A Two-Gig Saturday
#495 / Flood Time Capsule: 2002
The summer of the 2002 was a particularly busy time for the fellows of The Flood as they moved about continuing to promote the release of their first studio album.
The Saturday after Independence Day was especially bustling, with two paying gigs in two different cities in the span of six hours, all under the broiling sun.
Summer Motion in Ashland
The guys started the day with an early afternoon show in Ashland, Ky., at the gazebo in Central Park as part of the city's annual Summer Motion festival.
The band was slated to play at 12:30, but arrived to find the organizers running a little behind schedule.
Charlie Bowen didn't mind; he and Pamela had grown up in Ashland and the delay enabled them to visit with friends and family who read in the newspaper about the show and had come down to catch the 30-minute performance.
Back to Huntington
“After a rollicking set,” Charlie wrote his mom in an email later, “we headed back to Huntington, grabbed a quick lunch at the West End Cafe on W. 14th Street, across the street from where Joe's Fret 'n Fiddle music store began in the mid-'70. Then we freshened up and cooled down before reassembling at 7 to play a private party.”
The do — hosted by John and Ann Speer in the backyard of their spacious South Side home — turned out to be the neighborhood’s social event of the summer, with some 250 people streaming in, milling around, eating, chatting and listening to a few tunes from the band.
“We played background music from 7 until it was too dark to see our chords,” Charlie wrote.
Diving into Flood Lore
For more tidbits from the band’s scrapbook, drop into Flood Watch’s free Flood History area, an archive of the events of the group’s 50-year history.
