N.L. and Whiskey Galore share Las Vegas Fremont Street glory - By N.L. Belardes
For some time I thought I was the only Bakersfield artist to be creative on Las Vegas' famous Fremont Street. My glory was in 3-D animation as a creative writer/storyboard artist. Everyday I was in the Fremont Street party, wandering the casinos, eating junk food beneath the super-lighted big top, and people watching where no man has gone before.
Recently Whiskey Galore played their rocking bagpipes to the Fremont Street St. Patrick's Day crowd. Oh yes, I have been on Fremont Street during St. Patrick's day. They used to have a parade where many green-haired gamblerholics lined the streets and afterwards gambled the last of their retirement hairdye funds at the Fitzgerald Casino... all joking aside, it's a big downtown party and Bakersfield band Whiskey Galore got to play to the thousands on the street.
Read on as Kevin Briley of Whiskey Galore writes in to share his band's Whiskey Galore Celtic band experiences:
March 2002- Las Vegas, Nevada. After playing our first out-of-state show at Fitzgerald’s Casino, the three of us went outside to Fremont St. for a pint. The air was fresh and we all felt really alive- ready to play till we couldn’t anymore. There it was: the 3rd street stage of the Fremont Experience. From that second on, the band swore that no matter what happened, we would play that stage or die trying. We went back in and got pished and listened to one of the greatest bands (and a band that would become a great friend to our band: the Speaks Brothers) Fast-forward 4
years…
Friday, March 17, 2006. Las Vegas, Nevada. I wish I could remember all the sets. We had lists. There was a group from Armagh and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland that just went nuts when we played. We did not have the ballad "Fields of Athenry" on the set list. One of them asked for it. We ended up doing it once for all three sets. These folks were awesome. They threw in IRA lyrics (which seriously threw me off ballad singing when I first heard it) and generally just went nuts. Some of them got up and sang a few tunes. One of them banged on Mike’s beast drum… Someone sang "Danny Boy," and someone else sang, "The Boys From Armagh." We did "Back Home in Derry," a northern IRA tune at least twice at the request of the group. Here is the best I can remember:
HOUR 1
TRIPPING
GALICAN GRUMPY
NO IRISH
ATHOLL
LARK
GYPSY
ATHENRY
PROCESS MAN
BRIAN BORU/OLD HAG/ SLIDE
SLIABH LUACHRA
COUNTY DOWN
MASON’S
HOUR 2
DERRY
BLACK VELVET
PITCHFORK WHISTLE
PIG
JOLLY BEGGARMAN
MOLLY/COPS
PADDY MURPHY’S
DRUNKEN SAILOR
SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR
ATHENRY
MANHATTAN
DONNYBROOK
ROVER
RAKES
7 DRUNKEN
GRUMPY
THUNDER
HOUR 3
MASON’S
ITCHY
THUNDER
NO IRISH
BRIAN BORU
DERRY
SLIABH LUACHRA
LARK
ATHENRY
WILD MTN
PROCESS MAN
BLACK VELVET
ATHOLL
GALICAN/GRUMPY
HEALTH
DIRTY PANDA
After we got done playing one of the best bands in Las Vegas took the stage: the Speaks Brothers. These guys are it. I highly recommend anyone in Las Vegas checking them out. We’ve been friends with the band since we started playing Vegas. Rick and Ed Speaks lead the band and they just have to be heard to be appreciated. The do "American Pie" better than Don MacLean did. Ed, the "bongo boy!" from Porterville takes the drums like an animal. On Sax is Dewey. Dewey did many, many years with the Chuck Berry Band, the Charlie Daniels Band, and the Oak Ridge Boys. It’s a treat to hear these guys play and a privilege to have them as friends. On 3/17/06 after our show I did some rock-n-roll highland piping sets with them. On 3/18/06 Rich played bass while I sang with the band. Wish I could remember what song that was!?
Saturday, March 18, 2006. Las Vegas, Nevada. In the afternoon we did three 30-minute sets. I was so tired I don’t really remember any of it. I managed a nap for 10 minutes after the show I was so wiped out. We all were. We played 9 shows in 24 hours. We are a marathon band… but even we have our limits.
