THe History Of Free Beer
From now back to 1993 in reverse!

Free Beer began from the ashes of the 89X bowling Team.  We were not a very good bowling team.  We sucked actually.  So one night after bowling the 5 members of the team gathered as we usually did and sat at the bowling alley bar bemoaning the fact we had just wasted another 12 bucks a piece.  There was Karaoke at the bar and we noticed that Kurt was a pretty good singer.  Kurt says "I was in a band once" ... Jim says "I play Guitar", Scott says "I played Keyboards in a band in High School", Kevin Yonker (Drummer #1) announced "I Play The Drums".  We all turned to Paul, the IT master at 89X ... could it be?  "I play bass!".  Sure enough, we were not a bowling team, we were a band.

This idea was cemented at Jim's Bachelor party where he had set up instruments so anyone could jam.  We all got up and didn't completely suck.  So we started practicing in Kevin's basement in Royal Oak until we had our first gig ... on June 25, 1994.

There have been a number of incarnations of the band. We are on drummer #6 and bass player #5, but otherwise Kurt, Jim and Scott remain as "original equipment".  Click HERE to find out more about the many versions of Free Beer!!!

Free Beer officially retired on January 27th 2017, but we will occasionally play out if a certain set of conditions and criteria are met.  We have not and will not outline exactly what those are.  Stay tuned for more, if there is more!


HERE IS A LIST OF EVERY GIG WE HAVE EVER PLAYED

​500  4/23/24  BeerMas -- Cowley's
this might be our 500th gig if our History records are correct!!
It went so well the first time that Free Beer decided to do it again!! Free Beer played the Loading Dock in the back of the Fowling Warehouse Ypsi Ann Arbor on Friday April 26 from 9P-11P.  The first gig was an experiment to see if the sound worked, it wasn't too echoey, if the Fowlers would like it.  Answers?  It worked.  It wasn't too echoey (though it did have a "Motown Reverb" sound out on the courts ... pretty cool we decided) and the Fowlers LOVED it!   There was no cost for entry to see the band, instead they just add $1 to the price of your drink while the band is playing.  If you wanted to go Fowling while listening to Free Beer (aka "Rock and Fowl") it was only $15 bucks.

​499  12/8/23  BeerMas -- Cowley's
​Ever since we stopped putting the BeerMas show together at the New Way we started playing a show around Christmas at Cowley's in Farmington.  We're technically retired, right?  But we still want to hang around our Free Beer Friends and the only way to get everyone together for the Holidays is a show.  So this was it.  

498  12/1/23  The Fowling Warehouse Ypsi Ann Arbor
Footballs and Bowling Pins in Ypsi, Oh My!!  It’s was another first for Free Beer and the Fowling Warehouse Ypsi Ann Arbor.  We wanted to be the first band to set up in their loading dock and rock!!  Yep, Friday December 1 was Rock and Fowl with Free Beer.  It’s just $5 to come see the band or $15 if you want to Fowl and listen!  We went on around 9PM, and was surprised how good it sounded in the cavernous space.  Kinda like a Motown Reverb Machine, but live!! ... Lots of people showed up and we declared it a success!! 

497  10/27/23  Hall-O-Ween -- Northville Eagles 
Free Beer returns for our annual Eagles Hall Halloween party.  Yep, we did it again.  Free Beer toughed it out in the middle of a touch of the flu for a couple of the members to hustle our way thorugh another Halloween set.  First of all, let's get this straight.  The shiny "sexy mermaid" clearly had the best costume.  She didn't win because our Keyboard Player pushed her candidacy so hard ... she was very shiny...  Anyway, always glad to play the Eagles.  They get us.  And Happy Birthday Lex Kuhne!

