Well, in 1993 I moved to Santa Rosa California to be more commited to the Band " Strikes
Twice". A good friend of mine, Kris Keefer, hooked me up for an audition for the band about 9 monthes earlier. I was commuting
about once a week from Sacramento to go to rehearsels and shows. Its about 95 miles one way. I got real good at eating and
driving.
I remember when I got the audition I was headed for Europe to visit my brother so I took
the tape with me and listened to it over and over. When I got back I sat down and practiced like crazy. I loved the songs
so they were fun to learn.
When I showed up for the audition the old drummer was there breaking down his set which made
me a bit more nervous. I had prepared myself to sing some harmonies to the songs which they didn't ask me to do but I was
ready. These guys were at a higher level than me and that was great. Playing with them just made me a better musician.
The audition went great and my first gig with them was a battle of the bands...talk about pressure...We did really well and
took second place. All of us could sing and there wasn't another band out there with vocals like us. I still remember doing
sound checks before the show and we would do some harmonies. The other bands there would just stop what they were doing and
there mouths would drop open....it was great.....
We played a lot in the bay area and got a chance to open for some great bands.....Night Ranger,
Eric Martin, The Tubes, Greg Kinn, Jonathan Cain....At The Tubes show there must have been 800 people. Man That was so cool....Alittle
taste of the good life...
On two separate occations we played six days in Reno. Six days in a row, six sets a night.
We started at 10pm and went till 4am if I remember correctly. Oh my goodness. And the band
house that was across the street was pretty...well...original. The mattresses were shaped like a U with plywood under them
to try and make them straight. We didn't use them much. By the time we decided to go to sleep the sun was coming up. Bologna
AnyOne!!!!!!! I do have to say that the times in Reno were a lot of fun though. I will never forget it.
There came a point when Gary and I decided to write some songs together. We came up with
the idea to start an all original band and came up with the name "Cinema". In this band I would be the lead singer and we
would get a new drummer. As it turned out, all the members of "Strikes Twice" were in this new band with the addition
of Jerry Fox.( who was the drummer in Stikes Twice before me.) We wrote enough songs to do one set, so we booked a gig at
Magnolias to see what happened. We also did a 4 song demo. I was very happy with the results of that demo and everybody played so
well on it. Gary sold his piano to pay for his half of the demo and I used my credit card for the other. It was worth
it. Gary eventually got his piano back. The gig went pretty good. We got a good responce.
About that time things started to change. Larry decide to move back to Missouri. Steve, our
bass player had a baby( actually his wife did ). Things just kind of stopped. Not much was going on for a while so I decide
to move back to Sacramento.
It's weird how things change. I miss my friends in Santa Rosa. I will say that those times
in Santa Rosa were some of the best times that I had ever had. I grew a lot living there and made some really good friends.......MULLETS!!!!!!
