Early History

Ancient Gigs
(for Sundogs biographers)

February 5, 2005: Silent-auction fundraiser banquet at the Black Hawk Country Club.

December 4, 2004: The annual American Meteorological Society (local chapter) Solstice Party. Still our favorite gig! (Have you ever seen how meteorologists party? No, really!)

October 2, 2004: Private post-reception wedding party — congratulations Will and Jen! Absolutely fantastic gig at the beautiful Hawk’s View Golf Course near Lake Geneva. What a party crowd! Dance floor was so packed that Grant’s mike stand kept getting knocked over ! <Note to selves: bring more duct tape!> Our first gig where people actually asked us for autographs and T-shirts (we could give them the autographs but not the T-shirts)!
August 12, and August 26, 2004:  Two more Thursday evening shows outdoors on the cocktail patio at the Nau-ti-Gal.  What a great way to enjoy the last warm evenings of summer!

July 29, 2004: Our first of three bi-weekly shows this year on the outdoor patio of the Nau-ti-gal on the Yahara riverfront.  Great place to play, but dodgy weather kept us on edge and almost forced a cancellation.  In the end, we got through it without getting electrocuted by wet equipment, but next time we’ll also remember to bring our mosquito repellent!

July 3, 2004:   Post-reception wedding party.  Our most fun gig ever!  Great crowd, great atmosphere!

June 30, 2004: The Portal Music Cafe, on Williamson and Brearly.  Small but very friendly venue with a great built-in sound system.  It’s great to be able to just walk in and play without the usual set-up nonsense!

May 5, 2004: Angelic Brewing Company – first time there since our public debut two springs ago!  Also first time playing out at all since Grant broke his wrist on Christmas eve!  Unfortunately, because of some misinformation(!) from one of the managers, we invited a number of under-21 students who, to our great chagrine, got shooed out only 20 minutes into our set.  To those students, our heartfelt apologies!

December 6, 2003:  AOS Dept. Solstice Party  — our favorite regular gig!   For the first time,  we had student guest musicians perform with us – Katie O’Brien knocked ’em dead with her Sheryl Crow impersonation on “My Favorite Mistake”, Steve Decker belted out “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, David Santek added crucial Hammond organ fills on “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Born to be Wild”, Kris Wile took a turn on drums for “What I Like About You”, and Jason Gillis on guitar got the crowd moshing with “Smells Like Teen Spirit”!

August 29, 2003: Outdoors on the cocktail patio at the Nauti-Gal, on the Yahara River.  What a great evening!  Too bad we ended up playing in total darkness (apart from the camera flash) by 8:30 with no lights (we forgot summer’s almost over!)

July 29, 2003: Volunteer Appreciation party for Big Brothers/Big Sisters  — Capital Brewery, Middleton.  Huge stage for our puny little PA rig, but we felt like rock stars!  Not only that, but we had two VIPs in the audience: County Commissioner Kathleen Falk and Madison mayor David Cieslewicz!

July 19, 2003: 30th Anniversary High School Reunion, Watertown

July 12, 2003:  Private 25th wedding anniversary party — our first backyard gig!   Great fun, but tricky to play with the setting sun in your eyes!

June 21, 2003:  Repeat engagement at the Wayside 14 Club.

June 20, 2003: Rooftop summer solstice party for the UW Space Science and Engineering Center and AOS Dept.!  In honor of the occasion, we played tunes from two other famous rooftop concerts (think January, 1969, for one).   But man was it hot!

May 23, 2003: The new Wayside 14 Club (formerly Hare’s Towne Bowl).  Thanks to all the friends that came out to see us play — we had a great time, and are looking forward to more of the same next month!

December 7, 2002: AOS Solstice Party – Unfortunately, our drummer Brian was out sick, but we managed to pull off the show well enough without a drummer that a spectator actually hired us to play another party!  (No offense, Brian!)

August 15, 2002: Hare’s Towne Bowl, Middleton.

June 27, 2002: Hare’s Towne Bowl, Middleton.   Best acoustics of any place we’ve played!  Nice staff, too

April 29, 2002: Angelic Brewing Company, AGAIN!  These guys must be gluttons for punishment.

April 26, 2002: Jordan’s Big 10 Pub on Regents, in connection with the spring party of the local chapter of the American Meteorological Society.  Smallest “stage” we’ve ever squeezed all of our stuff onto!

Mar. 25, 2002: At the end of the previous gig at Angelic, the manager invited us to play again, so we did.  Smaller crowd due to Spring Break, but still great fun.  We’re getting the kinks worked out of our little sound system, so people could hear Jon better this time.  New songs in our arsenal (U-2’s “Pride”, CCR’s “Born on the Bayou”) were crowd-pleasers.

Mar. 3, 8:00 PM,  Cable Channel 4 (WYOU): Some of our students run a weather-oriented community-access cable TV show and generously devoted one of their half-hour segments to an interview with the Sundogs, including excerpts of our Feb. 25 show.  Our first television exposure!  Does anyone else see a similarity to VH-1’s “Behind the Music”?

Feb. 25, 2002: We played a 2.5 hour show at the Angelic Brewing Co.   and had a blast, despite some technical glitches and nerve-induced fumbles.  Not unexpected for our first “real” gig.  Thanks again to the 150+ friendly people who turned out to see us!!

December, 2000: We graduated from our lunchtime jam sessions on the AO&SS building roof to actually playing a set of eight tunes for the annual departmental Solstice Party.  Who knew back then that the Sundogs would still be together, and arguably a hundred times better, 20 years later?

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