EUPHORIA GIGS

As I said in the last blog, Curtis would pull out his phone books and call everyone. This was Skyline High in 1975. There was a senior that I saw a number of our gigs. We never talked and I don’t know why. I was never full of myself and didn’t really put on airs about who I “thought” I was (I‘ll share an example of that in one of the memorable gigs). Years later someone showed me his picture with his name, and of course I remember seeing Tom Hanks at our gigs. Whether he remembers Euphoria is a different story…maybe I’ll get to ask him one day.

In 1975, some of the seniors at Skyline didn’t approve of the bands for the school’s senior ball…so these people got together and formulated the Skyline High Senior Toast which became a tradition for a few years (I played two of them). This first one was at the Finnish Brotherhood Hall in Berkeley, CA. The opening act was Mile High (later 415 and part of the Eric Martin Band). We were second bill, and the headliner was a band called Mainstream. Second Bill proved to be a great spot for us. Up until this time, I was the reluctant guitarist, scared to death on stage. But the 500+ audience recognized me from all the playing I had done for them on a more intimate level in the parks one on one as I practiced (7days a week,10 hours a day…I was dedicated). The crowd went crazy and so did I, thus the birth of Krazy Dave. The crowd roared from the beginning, and I was changed that day from mouse to manic!!! Everything we played was golden that day. They ran out of alcohol and asked us to announce they were taking up a collection for more booze. We did the songs Fire and Water by Free and Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers by ZZ Top, and they raised $300.00 for more beer. We came out and did an encore, and had to do another, which is a song I still get great responses from the crowd when I do it, Too Rolling Stoned by Robin Trower. The headline band wanted their time on stage and the crowd wasn’t letting us off. I stepped out from behind that lead curtain to a deafening roar of a great audience…the natural high lasted for longer than I had lost my voice (which was 2 weeks for the voice). I thanked them and told them while we would have loved playing all night for them, there was one more band. That night inspired a Euphoria song called Sea of Faces. An exert of that song is:

“Looking down from upon this stage, the lion roars from within its cage,
Smile on us as we do on you, for you have made us do what we could never do,”

The next gig was up in a district of the Oakland Hills called Montclair, off a street called Estates. We were playing a house party that packed out quick. We had roped off a nice sized area in the back yard, because the Senior Toast gig had done something to us….like I said we got wild. I was a dark summer night and I had a new visual effect I was trying out in the song Burn. I had been working with the brother of Phil Kennemore (friend and bass player for Y&T), Jeff Kennemore (who was a magician and great makeup artist that later worked in Hollywood). He was teaching me how to shoot flames from my fingers. I couldn’t coordinate the flashgun (tube with a hammer and cap), so I decided to do it with a lit cigarette. Well….I had too much flash paper and because of the length of the song, my cigarette had burned pretty low. This is not to mention I had long frizzy hair. Right before my solo, I touched the flash paper to the end of the cigarette and threw the paper. I saw a big flash, figured everything was okay, and started my solo. The band was messing up so I looked over to see why. Here is Perry almost falling off his drums laughing and Ned and Bob are pointing at me laughing as well. I don’t understand what is going on until I realize there is a light on my right side that seems to be following me around. It was then I realized, MY HAIR IS ON FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I slapped it out quickly, put my head down and “blazed” a solo faster than anything I had ever done. The crowd thought it was so cool they wanted me to do it again. I later worked with a guy who was at that gig. He nicknamed me “Flame”. Later on the cops came and broke up the party. It was a three paddy wagon night.

The last one takes us back to the Finnish Brotherhood Hall. I am in one of the bands playing the gig. One of the people comes up to me and asks who the bands are. I told him that I was in one of the bands. He asked me if I was any good. I replied that I could play like a ringing-a-bell, but if he didn’t like our style he wouldn’t like us. I went on to ask him to give us a listen and at the end of our set to give us his opinion and if there was anything he felt we needed to change or do better to let me know. At the end of our performance, he came up ranting and raving of how great we were and I am not one for having someone put me on a pedestal. So I asked him what he did for a living. He told me he was a carpenter building track homes one of the local towns. I looked him in the eyes and said so you build things and get to see the fruits of your labor? He replied yes, so I told him that I wish I could do that. I wanted him to see how valuable he was and that we were no different from one another and to look at me eye to eye not above him. Humble things like that from a 23 year old rocker is how I now know GOD was there with me keeping me teachable and reachable. And no…I didn’t tell him that I was building custom homes in a wealthy part of the Bay Area as a day gig.

And now as I play for GOD, I can’t be His vessel if I am full of myself (thought taken from a Mother Theresa quote).