Musings on music, sports, life in general from Quincy, Illinois.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Former Funion

It was great to see former Funions drummer and guitar player Josh Kattelman (and his dad) at our Washington Theater show.

We're starting to get to the point where we can wax poetic about the band. The Funions started in the summer of 2000 at First Union Congregational Church, which is where the name came from - First and Union. In the band for the first time that June Monday was Josh on guitar, Devin Cashman on drums, Dr. Brei on bass, me on guitar and vocals and Rev. Scott Snider on vocals and tamborine. I think Scott Piner played trumpet with us a few times that first summer too.

Josh was a great drummer and a member of the legendary JWMF, sort of a punk band on speed. Randy Wells of The Speed Holes played guitar with JWMF and Mark Bokish, who was in Red Medic and just took off for the Air Force, was the bass player. I remember interviewing them in Randy's bedroom, where they practiced. Randy lived with his parents and they played a song and the noise was incredibly deafening. I walked out and Randy's mother said, "Oh hello." I asked her about the loudness and she said, "What loudness?" They were conditioned, obviously.

The Funions played at some legendary shows with JWMF, including one at Eagles Alps. I hope the video of that show was destroyed, that's all I can say about it now.

Anyway, Josh lives up in Minnesota now and he looked really good in a Pink Floyd T Shirt. Not sure if he's still playing music, and if he isn't, he should be!

Friday, October 20, 2006

Spooky Fun

The Washington Theater show was among the best the Funions have ever done.

Sadly the crowd was sparse, but I think everybody had a good time. The guys from 7 Deadly Sins, a young hard rock band, wandered in and were blown away by the old theater. The band had a lot of energy and people were listening, and much thanks to Pat Cornwell from Vegas Music for doing sound in a very demanding environment.

We are going to work with Paul Denkler and try to get a show set up in the spring, when it warms up a bit.

Now we need to finish our mix on the new CD!