and John Cappadona from Almost Queen came up and played 'Tie Your Mother Down' (with Stevie out in front singing!), and also came up for some Grand funk later on in the night.

We ended the night with the stage getting rushed by a bunch of kids who goaded us into playing 'Don't Stop Believin' and 'Livin' On A Prayer.' It was clear that the bar had a big night - we were waiting quite a while for the drink orders to be filled, so I take that as an indication that they did okay.

Great kickoff to the Saturday Series. We were on stage until well after 3:00 and the crowd was right there with us. If you haven't been out to see us at O'Reilly's, you gotta come out next month and see what it's all about. We guarantee you'll have a great time.