After the Meteor Shower

I never feel cleaner than after a meteor shower.

            No band came out of those jams, but I did get an offer to play a gig with Tig. Two members of his group had departed, so he and the drummer, Ears, replaced them with vocalist OJB, me on organ, and The Third on bass. The band rehearsed in a spare room at The Third’s house. Tig, The Third, and I were members of the high school football team. The Third was the starting tight end and defensive end, and he and I had always been friendly. Along with CEP, Lawman, the head coach, and several others, I had played football in his backyard many Sunday afternoons during my freshman year. The House of Representatives had borrowed The Third’s amplifier for vocals and guitar when we’d played the Farm Bureau a couple of years earlier.

            I don’t remember the name of that band, but we played a Thursday night gig in the gym of Hiwassee College in Madisonville after that single practice. Ears had this enormous Whitehall drum kit with double bass drums, and his Wipe Out-ish drum playing on our rather lame version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida seemed to excite the crowd, especially when OJB put his head into a hollowed bass drum front as Ears stomped the shit out of them. A small number of patrons formed a semi-circle around the band to groove with OJB’s Jim Morrison-like behavior. When the song was over, rather than allow the crowd to cool, we pulled the one ace from our deck by playing a not half bad cover version of Steppenwolf’s The Pusher. I had never heard another band play that song (except for Steppenwolf, I haven’t heard anybody do it), so I guess we were the first. The Pusher still had a lot of power then, and the college kids liked it, I think, because the Hippie ethos had finally penetrated the mainstream of a little place like Madisonville, Tennessee, even though it had been largely over for a couple of years in the major cities. Whatever the reason, the band was well received that evening, and I felt very good about the experience.

            Tig got us to practice at The Third’s twice for a scheduled dance at the Farm Bureau following a Friday night basketball game. I don’t know what happened, but OJB, The Third, and I were all sacked before the week was out, and the two former members rejoined for that engagement. I was a little ticked-off at Tig, but I was playing varsity basketball and didn’t really have time to devote too much effort to a band.