Mid Life Crisis

I have a few more pictures to add but they have to be edited for size.  We played the Monsoon Room for the first time Saturday and we were quite impressed.  A dressing room for us (you can see the rare & elusive Joanne enjoying the plasma TV) and a very nice stage with several lighting options.  We inadvertantly keep some people waiting for the doors to open - seems the staff there thought we were still doing sound checks.  The room felt very empty at first - it is quite large - and we had to get used to the fact that there was no TV or casino noise filtering in.  With the lights it was also difficult to see people in audience.  The crowd finally started to build around 9 and was very active until 11:30 or so.  We kept dancers going until the very end.  I think next time we will crank it up a bit more and bring a few more cumbias with us.  A special thanks goes out to our Green Valley friends who made the journey (Nancy & Muggs among others) and it was so good to see John & Liz Denbo along with Rick & Thalia.  I really hope we get the chance to come back and get a few more people out to enjoy this classy club.

Gilbert Castillo

We have to keep reminding ourselves that this is a Sports Bar and there will be delays during playoffs & major sporting events.  We had a lot of good friends there from Green Valley and Quail Creek (Gloria, birthday girl Eileen, Muggs & Sue) along with Steve’s family (including his mom) so there was some grumbling when we were told we had to wait for the completion of the Laker’s/Jazz game.  Our buddies behind the bar got us approval to play at halftime and we had a good enough crowd on the dance floor to convince them that we could start again at the end of the third quarter.  Thanks to all our friends that came out danced until midnight.  We had a few couples left at closing time - we appreciate that, it’s never fun to play to an empty floor.  I hope we’re back here before the end of summer, it’s always good to bring out the rockers & newer songs.  By the way, that last picture is of Denise & Jim Kramer - they were celebrating their anniversary - extra special since they are both drivers and spend a lot of time apart.  I’m glad we helped them celebrate.

Gilbert Castillo

We made our long anticipated return to Sun City this Saturday and it would seem a good time was had by all.  Bob, Khang & Steve (me too) really like this stage and the acoustics.  It was strange to drive north on a Saturday night, all our vehicles seem to veer left on auto pilot, but the folks here are just as enthusiastic as the Valley folk.  Thanks to Kris Cohen and the Kactus Kickers for letting us be part of their 20th anniversary celebration.  We had a variety of requests and we were able to meet most of them and we have some more songs to consider.  It looks like we’ll have a few more Oro Valley gigs in our future - we look forward to coming ’round the mountain soon.

Gilbert Castillo