It is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie with the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. What's up, Ray? Oh, not a heck of a lot. I'm out here at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, and I ran into somewhat of a Joliet celebrity.

Really? Yeah. And he's he said he'd like to talk to us sometime. So I says, let's talk.

OK. So today, today's feature podcast is Joliet Dave of Chasing Amy. Joliet, not Joliet Dave.

The Joliet. They named the town after him, Paul. That's right.

Yes, they did. That's our guest today. Very good.

Does he call you Frankfort Ray or no? No, no, no. It's Ray the Roadie. Oh, I'm sorry.

OK. Ray. It's fun to make sure that I was clear on that.

Yeah. No, no, no. I mean, yeah, it could be hamburger.

I prefer hamburgers or hot dogs, but no, it's Ray the Roadie. OK. Just Ray the Roadie.

Oh, I see. Frankfurt. I get it.

Yeah. Yeah. So what's going on with you? Well, you know, I'm looking forward to talking to Dave and finding out about chasing Amy.

I guess they've been around for quite some time. And let's let's see what they've had to say. They've been around.

They've been around a long time. They still haven't caught her. Yes.

No, I don't think they have. No. It's kind of like the roadrunner and the coyote.

Let's find out if they have. Let's see. Everybody, welcome to the show.

Today we're speaking with the bass player, the manager of Chasing Amy, Joliet Dave. How are you? Hey, Dave. Hanging in there.

Hanging in there. Doing pretty well. That's good.

That's good. So tell us a little bit about well, tell us about yourself first. Let's talk about you first.

Find out where you got started and how you started playing bass guitar and how long you've been playing. Yeah. And yeah, I started about seventy ninety seventy five.

That's when I started playing. I was playing guitar at the time. And first gig was a was a bicentennial party.

So I've been around a little bit, you know, but played a lot of heavy rock. And then eventually, you know, turned into like 60 percent covers and 40 percent originals type of thing. And I played in a lot of bands up into about strictly on guitar, you know, through beginning of the 90s.

And then I got I used to go down to this blues jam in downtown Joliet and eventually a group of guys that were forming a band there, a fellow by the name of Mondo Cortez. I don't know if you've heard him, but he's with the Chicago Blues Angels. He was putting together a band, asked me to play bass because I would go down there and play bass because, you know, I could play guitar anytime, you know, so I started making the switch and I played predominantly bass in that band for about five years that we were together.

A lot of gigs that was called the Blues Boys. And we played the entire Chicago land area. And, you know, I just kind of liked it and stuck with the bass and just kept playing in different bands since then.

So you were playing the blues? Yeah, for playing more rock stuff. Well, it started off with rock. And then when I got into bass, it was blues for about five, six years.

And then I went back into like rock, classic rock, that kind of thing. And so now this brings us to now you've been playing bass for quite some time, right? Right. I started out on bass, strictly bass, probably about 93.

So I played about 18 years of guitar, strictly, and then switched over to bass and I still play guitar occasionally, but mostly with original type of things. But as far as bands go, yeah, I stick with the bass. So tell us about Chasing Amy.

When did Chasing Amy get started then? We started in 2007. You know, I answered, well, no, I didn't answer it. Actually, they contacted me through one of these musician sites where, you know, you're trying to connect with other bands and that kind of a thing.

And so I went, they were rehearsing out in Naperville, didn't have a name or anything yet. They were just kind of forming. Went over there, things worked out really well.

At the time, they had a girl singer, two guitar players, one guitar player, keyboard player and a drummer. And so over the next few months, we lost, you know, we eliminated one of the guitar positions, changed keyboard players and started picking up some steam and working some gigs and promoting and the whole thing. So we were going pretty good there in 2007, beginning of 2008.

And then the guitar player and keyboard player decided they wanted to kind of go off on their own and form their own type of band, doing a little different kind of music. What kind of music were you playing? Us at the time, we're doing a lot of what I thought were a lot of mellower type songs, a lot of Motown and, you know, things like that. I love Motown.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Everybody loves Motown. We still do some, but it's.

