<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Early in 2022, I started reminiscing about some of my favorite concerts (FTV:\u00a0 Live Shows Revisited – Part 1 2-23-22).\u00a0 Having asked for and received stories about some of your favorite shows as well, they were chronicled in Part 2 (5-11-22).\u00a0 In an article sandwiched in between Part 1 and Part 2, I added some details about our friend Al Jacquez\u2019s two previous visits to the Ontonagon Theater for the Performing Arts (FTV:\u00a0 Al J Returns 3-30-22) in preparation for the solo show he will be doing at the OTPA on August 12, 2022.\u00a0 Normally, I try to limit FTVs to one or two parts, but in this case, I have to make an exception.\u00a0 In discussing Al\u2019s first trip to Ontonagon with his band, Measured Chaos, in Part 1, I mentioned the need to revisit his second trek to the Western Upper Peninsula in 2009.\u00a0 If I have now thoroughly confused you, I apologize.\u00a0 Perhaps a short, quick summary of the story up to now will help.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Al Jacquez was the bass player and vocalist in a band called Savage Grace back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.\u00a0 I got to see them perform twice at Northern Michigan University and, like any other fan, was disappointed when the band broke up.\u00a0 While searching for an album to\u00a0 replace\u00a0 my cassette tape of the first Savage Grace album (it lost the will to live), I made contact with Al at the 33 1\/3 Records website where he had both of their albums on sale.\u00a0 My first order disappeared in transit so our correspondence back and forth netted me not only the two Savage Grace albums (now on CD) but also a CD of Al\u2019s new band, Measured Chaos.\u00a0 Thus was the seed planted in my brain to see if we could find a way to get Measured Chaos from deep lower Michigan to the far north to do a show at the Ontonagon Theater for the Performing Arts.\u00a0 It took a couple of years, but the first Measured Chaos show happened in June of 2005 (full details in Part 1).\u00a0 When the band departed after their show for an overnight drive to their next gig in Traverse City, my last words to them were along the lines of, \u201cWell, if you are ever touring in the neighborhood again, let us know.\u201d\u00a0 Getting any band to Ontonagon for a concert is no small undertaking, so at the time, I more or less knew it would be a stretch to get lightning to strike twice.\u00a0 I love it when I am wrong!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometime during 2008, Al and I struck up an internet conversation about Measured Chaos returning to the Upper Peninsula.\u00a0 Al explained he was looking for dates for a possible mini-tour in the summer of 2009.\u00a0 Their original drummer, Bill Gordon, had been forced to relocate to Georgia for employment purposes so things had gotten a little more complicated since their first visit in 2005.\u00a0 Guitarist Mark Tomorsky and new drummer Frankie Charboneaux would both be commuting in from Los Angeles so they needed more than one gig to make it economically feasible.\u00a0 I told Al, \u201cIf you book the tour, count us in.\u00a0 When you have dates, we will figure out the rest on this end.\u201d\u00a0 The next time I heard from Al, they had two U.P. gigs on opposite ends of the peninsula with ours set for a Monday at the end of May.\u00a0 I noted that school would still be in session and asked if they would be adverse to doing two shows so we could bring our students from the Ontonagon Area Schools down for a matinee.\u00a0 Two paying gigs in town on the same trip?\u00a0 No brainer.\u00a0 There were only a few logistical problems that needed to be worked out to make it happen.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first hurdle was getting the school authorities on board after I had already made the deal.\u00a0 You are probably thinking, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it have made sense to get clearance before making it a done deal?\u201d\u00a0 The short answer is \u2018yes\u2019, but I had a little inside intel that told me it could be worked out.\u00a0 One of my DJs happened to be a guitar player and the son of the principal, who also happened to be a guitar player.\u00a0 Having anticipated the second hurdle (the date available was also supposed to be the first day of year end exams), I did a little boots on the groundwork to find out if any of my colleagues would object to NOT starting exams on that Monday.\u00a0 The answer was a universal, \u201cNot a problem, we can work around that.\u201d\u00a0 When the principal brought up that conflict, I already had the answer in my back pocket.\u00a0 As I had hoped, the plot (um, \u2018plan\u2019) was given a thumbs up as long as I made arrangements with the transportation department to get the kids there and back.