496  9/16/23 Paul Bunyan Days Festival -- Furtaw Field, Oscoda, MI
Free Beer played the Beer Tent at the Paul Bunyan Days festival in Oscoda at Furtaw Field, 4986 N State St in Oscoda, MI on Saturday September 16th from 6PM-10PM.  Actually, we played in a tent right next to the beer tent at the Paul Bunyan Days festival in Oscoda at Furtaw Field in Oscoda, MI on Saturday September 16th from 6PM-10PM, but one side of the tent was opened up into the open side of the beer tent.  And there was a 2 foot tall stage.  So if you were in the other tent, you could see the legs and torsos of members of Free Beer as they totally rocked out a pretty descent set of tunes and some people danced in the open space between the open side of the beer tent and the open side of the Tent that Free Beer played under on a two foot stage while totally rocking at the Paul Bunyan Days festival in Oscoda at Furtaw Field in Oscoda, MI on Saturday September 16th from 6PM-10PM. They could see our heads and faces, but not the folks in the beer tent.  They could only see our legs and torsos.  We would totally do it again.  It was a blast!!

495  6/11/23 Metropark Concert Series -- Lake St. Clair Metro Park
This seemed like a good idea.  Instead of playing indoors in the middle of the night, why not play outdoors during the day by the lake?  I know!  Genius!  That's why we signed up for the Lake St. Clair Metropark concert series on Sunday June 11th 6:30 to 9PM at Thomas Welsh Activity Center.  It's not like we just setting up on the lawn.  There was be a real PA system and everything.  The weather was perfect all week long.  They had been having huge crowds the first couple of weeks.  People lounging in lawn chairs, getting up on their feet and dancing. But not on Sunday June 11th.  That one day it was about 45 degrees with a solid steady rain all day long.  About 20 hearty souls joined us in "The Octagon of Echo".  They have these glass doors they close on the bandshell when the weather is inclement, and it was, and they were.   They still seemed to like us and could have us back next year.

494  6/2/23 Lynn's Birthdays -- Northville Eagles
​We come to find out that there are TWO Lynns at the Northville Eagles and both of them have a birthday at the beginning of June.  And guess who their birthday present to each other was.  That's right, US!   We played two sets, had some outstanding Goulash, blew out some birthday candles and had our first ever tip jar (not our idea) netting an extra $75.  Covered our bar tab it did.

493  5/6/23  Jim's Surprise Birthday Party -- Cowley's
I'm not sure how it happened, but Teresa Landino Edelman and Kurt (Kurt) Schwartz managed to tell everyone to show up at Cowley's on Friday May 6th get all of his equipment out of the barn and set up on stage then got Jim to walk in for the surprise with him finding out.  Maybe we should use this as a model for promotions for future gigs.  NO PUBLICITY just tell everyone it's a surprise party for (fill in the blank from the band) and we'll have a great crowd. 
Jim was surprised.  We were amazed.

492  3/10/23  St. Practice Day -- Cowley's
Free Beer was the house band for St. Patrick's Day for years at Cowley's.  In our retirement we don't qualify for the title spot but we are one of the great warmup bands of all time.  We proved that this year by playing exactly ONE WEEK BEFORE St. Patrick's Day and totally rocking it!!

491  12/10/22  BeerMas -- Cowley's
It's that yearly pilgrimage to Cowley's in downtown Farmington to get the gang back together for one last hurrah in 2022. We celebrated that it was just slightly better than the year before it and a lot better than two years ago! We were on stage on Saturday, December 10th from 9PMish to just after Midnightish ... we played our Christmas songs.  We practiced in advance of the gig!! 

490  10/30/22  Hall-O-Ween -- Northville Eagles
Why have a hall party when you can have a Hall O Ween Party?  Free Beer has a history of doing Hall-O-Ween parties.  We did one at the Northville Eagles Hall in 2016, 2019 and 2021 with all the fixings...a few scary songs, a costume contest, 50/50 ... this year was no different.  Our first back to back Hall-O-Ween parties.  That's quite something for a band that is technically retired!!

