Lotsa chrome at TJ’s



This past Friday night Freakswitch was teaming up with Downfire to play a show at TJ’s bar in Wappingers.  Everytime we jam with Downfire we have a good time.  Freakswitch & Downfire is sorta like sketti & meatballs.  We just go well together.

As we arrive and walk in the back door (at least I think it was the back door), I see the area where the bands were going to set up.  As soon as I saw I knew this night was going to be one for the books.  How could it not be, there was a stripper pole smack dab in the middle of where we were setting up.  Not to mention I belly up to the bar to wet the ole whistle, the barternder comes over and she’s wearing a toga.  HELL YES!  Please let this be a night straight out of the movie Animal House. 

TJ’s is a biker bar with a great atmosphere and even gooder people.  This place isn’t huge but there is enough room in there to do what you gotta do and have fun while doing it.

As Downfire pulls up and starts unloading their equipment, Carlos their guitarist is sick and is shaking so bad he could’ve been mistaken for having a seizure. After a meeting of the minds, Carlos was sent home and Downfire regretfully had to decline from playing their set that night.  Looks like we were having meatballs without sketti tonight.  The good guys that Downfire are stayed and allowed us to use some of their equipment (as agreed upon when show was booked) and rocked along side of us.

To compensate for now only being a band act that night, we decided to push back our original start time from 10pm to 10:45 pm allowing more people to get a good drunk on.

As we get ready to hit our first note, the place fills up.  As we go on I discover that Freakswitch is not only a hard rock band, but we apparently are one kick ass band to listen to while playing beer pong.  Lots of air guitar and head banging going on.  It was great.  As we get roughly halfway through our set, a toga starts walking towards the band with handfuls of shots for the band that were bought by people who were digging the tunes.  Looking to my right though, still nobody using the stripper pole.  By the time our set was done, people that weren’t paying attention earlier were paying attention, the crowd surrounding the band grew to where it was standing room only.  Ok so there weren’t any chairs but still, standing room only.  With the closing of the set and the drinks still coming, the people were enjoying BUT still no use of the stripper pole.  You know where I’m going with this right?  Thought so.  Well Brian announced our last song and invited anyone to come use the pole cause it was paid for and a shame to go to waste.  Half way through “Wrong Direction” the toga sporting bartender comes up and starts doing her pole thing.  TA DAAAAAAAAA!  A huge roar came over the crowd.  These people must have really loved our song to give us a reaction like that.  YEAH YEAH! I know, it was for the bartender on the stripper pole.  But since this is my blog, we’re going to say that it was because of the music.  After our set, we had quite a few people come up after and talk which was cool cause we talked like we’ve been friends for years.  THAT is the kind of people you will find when you visit that establishment.

Over all, it was a good night.  Its too bad that Carlos was sick and wasn’t there to partake in the evenings festivities.  Get better Carlos, we’ll do this again soon.

until next time…