Flood as Warm-up Act
A Flood “first” came on a rainy autumn Friday night 22 years ago this week when the band worked as a warmup act for a standup comedian.
And the venue was another first: The band got to appear at the beautiful Vern Riffe Auditorium on Shawnee State College’s campus in Portsmouth, Ohio.
The event even came with a cool history hook.
Portsmouth had just completed a 10-year installation of 52 breathtaking scenes on its floodwall painted by Louisiana’s renowned mural artist Robert Dafford. Depicting two centuries of the city’s history, the scene are still a tourist attraction today, 20-feet high and gracing the 2,000-foot wall from the riverfront to downtown.
Enter Carl Hurley
To celebrate the completion of this project, the city hired down-home Kentucky comedian Carl Hurley to entertain the crowd.
Born in a log cabin in Laurel County, Ky., Hurley is a former Eastern Kentucky University professor whose trademark storytelling combines yarn-spinning with G-rated public comedy.
How The Flood Got Involved
The band was invited to be part of the do because planners were attracted by the group’s name. “The 1937 flood was a pretty big deal to us too,” one organizer noted. “Why, it’s right there on the floodwall!”
Most of the band mates traveled to the gig that day with the Romines, Chuck behind the wheel and Phyllis riding shotgun.
“The weather was not cooperating,” Charlie Bowen told his mom in an email later. “Hurricane Lili's rain reached us about that time, but fortunately, the job was inside. Very inside, actually. What a beautiful auditorium that is!”
The band got to Portsmouth in time to do a solid sound check, then run out and grab something to eat.
“The locals told us of a good family restaurant called The Fork and Finger Cafe,” Charlie wrote, “so under umbrellas — it was raining steadily by then — we scurried over there and explained to the waitress that the nine of us were in a real hurry, since we had to get back for the show.
“They were very cooperative. They got us fed and on our way in about 35 minutes. We then hurried back through the rain and wind to the auditorium and found the place packed.”
Packed House
The Rife auditorium seats about 1,100 people, and that night it was sold out. That made this the second-largest audience the band had played (second only to the riverfront crowd that had gathered earlier that year at a Flood gig with the Huntington Symphony Orchestra at Harris Riverfront Park).
“We got backstage, tuned up and in 15 minutes were on stage and rocking,” Charlie wrote. “We designed the set to feature only our funniest tunes and the crowd loved it.”
Kazoory was on the program too.
“We took along a bag of kazoos,” Charlie added, “and we got volunteers from the audience to join us on stage for a number with Dave Peyton conducting his ‘how to kazoo’ seminar. We left 'em standing and wanting more. We ended up even selling about $200 worth of albums.”
After the intermission, the Floodsters slipped back in to hear Carl Hurley's show, loving his wonderful Andy Griffith-style of aw-shucks comedy. At the end of the evening, Hurley told the guys he really enjoyed the band and was interested in maybe getting The Flood to work with him on other shows. (Nice thought, but alas, it could never be worked out.)