It was several hours til show time and instead of resting and taking it easy before the show, I was outside with a shovel in the pouring rain. The Shallow creek outside of my house was threatening to overflow and I didn't want my basement to get flooded again. It was an odd year as far as the weather goes because we were getting downpours like we had never seen before so I was digging a temporary drainage ditch and piling up the mud along the front and side of my house. I had some mixed emotions going on inside my mind. I was somewhat angry that I was outside digging in the mud and getting soaked and I was also anxious at the thought of this show getting canceled or turning into my band Haymaker on stage playing to an empty field. After I was finished with my fortification duties I went inside and checked the weather. At this point things were still bad outside but according to the forecast there was a window of opportunity for this show to go on.
By the time I had arrived at the Quaker City Motorsports park in Salem,Ohio the rain had stopped. I felt a sense of relief and was hopeful that this show was still going to rock. Besides the weather everything leading up to this show had gone fairly well except for the fact that our drummer was playing with an injured foot and of course there were the usual lowlife moves of other bands trying to steal or latch on to the show. It's definitely not the norm around the Ohio Valley area but there are a few who are willing to stab you in the back when they get the chance. In the past a promoter had received a phone call from a scum sucker stating that Haymaker has an injured band member and there's no way he's going to be able play a 90 minute set and we'd like to help out by taking some of that time.
Anyway due to the rain there was a modest crowd in attendance for this Super Nats Show. Our intro music was playing and I was pumped to play for this crowd. As I ran out to the front of the stage with the grey sky as a dreary back drop and the wind gusting, I felt we Haymaker The Rock Band were unstoppable. This performance to me stands out as our best show. You would have never known our drummer was suffering with a fractured foot. He played his ass off. Even though it took us a few songs to really pull this crowd in, from the very start it was evident that we were happy to be there playing the Rock-n-Roll music we love so much. After we were finished with our set I felt like a real Rock Star. The people in the crowd wanted our autographs and I was in quite a few pictures. Ha ha ,one guy told me that him and his wife were sitting around their camp fire and when he heard us performing Magic Power he said come on honey we gotta go over to that the concert, Rik Emmett is over there.
So that was our show and it seemed to me that Warrant the headliner didn't really get the crowd response we did because it was a sucky circumstance for them and on this night they were a band just going through the motions. Don't get me wrong they sounded great and their vocalist Robert Mason is top notch. Like I said they just didn't seem to really be that into it.
I have to admit, it was a little disappointing that the guys from Warrant weren't willing to get a picture or even socialize with us but really no different than Skid Row.
So on our way home from the Super Nats the year before we hit a deer and the bad luck continued cause when I got home from this year's show all of my pre-show work was for nothing. We had no power and a foot of water in the basement. I guess that's how this program is written, if something really cool happens something else equally uncool has to counterbalance it out. Rock-n-Roll My Friends \m/