Saturday, March 18, 2006. Las Vegas, Nevada. After four years we are finally here! One of the promoters told us around noon that the show might rain out. We were nearly gutted. We waited too long and worked too hard to play this venue to lose it to rain. We’ll play without mikes if we have to! My pipes are thrashed from use and the elements (both sets). My reed is leaking and my lungs are only marginally better than last year.
I hope his isn’t my last show on the highland pipes… Mike’s drum is ok, but his voice is exhausted. Jeff and Rich appear to be doing ok in both physical and musical nature. Rick, from the Speaks Brothers Band shows up to encourage us. Man, I love having musical friends on the road! Apparently a shot of Yukon Jack is the key to loosening the throat before a show. Thanks Rick.
Dead tired we took the stage. All fears dispelled, it was like playing in my living room. I could tell that Mike was just as calm. I looked over at Jeff halfway through the first set. Homeboy owned his ax. So did Rich. The roar at the end of the first set was killer- I’d forgotten how many people were out there listening! That’s how deep we get into our music. The exhaustion gave way to creativity. Throw in a few mixed drinks, pints, shots, etc. and this band was as good as new.
The support was awesome. My aunt flew out from Detroit. Kenny from Louisville. My parents, Rich’s parents, Scott Yadon, Carl Guilford, and Bill Macauley all came from Bakersfield. Debbie came from Visaila, Ca. Brother Kurt and Lydia from Valencia, Ca. We even had a return Las Vegas Fan from Minnesota!
The first few sets we stuck to the list:
Hour 1
No Irish
Atholl
Mason’s
Wild Rover
Black Velvet
Lark
Derry
Boru
Itchy
Pumpkin
Galican/Grumpy
Hour 2
Pig
Process Man
Although my voice was shattered and I had to scream to sing we had to do this song. Four years ago we saw a band called Kinship (best celtic rock on the planet!) play here. They did this song. Ever since then I knew I had to sing it on that stage. Despite way too many gigs, beers, stage set-ups and tear-downs, and sound checks in 24 hours I belted that song out. Never felt better. Mike said my voice cracked once. I was so into he groove that I didn’t even notice. Speaking of grooves, Rich has this cool bass line on a reggae track that we do. You gotta hear it! The only way I got through this was Rick Speaks of the Speaks Brothers had some Yukon Jack. He said it works magic on the vocal chords… I don’t know if I sounded as good as him, but I got through the song!
Lark
Sliabh Luachra
7 drunken
Tripping
Galtee Rangers- solo
Gypsy
Manhattan
County Down
Irish washerwoman/Owen
Dirty Panda
Thunder
This adaptation of the famous ACDC song had the crowd going nuts. We knew that after we played it no one in the crowd was going anywhere. In fact, some one told me that we had a bigger crowd than the big name band from the night before. Regardless of the numbers- we clearly connected with the audience.
Hour 3
The last set was an amalgam of whatever we felt like. I don’t know a single song on the list. I know we just went nuts. Seems like you have the most energy when you have the least left in you.
We wrapped it up to great applause. That night, after the show we partied like Gods. There is a small closet just stage left in the Fitz. The Speaks Brothers stash their gear there because they play nearly every weekend. At some point we had Whiskey Galore and the Speaks Brothers Band in this little closet chugging Yukon Jack and Single Malt. A few select friends came with us. It is becoming kind of a tradition with us. You’ll have to join us next year Nick. Hell of a party. Mike said, "Now we have played Vegas!" And we certainly had. For a musician, it was such a sense of accomplishment. I understand the Fremont St. Experience will be having us back next year. I just hope it isn’t 9 sets in 24 hours again… but I’d do it again any day of the week!
After our drinks with the band we joined them onstage. Rich played Bass and I sang back-up vocals with Rick while Ed Speaks enjoyed more Whiskey. Rick unofficially dubbed us" the Speaks Whiskey Brothers Galore Band. Righteous.
