If you couldn’t make The Filling Station show this last weekend, you did miss a high-energy, inspired performance from ‘yours truly.’  Luckily, one of my oldest friends and one of the top photographers in the country happened to be in the house, so you get to see the show through his eyes.  Enjoy!

When Jedi of Opalhill Drive called me about doing a couple shows out in Magna, Utah at The Filling Station I was a little skeptical.  Magna is a mining town and The Filling Station is known as a biker bar.  After some discussion and a pretty good sales pitch, I thought, “What the hell.”  And so, two months later there I stood at the aforementioned biker bar in the middle of mining town Utah, USA.

The crowd on Friday was very stand-offish.  I had one lady yelling at me all night to do her random list of cover tunes and when I obliged to do one “Kevin Burdick Style” she was more pissed off that it didn’t sound like the original.  You asked me for “Shook Me All Night Long” and I play the piano.  What did you expect?  Oh, AND I’M NOT A COVER BAND!!

Luckily, the Saturday night crowd was way more into the show, showing their appreciation with both applause and some dancing.  I was so grateful to see some familiar faces had made the 20 minute trek out to support their own favorite local piano man.  Saturday was also a little more challenging when my usual drummer, Chris Hancock, called in sick.  Luckily, guitarist Chris Doucet (who happens to be one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever met) filled in on the drums with no practice and virtually nailed all of the songs.

Highlights of the two-days included doing several improv songs with Jedi (lead singer of Opalhill Drive), who was able to think quickly on his feet and create some of the funniest freestyle lyrics I’ve heard.  He was an absolute blast and the Opalhill Drive guys were a lot of fun to play with.  I just really enjoyed them and was grateful to have made some new friends.

Big thanks to Jared and Rex Platt for stopping by the show and photographing, Ken Gray for handling the business side, V and E for handling merch sales, Chris/Chris/Brad for rocking the stage with me, and Opalhill Drive for being incredible hosts and just all around great guys to party with.

Live acoustic performance of “Tiny Dancer” at The Filling Station:

The show at The Station was so much fun!  We had such a great crowd turn-out and had some great sponsors include Budweiser and the Bikini Cuts girls.  It was a great performance and guest bassist Ben Johnson did a great job, in spite of only having a few days notice to learn the material.  The highlight of The Station performance was probably “Release Me” which had most of the crowd singing along.  Big thanks to The Echo People who had us out for their CD Release Party. 

The end of the night found me and a crew snuggled up in the tour bus watching old episodes of The Family Guy!  It was a night to remember!