But so I was told at the time that we're going to put we started off with one name called Stone Groove, but Amy, who was the singer, thought, well, let's call it Chasing Amy. So we started going by with that. But now when those two fellows decided to leave.

We you know, I was told that, well, let's put Chasing Amy on the back burner for a while. And I thought, well, you know, no, I mean, we picked up we've been going along pretty good here. We've got a good following going.

I told the singer, you know, Amy and the drummer, let's just kind of keep it going. So we decided to do that. And no sooner had I said that about a week or two later, Amy informed us that her husband is being relocated out of state for a job and they were moving.

So, OK, so now we're down to me and me and the drummer. So still, I decided, well, still, you know, let's just keep going. When you're a drummer, that's the backbone of the band, right? Well, yeah, right.

OK, that's the foundation right there. You got to build from there, right? That's what we need, you know, three hours of that. But, you know, rather than trying to start something new and, you know, again, I was I'm thinking we already have we're already rolling.

So we auditioned a guitar player and got a new guitar player. Some singers, one was stuck for a little while, but then that wasn't going to work out. So I connected with a female singer that was there rehearsing out in Naperville now.

I mean, excuse me, Bowlingbrook. So we went and checked them out and she had a drummer going and another guitar player, and that was about it. Me and the drummer that was chasing Amy, well, we joined another band that was already going with a guy who wanted to join Chasing Amy.

That's a little confusing. I didn't think you were right. But so anyway, so we so now there's two bands going and I figure, well, let's just keep the Chasing Amy guy over in that band.

I'll use the drummer that from the girl singer. And so now we got two guitar players, a drummer and a singer in me. Well, then we lose the other guitar player.

Now there's just the four of us and we start going, we're playing gigs and we're rolling along pretty good. And the drummer decided to the drive was a little too much because he lived down in Chicago. So then we bring in Paul Chamberlain.

You might know he used to play in a little band called Slink Rand. Oh, sure. Today, you might also know his brother, Jimmy Chamberlain, with the Smashing Pumpkins.

Right, right. And so we brought in Paul. And so we again, we we continued on.

Well, Slink Rand, you're bringing back some memories now. Yeah. So now we get this band going and then, you know, as things happen, the singer and the guitar player start having, you know, the falling out a little bit and a little band drama things.

So we part ways with that guitar player. Side note, I ended up being in another band with him later on. But so we then we brought in Bill Volling, who around Joe was probably best known with a band called Gunner.

And so, yeah, he was pretty well known around town, 70s and 80s, that kind of thing. And so there's the the nucleus right there, the guitar based drums that have been together since then. And now we're talking about 2009, 2010.

We lose the singer that we had, and then we go through a kind of a succession of different singers. We had Lisa Matthews in the band. A girl by the name of Angel Burr, who is excellent, but she's kind of left the business.

And and now here we are today, 14 years later. It's and we have a girl by the name of Melissa Rodriguez, who's been with us now for about six years. And that brings us to today.

So you never consider changing the name to Chasing Juliet, Dave? No, I'll let the cops have that one. Yeah, they can do that. I've had people that have suggested that we change the name.

Joey DeMarco was one person that wanted us to do that because there was there was another Chasing Amy up in Wisconsin. Oh, thank you. And as a matter of fact, we we played up in Antioch one time and they all came out to see us.

So we had that Chasing Amy singer come up and do a couple of songs with us. And for the most part, we had a pretty good relationship with him. It was a little confusing because we would get some offers for gigs for them and we'd pass them to them and they would get some for us and vice versa.

So they ended up moving out of the area down in Nashville. So and I don't know what what they're doing now, but yeah, Amy comes from the movie, right? I believe that's where she got it from. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. There's not too much connection with the plot, but, you know, right.

