FTV: Twig Gigs

     Reading Rik Emmitt’s biography Lay It On The Line (ECW Press – 2023), I especially enjoyed the tales he recounted from various bands he was in over more than fifty years in the music biz.  I am not just talking about high profile shows with the band Triumph, but various anecdotes going all the way back to gigs he did in his first bands.  At first I thought it would be fun to revisit one of the most memorable gigs from each of the four bands I played with over the years, but there were too many.  I couldn’t narrow it down to one per band.  Instead, I will give each group its due and take them separately, but to do that, I will need to spread the story out over a few articles.  To keep from wearing out my welcome, these will be spread out over a few months.  As the title suggests, we will start with the first band that actually played for money during our senior year in high school circa 1970-71 – The Twig.

     The origins of The Twig actually go back to the spring of 1969.  As sophomores, Mike Kesti, Gene Betts, and yours truly were involved in the Marquette Senior High School production of the musical Bye Bye Birdie.  Mike was on stage playing an acoustic guitar during some of the numbers, Gene was one of the stage hands, and I was playing drums in the pit orchestra.  Gene and I had jammed at his house a few times but with me lugging a cymbal, stand, and snare drum to his house because his brother would not let him take his guitar out of the house (yet).  Before some rehearsals, Ron, the upright bass player in the orchestra, and I would play little snippets of tunes to amuse ourselves.  Eventually, Mike came over and added some guitar.  At one point MIke, Gene, and I tried to meet early before a Saturday play practice to jam, but the building was locked up tight.  We ended up at someone’s house listening to a Mothers of Invention album to kill some time before we returned for rehearsal.

     The first time we actually played music together was at the cast party held when the play wrapped.  The play’s director ‘suggested’ we might like to bring our instruments to The Chalet supper club for the festivities.  Still four months from getting my driver’s license, I had to get dropped off and picked up by my folks.  We obviously had not planned for this, but between Mike, Ron, and Gene, the three of them knew enough popular songs to keep us going for a couple of hours.  Mike Cleary was the lead singer of a local band called The French Church was also in the play, so it was fun to have him up there doing his lead singer thing.  Before we packed up, Gene, Mike, and I discussed getting together when school was out to jam some more.  Mike said, “I am getting a job in the kitchen at the hospital.  By summer I should have enough to buy a bass guitar and build my own amp.”  A perfect plan for the late 1960s time period – we set our sights on being a power-trio. 

     We began doing rehearsals at my house and the more we played together, the more obvious it became that we could indeed become a band.  Having sung along with records over the past three as I learned to play the drums years, I wasn’t shy at all about singing.  I had also acted as a rehearsal drummer two summers earlier for a band made up of my older sisters’ high school classmates.  I thought they were going to ask me to join the Self Winding Grapefruit, but their regular drummer put two and two together and actually started showing up for their band practices.  I got more experience during my freshman year acting as a rehearsal drummer for three NMU students from Detroit who needed a drummer and a place to jam to keep sharp for their summer gigs back home.  I was more than ready to get our own thing going so we hatched a plan:  woodshed junior year, rehearse weekly, and be playing paying gigs by the fall of 1970.

     Mike got us involved playing for Messiah Lutheran Church’s ‘youth’ services.  This gave us an opportunity to play a few informal parties in their fellowship hall.  It was always fun to get out of the basement and play in a larger room with people attending.  This paid dividends when the youth pastor asked us to play a youth event at a church in Gladstone and in a church-run tent cafe at the State Fair in Escanaba (both in the summer of 1970).  We did get a ‘pass the hat’ paying gig playing for the Red Owl grocery store staff party held at one of the stocker’s home on Baraga Avenue.  Mike Cleary also worked there (as did my brother who suggested us for the gig) so we got to play with an actual lead singer for the second time.  I had borrowed a base drum and mounted tom tom from the school and this was the only time I attempted to play a double bass kit.  It was a novel idea but I was perfectly happy to go back to my old four piece set up.  

