Average House Band back for reunion show

Thursday, August 2, 2012
Average House Band members (from left) Sandy Williams, Danny Martin, Fred Badalli, Bill Hamm, Steve Michael and Rod Kersey will be back at the Inn at DePauw Aug. 10-11 for their sixth annual reunion show.

Chickens may come home to roost. The swallows may come back to Capistrano. But the Greencastle's Average House Band?

They come home for a good time and a chance to party like it's 1975.

Yes, Average House Band -- the group perhaps most synonymous with the Greencastle music scene -- will make its annual return next week for one of the local events of the summer.

AHB will reunite for a sixth reunion show Friday and Saturday, Aug. 10 and 11 at The Inn at DePauw. Doors open at 8 p.m. with the show set to start at 9.

As usual, the AHB lineup will include Sandy Williams on guitar, Danny Martin on lead vocals and guitar, Steve Michael on guitar, Bill Hamm on bass with Rod Kersey and Fred Badalli on drums.

"They've all got a little less hair or it's a little more gray," Michael said, "but the boys are all revved up and ready to go."

While Average House Band was a staple of the local music scene over much of the 1970s and 1980s, band members have migrated from the area to such locations as California and Florida. Yet despite the distance, they annually return for what has become a summer music staple.

At least that's how it's played out over the first five years.

"I've never seen that may people over 50 dance without injury," laughed Michael, who himself survived the local "Dancing with the Stars" competition in 2011.

"Interestingly," Michael added, "we now have a lot of twentysomethings and thirtysomethings who come to the show now because they heard about it and heard what a good time it was."

Average House Band will entertain with rock and roll, blues and country numbers, just like the good old days down at Old Topper Tavern or elsewhere.

"When we played, it was really a good time for music in general," Michael reasoned.

"And we introduced a lot of people to each other who became married couples in town after we were playing together the night they met or had their first dance together.

"We were like big ducks in a small pond," he added.

Concertgoers will hear "the same old songs ... the songs they came to hear," Michael said.

The music, the people and the local experience should allow for reminiscing about nights at Old Topper, Mr. Ron's or even D.B. Cooper's.

"We have some of the D. B. Cooper guys coming in for a reunion weekend," Michael warned, "so that should be fun."

He's already taken reservations from Florida, California, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois for Aug. 10-11 shows.

"So all roads lead to the Average House Band," Michael laughed.

The event will include a cash bar and hors d'oeuvres menu, along with a nightly 50/50 drawing with the profits being donated to the Greencastle High School Alumni Association. Aside from Martin (a Reelsville product) and Badalli (who is from Dyer), the band members are all GHS graduates.

Meanwhile, the Danny Martin "Touch of Mink" VIP Package is again available, featuring a reserved table with seating for 10 for $100. All tables are gone for Saturday, however.

Friday and Saturday will again feature the annual mink coat drawings (your admission ticket gets you into the raffle), while on Friday night Michael will award a special prize -- a "genuine muskrat coat" he bought off eBay last year.

"It's beyond description," he says of the coat.

And judging from past experience, that's the way the evenings with AHB will go as well.

For table reservations or more information, persons may contact Michael at 721-3913 or online at smichael@cinergymetro.net.

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  • LOVE YOU GUYS!

    -- Posted by lhmh on Thu, Aug 2, 2012, at 2:49 PM
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