BJJuly 17  sundaynite:

julyBrookhaven Amphitheater, Brookhaven, Long Island, NY

TWISTED SISTER, WASP, LA Guns, Stephen Pearcy, In Concert!

What a weekend it was!  It all started monday afternoon. I received a phone call from Colleen ,”Hi, are you the guy from Sam Ash Music store , that performs solo acoustic?”   “Yes,I sure do” I replied thinking I have another  booking  for my solo acoustic guitar show.  “I  am having a party  this friday at the ‘beach club’ I belong to and we would like you to play some Beatles, Eagles, ect..” “Great,I am your man!”, I said confidently back to her. She then said to my surprise,”Oh  one last thing, it’s LADIES NITE no men will be allowed!”   “Well well , I  know can handle that.” I said  laughing with her.  “See you at eight” I said as I hung up the phone.

A moment later my wife walks by,” Did you book a gig for this weekend?”  “Yeah at the beach club”I said proudly “And for your information , its ladies nite only”

“What night are you performing?” she asked me  “Friday at eight”  “Oh good thing it was not sunday, you promised JJ you would  go to his Twisted Sister gig  here on Long Island”  “Your right again”, I said  back to her knowing she is always  seems to be right about these sort of things.

Then I thought to my self,    “What a weekend”  “A gig with the  ‘desperate house wives’ of the beach club  (with open bar ofcourse) followed by  the  kickass hard rock fanfare of my boys ,Twisted Sister!”

Friday nite arrived and I set up my portable PA system and drum machine accompaniment on the deck over looking the beach and the ocean. To my surprise  over 100 women arrived and the only  guys there were the two caterers and myself!  As you could imagine after a few white wines and several comopolitions, the  gals sure had a great time!  By the last set,they were dancing on the beach. (I always seem to sound better the more the audience drinks!)

After a successful friday nite performance for the ladies I was more then ready to rock with my pals Twisted Sister!  Sunday afternoon my girlfriend and I were having an early dinner seated outside at one of the many fine Italian restaurants on Long Island.  Just as our waitress arrived to serve our drinks, my cell phone rang.

“ Hey Stevie this is JJ, your coming to my gig tonight, right?”  “ I’ll be there, I never miss a Twisted Sister gig you know that!”  I noticed something about JJ voice. Usually we are very loose, fun and casual on the phone, but I sensed there was a problem, before he could tell me, I asked, “whets up bro, is their something wrong?”

“Steve my wireless system and all of my accessories, power supplies and even my cables are delayed in Minnesota!” I knew right away where this was leading.

“Ok JJ I’ll call the manager of Sam Ash here on Long Island and have   the stuff you need picked up”  “Thanks Steve, I knew I could count on you!”   Just as I turned to my wife to explain the situation my cell phone rings again. This time it’s Eddie O’jeda the other guitarist in Twisted Sister.

“Steve my equipment…” before he could get out another word, I interrupted him “Yeah I know you need

A wireless system and accessories, power supplies and even some guitars cables for the show tonight”  “Yeah and also one last thing, bring your black fender strat for me to use as a back up”  “Ok Eddie I got it” I said as I was trying to shovel my food down my mouth while reviewing Twisted Sisters equipment needs for the concert in just 2 hours from now.  My wife always the “professional” understood the situation perfectly. “Honey I have a feeling you are going to be working on stage tonight”  “Ya know come to think of it you may just be right”, I said to her while rushing to pay the check.

I called back the Sam Ash store to reserve the additional equipment TS needed.  I then called Mike also who works for Sam Ash and for who I also arranged a guest pass to the concert. “Mike on the way over to my house stop at the Sam Ash store and pickup the items they have there on reserve for me.”  “Use my name and get over to my house ASAP with the stuff.” I said with an air of urgency.    Mike did a great job and picked up exactly everything we needed.  I packed an equipment bag with my personal performing accessories including an electric tuner, flash light, adaptors strings and so forth just in case I was pressed into service as my wife Laura predicted.

We arrived at the venue about 40 minutes to show time.  JJ French one of TS’s guitarist’ was patiently waiting at the entrance to the back stage area with security personal.  He was obviously relieved when he recognized me at the wheel.  “Well Steve you came though again, just like the old days!”  “The cavalierly has arrived!”  I yelled as we gave each other high fives all around.  JJ led us down to the  ‘behind the back drop’ back stage area.  The old gothic metal standby “WASP” was still performing out in front of us.  I must say it’s quite an eye opening experience seeing the hard-core ‘die- hard’ gothic vampire WASP fans in the daylight!

As I scanned Twisted Sisters rows of Marshall amps I noticed the guy they had setting up the equipment looked confused. A closer inspection revealed to my suprise, that guy was not plugging in the effects, wireless units to the amps correctly.  I immediately ran back to the dressing room area and located the guys in the band. Show time was approaching quickly and they were in the middle of putting on their signature makeup & stage outfits.