     When the summer of 1970 arrived, I knew we were going to be playing real gigs soon.  The first hint was when Mike quit his part time job.  The second was all of us joining the American Federation of Musicians Local 209.  Being dues paying members of the AFM opened up more opportunities to play for pay as many places would not hire bands who were not affiliated.  The first actual AFM job we paid ‘work dues’ for was a one off outdoor gig for one of NMU’s summer band camps.  We didn’t have enough equipment or songs, but just the same, we set up on the front steps of the Forest Roberts Theater and played our 90 minutes worth of tunes.  We thought we were done, but the organizer suggested the kids would be fine if a) they could stay out longer and b) that we simply play our entire set list again.  Our next rehearsal put us on track to start learning at least two new songs everytime we got together.

     Before we could play bigger places, we needed more equipment.  To fill out the sound of our  trio, Mike and Gene decided to buy extra Fender cabinets so they both would have speakers on each side of the stage.  This helped them hear each other better and it expanded our sound.  Mike built our PA amp and we bought some new PA speakers (which he paired with a set of used treble horn type speakers he found somewhere).  A quick trip to Anderson’s Electronics for new microphones and we were in business just in time to play a high school dance after the first home football game.  This was a memorable first gig because we thought it went pretty well.  We did find, however,  we needed to upgrade to better PA speakers.  The first speakers sounded great in my basement but not so much when pushed to fill a gymnasium.

     Mike printed up some band business cards and we started giving them out whenever we got an opportunity.  Once we played a frat party out at the old Cliffs Ridge Ski Chalet, our weekend bookings began to pile up.  It was kind of awesome to have to tell someone, “Gee, we are sorry – we already have a job that night.”  In order of enjoyment, the high school dances were probably the best time because there were always a lot of bodies in the gym.  Frat parties were also a gas because we got to see a good deal of Animal House behavior before the movie ever happened.

The first frat party we did at the ski chalet was interesting.  A group of the frat boy’s girl friends came over during one break to make some requests.  We were enjoying the attention until one of them sat on Gene’s lap and her BF took exception.  The frat president cooled things down by reminding the offended boyfriend that it would not be much of a party if the band got beat up.

We took that as our cue that the break was over and it was time for them to burn off some of that aggressive energy on the dance floor.

     We played frat parties at various locations.  Getting to Club 41 in Ishpeming during a terrific snowstorm was no fun but once the crowd arrived, it was a good time (and the weather cleared before the drive home).  Playing at an actual frat house was not much different than the Red Owl Christman party gig.  The best frat gig, however, was in the second floor Odd Fellows meeting hall on the corner of Bluff and Third Street.  Carrying equipment up the steep stairs was a challenge and the place was hotter than blazes.  It was a sub-zero winter night and they had bottles chilling on the outside sill of the windows which were open to cool the place down.  The sound in this room was amazing and we nailed our four sets without any major mistakes.  This was the first gig we did Savage Grace’s 1984 and a couple of new Grand Funk songs.  When Savage Grace vocalist / bass player Al Jacquez was in Ontonagon a decade ago with his band Measured Chaos, it was fun to relate to him that we were the only band in Marquette playing one of their tunes.

     The funniest moment we had took place at a Thanksgiving Dance held at the Northwoods Supper Club.  The sorority and fraternity that sponsored it asked for ‘dinner music’ while they finished their meal and set up the dance floor.  They were nicely dressed and we began to wonder if this was going to be a dull evening.  Once they got on the dance floor, however, it became just another Animal House party sans the togas.  They were still clearing the buffet during our second set when one fellow grabbed an enormous drumstick he carried with him out to the dance floor.  At some point, he looked at Gene, and then held up the giant turkey leg to see if he wanted to take a bite.  Gene was game, nodded yes, and took a huge chomp out of it when it was presented to him.  Mike came next before the turkey guy wound his way around the amps and stuck the drumstick in my face.  I got less of a bite than Gene did but could not avoid getting a face full of grease.  I always kept a towel hung on my mic stand to wipe my face and I remember my mother asking me why it smelled of turkey after this gig.