489  9/24/22  Mai Tiki Resort -- Oscoda MI
Free Beer headed north the weekend of Saturday, September 24.  Every Year, Free Beer takes a vacation to the Mai Tiki resort just south of Oscoda.  We drive in Friday night, have a campfire, and usually get up and have fun in Lake Huron Saturday morning. But for the second year, it was unseasonably cold and windy this weekend.  Hmm.  THEN Free Beer plays a set in the sands on the shore of Lake Huron!  What a hoot!!  Even if you didn't have a reservation at the resort, you were welcome to crash the tent on Saturday night and help us celebrate nothing!! Again, Bobby White brought his guitar and Scott and Kurt joined in and did a fireside acoustic jam on Friday night.  Saturday featured the usual silliness with a tent full of fans.  We made it through the show, made it up as we went along and had a great time ... we even stayed most of Sunday to take advantage of the unseasonably cold weather!!

488  7/30/22  Bobby's Birthday -- Northville Eagles
Everyone who lives to a ripe old age has to turn 60.  Bobby White, defacto drummer of Free Beer has officially lived to a ripe old age and turned 60.  We celebrated at his favorite venue with his favorite band and his favorite friends.  It was a hootenanny!!

​487  12/7/21  BeerMas -- Cowley's
It's Free Beer.  It's sometime near Christmas. That means it's time for BeerMas.  We practiced our Christmas Songs. We came to Cowley's.  It was both naughty and nice.  

486  11/24/21  Thanksgiving Eve -- Northville Eagles
Free Beer rivives "Amateur Night" Tradition at Northville Eagles.  Every year Free Beer would play the night before Thanksgiving.  It's as close to a "gimme putt" as there is in the bar band business.  You open the doors and everyone looking for a way to get away from their family and have some drinks with their friends just shows up.  A little different this year with the threat of a Pandemic looming, but results were still the same.  Instead of the Library Pub in Novi, the site was the Northville Eagles hall, who booked our "Package Deal" of Halloween and Thanksgiving eves. All of our friends showed up, we drank, rocked and had a great time.  Kurt threw a scare into as he was not feeling well, and this time Johnny Allen was NOT available.  But Kurt got better and was ready to rock when the lights went on.

485  10/29/21  Hall-O-Ween -- Northville Eagles
Why have a hall party when you can have a Hall O Ween Party?  Free Beer has a history of doing Hall-O-Ween parties.  We did one at the Northville Eagles Hall in 2016 and 2019 with all the fixings...a few scary songs, a costume contest, 50/50 ... this year got a little weird when Jim announced two days before the gig on October 29th at the Northville Eagles hall that he might have the flu and was going to get tested for COVID.  He didn't have the Rona, but was still not in shape to set up the PA and play guitar all night long.  Luckily, we know Johnny Allen from the Love Junkies who knows almost every song ever written and was willing to sit in for Jim this night.  Jim ended up feeling better and stopping by the gig long enough to play guitar for the three songs that Johnny didn't know.

484  9/18/21  Mai Tiki Resort -- Oscoda MI
Free Beer headed north the weekend of Saturday, September 18.  Every Year, Free Beer takes a vacation to the Mai Tiki resort just south of Oscoda.  We drive in Friday night, have a campfire, get up and have fund in Lake Huron Saturday morning, then cook way too much food and feast.  THEN Free Beer plays a set in the sands on the shore of Lake Huron!  What a hoot!!  Even if you didn't have a reservation at the resort, you were welcome to crash the tent on Saturday night and help us celebrate nothing!! This year, Bobby White brought his guitar and Scott, Kurt and Bobby did a fireside acoustic jam on Friday night.  Saturday featured the usual silliness with a tent full of fans and 5 guys who clearly had not practice enough due to COVID.  We made it through the show, made it up as we went along and had a great time ... we even stayed most of Sunday to take advantage of the unseasonably cold weather!!

