Hi, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie. Welcome to the very first episode of Rock and Roll Chicago podcast, where we'll be bringing you a lot of the great bands that you used to see back at all the clubs in Chicago back through the 70s until today. Today we're featuring the Dancing Noodles celebrating 35 years, 35 years of great music.

Let's get started with them right now. Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie. We're here with members of the Dancing Noodles.

We're celebrating 35 years on the road. We've got Terry Canning and Ed Kammer and the one and only Paul Martin. Let's just clear this up.

I'm interviewee and interviewer, so I'm a little bit of both. I'm confused, Paul. Yeah, because Paul, you're like double dipping.

I am double dipping. You're podcasting. You're at the Russian.

You're dancing noodling. I guess I'm more than double dipping, aren't I? Well, triple dipping. All right, you guys, so tell us, how did this all come together? Well, you guys called me to meet here for this podcast thing.

How about we start from 35 years ago? Oh, come on. Or maybe 35 and a half years ago. Well, that's interesting.

There's probably many different perspectives, different viewpoints about how this all came together. Mine would be that it started with a band that I had put together because I was playing with Teenage Radiation. And Teenage wasn't playing enough because I was used to playing with Freewheel in 300 some days a year.

And now I'm playing with Teenage, and I felt like I needed to play more. So I put together this band. It's now revived called Eddie and the Hot Rocks.

So Keith and I- Can you delete that, please? Yeah, maybe we could do a podcast on Eddie and the Hot Rocks. Sure, EHR. So I had that band together.

We were playing. And Roman, who I was in Teenage Radiation with, came out and saw the band and said, Wow, I like what you're doing, but I think we could do something a little bit different. And then he asked that if I could bring Brian Starnum, our bass player from The Noodles.

And Roman brought in Terry Canning, who's our drummer, current drummer, only drummer ever in the dancing business, and Paul Martin. And we kind of got together in Paul's basement and started playing around a little bit and jamming. And we liked it, and the rest is history.

What'd you do before this, Terry? I was working this morning. I was in, obviously, like everybody else, several different bands. I was playing the band prior to The Noodles.

I played with Roman. And he was in, I think that was Justice or whatever. He was in Cartoon.

Then he was in Dollsman, Teenage Radiation. Prior to that, I played with the Canning brothers, world famous. My two brothers.

Who played at everybody's wedding. Everybody's wedding. So, you know, just normal stuff.

Played a long time. Did a cruise ship, you know, in the Caribbean for six months. Worked for Slingerman Drums.

Met a lot of cool people. So when Roman approached me, I said, let's go. It was originally intended for one gig, right? Well, that was the end.

One gig, let's see how it goes. One gig, let's see how it goes, right. Because didn't you, Paul, at that point, you quit M&R Rush.

I was already gone from M&R Rush, right. About six months. And it was in my blood, I guess, just to keep playing.

And I guess I was... Because you left because nobody could get along with Marty? No. It was a good party. We'll cut that out.

Or not. I just felt it was time because I was starting to raise a family. I had a son who was a couple years old.

And I figured I needed a real job at that point. But instead, I started playing with the noodles. So what was the first gig? The first gig was at Rack's Lounge.

And that's the one we play now. Chicago Heights. Formerly Luigi's.

I think we had enough music for an hour. I don't know. I felt like more than that.

I think we did set one and three maybe. Similar. That's okay.

Whatever it took at that time. And I really think that, if my memory, which I don't have a lot of it about that, is that we probably had a full set, set and a half, of stuff that we rehearsed. And I think that we started pulling songs out of our collective asses after that.

Do you know this one? Yeah, let's try to play that one. Yeah, let's do that. That was also your birthday, wasn't it? Yeah.

No wonder I thought it was so dark in that place. So besides you guys, who were the other original members? Roman. Yeah, Roman.

Roman Sawchuk. And Ryan Cernan. Just the five was the original lineup.

It took, I think, about a year maybe. Yeah, I think we were playing probably about a year, and things were starting to pick up. We were starting to get some momentum.

We were getting gigs. We were playing at a place in Highland, Indiana called Danny's, right? We were packing Danny's. And that's when we got the offer to move over to Club Dimension.

Oh, Club Dimension. Which was a much bigger venue. And I think it was right about that time that I talked to you guys about possibly bringing in a sax player.

Okay. Sounds like Club Dimension is one of your favorites, huh, Terry? Man, how could you not like that place? It's a big old bowling alley where they had the money machine. Yeah, that's right.

But instead of dollar bills, they put razor blades in there. I never guessed that. So what were some of your favorite places that you played at? Well, PJ Flaherty's, obviously, yes.

Well, you know, it started out gradually. We did all the Southside clubs. We did Riley's.

We did Codley's. Yes, Codley's. Codley's, yes.

Wow, love that joint. When I remember of it, yeah. That was truly a dive bar hole in a wall.

They had a stage and had good music. They had great music. Yes, they did.

Yes, they did. And then you could walk the bar if you didn't get hit in the head with a ceiling fan. Yep.

Things did progress. And then we went to the, you know, the Wilbur Ballroom, which was a cavernous big old dance hall that held, I don't know, a couple thousand. Because if you didn't have 800 people in there, it seemed like it was empty.