\u00a0 The theater seats around 300 so we went down as far as we could from seniors to (if memory serves me) fourth grade.\u00a0 We put out the word to the staff that transport would begin at 12:30 pm for the 1 pm show.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The third hurdle was unexpected.\u00a0 When told about the school year ending musical event, there was a certain amount of blow-back when I described the group to the kids as a \u2018blues band\u2019.\u00a0 Having never turned down a chance to see any form of live musical performance when I was in school, I was surprised so many in the student body came off like musical snobs.\u00a0 \u201cOh, we don\u2019t like that kind of music,\u201d was the main beef.\u00a0 When I asked if they had ever HEARD any band performing the blues, most admitted they had not.\u00a0 In the end, my party line became, \u201cIt is live music and no matter what you THINK it will sound like, it will be great.\u201d\u00a0 The plot to promote the show thickened when I made it known that any and all musicians in the school (of which we had a lot for our small size) had reserved seats in the front rows.\u00a0 That got their attention and a bit of a buzz about the show started to build in the weeks ahead of the show.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The last thing to lock down was housing the band.\u00a0 On their first trip, we were able to get a good deal from a local business man with an upper floor unit that could house all six of the traveling party.\u00a0 This time, we struck a deal for four rooms at the AmericInn in Silver City.\u00a0 Between the anticipated ticket sales, a couple of donations, and our meager station funds, we were confident we had the resources to cover all the costs (including the buses to get the kids to the afternoon show and back to school).\u00a0 Of course, I had not shared all of this with Al and the band because their part was to show up and put on a heck of a show.\u00a0 My last correspondence with Al was a big thumbs up.\u00a0 The only clinker I had thrown at him was, \u201cCould you do a little Q&A sometime in the program so we can justify calling it \u2018educational\u2019?\u00a0 Al said, \u201cWell, I have done school programs before but the other guys probably have not.\u00a0 I think they will be fine with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our OASD drama program advisor, the late Dana Brookins, acted as our liaison with the theater.\u00a0 Her drama club was operating at full tilt back then and a couple of my WOAS-FM DJs had experience working at the theater.\u00a0 Once I told them they would be allowed to go down and help the band set up and watch how they prep for a show, they were all in.\u00a0 Being able to tell Al that we had an experienced lightboard operator and the theater\u2019s sound mixer ready to help out, all we had to do was wait.\u00a0 It really did feel like it was taking forever for the day to arrive, but once the band rolled into town, things started moving at a much faster pace.\u00a0 Before we knew what hit us, we had a theater full of bodies waiting to hear if the band was going to be as good as I had promised.\u00a0 As planned, rows 1 and 2 were populated by every drummer, keyboard player, vocalist, and guitar player in the school.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you have ever been on stage, you already know that stage lights make it very difficult to see much farther than the first couple of rows.\u00a0 This was the other reason we wanted to salt the front of the house with kids who played.\u00a0 I introduced the band and they came out smoking.\u00a0 Their lead guitar player, Mark Tomorsky, is a real jokester by nature so when he stepped forward to take the first guitar break, he had a serious look on his face I had not seen before.\u00a0 He attacked his guitar and the house erupted in hoots and cheers which kind of caught him off guard.\u00a0 I won\u2019t say the band was nervous about playing for a school assembly, but in hindsight, I think it was more a case of, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t normally do this kind of show\u2019.\u00a0 It was also the opening show of their tour.\u00a0 Two songs in, I looked over at one of my DJs (also a guitar player) – Tommy had an ear to ear grin on his face and he mouthed \u2018Best school assembly ever\u201d while flashing me a double thumbs up.\u00a0 I relaxed and enjoyed the show with only one more thing to wonder about:\u00a0 the Q&A session.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When they hit that spot in the program, Al asked for the house lights to be brought up and for the first time, the band was able to see where all the noise had been coming from.\u00a0 Just about every seat up through the balcony was filled and the band raised their eyebrows when they realized the first show of their tour was a near sell out.\u00a0 The audience asked some great questions with Al doing\u00a0 most of the talking.