We live for this stuff man.
Oh yeah. I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but when we started the
first set I asked, "is everybody in?" Any fan of the Doors must have
gotten a good laugh.
Recently Whiskey Galore played their rocking bagpipes to the Fremont Street St. Patrick's Day crowd. Oh yes, I have been on Fremont Street during St. Patrick's day. They used to have a parade where many green-haired gamblerholics lined the streets and afterwards gambled the last of their retirement hairdye funds at the Fitzgerald Casino... all joking aside, it's a big downtown party and Bakersfield band Whiskey Galore got to play to the thousands on the street.
Read on as Kevin Briley of Whiskey Galore writes in to share his band's Whiskey Galore Celtic band experiences:
March 2002- Las Vegas, Nevada. After playing our first out-of-state show at Fitzgerald’s Casino, the three of us went outside to Fremont St. for a pint. The air was fresh and we all felt really alive- ready to play till we couldn’t anymore. There it was: the 3rd street stage of the Fremont Experience. From that second on, the band swore that no matter what happened, we would play that stage or die trying. We went back in and got pished and listened to one of the greatest bands (and a band that would become a great friend to our band: the Speaks Brothers) Fast-forward 4
years…
Friday, March 17, 2006. Las Vegas, Nevada. I wish I could remember all the sets. We had lists. There was a group from Armagh and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland that just went nuts when we played. We did not have the ballad "Fields of Athenry" on the set list. One of them asked for it. We ended up doing it once for all three sets. These folks were awesome. They threw in IRA lyrics (which seriously threw me off ballad singing when I first heard it) and generally just went nuts. Some of them got up and sang a few tunes. One of them banged on Mike’s beast drum… Someone sang "Danny Boy," and someone else sang, "The Boys From Armagh." We did "Back Home in Derry," a northern IRA tune at least twice at the request of the group. Here is the best I can remember:
HOUR 1
TRIPPING
GALICAN GRUMPY
NO IRISH
ATHOLL
LARK
GYPSY
ATHENRY
PROCESS MAN
BRIAN BORU/OLD HAG/ SLIDE
SLIABH LUACHRA
COUNTY DOWN
MASON’S
HOUR 2
DERRY
BLACK VELVET
PITCHFORK WHISTLE
PIG
JOLLY BEGGARMAN
MOLLY/COPS
PADDY MURPHY’S
DRUNKEN SAILOR
SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR
ATHENRY
MANHATTAN
DONNYBROOK
ROVER
RAKES
7 DRUNKEN
GRUMPY
THUNDER
HOUR 3
MASON’S
ITCHY
THUNDER
NO IRISH
BRIAN BORU
DERRY
SLIABH LUACHRA
LARK
ATHENRY
WILD MTN
PROCESS MAN
BLACK VELVET
ATHOLL
GALICAN/GRUMPY
HEALTH
DIRTY PANDA
After we got done playing one of the best bands in Las Vegas took the stage: the Speaks Brothers. These guys are it. I highly recommend anyone in Las Vegas checking them out. We’ve been friends with the band since we started playing Vegas. Rick and Ed Speaks lead the band and they just have to be heard to be appreciated. The do "American Pie" better than Don MacLean did. Ed, the "bongo boy!" from Porterville takes the drums like an animal. On Sax is Dewey. Dewey did many, many years with the Chuck Berry Band, the Charlie Daniels Band, and the Oak Ridge Boys. It’s a treat to hear these guys play and a privilege to have them as friends. On 3/17/06 after our show I did some rock-n-roll highland piping sets with them. On 3/18/06 Rich played bass while I sang with the band. Wish I could remember what song that was!?
Saturday, March 18, 2006. Las Vegas, Nevada. In the afternoon we did three 30-minute sets. I was so tired I don’t really remember any of it. I managed a nap for 10 minutes after the show I was so wiped out. We all were. We played 9 shows in 24 hours. We are a marathon band… but even we have our limits.