     The only other time I thought we might be in for a bit of a tussle was after a double bill we played at a teen dance at the old Baraga High School gym.  We were invited to do the first and third set by the other band’s leader, Ron Phillips.  Sweat Equity had a homemade set of lights one of their buddies would control.  Ron asked Mike if we wanted to have him do lights for us as well.  Mike agreed but took umbrage when the light guy asked for five bucks when we were packing up.  Gene and I had no idea Mike refused to pay the kid, but when it looked like his friends were going to come and collect one way or another, Gene spoke up.  He said, “Ah, Mike, you would rather get beat up than give this guy five bucks?  He did do lights for us, so give him the five and let’s go home.”  Whether or not Ron was aware of all this at the time I can’t say, but he later apologized that his ‘crew’ had threatened us.  I assured him that it was all a misunderstanding.  We were glad to have gotten the gig and Mike probably should have let us in on the deal before he put us all in a ‘bad light’ (pun intended).

     Probably my favorite dance we played was also held at the old Bishop Baraga High School.  The school had closed the year before and there was a group of locals working to turn it into a youth center.  We didn’t know it at the time, but a couple of our classmates on the committee actually funded a dance held in the school’s main rotunda.  It was a beautiful space with several levels of wide platforms encircling the building’s central hall.  We were set up on the second level from the top and an overflow crowd literally surrounded us.  That was the only time I ever got to perform in that type of setting and it was kind of exciting to see wall to wall kids in every direction.  Sadly, this project was never able to attract enough funding and the school building itself was torn down (leaving only the gym that became part of the county office complex).

     Mike, Gene, and I ended up playing a short impromptu set at The Northwoods Supper Club on the night of our graduation party.  Some students from every graduating class in Marquette seemed to make it to the big bash out on the Sands Plains toward the old KI Sawyer Air Force Base.  I had no intention of going there and was happy to see how many of our classmates   attended the ‘official’ graduation party at the Northwoods.  We had a great meal and at some point, a couple of our class officers approached the band they had hired to ask if we could play a couple of tunes.  I always hated when people asked to play our equipment so it would not have been my idea to do that to another band.  They were gracious enough to say yes and the first we heard about it, their leader ‘invited us’ to come up and play a couple of songs.  I do not remember how many we did, but I do remember the drummer’s kit was set up so low I had a hard time playing it.  Being six foot tall, I always set my drums, throne, and cymbals pretty high.  In this case, I found myself hitting my legs trying to play rolls on the snare drum.  It was okay but I was glad it wasn’t our last show together. 

      The last dance we played took place in the early summer of 1971.  We were booked to play the first dance at the newly remodeled youth center in Munising.  They had a nice stage and the room sounded great.  Our friend Nick came along to capture the event with his camera but I can not say that I ever saw any of the photos he took.  We were charged up and after all the time we played together, we finished The Twig with one of the best shows we had ever done.  We used to start our last set with an instrumental version of the Theme from Tommy – big chords and a lot of energetic drum fills.  We played it as an instrumental because we found we couldn’t sing it properly.  When we started the last set, the kids came streaming in from the basement snack bar waving and hollering like we were The Who on stage.  The hour drive home was filled with a lot of reminiscing about some of the gigs we had done.  

     When we met up the next day for Mike and Gene to collect their equipment from my dad’s pickup truck, it finally hit us that we were done.  Mike was headed to Michigan Tech in the fall and Gene was planning to work at the gas station by his house for the summer.  Two weeks later I got a call to work at the Huron Mountain Club and I spent six days a week there until Labor Day.  I doubt we would have picked up any stray gigs after the last one so that was that.  My one day off per week didn’t leave much time for anything but a quick laundry trip home and a little catching up with my buddies before I began my freshman year at NMU.  Maybe it was a good thing I ended up working out of town – it didn’t leave me much time to lament the end of The Twig.  Incidentally, our first name for the band was ‘The Bight’ but we got really tired of having to spell it for people.  It was Gene who came up with The Twig, we were fine with the change.

 

Top Piece video:  Fire was one of the first songs we learned and were really happy to have Mike Cleary sing it with us.  Having the lead singer of a real band say, “Hey, that was cool – let’s play it again” gave us a real shot in the arm as we were prepping to start playing real gigs for money in 1970.