Sidewinder

This was the band that Steve Acero, John Lee and I started in late 1974 into '75 when John & I were Seniors at Burlington-Edison High. I knew John from concert band at school - John had a lot of natural talent, a beautiful set of blue lucite drums and loved to have a good time. I think he introduced me to Steve who had come up from California with his family and was working at a local cannery. John took me over to Steve's apartment in Burlington - the old "Fairhaven Apts." where Steve had this huge SG combo amp - I think it had 6 ten inch speakers and "dial a tone" where you would get various combinations of distortion, chorus, etc. Steve was a shy person and I remember it took some doing to get him to strap on his Les Paul Deluxe? and play - he whipped out "Good Rockin Tonight" - the Montrose remake with Sammy Hagar and I knew that Steve was something special as a musician.

He had soaked up all of the early 70's rock guitar available in Southern California and brought it with him to Skagit County. Carlos Santana, Ronnie Montrose, Johnny Winter, Leslie West - Steve was a huge influence on my early playing and I listened to a lot of guitarists because of him.

Sidewinder Sound Check

We didn't play that many gigs, but used to practice fairly regularly in the band room at school until the football coaches told us to knock it off because we were making too much racket through the wall into the locker rooms. We set up over the garage at my parent's house for awhile.

Steve cuts up - BEHS rehersal room

We bought a PA system down at Cascade Music in Marysville - I can still see Steve plunking down his $330 cash for his 1/3 share of the PA - easy come, easy go - that was a lot of money in 1974. I bolted the band to go to college in the fall of 1975 which was a mistake - you play with a handful of musicians in your life that really sound great. Lots of OK players and bundles of mediocre ones - but not that many that sound great and Steve was well on his way.

I looked pissed off here for some reason - this is a dance at BEHS that we played in the spring of '75. I can almost remember the set list - China Grove, Can't Get Enough of your Love, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting, Jumpin Jack Flash, Long Train Runnin, Good Rockin Tonight. Steve & I would trade off on bass and guitar. You can see the S. Hawk distortion unit in this picture plugged into the Les Paul - there's a remnant from the rock & roll stone age - S. Hawk fuzztone.

Steve was a great bass player. My bass playing really sucked.

Payday at the Hop -
It paid better than scooping ice cream!

This wasn't really a gig - John's Dad, Don Lee, had the keys to the Shell Rec Center in Anacortes which he let John have. We got over there, set up our gear and I remember clear as day John saying as he hooked up the Shell keg and starting pouring a beer, "Oh Donald, you shouldn't have given me the keys". We didn't have a very big crowd but we had a good time.