When We Were Young

Sometimes your memory of a great event in your life grows to become greater and greater as the years go by. While in high school, some of my dearest friends and I were in a band. Typical high school level rock band...we actually rehearsed in hot Houston garages over the summer and learned a bunch of cover songs. This particular band went through many name changes, but we performed at the legendary Houston venue Fitzgerald's in 1989 under the name Texas River Band.

Alright, I'm already exaggerating. Fitzgerald's has two separate rooms. Fitzgerald's proper is where Stevie Ray Vaughan played in his early days, and where I saw a killer Tragically Hip show back in the day. Downstairs is a smaller room called Zelda's where more amateur acts can play. We played there. On a summer Monday night in '89. On Amateur Night.

But we were incredible. We blew the roof off the place. It is one of those great "what if's..." in rock history. What if a record producer had seen the show that night? One of rock's great lost opportunities, on par with if Hendrix had lived beyond the age of 27. At least that's how I remembered it until "Walter Evans" recently posted the show in its entirety on his Facebook page. Our lead singer's little brother had a video camera that night and documented the entire event for posterity. Faced with video evidence to the contrary, I guess we weren't one of those "what if's..." that I built up in my mind over the decades. I found it amazing how enthusiastic the crowd was considering how we sounded that night. But then I remembered we packed the place with our family and friends. So it was a very generous and friendly crowd.

Our setlist for the night is amusing. Here is what we thought was cool to play in the summer of '89...

"Tuff Enuff" (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)
"Pinball Wizard" (The Who)
"Green River" / "Proud Mary" (in medley form) (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
"Sweet Home Alabama" (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
"Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2" (Pink Floyd)
"Keep Your Hands To Yourself" (Georgia Satellites)
"Sharp Dressed Man" (ZZ Top)
"All Day and All of the Night" (The Kinks)
"Born To Be Wild" (Steppenwolf)
"Oye Como Va" (Santana)
"Wrap It Up" (as performed by Fabulous Thunderbirds, originally Sam & Dave)
"Louie, Louie" (The Kingsmen)
"Gloria" (as performed by The Doors, originally Van Morrison & Them)

Encore: "Hit the Road Jack" (Ray Charles)

Looks like your typical classic rock radio playlist.

Below is a taste, just a taste, of The Texas River Band. Before that we were Texas Radio, which was a supercool name, until the rest of us discovered that our lead singer had stolen it off a poster advertising for another band. A band that was going to play at Fitzgerald's. In hindsight, I kinda dig Mark Coldbeer & the Six Pack. Mark Coldbeer was our lead singer. Mark really liked it, but the rest of us outvoted him at the time. Here's some "Green River" (check out Mark's pants)...



ABOVE: The Texas River Band working hard on a typical Monday night in Houston back in the late 80's. On the far Left on guitar is Dezmond. On keyboards is frequent GNABB commentator "Walter Evans". And on guitar on the Right side of the stage is another frequent GNABB visitor, Johannes. If you can figure out Walter Evans' real name, and he makes you a friend on Facebook, you can view the show in its entirety there.