And again, I kept the name mainly because we just had so much time and so forth invested in it. So like I said. But now it's 14 years.

And so here we are. And so what kind of music are you doing now? Are you doing you still do some originals? You know, over the years, we've done a couple of originals, but that's it's not really what we focused on. It was mainly, you know, one of the members would bring in an original and we'd play it.

You know, the thing is that everybody's kind of scattered. Elk Grove Village, Chicago, Juliet, you know, so we don't get to get together as much to just kind of do songwriting sessions when we get together. It's to do, you know, everybody comes to a rehearsal where everybody's all prepared and it's just work.

Boom. We come in, we start working, you know, so we don't get a lot of time for that. But we each each of us has done some of our own side projects as far as originals, releasing things and getting some airplay with with our own stuff on the side, you know, and some of it wouldn't fit in too much of what we're doing.

Like me and the guitar player tend to lean more on the heavier rock side of things. Although Chase and Amy does delve into that, the type of music we play will run the gamut from, you know, for instance, last Saturday, Sticks, we'll start off with a Sticks song and somewhere in the middle now we're playing Carrie Underwood and and then we end up with Pat Travers and Queen and that type of thing. So, you know, it's all in how you do the setlist, you know, everything's, you know, I spend a lot of time on the setlist, so, you know, everything has to just kind of blend in and make sense to me, you know, and I'll put it on a YouTube list and just listen to it.

Play through, you know, and I said, OK, all right, that sounds good, so we'll go ahead and do that. But yeah, that's a good idea. Put it on YouTube.

Yeah, yeah. I make a playlist. So and then I just sit back and listen to it.

So it's but yeah, we'll do she's Alanis Morissette or Cindy Lauper, and then we'll get into Robin Trower and Eric Johnson. Does anything besides your girl singing? What's her name, Melissa? Does anybody sing besides her? Oh, yes. Guitar player Bill, he does.

He'll sing lean on some tunes and sing some backup and harmonies and they keep trying to get me to do it. But, you know, I cite the law that was passed here in Joliet several years ago that keeps me away from a microphone. You know, when you have the villager showing up at your door with torches, you know, when I'm out of town, you can take the hits, you know, although I used to do that a long time ago.

I'm better with just an acoustic doing some blues. You can get away. You know, there's a wide margin of what you can get away with on that.

Oh, yeah. You know, you and mistakes sound good. Yeah.

Yeah. You don't have to be so precise. There's no harmonies or nothing pretty about it.

So how did you how'd you survive COVID? We tried to get together occasionally. We lost a lot of gigs, obviously. That's true.

As everyone did. Right. Right.

Right. But the idea was that, well, you know, we're not going to go anywhere. We'll just kind of go off and do our own thing and woodshed or what have you.

And when it comes together, it'll it'll come together. You know, we stayed in touch. I threw out some new songs here occasionally.

You know, here's work on that. You know, yeah, just we everybody just kind of kept in communication with each other. And, you know, I said, well, we'll just weather the storm.

Yeah, well, it's probably good that you did. I mean, I'm sure it was the demise of many bands. Yeah, it was.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I guess it's I'm just I get accused of being stubborn about a lot. That's I think that's probably one of the reasons we've been around for so long, because, you know, if we lose a member or some disaster happens, you know, we've had health issues, near death situations where we almost lost someone, you know, broken limbs. Yeah.

And we just, you know, we just keep going. You know, a few years ago, Bill, the guitar player, broke his arm because he's a roofer. You know, he can't remember exactly how he puts it.

He won't say he fell off the roof. I don't know if he says he rolled or floated or what have you, but he won't say he fell off the roof. But so he had a broken arm.

So we brought in one of our old guitar players from early on, and he filled in and did a great job at it. You got to make do where you can, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And then I've had other singers that had to step in for some other reason, play a few gigs and I just, you know, you just keep going. Right. A lot of bands can do that.

