Jumpin' at the VRC...

Our favorite gig...the Valley River Inn across from the Valley River Center Mall in Eugene. Sweetwater's is the name of the lounge, nested comfortably on the banks of the mighty Willamette. Rooms, food, beverages, beautiful people... Livin' the dream, man...

Uh, oh... anyway... Nico's mom, Ann, has been offended that we don't have any pics of Nico on the site, and, well, it's true. But there's a reason for it...or excuse...sorry, Mom... and here it is: All work on this site is done on a volunteer basis, and, granted, the way I've set it up, maintenance of it is a bit time-intensive (for the sake of design), SO, "when I get a round tuit," things WILL and DO get done. So, please have patience. We love Nico, and in no way is this a slap in the face, despite the way it may look.

That said, I had our band photog and chief Eugene swing-dancer, Greg Shaver, snap a few shots with my little Kodak EasyShare...(click for larger image, then BACK)

So there!

Ann also turned me on to a cool source of "street jumpers" video, to maintain the street cred of the band. Check out - http://www.ejbdotcom.net/content/1453.html

Thanks, Ann!

Who are the Jumpers...REALLY??

Because there are so many possibilities with the name "Jumpers," we get people coming up to us all the time asking which one is it? Are we JUMPER cables? Are we gymnasts, or track & field guys? Are we paratroopers, or tiny pieces of hardware on a computer motherboard? Maybe we just like that Van Halen song from 1984, or maybe we're the ones David Lee Roth is singing about in the song? On the darker side, we could be suicidal, or... Nico sent me this... You decide!

Ya Ya in Yachats!

It promised to be an interesting weekend, anyway, mainly because Gordon had a family wedding to attend, so Ray Davis replaced him, and then, for Saturday night Nathan had concert tickets he'd gotten for Christmas, so we had to replace him. So, for Sat. we had TWO SUBS. And, well, it turned out better than we could have hoped. Both Ray and Steve did outstanding jobs, and with Steve being from Louisiana, with his zydeco feel and raspy voice, it was just great entertainment.

The owner, Bruce, told me and Nico that we had "redeemed" The Landmark, on account of the apparently horrific music acts that had been in there the past few weeks. "Everything has reached harmony once again," sighed Bruce with a big transcendental smile.

It seems nearly every time we go down to the Landmark, we have a sub, so we're looking forward to St. Patty's Day when we can have the full crew. Not to say Ray and Steve weren't great--they were--it's just that it limits some of the "production" numbers we do.

The weather was horrific that weekend (Jan. 27-28), but it really didn't put much of a damper on attendance. Friday night was better than expected, but Saturday night was positively wild. The night started off with a group of about 15 50-somethings from Eugene who had attended some sort of Clam Festival. They were seriously looking to dance and drink, but pooped out early. But around midnight the professional partiers made the scene, and whooped it up non-stop until 1 AM. The wait staff was running around like headless chickens for a while there, while Bruce and his wife sat back and enjoyed the whole thing immensely.

Nico, Mrs. Bruce, and Steve's wife

Friday night between about 1:30 and 3 AM, 70 MPH winds kicked up replete with thunder and lightening and driving rain. Ray and I were upstairs in the apartment above the club, and that whole building was shaking. I literally thought we were having an earthquake! Then, as suddenly as it came on, around 3 AM it just stopped. I heard that Sunday night was even more intense, but we'd left by then.

Yachats is a funky, comfortable little town, quaint in its community-ness, and is really a great place to visit. So definitely make it a destination and come rock out with the band! We'll be down there again St. Patty's Day weekend--have a green beer on Eddy!