Paul & Storm at The Intersection - Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[jco...@ameritech.net]

Great Show (but we expected no less)!
Before I get to the nitty-gritty, a little background: I'm a singer and I truly admire others who can sing. One of the greatest thrills of my life was provided by DaVinci's Notebook when they agreed to perform "Pull My Finger", with me singing the "girl" part - at my suggestion.
When I heard P&S were coming to Grand Rapids, I decided to push my luck a second time by promising to provide the two 'other' parts for one of their Bob & Tom "Barry-Tones" numbers ("Mother's Day Song", to be precise).
The email response from Storm was positive, so I recruited 2 of the guys from my band - The No Rehearsal Band - to learn, and be ready to perform, "The Mother's Day Song" for the show in Grand Rapids...
When I bought the tickets, I noticed that the opening band for "The Opening Band" was 'TBA'. Pushing Ms. Luck farther than she should be pushed, I emailed Storm and I suggested that The No Rehearsal Band might be able to provide 15 - 20 minutes of acapella music to warm up the crowd.
The email response from Storm was positive, and suggested maybe we could do "Enormous Penis" en masse. (Be careful what you ask for, you just may get it.) So, with the thought of opening for a National Act (which they are), and learning Rich's part to EP - in less than a week - in mind, I patiently waited for tonight's show (I was a nervous wreck all week!).
We made it to the venue early, and verified that we were indeed going to open for P&S. (I asked some small guy with a big "Security" written on his T-Shirt who was opening. He said, "I dunno, some acapella group". I told him we were it. He introduced us to "HillBilly" - the sound guy). We finished our sound check just as P&S arrived.
Paul's Aunt Marlene and Patti arrived shortly thereafter; it was great catching up with them from shows past and hence. Soon enough, Paul came to the stage and announced my Band. Nervous as hell (why, I don't know), we took the stage...
As Paul said to me after our moment, "Hey! You guys don't suck!" Yes, that about sums it up. We pulled off 4 numbers for the crowd and we did not suck. As Storm commented, "You guys did more than not suck..."
Thanks Guys, for letting us share the stage with you. It meant a lot to me, and my bandmates were impressed with the situation. Not bad for "4 flabby white guys singing acapella."
Okay, the nitty-gritty (This is not from memory, but from their set list that I grabbed after the show. I swear, this is written on the same type of tablet paper as the 3rd DaVinci's set-list I acquired. Someone must have a real stack of this stuff somewhere...):
"Opening Band"
"Count to 10" (Schoolhouse Rock Revised)
"Oh No"
"Nugget Man"
"Easter"
"Randy Newman Themes"
"Rejected Commercials"  (Domino's, Twister, {something that begins with an F}, Kleenex, Cheetos, Olive Garden, & Shame and Cookie Dough)
"10 Finger Johnny"
[They wrote: 'X Old' next - I've no clue what that is.]
"Internet Porn"
"Your Love Is"
"The Ifs" (James Taylor & Bob Dylan, Aaron Neville, etc)
"Captain's Wife's Lament"
"Better Version of You"
"Enormous Penis" (with the NRB not sucking on the back-ups)
[Someone was dumb - or smart - enough to yell "Free Bird"; we got "Free Bird", complete with monotonous instrumental break, and heavy Led Zeppelin ending.]
"6 Guys, 10 Teeth"
[This may, or not, be correct - their set list is like reading a prescription. Their was some more stuff written: "FTW, Miranda, Ys Town, Praeger, Matt, and HillBilly. They did not do 'Miranda' or 'Eddie Praeger'. Matt was from "The Fox", and HillBilly was the sound guy.]
What a night! It was a) very cool to have P&S back in the area, but better b) to have a respectably sized and responsive crowd come out to catch their act.
Before I sign off with this report, I thought I should share something with you shared with me, from HillBilly - the sound guy. It's the "Technical Requirements" for P&S. (These are known as 'Equipment Riders' in the business, but it's what the 'artist's need' in order to perform. There are several technical requirements, pretty standard, but the fun comes with the "Amenities".)
Onstage Amenities: 4 16-oz bottles of room-temperature drinking water per set - no sparkling water, please!
Backstage Amenities: 12 16-oz bottles of room temperature or chilled drinking water; assorted chilled sodas - Root Beer &/or Black Cheery not required, but appreciated. 2 - or more - bars of Toblerone Chocolate {not really required, but P&S love Toblerone more than life itself and if you thought they were appreciative when you provided the Root Beer/Black Cherry soda, wait'll you see them if there's Toblerone!}.
'Equipment Riders' can be a hoot; I read them for fun. Iggy Pop's was the best so far...

We got to the Merch table late, after the crowd had thinned. Unfortunately, the New CD was "still in manufacturing", and the Guys ran out of XL T-shirts, but I was told that they'd be mailed to me asa available.
We bid fond farewells, and ended the night by serenading Paul & Storm with an acapella arrangement of "Wonderful World", which we dedicated to Bernie...
Paul & Storm ROCKED!

[Gordon Nash]

Paul and Storm are still performing? I wouldn't know as they only schedule shows when they know I can't make it!

Namaste,
Gordon

P.S. I want credit for not saying all the other things I thought of writing :-)

[SOFA]

A little digging around P&S's website provided answers to the
unknowns: "Fresh Step", "Extremely Old with You", "Leon Redbone" (in
"The Ifs"), "Find the Words", and "Your Town".
I had hoped to post this review in the Forums at their site, but it
seems I need to be approved first by some Omniscient Administrator,
who may be recovering slowly from a night in Swinging Traverse City...

No Taste,
The Guv