And a lot of bands, I mean, get locked into a situation. They have to they have to stick with it. So I mean, good for you for being able to to to bring subs in and have them playing and keep moving.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I try to use subs that that are going to be, you know, keep it at least at that quality. Now, you know, of course, there are some missteps in there.

Oh, yeah. Well, that's live music, right? Yeah. Well, we had one and she was great at the rehearsals.

But man, she got out in front of a live audience. I'm hearing all these vocal runs, like, like, like, you know, this American Idol or something or the voice. And I'm like, well, there's a lot of this.

And nothing's hitting. Yeah, yeah. So that was a that was a one and only gig on that one.

It was older. I've had a show. Yeah, it's not going to work.

Are most of your gigs predominantly in the Joliet area? You guys travel outside the area. Oh, no. We we play from Waukegan, our area.

Yeah, we'll go up to Waukegan, play out there and out to we've been out to Ottawa, down to Wilmington, out to Tinley Park. Actually, a Joliet proper. We haven't really played a gig in town here in, you know, like two years.

So, you know, of course, there's the covid thing in there. True. But yeah, but it's now like we played Shanahan, so we'll be close.

We just did that last Saturday. OK. You know, they have a nice venue down there.

Just put in a brand new stage and and and sound and lights. And yes, they have some some clubs were able to improve their locations while other clubs closed. Yeah, they have an outfit for rock productions and NFP that does sound for them.

And oh boy, they did a great job. You know, it's one thing to have people come up and tell you, wow, the band's great. You know, we love you guys.

We're having a lot of fun. But they also say, man, the sound is just the floors rumbling. Everything's great.

You know, the sound is perfect. Yeah. Kudos to them for doing such a great job down there.

This is Paul Mike and Ray the roadie. And we're here to talk to you about GHS strings. That's right, Ray.

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So if you play, play with the best, play GHS strings. So so now you mentioned you mentioned that you do the booking. You're the manager of the band, right? So then you also mentioned Joy DeMarco.

I imagine you've crossed paths with him a few times. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I usually for a lot of gigs, I book myself.

I have one or two other guys that just kind of, you know, do it as a they like the band. So they'll and they know people. So they'll get us into some places, other bands.

And, you know, and we'll help other bands get into a place. You know, we like to try and get along with our fellow musicians out there. Our brothers in sound, as I like to call them.

Brothers and sisters in sound. So we've, you know, we'll take things like that. But yeah, we've worked with Joey quite a bit.

And a lot over the last 25 years, if not more. Oh, yeah. We've had our ups and downs, but yeah.

Well, his name has been mentioned quite a few times on our show and by different bands. And but I think I think he does a great job. I mean, I've known Joey for 100 years, at least.

And I think he I think he does a good job. And and and he's got his foot in the door everywhere, just about everywhere you can imagine, you know. Well, what I like about working with him, because, you know, like I said, I work with other, you know, even other booking people, is that I'll tell him, OK, here's, you know, what we need.

Here's what we require. And it's like, and here's what we want to play. And and he'll try and fill that, you know.

Whereas I get sometimes with the other booking agents, they'll, you know, they'll try blowing smoke and telling me how great this free gig is going to be because of all the exposure and all of this, you know. And I'm like, listen, you know, don't don't bring me stuff like that. You know, just just here's what I look for.

Here's what I need. And when you got that, then come and talk to me. You know, I don't don't give me the sales pitch.

You know, I've been a salesman. So I don't want to hear it coming from someone else. You know, you could you could tell Joey or United Talent, you could tell them, say, hey, I've got a date open two months here that we need to fill and he'll fill it for you.

Right. Right. Yeah.

I guess sometimes I'll do a look at the calendar. I'm going, yeah, OK. Yeah.

I got such a date. Two months down the road or something. Great.

Yeah. So I think we have a pretty good working relationship with him. Are you also the music director of the band? Well, you know, as far as picking out material? Yeah.