483  7/13/21  Cowley's
When we booked this gig, we thought the pandemic was over.  Sure enough, as the gig gets closer, unvaccinated people are creating a spike of their own!  Since we host a bit of an (ahem) older crowd, most everyone we know is vaccinated so it went pretty well.  ​Every time we think this Free Beer thing has run it's course, a great audience like Cowley's on Saturday July 17th reminds us how much fun this really is.  Thanks to the Farmington Founders Festival, we had a great crowd to watch us set up!  Dinner was a bit of a gamble as the labor crisis raised it's ugly head as the reduced waitstaff and kitchen crew, featuring mostly Cowley's family members came to the rescue.  But who cares man, it was Free Beer night at long last.  The first set went really well despite some memory lapses and a lot of our regulars from First Friday with Free Beer were in attendance.  We took a nice long break to get a chance to chat with everyone then launched into set two.  This is where it was a bit astounding.  Usually the crowd thins out, but I swear there were more people there when we quit playing at 1AM than there was when we started playing at 11P!  Thanks to all y'all, especially Jim's family from Cleveland who drove all the way up only to have the end of Cleveland Rocks feature our special Ohio State Sucks! ending.  Note:  Clevelanders did not take kindly to that an physically attacked our Keyboard player!!.  Thanks to the Cowley family for a great night, surviving COVID and staying open until next St. Patrick's Day.  Hopefully we get to play a part in that final weekend!!

482  10/24/20  Cowley's
Officially the strangest night at Cowley's ever.  In the thick of a Pandemic spike, we decided to get together and hit the stage indoors.  Amazingly, everyone wore a mask when they weren't drinking.  Some people were brave enough to hit the dance floor.  Josh White III got on stage and sang some No Sugar with us.  We did our Halloween set (but isn't playing with a deadly virus scary enough?).  It was the only gig where we were thankful we did not pack the place.  Everyone had a comfortable space of their own and it was a lot of fun to play in front of someone beside our family.

481  9/19/20  Mai Tiki Weekend
Our annual trek north to Oscoda to the Mai Tiki Resort for a weekend in the cabins, with the folks from Under The Radar Michigan and the Pure Michigan folks for a celebration by the sea.  Unfortunately Autumn made an early visit to Mai Tiki so hoodies and boots were required on the beach.  It may have been one of our best comedy shows ever with an endless supply of beer sponsorships and a Pure Michigan flair to every song.  We are doing this again next year (if the virus is gone!!)

480  8/09/20  Grass Lake Graduation
This was our first venture out after the COVID pandemic hit.  So we played at Jeff's neice's Graduation party.  It was freaky enough as it was with his neice graduating without attending the last semester of class, and wearing masks around when we were not playing.  But it was a lovely way to ease back into playing.  Plus, we donated our entire pay to the graduate as our present to her

479  12/7/19  Cowley's Not BeerMas
We took a break from BeerMas this year but still wanted a holiday get together with our Free Beer friends.  So Mike and Greg Cowley were kind enough to let us come play, fill their bar and sell a bunch of drinks!  Everything went just as planned.  We played our Christmas Songs.  We totally rocked our two sets (because we practiced once!!) and all of our friends showed up.  It was great hanging out with everyone just like old times.  It really looks like we will just keep playing progressively more gigs each year.  Let's see what 2020 brings.  All the photos are here!!

478  10/25/19  Northville Eagles Hall - O - Ween Party
Just for yucks, we decided to get back together to play all of our Halloween stuff at the Northville Eagles.  It was a surprisingly warm day.  There was also a power outage. Many of our friends dressed up in costumes.  Many did not.

477  10/12/19  Goodbye Janel, Cowley's, Farmington, MI
We knew this day was going to be difficult but we were all surrounded by friends and music, which certainly eased the pain of the passing of the band's sister, Janel Edelman.
She was a big part of the Free Beer family.  As we collected pictures from this website for the memorial, you begin to realize how often she was there, how she would stride on to the dance floor, drop her coat and purse and with a big Janel smile point directly at you and demand your presence on the dance floor.  Her smile, her laugh, her hair, her chutzpa were like no one elses and will sorely missed and never replicated.
The day started early as all the members of Free Beer pitched in to set up our gear at Cowley's before 11AM as not to disturb other memorials taking place there that afternoon.  Janel's viewing and service were at the funeral home directly behind Cowley's.  There were many many people inside but soon a gathering began outside in the parking lot. Yes, they were tailgating at Janel's funeral with her prerequisite Pudding Shots and Wild Turkey.  

