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Promo Pictures    Audio (coming later)

Well.  This was an experience.  I was initially hired as the sound man for this band, even though they already had one.  Dave had bought his way into the position by providing a microphone snake for the band to use, but that was really about all he had going for him.  That and the promise that he had a bunch of money that the band could borrow to buy gear.  Which they did, and then demoted him to lights.  The band, which included my very good friend Bob, and his college roommate Mitch, had also hired my roommate Marcus (from the band Exposure) to play drums, probably because I told Bob he was good.  Which he was, though I noticed that tempos would tend to speed up dramatically when cute chicks were checking him out.  Or just looking in his direction.  Or just in the room.

Anyway, the band started out life as U.N. (or the un-band, take your pick), named for the jumbled nature of the various member's heritage, and formed by Pete.  As I joined the band replacing the bass player, the name of the band changed to Silhouette, and Dave  reclaimed his position as 'sound' man.  We also picked up a 'manager', who quickly persuaded us to borrow MORE money, partly to buy transportation.  Which we did, in the form of a school bus, which we promptly painted blue and called 'the big blue bus'.  Pretty original, huh?  We ripped out most of the seats, and set to traveling around the state in this behemoth (when we could get it started).  We were getting gigs in the finest sports bars (read: bowling alleys) around, the most prominent of which was the Sand Bar Lanes, in Oscoda, MI, which happened to be where we had 'picked up' our 'manager'.  Which is also where we eventually left her, after she had convinced us to fire the sound man (our only source of money), spent all our cash on rent, food, bad clothes and the aforementioned bus that rarely started, and failed to advanced our careers beyond the status of 'always broke and sleeping in the bus'.

Around this time, Mitch, the lead singer, apparently the only smart one in the group, decided this life was not for him.  He left the band, and we hired Dolly.  Now this was good, because she was cute, but she had a boyfriend (Chip), which was bad, except he was a sound man, which was good, since we now needed one.  The performance pictures on this site were taken during the transition between Mitch and Dolly, which explains why there are two lead singers in the band.  Dolly and Chip had been around for a while, and took us to new heights, which meant that we now slept in cabins rather than on the bus.  They also took us to new gigs, which meant that you could now actually hear the band, rather than the sound of bowling pins crashing maniacally into the wall behind the bar.

More to come later, I'm sure, including details on the Roadkill and Confusion Tour, which drove the final nail into the coffin of this particular musical venture...

Photos taken at the Sunset in Owosso, MI (not a bowling alley), by Bob's wife Ann.  A round of applause, please, for saving them this long if nothing else.