You know, I'll say this and I know what it's going to sound like, but it's not entirely a democracy. OK, right. You know, because I just you know, I mean, it's obviously I mean, I'll take in ideas, you know, from some of the other guys, but I'll listen to it and I'll run it past some some of our followers.

Sometimes, you know, I'll connect with people through Facebook or something or or when I'm going to see another band, I'll talk to people. And what do you think about this song? What if we start doing that? Right. You know, so but yeah, I have I make the final OK on the songs, you know, because there's a certain thing I just imagine what the reactions to be when we're playing it.

What's how's the crowd going to respond to it? You know, and, you know, sometimes when you're dealing with musicians, they're doing them. I try to give everybody a little room to spotlight, of course, and, you know, pick some find some songs. But they've come up actually with a lot of great tunes that, you know, that we're that we're using.

You know, Melissa actually has been very helpful with that, too. You know, at one time I just kind of decided on my own and what songs we're doing. But now I'll kind of run past her because she's you know, she has a real good insight on the things and, you know, figure out pitch in it and that type of thing, too, before I even bring it to the other, you know, tell the other guys about it.

When I bring it to them, I want especially the guitar player. I want him to know we've already decided, OK, we're going to be playing it in this key. You know, so I've been in other situations where you get on, you get the rehearsal, you work on a song, you get the rehearsal and everybody's playing it in different.

Well, I listen to that version and I'm playing it in this key. You know, I try to avoid that at all costs. You know, so like I said, we just like to come in and work and that's it.

Yeah, not a lot of playtime or smoke breaks or. So what would you describe your genre of music right now? Boy, I guess we're just kind of all over the place. Well, the way I describe the band is classic rock, cool country and party tunes.

OK, that kind of just kind of covers pretty much what we're doing, because, you know, we just started doing I want to dance with somebody. But we do the, you know, version from another band that plays it. OK, I can't think about who does that now.

So you'll so you'll throw in some newer stuff. Oh, yeah. That besides the classic cracking.

Yeah, we've done some Katy Perry. And and again, then we'll pick up some. We just started doing starting whiskey, drinking cocaine.

That was one of the new ones we did. And respect to Rita Franklin. We started doing that one.

You know, and again, we'll pick up some new things, some some country songs. We got some probably some Luke Bryan coming up. So so you've got you're just a three piece with the lead singer.

Yeah, guitar, bass, drums and two people that sing, you know, but so kind of what we do is we'll all learn the proper parts and that kind of a thing. And when we bring it together. We'll just kind of flesh it out a little bit, because, as I said, we're playing.

We start off last Saturday doing doing a six tune. Right. Got too much time on my hands.

So, yeah. So a lot of that falls on me and me and the drummer to fill that space. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking of the song.

Yes. Right. So so I take the the Geezer Butler, Jack Bruce approach to bass playing, which is is to, you know, a lot of bends and things that make it sound really cool.

Right. It's just, you know, listen, old cream and an old Sabbath. Sometimes it's just, you know, even when when Tony only takes a guitar solo, it's still it doesn't sound empty.

Yeah, right, right. Those two guys, the rhythm section, you just filling up that void. So was it a big switch from going from guitar to bass? I mean, I mean, I know you've got, you know, basically you've saved four strings or, you know, the bottom four strings or whatever, unless you play a five string bass.

No. My thing is, you know, you're old school, you're old school. Nothing against the nothing against the five stringers and six stringers.

But I said, if you can't get it done on four, just play the guitar. And I use a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail for, you know, first, the number shall be four. Three is right out.

Except unless you are proceeding to four. Yeah, but some of those guys like to get paid by the string. So, you know, yeah, you would think.

But it's the transition. It wasn't, I guess, too hard. I used to have jams at my house in Joliet there on the east side of Joliet.

And that were actually spawned a lot of a lot of musicians that are still playing from these jams, you know, and now I play left hand. So when I went in to get lessons the first time, the guys looking at me like, oh, no, you're going to have to flip that over. And I'm like, I don't want to flip that over.