​We knew everyone would be there because they had all saved this date for the annual Chili Cookoff, an annual event Janel may have liked more than Free Beer.  Jim did a great eulogy during the service and we all made our way over to Cowley's.  The place was packed during dinner and by 7:30PM Free Beer eased their way on to the stage.  Taking the lead from the spirit of Janel, everyone ran to the dance floor and took her place.  Each song seemed to remind us of Janel.  Tears flowed.  Beers flowed.  But one thing for certain, the spirit of Janel Edelman flowed through Cowley's all night long.  It was an evening that she would have really enjoyed.  While we were all pushing back tears, it was one of the most joyful evenings we have experienced in a while.  By just getting together with friends and having as great of a time as Janel always had ... it was the perfect sendoff to one of the greatest people we will ever know.  She will be missed.

476  9/21/19  Mai Tiki Resort, Oscoda, MI
Free Beer spent the entire weekend at the MaiTiki resort in Oscoda MI, and invited our fans and family up to enjoy a great weekend on Lake Huron.  The MaiTiki had a full slate of Free Beer activity planned.  Friday night there was going to be a big pot of Chili to warm you up when you arrived. But a power line fell across I-75 near Bay City, stopping traffic in both directions, so if you didn't leave by 3PM you were running a few hours late.  Everyone got up later that evening and the Brisket went on for the Saturday night  BBQ with Brisket and Pork Butts!  Free Beer set up in a tent on the beach and we did two long sets.  It got a bit nutty.  The cops came and provided a wide variety of beers confiscated from underage drinkers. We did find (again) that dancing and playing in the sand is a ton of work!!  Everyone from the resort, Free Beer Fans or just folks, came out and filled the tent. No one was driving anywhere so we just hung out until 3 in the morning.  Sunday night there was a corn roast and Mai Tiki projected JAWS on the big screen, right on the beach.  There was beer, slushy boozy drinks provided by Keith and Mary Kay.  The Luau rocked and it is now officially and annual event!!

475  7/24/19  St. Mary's Catholic Church, Royal Oak
There are some bands that Free Beer admires, and the Reefermen are certainly one of them.  James Wallin, the lead singer, also books the bands for the St. Mary's Wednesday Night concert series.  He asked us if we could play the and we said yes right away!!  We love playing in Royal Oak and since our Arts Beats and Eats days are done, this is a great way to get in front of people at a reasonable hour.  It's right on the steps of the church, no stage, no lights ... just the band on some steps.  No wristbands.  No shuttle bus.  Just us. 
Things went exactly like you think they would.  We start at 7P.  At 6:50P, Church people start showing up with lawn chairs.  7PM we start playing.  7:15P the Free Beer fans begin to arrive.  We played what is usually known as our "second set".  Not being a very good judge of the situation, songs at the end of the set included "Add It Up" from the Violent Femmes (Why can't I eat just one duck?) and "Sweet Transexual Transvestite from Transylvania" (Hey, who wants to hear a song about a transexual transvestite?).  We were not sure if the church people were amused, but the minister (pastor? preacher?) sure noticed ... and didn't shut us down!  Once we were all done, James Wallin let us know that it took balls to play those songs and the steps of a Catholic Church and since we didn't get struck buy lightning, the big guy must be a fan of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

474  6/7/19  Northville Eagles
June 7th and finally we had a summer like day.  Which kinda sucks if you are playing indoors with an early 8:30P start time.  Our fans responded as they would in any situation like this.  Get there at 9PM.  There were 6 people when we opened with Hello There but 100 there when we finished our first set.  So once it got dark, everyone showed up, had plenty of inexpensive icy cold beer and responded to Free Beer as they always do.  We did notice that Lori and Lynn behind the bar were kinda fiesty during the second set, heckling us pretty hard about coming back for Halloween.  We will see.  Remember, we're Retired!!

