September 2006

Sept 22 & 23 - Fennville SideTrack, Weekend 2 of 2

Nasty severe weather kept lots of people snuggling at home around the fireplace. Pretty slim crowds on both Friday and Saturday at the SideTrack. That didn't stop Tricks from having a fun time with the people who braved the cold rainy weather to come and party at Sue's Sidetrack. Thanks so much to Sue and Dan and their great staff of servers and bartenders. We appreciates the SideTrack's down-home friendly party atmosphere. Tricks is working on next year's (2007) calendar, and we plan on playing for one of Sue's Bike-Run weekends. Sue and Dan are very much involved in Charity Bike Runs for West Michigan's motorcycling community. The SideTrack is a very Biker-Friendly place where lots of friendly bikers like to eat the great food and drink those special SideTrack cocktails. Check out this weekend's pictures.
Tricks Cooler Cups Winner Fri, was Tim Gonzales
Tricks Cooler Cups Winner Sat, was Deb Gibson
Tricks T-Shirt Winner Sat, was David Duesterbaq

We had videotape rolling both nights, and I hope to find a couple good Tricks jams to post on YouTube.
Check out Tricks videos at Rick's YouTube-
Hit the "Subscribe" button at Rick's YouTube, for alerts whenever Rick uploads more videos.

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Sept 15 & 16 -Fennville SideTrack, Weekend 1 of 2

It's so good to have Tricks back at Sue's SideTrack Bar & Grill. We love having dinner here on the nights we come in to set up. Yum! Great tacos, burritos, and burgers. They mix the cocktails strong at the SideTrack - 7 days a week. Tricks has an extra good hang-over on Sunday after we play at Sue's SideTrack. The band is really getting the tight groove that always happens during the second half of the year. After the summer break, we get the itch to play, and after a few weeks back at the bars, the songs just get tighter and tighter. When that happens, you can always expect Steve to start taking chances and getting extra wild on the drum kit, but Rick and Tim also go out on a limb once in a while. It's called "Live Rock and Roll Music", and taking chances is what makes it fun for the band. This weekend, we had a great night Friday, but Saturday it was packed to the walls with dancing girls. Must be close to hunting season. Girls, girls, girls! There was also a bachelorette party for Abby (...for Jodie's party in October...Tricks at the Woodshed in Douglas).
Fri| Sat
Tricks Cooler Cups Winner Fri, was Jerry Amsink
Tricks Cooler Cups Winner Sat, was Robin Meeker
Tricks T-Shirt Winner Sat, was Chris Wiersma

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Sept 1 - Wayland Hotel, Weekend 3 of 3 - Friday only

One night only this weekend. Mary Kay says that Wayland gets pretty deserted-looking on holiday weekends, so they close early on Saturday, and no band. We had a nice crowd on Friday, for our farewell to Mary Kay's Wayland Hotel. We really appreciate the great wait-staff at the Hotel. Love you guys!! We'll be back around Thanksgiving time. We can't get enough of the good Wayland people who come and party at the Hotel. Tricks recorded some video this night. Here are a couple that turned out well enough to get posted on YouTube:



Be sure to rate our Tricks videos at YouTube, and also click on "save to favorites". Fun! Tricks loves you!

Tricks Cooler Cups Winner Fri, was Phyllis Nyenhuis
Check out more Tricks videos at Rick's YouTube-
Hit the "Subscribe" button at Rick's YouTube, for alerts whenever Rick uploads more videos.

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August 2006

August 25 & 26 -Wayland Hotel, Weekend 2 of 3

"Hard, Sweet, and Sticky"! That's the only description of Saturday night that comes to mind. It had to be one of the funnest Tricks parties of 2006: the crowd was hopping and head-banging, the band was firing on all eight cylinders, Mary Kay and the staff had their hands full juggling drink orders, the dance floor was constantly packed with dancers, . . . you just had to be there! Friday was actually a very fun night as well, with some crazy guys out on the town having fun. But,... Saturday was one we could write home about. Special thanks to the birthday party people and the bachelorette party girls. It was great seeing Wally, our special friend from many years ago. And so many regular friends and fans came out to make it a fantastic party. We couldn't do it without you; Thanks so much for being there for us!
Fri |Sat
Tricks Cooler Cup Winner Fri, was Jamie Roblyer
Tricks Cooler Cup Winner Sat, was Ellen Wolowicz
Tricks T-Shirt Winner Sat, was Carrie Bush

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August 18 & 19 Wayland Hotel, Weekend 1 of 3