My guys are Tony Iommi and Jimi Hendrix. And I'm left handed. Whoa, hey, imagine that.

So I my way of getting around that was I invited all these hot shot guitar players and things that come over my house to jam. So I just would spend the time learning, asking questions, watching. And so eventually, you know, somebody would bring a bass along and it certainly wasn't going to be a left handed bass.

You know, my guitar even started off as a right handed guitar with the strings switched over. Right. Nobody was going to accommodate me on the bass.

So I started I just started flipping a right handed bass over, which is so which is what I still do. So when I play guitar, I have a nice left handed guitar as I play. But when I play bass, I just have a righty that I flip over.

Now your strings are in different order, though, right? No, it's just the right handed bass. I just I can hand it off to any right handed bass player. They can play it.

Oh, OK. No, it's so that so the low E on the E on the bass was on the bottom. Oh, really? Yeah.

Oh, OK. So so so the strings are in different order than than traditional. And if I play guitar, yeah.

Yeah, right. Right. Oh, I see.

So so that's kind of interesting. And, you know, it takes a couple of seconds to make that adjustment in your head. If I'm playing, having to be playing both in the same time, you know, I was thinking if you were playing guitar and and you had a right hand guitar player, you were playing left handed.

You can kind of mirror image what he was doing. But but if you're playing the strings the opposite direction to then you really can't. Right.

And nobody bothers doing it. Trying to nobody. Nobody's teaching that.

Yeah. Nobody's watching. Yeah.

Like Bill, the guitar player. He doesn't watch to see what I'm doing at all. Right.

First of all, everything's now going in the opposite direction of what he's looking at. Yeah, he'd be totally confused. Right.

Never mind. I used I used to run sound and and I have a couple couple bands come in where I was running sound in and they had a big group. Great guy played.

He played blues, played left hand, but played right hand guitar, which, you know, so the bass string was on the bottom, the low E was on the bottom rather than the top. And I was trying to watch what the hell he's doing. And I was totally lost.

Totally lost. Yeah, well, you know, it's just the way I like, again, there was no way to learn. Right.

Yeah. So it's just kind of went with the flow. Because like I said, nobody was bringing a left handed bass for me.

So so so I think you learn bass or you learn guitar even by playing play by ear. Correct. Yeah.

Do you read music at all? No, no, no. I mean, I read it. I just don't understand it.

Like reading like Chinese. Yeah, I can read Chinese. I have no idea what it says.

But no, no. Yeah, I play entirely entirely by ear. So I really could afford the lessons anyway, you know, because my dad had just passed away.

And, you know, that's kind of me and my mom that were there. And it came time to, you know, well, let's, you know, with these guys, let's play. Well, let's go on.

Let's tour, you know. You know, I had to make that decision that no, I have to stay with. I had to stay with mom and take care of, you know.

So you said these jam sessions at your house, though, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Geez, that went on for like 10, 10 years or more. And this was back when the 80s or when? Yeah, 70s, mid 70s to about the late 80s. Wow.

Yeah. And then I started having them out in a public park out here called West Park. Okay.

And I got permission from the park district and everything to go on out there. I got my sound permits and. Um, but yeah, back at the house, though, was, uh, yeah, there was a lot of musicians that came in, you know, thinking they were hot shots and they get their butts handed to them.

And, uh, they're always very gracious about it. And so, wow. You know, I thought I was really something before I came in here.

And because, you know, there was a lot of good players that were coming out of there and they would, uh, some of you might be familiar with even, you know, drummers and things like, you know, my cousin, you might know Danny Garcia. Yeah. From back in the pinups and it, I think our proudest moment was, uh, we were playing in the backyard and we had a, uh, a Will County sheriff show up at the house and he came up and said, you know, you can hear you guys all the way to the prison, you know, the, uh, correctional center, you know, they did the Blues Brothers movie.

