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DAZE WORK: AHB brings us rock ’n’ roll in the age of COVID
In a year that has turned life upside down for me and you and a dog named Boo, it’s nice to know there’s one constant we can latch onto -- an annual Average House Band gig in Greencastle.
A little thing like a pandemic wasn’t going to keep Greencastle’s Boys of Summer, everybody’s favorite hometown band, from another reunion. Well, sort of. More on that later.
But if ever AHB needed a reason to put the band back together and soothe the Greencastle psyche and assure us that all is right with the world -- at least for two hours -- this is it.
Proof that you can’t keep good men down, Average House Band will play 8-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10 at Wasser Brewing Co., 102 E. Franklin St.
Reservations are required. Remember, it’s a smaller venue, unlike the banquet room at the Inn at DePauw where a couple hundred would comfortably party all night the last several years.
“We are on for Oct. 9 and 10,” guitarman Steve Michael assured. “But we are still keeping an eye on the COVID situation. Wasser and the band are both able to cancel if we see things going the wrong way.
“It’s just a regular bar gig with Wasser reserving tables for both nights,” Michael, who’s played such gigs for more than 50 years, added.
The only reason the band is doing this appearance at all, he said, is because Danny Martin is coming home from California for his mother’s birthday.
“We are limited on space and we can’t play outside,” Michael noted, “and we don’t want this to turn into a big super-spreader. I’ve already told the hotel (Inn at DePauw) we’re doing a COVID post prom when this is all behind us. That being said, we aren’t charging a cover charge.”
Michael said the AHB appearance is not really a reunion show since drummer Fred Badalli isn’t coming up from Florida this time. While Fred, who usually shares drum duties with Rod Kersey, won’t be there, all the other usual suspects will. Michael and Sandy Williams will be rocking out on guitar while Bill Hamm wails away on bass. They marked their 40th reunion at the inn in 2018.
“It’s really not the reunion as Fred isn’t coming,” Michael reasoned. “We want to emphasize social distancing, proper hygiene, etc. All the stuff that goes out the window for the usual AHB gig.”
OK, so this may not be the reunion show we’re used to but it’s the best we’re going to get in 2020.
While the guys keep acting each reunion like it may be their last hurrah -- what with some band members eclipsing the 70 years of age mark now -- last year’s event at the inn was the 12th reunion show for the group that rocked Greencastle in the 1970s and 1980s. Overall it’s not just the music but a shared local experience of long-ago nights at places like Old Topper and Mr. Ron’s that keeps people coming back every year.
And now that COVID has wiped out any hopes of a 2020 reunion show, any one-more-last chance the Greencastle faithful gets to see and hear AHB is a good one.
Before last year’s show Michael noted, “I’m 70. Rod will be 71 in November. Bill will be retiring. Sandy’s younger than us, but not by much. Danny’s older than me,” Michael said. “We’ve got a lot of years. Over 300 years of rock ‘n’ roll between us.”
That’s nothing. Let’s not forget the Rolling Stones are all closing in on 80. And Mick Jagger promised years ago that he’d “rather die than still be singing ‘Satisfaction’ at 45.”
Guitar wiz Sandy Willliams, the Average House Band version of Eric Clapton who has played behind the likes of Idina Menzel, John Waters, Liza Minnelli, Steve Earle and Michael Feinstein’s live PBS special, tells me that “AHB has provided some of my favorite musical moments.”
Williams reminisced about AHB as the group prepares for its Friday and Saturday gigs.
“The band never had a leader, though Danny was really the ‘front man,’” Williams noted. “It really operated as a team. We never had to wear KISS outfits, but once or twice a year, when we had a wedding or Christmas party gig, we would take the wardrobe up a notch from our usual Old Toppers or Bainbridge Tap garb. That being said, Danny definitely had a signature look, the ever-present hat and sunglasses. It got to the point where there were a couple of Danny impostors running around Greencastle. That’s when you know you’ve ‘made it’ in Putnam County!”
Williams said he has always enjoyed having friends come play music with the group.
“I fondly remember gigs with guests Kenny Aronoff, Mike Wanchic and David Grissom,” he said. “I remember playing at Bainbridge Tap when, by the end of ‘Living on Tulsa Time,’ Steve, Danny, David and I were standing on the tables rocking out as if we were playing an arena. That was around the time I discovered that it might be a good idea to wear earplugs.”
So whether there will ever be another true reunion or not, the 2019 show will always be near and dear to my heart (literally). It marked my coming out party after months of hospitalization and rehab at Mill Pond. In fact, when daughter Kara packed me up and toted my wheelchair over to the inn, we really weren’t sure how long we’d be able to stay. Maybe until intermission. But baby, I rocked the night away. Stayed until the bitter end and made it back to Mill Pond before violating midnight curfew.
The AHB boys certainly lifted my spirits a year ago. Maybe they can do the same for all of us here in 2020.
Ah, rock ‘n’ roll in the time of COVID ...