Tricks is back to the bars, after a refreshing summer "break". It's such a relief to have a nice stage set-up after doing 3 parties, where we have to improvise and compromise our set-up. Several friends mentioned last night that the band is sounding good here at the Wayland Hotel. That's not news to us; Mary Kay has an excellent sounding room at the Hotel. Lots of people come for dinner at the Wayland Hotel, and then they stay to drink and dance with the band. What a great place. What a fantastic wait-staff. What an awesome dance floor and stage. Thanks to all of our good friends who came out to welcome Tricks "back to the bars". Tricks loves you! Yeah, baby!! Happy Birthday to Carl & Pat - thanks for bringing your b-day party to the Wayland Hotel Tricks show. There's good rockin' tonight!
Fri |Sat
Tricks Cooler Cup Winners Fri, Aug 18 were Jessica Ortega√ and Wendy Pedrolini√
Tricks T-shirt Winner Sat, Aug 19 was Katie Sikkena√

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August 12 - Ron & Mary Wind's 35th Anniversary Party, at their home near Hudsonville


Ron & Mary's 35th Anniversary Luau Party with Tricks!
Ron and Mary had a huge Hawaiian party at their house, to celebrate their 35th Wedding Anniversary with family and friends. Tricks drummer Steve was busy, since this is Tricks' summer break time, and it was pretty short notice for the gig. So, we got our friend Bill Roelofs to be our drummer for the night's festivities. What a smashing success! Ron & Mary had lots of family and friends, and everyone ate well from Ron's grilled fish buffet, there was a Tiki bar where you could get genuine tropical drinks. There was plenty going on, as well as dancing with Tricks (with different drummer). We were supposed to stop at 12:30, but the dancers made us keep going until past 1:30. What a fun time. All ages, but it was mostly the 20-something young-uns who were dancing until late. They sure loved them classic rockers that we were dishing out for them. Bill did an incredible job keeping up with lots of unfamiliar songs. Special Thanks to Tara for helping get Tricks for her parents' party. Best wishes and thanks to Ron and Mary for being such great people. Tricks had a ball playing for you. Hope you'll have us back some time soon.

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August 5 - Krys and Rick's Jam Party on the Patio

Rick and Krys had their bi-annual jam party with 3 different incarnations of the Tricks band, and then some. It was like a Tricks History lesson! Very appropriate for the 30th Anniversary of Tricks (1976 - 2006).
Musician Roll Call, in order of appearance: Krys, Rick, Pat, Liz, Bill, Matt, Shawn, Steve, Tim, Rich, Dale, Tom, Dylan. Thanks so much to Tom & Bill & Rich for equipment and drums.
The rocking started around 4:30 and went until midnight. We had lots of preparation help from our neighbors, Julie and Steve. Great help from Jen and Mark setting up. Thanks to everyone who brought food - there was tons of great food (Steve's Brats, 2 whole Turkeys, a Beef Briscuit, slow-cooked by neighbor Steve) and it was ALL gone at 2AM, when the last guest was gone. You shoulda seen the empty pans and dishes.
Thanks to all our friends in the neighborhood; instead of calling the cops, everyone came over to eat, drink, and rock out. It was like a big block party. I thought this was the best party yet. We put lots of thought into the preparations for the music, the drinks, the food. Thanks to Denny and Roger for photography.
This was so much fun, we should do this every year. Fun, fun, fun!! But, it's a lotta work, work, work, . . .
see you in 2 or 3 years.
| Denny Cam

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July 2006

July 29 - Tommy's Birthday Pool-Party in South Haven


Tricks Lite with Richie on bass and Steve on e-drums. Hottest Saturday so far this year. Lots of good food (thanks to Steve Miller on the grill duties!), lots of cold drinks, plenty of sun, wet pool lounging, all-ages pool fun antics, live Tricks music, family and friends, ... sounds like another great South Haven pool party at Tommy & Tara's house, for Tommy's birthday (and several other birthdays as well). Our good friends Tommy and Tara put lots of work into preparing this great bash! (Notice the huge pair of umbrellas that Tommy bought to keep the band cool.) Richie did a great job on bass. All the kids went wild in the pool. There was a lot going on. Steve Miller (the chef) let Rick try out his Cherry Sunburst Les Paul guitar. And, best of all, in Tricks tradition, we said we were gonna "play until the po-lice come" - and that we did, indeed. Tricks Lite was supposed to play from 6:30 until 9:30 - instead, we played from about 6:45 until 11:45. That's when the cops came and told us we had to stop, right in the middle of "Play That Funky Music, White Boy". Okay, so some neighbors want to sleep while we're having too much fun at the pool. That's cool. We all had the best time ever! Thanks for having us, Tommy and Tara!! Love you guys! We'll be baaaaack!

