Retros pt. II

So, it continues...
I left out one parties the Retros played. It was pretty minor as it was basically a private house party. I don't remember what the connection was that got us the gig but basically, someone hired us to play for their party at their house. It was a really small turnout, maybe 30 people and we got maybe $100. Which wasn't bad in those days. It was kind of weird playing to that small of a group. Made more so because we were basically set-up in the living room (which was small) and were facing a couch and stairs. But, it was a gig and it was a tune-up before playing out at our first paying gig. I'm mentioning it here more as historical fact. Otherwise it was pretty insignificant (other than the idea of someone paying us specifically to play for them-a first for a punk band in St.Louis?).

The first gig in a club came at No Name Disco (currently/recently the Funny Bone). Mondays were slow for them so, the manager decided to try "punk night." Cool Jerk made the initial foray into the club and the rest of us found the opening to get a gig.

We were all nervous about going out. While playing a party for free was one thing, expecting people ot pay for us was totally another. The expectations were completely different. We decided to "show" it up a bit. One of us would go out first, start a riff then, be followed by each of the others, until the full band were on stage. While it made more sense for Steve to go out first and lay down the beat, somehow I was drafted to be first. Nice, not only did I go out and start the bass line of an instrumental we come up with but, Steve, who was next to come out, left me hanging there for a good long time (seemed like hours) before he graced his kit. While I had set a pace, when Steve came out, he immediately sped it up by double. Don came out and then Chuck who, proclaimed "I'm Chuck and we're the Retros!" And we set off into what became out signature opener "One Chord Wonders," an Adverts cover. Great song for starting out our show. The audience consisted of mostly the folks who came to our party gigs and friends. It was good. I remember us performing a pretty good set. After the nerves settled down in the first few songs, we even had some fun. There were a couple of live recordings of the show (back then it was portable cassette recorders. None of this digital recording technology of the current era) that sound pretty decent. Not audiophile quality but, a very listenable document of the performance.

More to come...