Friday night it was the band, The Pheremones, playing at My Place. --The bar Volume One Magazine calls Chippewa Valley's Toughest Bar. It has been a rough couple of weeks, and a particularly rough day. I was ready for a good time, and The Pheremones delivered in style! They were a great cover band, playing just exactly the type of music I wanted to hear. By the end of the night, between the music, observing the ruffians, and the cheap beer prices I was fully cured. Thank you Pheromones!

Let me tell you about my day. You see, I really hate selling things. It doesn't take much to realize that if you ever visit my house. My life is filled with the treasures, some people would call trash, I have collected over my years. One of those things I collected back about 25 years ago was and red Porsche 928. The most fantastic driving experience I have ever owned. But, the trouble was if you drove it a lot, it needed parts. The price of Porsche parts is brutal. And, every time it needed something, I was under spousal pressure to sell it. But then when it was fixed, it was way just way too much fun. A cycle any married man knows won't last forever. But this spring it needed a fuel pump and frankly I needed the space in my garage. So I Craigslisted it hoping for lackluster response. Of course it sold immediately. Friday, the buyer trailered it away. I once heard a guy say the two happiest days of his life was the day he bought his sailboat and the day he sold his sailboat. Let me tell you, its not the same thing with a Porsche. I got a little misty eyed watching it go down the road.

Steve Baker with The Pheremones at My Place May 2010

On top of this my real job has been hell, as we try to push out a major software upgrade I have been working on for the past year. Finally after months of bugs, push backs and creeping featurism, we had a firm deadline. Noon on Friday. Then at 11:30am, it got pushed back to May 10th. So I have to live with this project for another two weeks.

And finally, The Snout Saloon here in Chippewa Falls, my local music venue, Freak & Geek pub of choice, has been sold to some new owners. There are rumors of big changes. Friday noon I was downtown and stuck my head in for a quick look. Already the bar has been stripped of all it character. All of the pigs are gone from the backbar, posters down from the walls. It is all quite depressing to those of us who liked it the way it was.

So…. With all of this whining behind us, you can see just how badly I needed to have a good time. The Pheremones were really the perfect band for the night. It was like comfort music for me. Soothing away the events of the day. They are a cover band. I know some people, mostly musicians, don't like cover bands --calling them talentless. I would disagree. It doesn't bother me the play covers. I thought they were outstanding.

Musical highpoint for me was Maroon 5's Harder to Breathe. It was a great cover. I downloaded the original the next day and have listened to it a number of times since. I don't know how that song got missed for previous purchase in the usual house music collection. Other highpoints were some good ZZ Top. There was Bad Companies, Shooting Star. Sarah Spindler at lead vocals does a respectable job. She doesn't have the range or clarity of some female singers, but she is better than most. Steve Baker on guitar was really great. He plays an outstanding solo and interacts with the crowd well. On bass, Dave Schoenrock keeps up a steady patter of between song chatter.

Sarah Spindler and Lief Petersen with The Pheremones at My Place May 2010

My Place, on the scale of real world toughness is *maybe* about a 3 but by local standards it is no Ritz. There were a couple of scuffles. And, at one point a guy staggered up to the bar, grabbed The Wife's fresh beer, took a big swig out of it, growled and threw it behind the bar as he turned and left. Moments later the bartender, who's back was turned, at the time of the incident stopped by and asked if we needed anything. When we told her the story she said, "Oh yeah, sorry about him. He is very rude." and the house bought us a beer. But, these experiences aside, I really like the bar. I like the fact that it is almost always busy but not packed. And, when you are at the bar, you are only a few feet from the stage. My Place has several bands booked over the summer, watch the Freak and Geek calendar for dates.

So walking out the door of My Place, The Wife was still in the mood to dance and so we went across the street to Scooters. It was kind of amazing to me, My Place is tough and constant trouble brewing. The owner was rushing around a couple of times to either quell, or kick to the curb, various fights. Just across the street, less than 100 yards away in Scooters, there was zero violence. Scooters was busy, the dance music was pumping. There were a few public displays of affection I wish I could have un-seen, but its a good bar. Certainly a much calmer, safer environment than My Place where testosterone seemed to be sprayed in copious quantities.

When we rolled back into town we stopped in to say a quick hello to Ross William Perry who was playing at the Snout Saloon. He said the crowd was young and few.

Excellent Adventure on stage at Shooters Showgirls in April 2010

Last weekend we caught Excellent Adventure for the opening of music nights at Shooters Showgirls out in Elk Mound. It was a microscopic crowd. Excellent Adventure played well, though I have to admit, I am not a big fan of their music. It was really a good venue in the basement of Shooters. A nice big room with good acoustics. They had a great light show. It was really a shame there were so few people there. I don't know if the morally straight-laced were worried about running into the garment challenged co-eds, but the music was in the basement, the dancers upstairs. I thought it was great, myself. Going upstairs made for the best band breaks I have experienced, one dollar bill at a time.

Well, I did it. I own tickets to the second night of the Lady Gaga tour in St. Paul. I tried to get the first night, but hit Ticketmaster web site about ten minutes after tickets went on sale. They were all gone. Lucky for me they announced a second night. I remember back in the day, concerts existed to increase record sales. You could get main floor for twelve bucks. Well, that shit's changed. I think that's about the price of a beer these days and the concert tickets are *outrageous*. So, this will be the one show we get to this year.

 

	The Pheremones and Buckcherry's song, Lit Up
	The Pheremones sing Velvet Revolver's Fall To Pieces

 

You all might notice I am writing less. Motorcycle season. The Harley is out. There will be new stuff here from time to time over the summer. But, I will see you in the fall for sure. Have a good summer!

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the pheremones

i am a old friend of leif peterson we used to play in a band 35yrs ago when we were teenagers if anyone can help me get in touch with leif it would be appreciated my email is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
and my cell# is 239~537~5455

mike biaggi , August 13, 2011

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