When you absolutely positively have to be there THAT night...

I first saw the Radiators in 1984 during my college years in Minneapolis and they have been my favorite band ever since.  Of course there were a few times when I was faced with the choice of seeing the Grateful Dead or the Radiators on a particular night or weekend.  At first I always chose the Grateful Dead because...well...they were the Grateful Dead.  I followed the Dead all around the country for 10 years and my devotion to them was deep and unwavering.  I actually traveled all over the country seeing both bands whenever I could, but the Dead shows were the holy grail for us college-hippies.  After awhile though, especially in the 1990's, I came to realize that the Dead shows were hit and miss on whether or not it would be a good show, but the Rads never failed to deliver...they put on a great show night after night and you were always guaranteed to have an incredible evening of music and fun. 

Eventually I ended up cutting my hair and getting a real job in 1992, and this coincided with me winding down the perpetual touring with the Dead and amped up my ability to see the Radiators even more.  Maybe I was growing up at the same time that I wasn't?  Brent Mydland from the Dead died in 1990, Bill Graham in 1991, and then when Jerry Garcia died in 1995 it sealed the deal...all of my New Years Eves, Halloweens, Easters, Summers, etc. were now devoted entirely to seeing the Radiators.

As it turns out the Radiators were much more accessable than the Grateful Dead and in 1995 I was fortunate enough to meet them through my friend Dirty Dan at a concert in Madison, WI.  I then began to get to know the band on a personal level in addition to just being a huge fan.  Eventually this led to the moment when one day Dave Malone from the band suddenly handed me a Radiators laminate pass.  Holy crap!  I was not sure what it meant exactly, but I felt like I had been given the key to the greatest city in the world and I was ecstatic.  It basically meant that I had access to the backstage areas when the tour manager gave me the nod, but it also made me feel special and somehow part of the band, or more accurately part of the large Radiator family.

The pass proved to have other uses as well.  One time outside the busy House of Blues nightclub in New Orleans I had my laminate on, but with money in hand for a ticket I was suddenly ushered into the venue before I even had a chance to buy the ticket.  I also happened to get into a few festivals with it, and a couple times at the '10,000 Lakes Fest' in Detroit Lakes, MN I got to park in the artists section, camping a stone's throw from the Allman Brother's tour bus one year.  The biggest side-perk I ever realized from the pass though was on the dark and stormy night of April 30th, 1997.

In addition to the Radiators, Dave Malone has a side band called Monkey Ranch.  This is an amazing band with the core consisting of him on guitar/vocals, Reggie Scanlon from the Radiators on bass, and Mean Willie Green from the Neville Brothers on drums.  The rest of the band has been a revolving door of great New Orleans musicians that over the years have included Tommy Malone, Anders Osborne, Theresa Andersson, John Gros, David Torkanowski and others.  It's been a few years, but they used to play once or twice a year, usually for the annual New Orleans Jazz Festival which was the case in 1997. 

My friend Brad Pronger and I were heading down to New Orleans for the 2nd weekend of Jazz Fest to see tons of music, including 4 Radiator concerts and a Monkey Ranch show on our first night there.  I was living in Madison, WI at the time, and Brad and I had a flight down that night on 4/30/97.  It was not direct as we had to make a connecting flight in St. Louis, but we were due to arrive in New Orleans by 7 pm which gave us plenty of time to get to our friend's apartment that we were crashing at, unload our luggage, and then get to the bar called Benny's where Monkey Ranch was starting at 11:11 pm.

Unfortunately it was a rainy, windy afternoon in Madison as Brad and I sat in the terminal waiting and waiting for them to let us board the plane to take off.  It was funny at first as we joked about what if we missed the concert that night...but after awhile it was not so funny when that turned out to be a real possibility as we waited for a couple of hours to get the hell out of town.  Finally we boarded the plane and took off for St. Louis, but of course by the time we landed we had missed our connecting flight to New Orleans.

I was not too worried however.  There is always the 'next flight' right?  So when we got to St. Louis at 7 pm I confidentally walked over to the Customer Service desk and casually told the lady that we needed to get on the next flight to New Orleans.  "There is only 1 more flight out leaving at 8:30 pm...but that is all booked up." she said.  What?!  What about standby, or other airlines??  She tapped away at her computer for awhile and then told me that all the other airline flights were booked as well.  She said that she would put me and Brad on standby with their last flight, but it was overbooked and we would probably not be able to get on.  She then went on to explain that we would most likely be spending the night in St. Louis, but with a big smile said she would get us out first thing in the morning.

I walked away from the desk dazed and confused as I headed over to where Brad was waiting with our carry-on luggage.  This was not happening.  Did she really mean to tell me that we weren't going to New Orleans that night?  It did not seem possible.  I could not wrap my head around the idea and I refused to believe it.  There has got to be another way.  I told Brad our situation and he shrugged his shoulders.  What choice did we have? 

Like the Grinch, I stood there puzzling and puzzling 'till my puzzler was sore, and then I got pissed.  There was no way I could comprehend us missing Monkey Ranch that night.  We were meeting our friend Mitch Manson, his beautiful girlfriend (now wife) Kara and a host of other friends that night at the concert and the idea of us sitting in St. Louis while our friends and the band were all raging down at the bottom end of the river was inconceivable. 

Suddenly I remembered my Radiator laminate.  I was grasping at straws but I was desperate.  I pawed through my bag till I came up with the pass and told Brad to hang tight.  I marched up to the desk, this time with attitude.  I got the same lady, and as I made eye contact with her I slammed the laminate down on the counter and said:  "Look!  I am the drummer in a band called the Radiators.  You have probably heard of us.  That guy over there is my drum tech Brad.  Our band is playing tonight in New Orleans and we have GOT to be there!  I don't care if you have to rent a private plane, a private helicopter, a high-speed turbo limo, or simply get us on this last flight, but if you cannot figure out a way to get us to New Orleans by 11 pm there is going to be hell to pay!"

Her eyes grew huge as she looked down at the laminate, then at me, then at Brad.  Suddenly she started hammering away at her keyboard in ernest with a scared look on her face.  It took a couple of minutes, with her nervously glancing up at me from time to time, but eventually the printer started whirring away and with a sigh of relief she handed me two boarding passes for their last flight out of St. Louis getting us into New Orleans at 10:30pm.  I tried to act cool, but I was freaking out inside...it f*cking worked!

We got to New Orleans without further incident, took a taxi from the airport directly to Benny's, and got there just as the band was starting so we did not miss a note.  We hooked up with Mitch and the gang and had a great night and a great Jazz Fest full of lifelong memories.  Thinking back, I suspect that the airline lady may have had to bump 2 other passengers to get us on that plane and I feel bad about that, but at the time I was just enormously relieved and amazed at the power of the laminate.  The Radiators finally called it quits in June of 2011 after 33 1/3rd years, but they are still my favorite band and an endless source of stories and memories...stay tuned...

P.S.  As I said it was a great night with Monkey Ranch and a great concert in that crazy-cool weird place called Benny's.  I have a soundboard copy of the concert that fits on 3 discs.  If anybody should happen to want a copy of the show, just post a comment with your address below and I will send it out to you.