Western Courier

Issue date: 4/23/04 Section: The Edge

Media Credit: Craig Finlay It´s not cold anymore! Groovatron´s back in Macomb tonight and Saturday night at the Café.

Walking into the Café Feb. 13‚ the first thing I heard was Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" playing over the speakers. If my life had its own theme music‚ that song would have been playing at that moment.

It was featured in "Almost Famous‚" the Cameron Crowe film about a young Rolling Stone reporter who follows a band during its tour‚ all the while taking notes for a story. That mirrored my own situation at the time.

I was at the Café to meet up with Groovatron‚ a hard-traveling jam band booked for Friday and Saturday night shows there. I was intent on following the band everywhere for the weekend and later writing a story about what happened to me. Life imitates art. Or maybe the Edge just imitates Cameron Crowe.

We held the story until now because Groovatron is appearing again tonight‚ with Alan Vasquez‚ at the Café.

My introduction to Groovatron came in the form of an impromptu deli set up on a table in the Café. The band members were crowded around the table making cucumber‚ turkey and Swiss sandwiches while setting up instruments for their show later that evening.

"That is some mad fatty colby longhorn right there!" bassist Tony Qualls excitedly announced upon seeing the smorgasbord.

Guitarist Marc Quagliar was lifting weights with a cucumber. "You can have some if you want‚" he said.

Temporarily distracted from my reporting duties by hunger‚ I was making myself a three-cheese and lettuce sandwich when the band members divulged to me that they really didn't have much of an idea of what I was doing there. Their agent hadn't fully informed them of my mission.

I had to explain that I wasn't planning on leaving their side for the next two days.

"So you're going to go to the shows‚ party and whatnot?" Qualls said. "Should be fun."

"Hopefully‚" I said.

"Hopefully? Don't doubt me!" Qualls said‚ laughing.

From then until Sunday at 5 a.m.‚ when I finally stumbled home in an exhausted haze‚ my time with Groovatron proved to be a mixture of partying‚ extended games of euchre (which I never learned to play‚ despite patient‚ repeated instruction by the band members) and damned enjoyable live music. And‚ yes‚ a la "Almost Famous‚" I was repeatedly referred to as "the enemy."

Continued...

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