Saturday, March 18, 2006. Las Vegas, Nevada. After four years we are finally here! One of the promoters told us around noon that the show might rain out. We were nearly gutted. We waited too long and worked too hard to play this venue to lose it to rain. We’ll play without mikes if we have to! My pipes are thrashed from use and the elements (both sets). My reed is leaking and my lungs are only marginally better than last year.
I hope his isn’t my last show on the highland pipes… Mike’s drum is ok, but his voice is exhausted. Jeff and Rich appear to be doing ok in both physical and musical nature. Rick, from the Speaks Brothers Band shows up to encourage us. Man, I love having musical friends on the road! Apparently a shot of Yukon Jack is the key to loosening the throat before a show. Thanks Rick.
Dead tired we took the stage. All fears dispelled, it was like playing in my living room. I could tell that Mike was just as calm. I looked over at Jeff halfway through the first set. Homeboy owned his ax. So did Rich. The roar at the end of the first set was killer- I’d forgotten how many people were out there listening! That’s how deep we get into our music. The exhaustion gave way to creativity. Throw in a few mixed drinks, pints, shots, etc. and this band was as good as new.
The support was awesome. My aunt flew out from Detroit. Kenny from Louisville. My parents, Rich’s parents, Scott Yadon, Carl Guilford, and Bill Macauley all came from Bakersfield. Debbie came from Visaila, Ca. Brother Kurt and Lydia from Valencia, Ca. We even had a return Las Vegas Fan from Minnesota!
The first few sets we stuck to the list:
Hour 1
No Irish
Atholl
Mason’s
Wild Rover
Black Velvet
Lark
Derry
Boru
Itchy
Pumpkin
Galican/Grumpy
Hour 2
Pig
Process Man
Although my voice was shattered and I had to scream to sing we had to do this song. Four years ago we saw a band called Kinship (best celtic rock on the planet!) play here. They did this song. Ever since then I knew I had to sing it on that stage. Despite way too many gigs, beers, stage set-ups and tear-downs, and sound checks in 24 hours I belted that song out. Never felt better. Mike said my voice cracked once. I was so into he groove that I didn’t even notice. Speaking of grooves, Rich has this cool bass line on a reggae track that we do. You gotta hear it! The only way I got through this was Rick Speaks of the Speaks Brothers had some Yukon Jack. He said it works magic on the vocal chords… I don’t know if I sounded as good as him, but I got through the song!
Lark
Sliabh Luachra
7 drunken
Tripping
Galtee Rangers- solo
Gypsy
Manhattan
County Down
Irish washerwoman/Owen
Dirty Panda
Thunder
This adaptation of the famous ACDC song had the crowd going nuts. We knew that after we played it no one in the crowd was going anywhere. In fact, some one told me that we had a bigger crowd than the big name band from the night before. Regardless of the numbers- we clearly connected with the audience.
Hour 3
The last set was an amalgam of whatever we felt like. I don’t know a single song on the list. I know we just went nuts. Seems like you have the most energy when you have the least left in you.
We wrapped it up to great applause. That night, after the show we partied like Gods. There is a small closet just stage left in the Fitz. The Speaks Brothers stash their gear there because they play nearly every weekend. At some point we had Whiskey Galore and the Speaks Brothers Band in this little closet chugging Yukon Jack and Single Malt. A few select friends came with us. It is becoming kind of a tradition with us. You’ll have to join us next year Nick. Hell of a party. Mike said, "Now we have played Vegas!" And we certainly had. For a musician, it was such a sense of accomplishment. I understand the Fremont St. Experience will be having us back next year. I just hope it isn’t 9 sets in 24 hours again… but I’d do it again any day of the week!
After our drinks with the band we joined them onstage. Rich played Bass and I sang back-up vocals with Rick while Ed Speaks enjoyed more Whiskey. Rick unofficially dubbed us" the Speaks Whiskey Brothers Galore Band. Righteous.
We live for this stuff man.
Oh yeah. I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but when we started the
first set I asked, "is everybody in?" Any fan of the Doors must have
gotten a good laugh.
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Saturday, April 08, 2006.
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