473  3/15/19  Cowley's
We decided that it was OK to do 3 or 4 shows a year since we seemed to like it more when there were fewer shows.  This was our first show for no good reason whatsoever.  It kicked off the all important St. Patrick's Day weekend which was a Free Beer calendar staple in the past.  In the past, we have played in 70 degree weather and snowstorms on St. Patty's Days in the past.  This one fell into the "Monsoon Season" category.  It's always good to play indoors, but when you see people wandering in looking like wet puppies, you have to feel a bit sorry and thankful they made the effort!!!  There were plenty of birthdays to celebrate including Kurt whose falls on March 18th every year (so far).  Good time was had by all and the rain stopped at 2AM for a bit so we could load out without getting soaked.

472  12/8/18  BeerMas at the New Way 
The final show of our two show 2018 Holiday Reunion Tour.  As is typical, we had two other bands playing with us.  Opening was Domino Effect. They play in the basement all year long and just get better every year. This year Mike's daughter Hannah jumped up on stage and sang with the band (Cranberries Zombie).  Closing the show was a band featuring two Free Beer alums; Scott on Keyboards and Dewey on Bass.  If you thought there was a better name than Free Beer, they found it in Grooving Violation!  In the middle of that was Free Beer.  We did a great 1 hour set that we knew everyone could hear, because it was as loud as a jet engine.  Sorry about that folks!  We will get that fixed or won't be back.
NOTE:  Due to ours (and other bands) "suggestions", the New Way has installed a decibal meter on stage in hopes that the sound man will have mercy on our eardrums.  Grooving Violation returns to the New Way on February 23rd and will report back.  

471  12/1/18  Cowley's
The first show of our two show 2018 Holiday Reunion Tour.  Free Beer has always love playing Cowley's.  We played there more than any other venue over our career.  And it seems that Cowley's loves us too!  They put together a "Wall Of Fame" on their stage and when it was unveiled there was a circle of the other bands who have frequented Cowley's over the year... sure enough, there is Free Beer right in the middle of it. 
So we were not as surprised as we should have been that after a long break, all of our friends from First Fridays at Cowley's were jam packed into the seats at Cowley's.  Add to that the Farmington Holiday Parade, plus a snowstorm that turned into a rainstorm that turned into a thunderstorm ... people were running for cover right into Cowley's.  Emily is now a blonde.  Kimmy is now a mom.  The whole Cowley's crew was glad to see us and our holiday show went just like you thought it would, with Kurt begrudgingly singing Jessie's Girl to close out the night due to some serious audience demand!!
It was fun enough that we think we won't wait so long to do it again.

470  10/13/18  Chili Cookoff
It's the annual Edelman Cookoff and Free Beer never misses a chance to play on the home court.  Plenty of gas to keep the bonfire burning, and a pretty nice set of tunes before the winners were announced

469 7/19/18  The Eastern -- Radio Day
A pretty cool event at a pretty nice place call The Eastern in Eastern Market area.  They had a big stage, PA system and we opened the show at 3PM on a Thursday afternoon, before the radio stations showed off what they were up to.  Then country band Mac Watts was the headliner (hence the big PA system).  
​
468  05/19/18  Cowley's
Cowley's created a wall of fame with their favorite bands over the past few decades.  There were 9 bands on the wall, 8 in a big circle around one band.  Free Beer.  We were so honored, we came out of retirement in the middle of summer to play in front of Cowley's "Wall Of Fame"