“Guys, did you change your stage set up in anyway?’ I blurted out half out of breath from running all the way back to the dressing room trailers.  “No what do you mean?” Mark the Animal Mendoza killer bassist for TS said back to me as a look of concern ran crossed his face.  I then saw JJ & Eddie (the other guitarist) in their dressing area. “Guys I have news for ya, I believe the tech you have working backstage does not have a clue on the proper set up of your gear.”  As we stood there and looked at each other. I knew what was about to happen, almost at the same time they both said, “Steve we need you out there with us tonight” I looked at them square in the eye and said, “Business as usual leave it in my hands guys!”

As I raced back to the stage area I began to put my battle attack plan together. Ok first things first, I better wire up the amps and connect all multi effects.  Next on the list was tuning all the instruments, so they can adjust to the stage temps.  Doing this will insure the guitars will stay in tune.  Finally set up the wireless units and run a sound check.  It was pitch-black back stage but luckily I had my flashlight and extra cables.

Good thing I brought my personal accessories with me!

I wired up the amp rigs and watched as four road crewmembers pushed it forward to the stage performance area. “So far so good!”  I said to my self proudly as I knew I was right on a very tight schedule here but moving along.  I then reached into my  ‘personal equipment bag’ and pulled out my own trusty digital tuner. “Well now all four guitars and both basses ready to go!”  I said out loud, now feeling very sure of my self” All that’s left are the wireless units and a quickie sound check.  I plugged in JJ wireless and it worked perfectly. A moment later I was out on the stage playing some cool Van Halen rifts to the delete of the front row fans.  Knowing Twister Sister’s unique sound .it took only a moment or two to adjust the Eq’s.  Now back to the area behind the amps. I picked up Eddie’s guitar and as luck would have it. The wireless transmitter for his guitar did not fit in the input jack!!  Stunned I went right into ‘plan B’.   By now I am soaking wet with sweat and I am in full crisis damage control mode!  In an instant I had the solution- try JJ’s transmitter with Eddie’s guitar and plug Eddie’s transmitter into JJ’s guitar.  Bingo they both worked!! Now I had to rewire the effects & amp rigs and we will be all set!  As I plugged in the last cable,JJ appeared behind me. I spun around and handed him his guitar, “Is everything all set Stevie?’ he asked while adjusting his strap.  “Ready to Rock brother!” I said while the crowd noise was building. “One last thing,” I yelled into his ear while waiting for the last second to tell him we cannot switch guitars on the fly because of the transmitter problems. “We only have one set up for each of you and you can not change guitars tonight during the set” “If disaster strikes and we have to change guitars, we will exchange the strap, transmitter all together”  “Ok Stevie I’ll try not to beat to hard on the guitar tonight!” JJ said as he took his place on the darkened stage.  Eddie by that time was standing behind me and knew the situation we were in,” Steve, am I all set here?’  “Ready to go. But remember no guitar switching on the fly tonight” I shouted over the loud anticipation of the excited crowd.  Then in a flash I heard over the huge P.A. system  ‘Please welcome Twisted Fucking Sister!’

The show was a complete success.  The TS boys rocked the ‘fist in the air’ crowd all night long!   The guitars sounded great and thank goodness everything ran smoothly.

After the show I was in the dressing room area and Mark the Animal Mendoza was the first to see me, “See guys,” he yelled out to everyone there. “Steve would never let us down, he always comes through just like I told ya!”  Then I saw Eddie & JJ.  And we all looked at each other with a feeling of relief & satisfaction.  “Well guys we did it again!” we all yelled at just about the same time.

It was very late when I finally arrived back home but I was still pumped up over the night’s events.  My girlfriend called out from upstairs, “So how did it go?”   “You still up?” I answered,  “You will not believe what happened?” I said while still almost yelling from ear fatigue/stage volume exposure. “You were totally right!” I went on to tell her “I kind of saved the show…. the pressure was on and your hubby came through in the clutch!    She waited a second and said then to me, “That’s what brothers do for brothers.”

In just a few hours later, Monday morning I was back at Sam Ash tired but feeling pretty good.   The first customer that stopped in said he was at the show last nite and saw me on the stage!   Just then my phone rang and low& behold it was JJ (I had a feeling he was going to call)

“Stevie ,the guys and I were talking after the gig and we all agreed we could not have done the gig with out ya bro!” He said to me as sincere as a hard rocker could possibility be.

“Pick out any resturant in the city.”  “The best one , any one and its my treat for you and your wife” He continued. I listened and waited a second before answering him. Then  a thought crossed my mind, “Thanks for the invite.but that is totally unnecessary” I continued

“Thats what brothers do for brothers!” I concluded.

I could just tell JJ was smiling from ear to ear!

“Ok then I’ll see ya at the store.”  he said to me.  Of course we  still spent the next ten minutes on the phone remininancing about the  way the night unfolded and  then said our goodbyes.

Lesson learned: do good for the sake of doing good!