saw donnie iris and the cruisers in columbus ohio at a now infamous venue, great, great show. after the show i was able to meet and talk with donnie and mark avsec (keyboards, background vocal genius). mark actually explained in full detail how he went about doing the background vocals (massive layering program with a reverb/echo chamber effects board----which is what i believe really makes their songs click. marty lee (guitar) understands what power chords are (Love is Like a Rock) and the two combined made their music fun to listen to in the 80's (IowaRam understands what I mean).
the only sad part of the whole evening was when my ex wife went to take a pic of donnie and I --i was going to send to my friend in orland fla since all 3 of us went to Slippery Rock Univ. the camera decided not to work and later the realization was that she killed the battery recording a torching keyboard solo by mark avsec, thus rendering the phone camera useless and my picture chance gone.
I still was able to give Donnie a shirt that had Slippery Rock State College on it (became University the year I started) and he actually liked the one I gave him since he graduated from the state college version. in return the band signed the hat i was wearing (naturally a john force hat) and a t shirt from the show. the venue only held about 300 or 400 people (still very loud) and after the show, i spent at least a good 40 minutes talking with band members which was worth its weight in gold to me. oh to have that picture though. luckily, thats a memory that will stay with me til my last day on the floating orb known as earth. kinda like this past weekend. keeps a healthy balance in life having those memories.
www.donnieiris.com will give those that want it, more band info.
