Summer is drawing to a close for HELIX this weekend, with our last two shows of the summer being two acoustic shows. Tonight, Sept 13th@The Blyth Theatre in Blyth () and tomorrow (Sept. 14th) @ Capitol 33 in Delhi, Ontario. Both are great venues to perform these two shows, which are different than any other we've performed this year. Joining us onstage for the song "YOU'RE A WOMAN NOW" will be Michell Truman, the lovely lady who has fronted the band TORONTO for the past several years. The song she's soloing in was our very first "hit" in 1979, becoming an airplay staple in Texas due solely to Joe Anthony, who worked out of KISS/KAMAC in San Antonio. Joe was known as "The Godfather of Rock and Roll."
On percussion for these two shows is Mike Hackman, Paul's brother. Dan Diggins, who plays with Daryl in his weekend band SCURVY DOGS, and who filled in for Chich the day of the 1ST ANNUAL HELIX BACKYARD BARBECUE, becomes the third guitar player on stage, also adding his angelic voice in several songs.
Lastly, we have Jay Panaseiko running the videos which punctuate the two sets. Most of it was filmed while Fritz was still alive, so he's actually up there on the screen talking. Once we've got the show a bit more developed, we'll probably have some sort of tribute to the people who have been in the band and passed away: Don Simmons, Ron Watson, Paul Hackman, Fritz Hinz, and Dan Fawcett. I also liked an idea I saw at the Full Moon Fever show (a tribute to Tom Petty) where they had trivia projected on the screen between sets. Thought that was very creative. There's other ideas as well: I went and saw champion fiddle player Scott Woods and the show he's honed for many years now. I wasn't ever really a fiddle fan until I saw Scott's show. One of the ideas he used was positioning cameras strategically around the stage so that when different players are soloing the cameras switch to whomever. I also got some great ideas going to see Mike Lambert of The Barn Katz, who's a friend of mine. His show moves along like a well paced theatrical show, which is kinda what I'm shooting for with the An Intimate Night with HELIX: Acoustic songs and story telling.
I'm sure there will be some hiccups tonight (especially integrating the songs & film so they run together smoothly in the set) but the fun thing is that the music sounds great, and everyone is pumped to have a good time. There's always an edginess when you're putting something new together. Everyone is "on their toes" so to speak, and there's always that adrenaline pumpin', 'cos after all, nobody wants to make an ass of themselves in front of an audience. LOL.
Hope my two fur babies know why we're abandoning them for the day. I think they will, especially since we got Faith to come in and feed 'em around six...
