After a week off due to those Philadelphia Eagles playing twice in one week, the Deck Band returned to the practice pad on Wednesday September for work on new material.

The four newest inductees to the Deck Band set list were rolled out for the first time.  The results were very encouraging.  U2’s End of the World and T-Rex’s Bang a Gong are nearly ready for publication after one evening of practice.  It would be the forth U2 song in the history of the band, and the third tune we currently play in public (All Because of You was scrapped late last year).  Both tunes are sure to be fan favorites.

Bon Jovi’s Have a Nice Day and The Refreshments Banditos also went well.  We knew these would be the more difficult of the foursome, but JR did a nice job with both tricky solos.  With some serious polish, we hope to roll both out on November Second as well at Ott’s Tavern.

Speaking of, Kev put together the set list for that gig and it looks very strong.  The band has decided to begin the next outing right at 9:00, to give our fans more live music early on and not keep them out too long.  We realize many have to make arrangements to check out our parties, and none of us (with the exception of a few go getters) seem to be able to close bars like we used to.

Speaking of closing stuff, looks like O.A.R’s “Hey Girl” has been officially scrapped from the repertoire.  We had planned on giving that tune one more go around on Wednesday before deciding if we were going to stay on course.  The fact that nobody seemed to notice that we didn’t cover the song was a stunningly silent indication of its death.

Kev is more than welcome to provide the band with 10 songs next time out, and we will pick two of his choices for our next vote.