Pat's Weekly Diary: 2/19 – 2/24
Mardi Gras 2020. Long busy week. We played the Wednesday Bike Night for the very first time at the Spotlight in Metairie. Playing to a great crowd of people we played just some good ol’ rock n roll the entire night. We need to thank Dennis Zambon for coming out to play saxophone with us the entire night. Dennis plays now with the Ol’ Cats and some of you will know him as one of the original members of T.Q. and the Topcats.(Moose Mongo) He was actually in that band when I joined in 1976. Check the Topcats History/Chronicles Page of our website. Off on Thursday. Friday night was a wedding in Opelousas, La. We played in the Ballroom of Stone Oaks Farms Event Center. About 2 ½ hour drive. A fantastic huge affair with dancing from start to finish. Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Whitney Dawes and thanks for inviting us to the party. Saturday was Endymion. It’s such an honor to be associated with Endymion. And as we have for many years now we began the day on the Orleans Ave. neutral ground for the Samedi Gras Celebration. The weather could not have been any better. We followed Groovy 7. We want to thank Dennis Zambon for coming out with his saxophone once again to play a couple of Springsteen songs with us. Dennis loves the Boss almost as much as me. Also need to thank Faith Becnel for singing with us as she did last weekend. The Bucktown All-Stars followed us. Then we had to make our yearly fight back to the start of the parade route. Never an easy task. Every year we have to fight and beg and plead with somebody to allow us to get close to the Captains Float to load our equipment on. “We’re playing on the Captains Float. We have to get in there.” The Parade started at about 4. Just beautiful. Great ride. Making great time. Then when we got to St. Charles and Poydras we were stopped for a good 30 - 45 minutes. Completely unaware of why. A lot of officials coming up communicating with Captain Ed Muniz. As we heard the news of the tragedy behind us… so sad. We started up again and finally made it to the Convention Center about 8:30 and had to sit and wait. Finally road in at about 9:30 and road right back out at 9:40. The had to sit and wait some more (‘til 11) before we could get our equipment off of the float. Sunday was Bachus Bash. Another show we’ve done for so many years. We followed Category 6 and the Bag of Donuts. Faith sang with us once again. As you can imagine it was packed out there. Monday morning we were at the Lundi Gras Celebration in Kenner. (Faith & Dennis both again.) What a great crowd of people out there. Just great weather over the weekend . Hope you all had a safe and Happy Mardi Gras. Once again we really want to thank Dennis Zanbon for bringing his saxophone out. And Faith Becnel for singing with us. And don’t forget to look for Faith on this season’s American Idol. As for us… the Topcats, we’re off now and hope to see you on Friday at Rock n Bowl.