Thousands of people in desperate situations thank you for coming through for them last Friday night (3/20) at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay .

If you were part of the crowd of 200+ that attended our “25th Anniversary” party that night and donated canned food or cash or both, you can take pride in the fact that you helped place several hundred pounds of food on nearly empty shelves at Paul’s Pantry and also donated $800 to their efforts.

This truly is a worthy cause and we are proud of the fact we were able to be part of contributing to it.

And as for the show….

Carl Laes put the whole thing together - promotion; garnering a wonderful, nearly acoustically perfect room; organizing the provision of sound and lights; organizing the donations and dealing with a bunch of musicians with gnat-like attention spans. We’ll be starting his petition for sainthood next month.

Paul Sabb provided the sound, lights and his expertise. Dealing with a mass of humanity on the stage at the end of the night as well as some funky power issues and still delivering a production that was clean as a whistle.

Gary White opened the evening with his soulful style and grace. Able to send up an acoustic set of original ballads and come back at the end of the night leading us all in a raucous and blazing send up of “Rockin’ in the Free World”.

Berken followed with their set of original material - rhythmically intricate, melodically beautiful and with vocal harmonies that can only be achieved with the genetic linkage they share. The fact that we have only fleeting chances to experience their live performances makes us appreciate them even more. The fact that Providence saw fit to plant that genetic particle of musical talent into their DNA makes us like jealous AIG stockholders - spread the wealth, guys! I guess a round of applause should go to Mom and Pop Berken.

We apprehensively followed Beken with our set of all original material. I say “Apprehensively” because, believe it or not, through the course of 25 or so years there have been times when it’s been a struggle to find a venue for our music.
We can look back and laugh (NOW) about the times we drove all night to play before a sparse audience of faces that stared unblinkingly at us following that huge crescendo ending of “Last Cigarette” - wondering to themselves “who are these guys? And why don’t I recognize anything they’re playing?”. Inevitably there is always the group that stumbles in 10 minutes before the end of the last set that think you’re great. They just came from across town, from the place we really should have been playing.

The warm reception and appreciation we experienced that Friday night at the Riverside Ballroom reduces all of those “marginally successful”** nights to a blur; It makes you want to get right back up and do it again, keep writing new music and keep looking for a place like this where all of our friends can get together and contribute to our neighbors in need.

Thank you all very much for that.

Your friends @ Fun w/ Atoms

** (Marginally successful = Standing in the spotlight in an otherwise dark room after the final song of the night and the only sound you hear is the pinging of a chime and you realize it’s from the lone bartender playing pinball - not the cash register)

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