Statistically, it doesn’t rain on our band any more often than it does on any other. However, because of that name, The Flood’s lads have always felt they need a reserve of weather jokes.
“Gee, if you didn’t want rain,” we might say, “you shoulda booked… oh, I dunno… KC and the Sunshine Band? Or maybe The Blue Sky Boys?…”
The Remark’s Debut
As near as we can remember, the first time we ever used that particular line was 24 years ago this month during the band’s first appearance at the Festival of the Hills in downtown Ironton, Ohio,
It was a hard gig. Charlie Bowen told his mom in an email the next day, “The weather forecast had been optimistic that the showers would end by mid-morning. But then, the weather forecast hasn’t been right most of the summer, so why start expecting it to be right now?”
And it wasn’t it. “It rained steadily all afternoon,” Charlie wrote. “I felt sorry for the volunteers who planned the festival — they really worked hard at it — but both days were a washout.”
The band stayed dry — we were on a covered stage — and there was a tent covering for the audience, such as it was. But it was still no fun being outside.
Still, Flood was hot. The guys put on two great sets. “Everybody was full of good energy and it came through,” Charlie said in his email, “but there weren’t many people there to listen. Those that did brave the elements and came out had good time.”
As documented here earlier, this was at the beginning of what Floodsters jokingly called a decade-long “Buckeye Curse.” Read all about it by clicking here.
Calling 2002
We have no recording of the music the guys played on that rainy day in Ironton, but you can sample The Flood’s 2002 sounds. Just visit the free Radio Floodango music streaming service, and in the “Hear by Year” section, click the 2002 button. Or just click below for the express lane to your time machine.
And remember, we’ve now got ways to mobilize the ol’ Floodanago. Click here to find out how to put the Flood radio on your computer desktop and on an iPhone to make your Flood fix always just a click away.
Meanwhile, for more about what was happening in the Floodisphere in 2002, click here to visit those pages of the band’s online scrapbook.