Tricks Cooler Cup Winners at Tara & Tommy's - we gave away 20 cooler cups for party favors.

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July 16 - Rick & Krys go to a great concert at Sleeping Bear Dunes
The Greencards are a "NewGrass" band from Australia, but moved to US, thus the name "Greencards".

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June 30 & July 1 - Stan's in Dorr, Weekend 2 of 2

You wanna know the truth about Friday night at Stan's? You want the truth?... You can't handle the truth. It was a major party at Stan's on Friday night. Tricks was happy to help Dorr kick off their big 5-day Independence Day celebration. After Friday's Keith Anderson concert in the park, the country concert fans poured into Stan's for a drink after the show. Loads of cowboy hats and country cuties. I mean,... you could barely walk around in there, it was so crowded with partying people - I don't know how all those people found room to dance all night, but they certainly did! The boys from Keith Anderson's band came in and partied with us, all night long. Thanks y'all! Tricks had a memorable night. Tricks' number one funnest night of 2006, so far...
Saturday night, Tricks was delighted to play host to our partying friends and family. It was a lot more sane than Friday night, but it was super special when Becky and Cy brought their party to town. Our good friend Denny was there on Saturday to take some extra nice pictures with his professional SLR digital camera.
Fri| Sat | Denny
[NOTE: This was Tricks final gig at Stan's in Dorr. They closed down early 2007.]

Tricks Cooler Cup Winners for Friday. May 30 were Debra Knight√ and Tim Wenner√
Tricks T-shirt Winners for Friday. May 30 were Debra Knight√ (yes, she won twice) and Kathy Chachulski√
Tricks Cooler Cup Winners for Saturday, July 1 were Aimee Hoekstra√ and Dan Dutkiewicz√
Tricks T-shirt Winners for Saturday, July 1 were John Graveling√ and Robin Rhodes√

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June 2006

June 28 - Wednesday - No Tricks, just a concert
Jimmy Dillon Concert - WLAV Blues On The MAll
Krys and Rick went to downtown Grand Rapids, along with our musical friend, Dylan. We saw a great concert from Jimmy Dillon, who is an international blues star. Jimmy is from South Haven, Michigan. What a great time on a summer evening.
Great pics from our friend Denny Veldhuis, of the West Michigan Blues Association. Denny took these pictures with his nice SLR Digital Camera.

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June 23 & 24 - Stan's in Dorr, Weekend 1 of 2

Tricks is back at Stan's. We had a small quality crowd on Friday night. Several new friends told us that they love Tricks and that it was sounding really good. Thanks! Stan's is doing some remodeling, under the direction of new manager Amy. They took out the drop ceiling, added to the stage, put up nice new lighting. Lots of hard work going into fixing the old place up. Great job so far. The high ceiling changes the sound of the room, and most everyone had positive things to say about the sound. On Saturday we had a respectable crowd. Did I say "respectable"?... I mean we had a wild bunch in there. The boys from Sin Bin stopped in to check out Stan's and to check out Tricks. A good time was had by all.
Fri|Sat
Cooler Cup Winner for Friday. May 23 was Jordan Hayes√
Cooler Cup Winners for Saturday. June 24 were Rich VanDeusen√ and Wendy Klokkert√
Tricks T-Shirt Winner for Saturday. June 24 was Rachel Lux√ (Her boyfriend predicted that she would win - psychic!!)

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June 16 - Luke and Lisa Lain Wedding Reception, at New Salem St. Mary's Hall

. . . . . . Jeremy, Dave, Val, Niko . . . . . . . . .
Tricks had a wonderful time playing music for Luke and Lisa Lain's wedding reception.
We had a remarkable collection of family and friends to celebrate with. Joann provided some great food for all the hungry party people. The spacious dance floor was packed with people who were in the mood for dancing and singing along with Tricks. Like I always say: Tricks isn't a wedding band - but some people won't take "no" for an answer. It was only natural for Tricks to play for Luke and Lisa's wedding reception. If you go to the Tricks history timeline and click on 1978, you'll see that Tricks played for Luke's graduation party. Tricks has lots of history with the Lain's. We were honored to be part of the celebration.

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- to Early 2006
- to Late 2006

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Tricksband.com website was started in March 2004.
Rick is webmaster, with graphics help from Krystal.

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