August 2nd has finally arrived. To add to the excitement of the day, John rips off half his fingernail on his right-hand pointer finger when the handle of his tool case breaks. John says it should be O.K. because there is so much pain his finger is numb. Dave has a sore shoulder from setting up the night before. Kevin’s back is improving daily but will be wearing the brace on stage tonight. With this in mind, we think of changing our name to Sicks Shooter. The band is excited.
Dave has a big banner made in the Graphic Enterprises copy center and later adds foil to the letters. It looks pretty cool. The band tacks this to the stage.
Kevin is approached by “Mike the DJ” who asks when the band is starting tonight. He inquires to see if we’re going on 10:00 normal time or “bar time” (which is about 20 minutes fast). Mike DJ’s from 9:30 until 10:00. It’s time. The band takes the stage. Dave wonders into his corner and says a quick prayer. A calm mind will help focus on the task at hand (Kicking Ass). Kevin looks at the band and announces, “here we go” and the band launches into Honkey Tonk Attitude.
Much like the December 22 VFW appearance, the first set is used to get the sound set. Chuck is doing his best to feed John with information, and actually helping tune the knobs. While Chuck is not a musician, he listens to music most of the day. By the end of the first set, except for Dave’s guitar being too soft, the sound is set.
A large Graphic crowd has shown up including: Jeff Aul, Trisha Berger, Bob and Lori Corrigan, Karen Sarvis, April Long, Kim Allen, Jeff Johns, Kristy Yeager, and Jim Lowder. While this is great, it did add a certain amount of pressure to make a good first impression. With this in mind, Dave is glad his guitar wasn’t quite loud enough as he pulled off one of the worst performances to date. What guitar work he could remember his fingers wouldn’t play, and he seemed to being drawing a few too many blanks on stage. This is especially noticeable on Burn that Bridge. Luckily, the band seems to be developing a skill at covering up each other’s mistakes Set one consisted of:
SET ONE
1. HONKY TONK ATTITUDE
2. BIG OL’ TRUCK
3. DUMMAS WALKER
4. THINKIN PROBLEM
5. LIFESTYLES OF THE NOT SO RICH AND FAMOUS
6. TWO OF A KIND
7. AINT NOTHIN’ WRONG WITH THE RADIO
8. BURN THAT BRIDGE
9. PICK UP MAN
10. TRASHY WOMEN
11. WHISKEY AINT WORKIN’
12. TEXAS TORNADO
13. MERCURY BLUES
14. STICKS AND STONES
15. BORN TO BOOGIE
16. MARRIED TO A WAITRESS
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Set one showed the rustiness of Six Shooter. The in-between song banter was rough around the edges. Dave (feeling silly) announces to the crowd “Everybody have fun tonight- Everybody WANG CHUNG TONIGHT.” While it got the laugh he was looking for, it also left many persons asking, “Whaaa???”.
Set two found a band whose nerves had settled, a guitar player pissed at his performance and determined to redeem himself (he had to play good now, we had turned up his guitar). The boys saddled up and launched into 3rd Rock from the Sun. The rest of the set included:
1. 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN
2. WATERMELON CRAWL
3. I LIKE IT I LOVE IT
4. BEER N BONES
5. GOD BLESS TEXAS
6. AINT MUCH FUN SINCE I QUIT DRINKIN
7. HERE’S A QUARTER
8. SO HELP ME GIRL
9. WHAT MIGHT’VE BEEN
10. WALK SOFTLY
11. BUBBA HYDE
12. ROCK MY WORLD
13. SHE’S GOT THE RHYTHM
14. THE RACE IS ON
15. GRUNDY COUNTY AUCTION
Again, the band’s beginning are a little shaky. However, Kevin has loosened up, and now is getting the crowd completely involved, as he elicits “YEE-HAWS” from the crowd. Except for a near fatal beginning of Bubba Hyde that was just pure ugly, the band is hitting their stride, and firing on all cylinders. The monitor mix is missing, but