And I don't know if he felt we were going to feel bad or ashamed or we lost our high five and he said, nothing to be proud of. So then we started sticking my mom out in the front porch with a police scanner. She'd come around back and boys, the police are on their way.

So we'd all stop and we'd go sit in the front porch and watch the cop roll up and down the street a couple of times and get back at it. Right. So yeah, you're probably the forerunner of, uh, of the jam nights, right? Oh, I, I don't know.

I, I would say Juliet air is probably T-Bird hook. He started the official ones and set into bars and that type of thing. He's the first one I remember anyway.

So, so I'm trying to think of, uh, some of the clubs that, uh, from Joliet, uh, now you still live in Joliet. Oh yeah. Yeah.

They named the town after me. I can't leave now. But, uh, uh, the edifice comes to mind.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was another one.

Yeah. I'd be cases. It's kind of Shorewood, right? Right.

Right. Yeah. There's one, uh, there was one on Jefferson street in Joliet that changed a lot of names.

It was Bentley's and great expectations. Bentley's. Yes.

Bentley's. Yeah. So there was a lot of places.

So, yeah, I, I was playing a lot of, you know, a lot of these places to, you know, edifice and arbitrate things. What was the name of the club that was, uh, in, in the Jefferson, uh, uh, Jefferson mall there? Uh, that was, uh, not old. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. I have a lot of good memories there too.

Yeah. Me too. That's a Walmart now that he tore that ball down.

Yeah. Yeah. It used to be where the OTB was or something.

Wasn't it? Or that's still there, but it's in a separate building now. Okay. You know, like behind where the mall used to be.

Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, you know, I'd say, well, you know, Jason, even a nice thing is there's a lot of, a lot of history with the, some of the individual members there, you know, certainly been playing a long time, you know, and we've had people come by to see us like, like sleep brand, you know, um, you know, before he passed and, you know, Jimmy Chamberlain has been out to see us a few times.

So, you know, that's always nice. Sure. Where do you go from here? What, uh, what do you do? You just keep playing, keep rocking and rolling.

Uh, yeah. Yeah. You know, we get, uh, we just played this past Saturday.

We got, uh, I think we're going to kind of spread it out a little bit more. And, um, for now we're playing at the end of the month, we're playing a place called uptown and playing field. That's the 29th of May.

Okay. And then we head out in June. Uh, I think the 12th that is we're at the, uh, the Moosa Wilmington, which, uh, you wouldn't believe it, but man, is that a fun crowd? Oh yeah.

You know, I, I don't know. Couple of the mooses, uh, have been, uh, being, uh, the one Joliet has one. Oh yeah.

Yeah. It'd be me tomorrow. Wouldn't that be me? He says, yeah, the flock, the moose that's right.

Where are you playing? I know it's a, yeah, well actually a lot of them have really fun crowds, you know, they're all into it and just, they're just there to have a good time. And that's, and that's kind of, you know, what we like to do. We don't, uh, you know, we don't claim to be the bestest or, or the premier that, and, you know, we're, uh, there's not pyro or laser lights and that kind of thing.

No, no, no costume. Well, maybe me, you'll confuse me at that. But, uh, but, you know, you know, we don't go up to blow the stage up and all, you know, anything like that, but it's, uh, you know, we just, we just like to go out and have a good time, put on a nice show for everybody.

Right. But, you know, at the, at the end of the night when they come up and say, man, I had a lot of fun. That's, that's what we're looking for.

That's all we, you know, that's what we're looking to do. You know, everybody's worked all week long and then all this other stuff going on in the world. And we just want people to come and hear us and, and dance and party and get all that at least for a few hours.

Yeah. You know, that's key right there. Yeah.

Yeah. That's it. We're not, uh, like I said, we're not making any claims to be anything more than we are.