Right. Right. But that was a very cool place back from the Prohibition era.

Unfortunately, it burned down last year when we were scheduled to do a reunion. I mean, a legend show in there. I think Marty torched it.

Yeah. And then things kind of picked up when we did kind of do a second edition of Teenage Radiation. Yeah.

We were actually the band on what two songs? It was Crucifixion Stakes. Crucifixion Stakes and One of the Boys. Oh, One of the Boys.

That's right. Those are Steve Dahl songs. Right.

That's our Dahl. Yeah. Yeah, we were the acting band on those two songs.

So that was fun. So even as the Noodles, there was still a strong connection with Steve Dahl? Is there these days? Says hello. Oh, no, back then, back in the day.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Steve came out.

See, that's the thing that kind of propelled the Noodles, really, was Roman's affiliation with Dahl. Roman was Steve and Gary's producer. And I think they were on Afternoons at that time.

I think so. Yes. Yes, they were.

And between the crossovers, on the mornings of the loop was Jonathan Brandmeier. Middays was Kevin Matthews, and Afternoons was Steve and Gary. And through that connection, Johnny Brandmeier heard about us, Kevin heard about us, Kevin Matthews, and we ended up doing stuff with both of them from the time.

Loop-related shows? Yeah, loop events. Christmas parties. Uh-huh.

Yeah. I think we did the show with the precursor to the Chicago Six, Jingle Bear Rock. Jingle Bear Rock, yeah.

That's right. That was at Kevin Butler's place, right? Traffic Jam? Yeah. Well, they all, yeah, a good number of beers had a connection to that.

When it went from FM to AM, too, didn't we do an AM at the ballpark? The Rubiera or something? Yeah, at the… It was the theater. Was that with Kevin Matthews? With Johnny Brandmeier. With Johnny Brandmeier.

Right. Yeah, I remember Dahl coming out to see us at Isn't It's? Isn't It's? Oh, wow, yeah. Downers? Yeah.

Was this that joint that we played on First Avenue? Ogden Avenue on First. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, my God. The dressing room was the garage, and it wasn't heated, I can tell you that, in the winter. Oh, man.

That place was a fine establishment, but we played there. Yeah, we played everywhere. We played tons of places.

It's been great. We were literally doing five nights a week, Wednesday through Saturday, and maybe seven gigs. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, two gigs on Saturday, another one on Sunday, and… Day jobs.

Yeah, and working day jobs, right, exactly. Right. That was exactly it.

It was a Wednesday night, we played at Lansing Fest. Thursday night, we played down at the Café Brouwer. Right, right.

On Friday, we played some fests way up north, northwest side of Chicago. Vernon Hills? Yeah. No, no, no.

That was on Saturday. They said that Saturday, we double-dipped. Right.

Countryside and… Oak Forest? Yeah. See, that is kind of a blur to me. Vernon Hills was on Sunday.

It was in the morning. Vernon Hills was Sunday, like, during the day. Yeah.

And Sunday night, I think, was… I remember you picking me up. Sunday night, I think, was… I was still asleep, I think. …was Blue Island Fest.

Wow. I don't know, but it was… I'm tired just listening to this right now. Oh, God, yeah.

So, you don't want to be doing those kind of gigs nowadays anymore? Sure, we'd love to, but we're talking our health here. You know, we were averaging at, in those years, we were doing about 90, 95 dates a year. Yeah.

And working day jobs. Yeah. And just forget about your family, because… Right.

You go home and sleep for 20 minutes and get up and leave. Do you think that caused any problems at home? What's that on? Number three? Maybe a little bit? Yeah. Well, we won't go there on this one.

So, Jerry, do you think this will last 35 years? And how does it last 35 years? We all know when to quit. Yeah. No one ever thinks a band is going to last.

You know what? You hear people say this, but as long as people call, people still want us to work. People want us to play. We still are having fun with it.

The product is… I think if the product goes downhill, then we all would realize that we would stop. But there's still interest. In fact, the 35th year, we're going to be doing a 35th anniversary show at… Where's that at? Beverly Arts Center.

When is that, Paul? That would be May 4th. Now, where is that Beverly Arts Center, Jerry? That's my anniversary, by the way. Which one? My current wife, Kim.

Okay, I'm sorry. My wonderful wife. I think that's 111th and Western? I think so, yeah.

It is going to be a star-studded show. We're going to bring in some of the old members, horn guys mostly. Not horny, but horn guys.

And a number of people who played with us over the years. You know, weirdly, or how you want to say this, we haven't had a ton of people play in a band. We've had about four guitar players? Five? I was going to bring that up.

There's been kind of an array, kind of a brotherhood of musicians come through the band in the many years. Now that four of the five of us are pretty much playing regularly all the time, it's kind of gotten back to its roots. But who are some of the guys that have played? I mean, I remember meeting guys and going, oh, I played with the Dancing Noodles.

And I look at them and I go, no, you didn't. Who are you? I do hear that quite a bit. My husband's friend said he played with you guys.

He was the drummer. I go, really? Oh, yeah, I've heard that a couple times. My neighbor was actually the drummer with the noodles.

