A Blowout In Becker

Sunday January 13th, 2008 - Becker, MN/Lake Villa, IL

Paybacks are a mother. I owed a booker a favor so I took a gig in Becker, MN which is a 430 mile drive from where I live. The booker lives in Superior, WI and has booked me a few times when I really needed the money and I owe him so that’s why I took it. He said I would love this place but it sure wasn’t love at first sight. I walked in wanted to go home.

It’s a rock bar in the middle of nowhere that seats about 3-400. Becker is about halfway between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud and there’s no direct route to get there. I had to go on some back roads to get there and when I got there I saw about 10 people in the joint. It wasn’t very encouraging when I told the lady at the door I was a comedian. She looked at me like I had just urinated on her biker jacket and she probably could have kicked my ass.

I was promised a prime rib dinner and there was one little piece of meat left on the table which turned out to be a pool table with food on it. This place had red flag all over it and I seriously thought about getting back in my car and coming home. I have to be at WLS for Jerry’s show tomorrow morning and I’ll be dragging anyway but a head start would help.

The walls were decorated with all the ‘80s hair bands that played there recently. I could tell that’s probably their niche and that’s ok. No matter how bad my life gets I would NOT want to be a member of Warrant or Poison or Ratt that has to play here after playing huge arenas in their prime. I would think it hurts a lot more to do it now. I’m just here for cash.

Surprisingly the meal was very good and it got to be show time and there was no opener to be found. The lady in charge came over and said this was their staff Christmas party and there were only about 30 people in a room that seats 300. That was a bigger red flag and it made me just want to pay for my meal and get in the car and drive home. Who needs this?

I tried to be as nice as I could and politely asked her what she wanted me to do. She was not really sure and asked if I’d go up and just do my show without an opener. I told her to call the booker and see if he’d heard from the opener and she did that. Apparently he had a problem finding the place and then got pulled over and was going to be at least a half hour later than he already was. I told her I’d go up and do what I could until he could get there.

She looked at me like I was her hero and they were all very polite so I went up and tried to give them a show. It was their party and I wanted them to have fun and they wanted the same thing. Boy am I glad I stayed. They were REALLY into it and I could do no wrong. I had them from the first five seconds and proceeded to tear the roof off that joint tonight.

It’s amazing how chemistry works on some nights. I thought this would be absolute hell but it was exactly the opposite. I did an hour and twelve minutes and didn’t even do all of my material. I didn’t even do my closer which destroys most of the time. I didn’t need it. I had everything else working and ad libbed a lot and just totally plugged into these people. I had a blast and then the opener finally got there as I was finishing up. I had to get a start on my driving and didn’t watch his set but I’m sure he had a hard time following that one.