The quiet little town of Badger was nearly busting at
the seams when it's Centennial Celebration drew well
over 900 people. We were tickled that a good
share of them attended the virtual
festival of music that was the Badger Centennial
Street Dance.
Entertainment included not only Probable Cause,
but the awesome bands "One Night Only" and "Highway
Call"!
First to take the stage was "One
Night Only" and they did a fantastic job. In
fact they didn't miss a beat even when the PC
"gremlins" kicked in. That's what we call the
ghosts in our sound system that do mysterious
unpredictable things at the most inappropriate times.
This time it was an excruciating scratching in a
one-of-a-kind cable. We have 12 of everything
else, but only one of these boogers. After a
little "McGyver-ing" with a pocket knife, soldering
iron, duct tape and $50 worth of the wrong cables, the
PC crew fixed the problem and manufactured the right
cable - retail value $12 - but it worked!!! What a
relief! Finally the whole street was able to
hear the awesome performance of "One Night Only"!
Not only did Probable Cause get to share the stage
with 2 great bands,
but we also got the chance to DANCE!
Thanks to area donations, everyone
was able to enjoy an amazing fireworks display between
bands. This picture doesn't do it justice - it
was a real "ooh...ahh..." show!!!
Next up was the incredible "Highway
Call" band. Ok, it's only fair to admit that
Sheila has to have another beverage to follow these
boys. Their combined musicianship is amazing and
though we've shared the stage with them many times, it
doesn't get any easier. They make a four-piece
band wound like twelve and have long been an
inspiration and source of encouragement to other
musicians (PC included).
As an example...here's Badger native Michelle
strutting her stuff
alongside her bass coach and mentor, Curt.
It was so much fun hanging out in
the crowd, enjoying the music, dancing and visiting
with friends, but by 11:45 Probable Cause was itching
to play. The requests came pouring in and the
dance floor got sillier with each song. In fact,
Mike announced that everyone should find their
sweetheart because we would be playing just a couple
of slow songs during the set and when we looked out,
one crazy boy was dancing with his cooler. Yeah,
that would have been funny by itself, but John added,
"I can see that you're getting lucky tonight" and we
all cracked up in the middle of "Wonderful Tonight".
Highway Call's, Dallas, and Sheila's
son, Tyler, strutted their stuff as a duet on a couple
of rock tunes and I'm pretty sure the windows were
rattling at Badger Oil...oh yeah, drummers rule!
I'm sure many of these people got soaked. There
was a chain reaction of beverage fountains that
sprayed for three songs soaking all the way up to the
stage. To some it's just a sticky shower that
holds even the designated drivers up at sobriety
checkpoints,
but John affectionately refers to it as, "alcohol
abuse".
Jeepers, our hour and half went by way too quickly.
Before we knew it we were saying goodbye and tearing
down. That's a funny story, too, but we'll have
to save it for a scrapbook moment (or just text
1-800-BRAD).
Thank you "One Night Only" and "Highway Call" for a
great night!
Thank you Badger for hosting a wonderful birthday
party and for including Probable Cause.
And thank you to the entire community for the
donations that made this event FREE to the public.
We've played street dances for other communities where
it's not uncommon to see people looking for holes in
the gate and sneaking in. Not in Badger - in
this neat little town we had skads of people come up
and ask us where they could go to pay...you can be
proud!