\u00a0 He also went out of his way to thank the theater crew for helping them put together the first show of their tour and invited everyone back for the evening performance.\u00a0 The band did their big finish and we started what we thought would be an orderly retreat to the exits where the buses were waiting.\u00a0 Instead, to our surprise, a lot of the students headed toward the stage to get autographs and talk to the band.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tomorsky was deeply engaged in guitar talk when he draped his Stratocaster over Mike Immonen\u2019s shoulder and let him play a few licks.\u00a0 Drummer Frank Charboneaux was beating out some rudiments on the stage apron as he talked drums with another group.\u00a0 It took a good fifteen minutes to round up the rest and get them back on the buses.\u00a0 I think Frank said it best, \u201cHey, that was fun.\u00a0 If we do this again, do you think we could actually come to the school and do some workshops with the kids?\u201d\u00a0 My first thought was, \u201cAre you kidding?\u00a0 Of course we could do that!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At the evening show, Al mentioned what a great time they had playing for the kids earlier in the day.\u00a0 He also mentioned it would be great to spend a couple of days next time so they could do more with them.\u00a0 I would love to tell you that we put that plan into action, but fate sometimes dictates what will happen no matter how badly we want something to go the way we want.\u00a0 The music industry went into a nosedive not long after that last Measured Chaos show.\u00a0 Many venues closed and bands large and small took serious hits in their ability to tour without going broke.\u00a0 With two members commuting in from California, Measured Chaos would have been hard pressed to make another U.P. swing.\u00a0 In our correspondence in the years after their last visit, Al invited me to a couple of shows they were able to do in the Detroit area while lamenting the difficulty they (and other bands) were having finding places to play.\u00a0 As much as I would have loved to be there, time, distance, and economics prevented me from seeing Measured Chaos or any of their one-off Savage Grace shows over the next decade.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Al notes on his web page, \u201cI have had a lot of jobs, but I would rather sing.\u201d\u00a0 When the full band jobs became scarce, Al began putting together a show he calls \u2018One Voice, One Guitar\u2019.\u00a0 He has performed with a gospel group called OneAchord, some duet jobs with other players like Drew Abbott (formerly of Bob Seger\u2019s Silver Bullet Band), and gigs as a\u00a0 guest vocalist with various groups like the Dick Wagner Band (The Frost, Alice Cooper).\u00a0 In other words, difficult situations aside, Al has found a way to keep playing music.\u00a0 Naturally, the COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on live performances for a good chunk of time, but never say never.\u00a0 As we have found ways to keep people safe and healthy (I won\u2019t go into the whole nine-yards about vaccination and social distancing here), live music has begun to make a comeback.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On August 12, 2022, Al Jacquez will finally get to make that third visit to the Ontonagon Theater for the Performing Arts.\u00a0 As mentioned earlier this spring, he has pulled together enough gigs to make this Upper Peninsula mini-tour of his One Voice, One Guitar show happen.\u00a0 At our last writing on the subject, he said his calendar was filling up but he may still have openings for some other shows on this pass.\u00a0 If you might be interested in booking Al for a house show, porch show, deck show or the like when he is in the area, visit his website (aljacquez.com) and follow the prompt to his booking information. \u00a0 If nothing else, we will see you all at the OTPA for what is sure to be a great show.\u00a0 Let me be the first to say, \u201cWelcome back, Al!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Al and the Measured Chaos boys having some fun in L.A. promoting their SOMEWHERE BETWEEN DETROIT AND CHICAGO album – yes, they are LIVING THE DREAM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Early in 2022, I started reminiscing about some of my favorite concerts (FTV:\u00a0 Live Shows Revisited – Part 1 2-23-22).\u00a0 Having asked for and received stories about some of your favorite shows as well, they were chronicled in Part 2 (5-11-22).\u00a0 In an article sandwiched in between Part 1 and Part 2, I added […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-local-music-news","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2580"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2583,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580\/revisions\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}