John Hendow

Last weekend The Dudley Manlove Quartet played at a wedding reception in Pullman. Because the show was relatively early in the afternoon, we had to leave Seattle at 9:00 AM… we were well supplied with coffee and banana bread to help us survive the trip Eastward. The drive to Pullman is (mostly) interesting and I enjoyed the van banter and Jeff’s excellent DJ selections. As we neared Pullman I hooked up my iPod to study the guitar solo from “The Final Countdown” (special request by the bride and groom).

The actual event took place in a barn in Colton, about 10 miles South of Pullman. It was a beautiful rustic barn with a wonderful atmosphere, and somewhat chilly and drafty too… but that minor inconvenience was soon forgotten once we got to playing and the crowd began to dance. This was one of those wedding receptions where everyone started dancing from the very fist tune and the enthusiastic energy was flowing until the very last note. Many of the guests had shakers, rattles, maracas, and other rhythm gizmos. I had some reinforcement in the guitar section… a couple of young boys had inflatable guitars and were hanging around the front of the stage imitating me. So I invited them up to stand right next to me and to rock out with the band, instantly transforming us into Lynyrd Skynyrd (or some other band with a 3 guitars). They stayed onstage with me for all three sets! One of them was watching me very intently and moving his hands when I did. During the big solos in “The Final Countdown” and “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” we all struck our best rock poses in unison. They got their first tast of being in a band… I’m sure their parents are now thanking me for derailing whatever career plans they had in mind for those kids.

Most of the night went really smoothly. I thought there were a couple of spots that could use a bit of work a future rehearsal, but overall this was a great gig. After we packed up and got back to the hotel, the rhythm section huddled for a game of Texas Hold’Em. The trip home involved driving through a fairly large dust storm; so much dust was blowing around that everything had a strange brown/orange hue and even then sun was noticeably dimmed. Visibility was very poor and I wondered whether they state patrol would close the road at some point. We found out that about an hour later they did close the road for several hours due to zero visibility conditions. I’m glad we got through it early enough to make it home at a decent hour.

All the really great band roadtrips come with a theme. For this one it was “The Final Countdown” which has a disturbingly hooky intro. Just singing that little fanfare was enough to get us all going. We played it so well that I suspect it will surface at a future gig. Another fine adventure. Onward to the next one!