We're just a bunch of, a bunch of guys and a girl that like to go out and play some fun tunes and have a good night and give everybody put some smiles on people's faces and that type of thing. And thank goodness places are starting to reopen so we can do that too. Oh yeah.

Yeah. So go ahead, Ray. I was going to say, where can people find, uh, the band, uh, socially? Well, we're on, uh, Instagram and, uh, Facebook, of course, chasing Amy, we rock Twitter and I'm on there too.

So, you know, they, they, they find the band through me. Uh, if they, if they friend me on Facebook, they'll, they'll eventually get that band and invite. There you go.

That's a given. So if your friend Joliet Dave, you're going to get that. Don't complain about it.

So, uh, uh, besides, uh, besides yourself, Joliet Dave on bass, who, who are the, once again, who are the other players in the band? Uh, it would be Melissa Rodriguez doing vocals, plays a little percussion. Uh, we have a Bill Volley, uh, lead guitar plays, uh, and also sings and, uh, Paul Chamberlain, uh, holding down the, uh, the backbeat there. Very good.

Very good. And like I said, we've been, uh, the three guys have been together for about 11 years now. So, and now we can find some of your stuff on YouTube, right? Oh yeah.

Yeah. There's YouTube and Reverb Nation. Oh yeah.

And we're also on there too. And, uh, now when I looked at Tracy gave me, I found a couple of them, uh, one from England or something. I think it's Joliet tribute band.

Now I'm just kidding. Uh, yeah, yeah. I know there's some out there.

I think there was one in Australia. Yeah. So how do we, how do we distinguish you from the, uh, from the other ones is, uh, do you well, for instance, with, with, uh, Instagram, it'll say Joliet specifically, but, uh, okay.

You know, well, you know, everything tied in with the band is, is Chicagoland area, you know? Right. Okay. So, but chasing, chasing Amy, Chicago, we will probably find it, right? Yeah.

Okay. All right. Very good.

Alrighty. Well, thanks for your time. Uh, Joliet, Dave is a great talking to you.

Yeah. And you guys too. And hopefully we'll, we'll get out and see you guys, uh, somewhere this summer.

Yeah. That'd be nice. That'd be nice.

We'll be out there plugging along like we have been. So yeah. Very good.

Keep up. Stay out there. Keep rocking.

That's the goal, man. All right. We'll see us.

Take care. Okay. Frankfurt, uh, Ray.

Uh, excuse me. Ray the roadie. It's Ray the roadie.

I'm sorry. I forget it. So that was a great conversation we had there with Joliet, Dave.

Wasn't it? That's right. And like I said earlier, still haven't caught her. Still haven't caught her.

But, uh, they're, uh, they're, so they're going to continue to stay out there and keep playing and keep rock and rolling, I guess, until they do. Yeah. Until they, they're going to keep chasing until they catch her.

Once they catch her, I don't know what's going to happen. I'd been tired by now. I may, I might've just given up.

No, you kind of, you do kind of remind me of Wiley coyote. I do. Yeah.

Kind of chasing, chasing the road, running around. Yeah. Yeah.

It's an acme bombs. It's an endless battle. That's right.

It is an endless battle, but it was a great conversation with, uh, Julia, Dave, uh, nice backstory and how the band got together. And how about that playing the bass upside down? Yeah. Yeah.

I, that is honestly, I, I sit here thinking about it and I just can't picture. I'm going to have to go watch some of his YouTube videos now and check it out. It's going to look, I'm sure it's going to look weird.

Yes. But you know what? If that's how you learn to play it, then that's how you play it. That's right.

That's how you play it. So, uh, yeah, definitely check out, uh, chasing Amy this summer at a venue near you. Okay.

I will right after I put my DHS strings in and I stopped by the, uh, the rock and roll museum there in Joliet. Definitely. I wonder if he uses GHS strings on his base.

I don't know. Boomers. Yeah.

Maybe boomers. That's right. But so until next time, folks, until next time, thanks.

That's all folks. Thanks for joining us. See you next week.

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