Really? What's his name? Oh, Frank Bominga, you know? I don't know. And I go, I think his name isn't Terry Kenning. It's not him.

Basically, Brian, Sarna, and myself. You guys have helped the band together all these years. We've done every noodle show, pretty much.

Brian took half a show off to have a kid. Other than that, Eddie, Paul, we had one other keyboard player. No, one and a half.

Yeah, we did. Well, Chris Harrell. Yes.

Roman, of course. Roman was great. Who was the other keyboard player? Guy.

Oh, yeah. Guy forgot my name. Yeah, that's right.

And then guitar players. Of course, it was Roman and Paul to start. And then Phil Miller came in.

We had Phil for quite some time. And then Jimmy Hood. And I think that's it.

Was there anybody else on guitar? No, no. I mean, not consistently. We've had a group.

Phil in for a couple of shows. Yeah. What's the lineup right now? I think he's covered that.

It's the original lineup. I mean, what these shows were going to have this year, we'll have essentially the original band. Roman will be on dates.

In the anniversary show, I think we'll have everybody. Roman, Phil Miller, Jimmy Hood, the Brass Holes. Yeah.

You know, maybe appears by Kevin. I'm not sure. Yeah, Kevin.

Speaking of, we kind of glossed over this. The very first sax player to be brought in was Kevin Fabish. Kevin Fabish was a sax player with Freewheelin' as Brian Sarna was a bass player with Freewheelin'.

So Kevin came in, and it really kind of took the band to a different level, adding that dynamic of a little Tasmanian devil sax player out there. And it got to the point. I know we're kind of jumping all over the place.

That's a good description. Yeah, great. It got to the point that we were doing well enough and able to get enough money and play festivals and things so we could afford to bring in a horn section.

So we brought in Hale and Frank, Frank Navarro and Hale. What's Hale's last name? Needham? I don't remember either. I don't remember.

And then, what are we running out of time? No, no, no, no. I'm getting it. You're being too winded here.

They're going to start the music in a second. No, no, I'm just making sure. Yeah, then after Hale and Frank, we were able to get our good friend Kevin Kline, who was part of Johnny B and Leisure Suits, part of their horn section.

He brought in Greg Helton, and those two along with Kevin gave us a full horn section. And then Kevin, he left, and they brought in Todd Helton. No, Todd Caden.

Todd Caden, that's right. Sorry, Todd. We've had a number of sax players.

Chuck Desermo, very good. He's in Austin, Texas now, killing it. Julie Wood.

Julie, yes. I forgot the other young lady's name. Matt Wiffler.

Matt Wiffler. Sure. And Greg Asper, Greg, sorry.

Glenn Asper. Glenn Asper. Oh, Sarah Underwood.

Sarah Underwood. Sarah Underwood. You didn't just make that name up? No, there is a porn star by the same name.

Cleaning underwear? I don't know. She was a tenor player. Okay.

That's the president and Frank House of Cards. Okay, thank you. Sarah Underwood.

So if somebody wants to see the noodles right now and can't wait until May, where can they go? The Blue Chip. Blue Chip, second Saturday of the month. Every month except for March, we're on the third Saturday, 6 to 10.

Go to the website. We will be at Beverly Arts Center. Riley's daughter this summer.

St. Gerald's, Oak Lawn. We have a number of fests. I mean, we're going to actually have a very good, kind of going back to some of the great festivals we played over the years.

Taste of Chicago. Hopefully we get this all squared away. But, you know, check out the website for these dates.

Danceofnoodles.com? Yes. We're trying to go back to World's Largest Rock Party. We played there early.

The very first one. In the early years, Joe Walsh was on stage with us. Then they moved from the street to the corners ahead of the displays.

Spuds McKenzie was next to our stage. Oh, wow, that's right. Spuds McKenzie was there.

So, I mean, we're going to have a lot of people come out. The last time, hopefully we're going to get Pat Flaherty to come out. He was a great supporter of the band.

Of course, he owned PJ Flaherty's. Named after him. And after that, you know, Riley's, O'Brien's, big supporters of the band.

You know, like I said, we played Ridge Fest, Oak Lawn. Every fest you could probably think of over the 35 years we had to trip on one of them. Taylor Clark, Irish Fest.

Yes, we are at Irish Fest this year on Friday night. Memorial Day weekend. Thanks for reminding me, Ed.

Yep, don't forget about that. All righty, guys, well, thanks for the insights on the band. And hopefully we'll be out to see you this summer.

May 4th, again, at the Beverly Arts Center for the 35th anniversary festivities. I want to thank Terry Canning, Ed Kammerer, and Paul Martin. Dancing Noodles.

Thank you. You're welcome. Anytime, brother.

We're still waiting for Brian to call in, so maybe next time. Yeah. We hope you enjoyed our very first podcast with the Dancing Noodles.

Make sure you subscribe so you never miss any of the upcoming episodes. Check out our next episode with Five Guys Named Mo, coming to you very soon, along with many, many others. We'd like to thank Eminor Rush for the use of Rock and Roll Chicago as our theme song.

See you soon. Thank you.