467  01/06/18  Cowley's -- Teresa's Birthday Present  
Jim’s new bride Teresa Landino Edelman wanted just one thing for her first birthday party as a married couple.  A PERFORMANCE BY FREE BEER!  So how can we say NO to that?  Plus it gives us another chance to reunite with our favorite waitstaff, bartenders and bar owners in all of the Detroit area, the crew at Cowley’s in Farmington.​

466  12/09/17  BeerMas 2017!  
So Free Beer stayed retired for almost 11 months, but as the BeerMas season approached, we all started to get itchy.  We can't miss BeerMas?  Can we?  We decided NO, we could not and put the wheels into motion.  For the 16th year in a row, Free Beer played our Christmas show at the New Way Bar in Ferndale.  The Candy Band has also retired so they were missing from the bill but Domino Effect featuring Free Beer fill in bass player Mike Weilgat was ready for their annual show and kicked it off again.  Every year they get better and better.  Then it was our turn.  Bobby White, on loan from the Love Junkies filled Tom's spot on Drums, but the rest of the band was intact.  We dusted off our set list and played for almost 2 hours.  We did the Grinch and Most Wonderful Time to Drink Beer.  We did the Violent Femmes set.  We played the Rocky Horror Show Tunes.  We played Brittany Spears.  We closed with Love Me Two Times.  We were forced to do an encore and pulled out some Iggy.  It was a perfect way to have some fun for the holiday with lots of friends.  Let's see what happens around the second Saturday of December 2018!
​
465  01/27/17  The Final Gig
Free Beer plays our last gig at Cowley's Pub on the LAST Friday of the month instead of the First Friday.  Hundreds crowd Cowley's. Even more tune in on Facebook Live.  See the Front Page for the full story.  Here are the pictures!

464  12/10/16  Beermas at the New Way Bar
T'was the most wonderful time to drink beer.  Our last official Beermas as a band.  If you remember this tradition started way back on 12/11/96, almost twenty years ago to the day at the New Way Bar.  It was the New Way's Holiday Party with Gus and Tina mixed with Free Beer's holiday party.  We started inviting other bands from the neighborhood and next thing you know, it's a tradition.  This year we switched things around a little to cater to our aging audience.  First we kicked off with Domino Effect featuring Free Beer fill in bass player Mike Weilgat at 9PM.  As usual they rocked musically and brought a great crowd with them.  At 10PM, Free Beer did a pop up 45 minute set so the folks who can't stay up to see our full set could still enjoy one last dose of Free Beer.  Good news was that they all came and saw us play.  However at that point the bar got so packed there was nowhere to stand.  At 10:45P Free Beer stepped off the stage and The Candy Bandits ... Paula's new band with Maggie and Rob did a set of kids tunes, caroles and surf rock while Free Beer got to wander the crowd and converse after our set.  By 11:30, they were done and we hopped back on stage to finish with 2 hours featuring our Christmas songs and every request the audience could come up with.  Another really cool thing?  We did a Facebook Live feed of Blister in the Sun and Add It Up.  People actually watched.  Funniest part was when Tom Daldin's son Anthony responded to his shout out in the feed from California!!  Plus, It didn't snow (until 2AM) and everyone had a great time.  Jamie, the new proprietor of the New Way said it was the largest crowd they have had in 4 years.  Great way to ring out our last full year.

463  12/2/16  Cowley's
The Last First Friday.  A decade of tradition here with Free Beer settling in to a regular spot in the Cowley's rotation on the First Friday of each month way back in 2006.  Somehow, as all the other bands dropped off the list and new ones joined, Free Beer has been the lead off hitter in the Cowley's lineup of bands for the last 10 years.  This December, we join those other bands and step aside to let another band occupy the first position in the line up.  
It was great to see so many of our regular faces and those of some friends who haven't been coming recently but wanted to take the bike for one more ride before we put it away forever.  That included Marty Beam, bass player #2 who brought his wife up to see the band and promised to sit in on January 27th. It also included Julia who came up to sing Suffragette City with us once more.  There were also a number of Free Beer virgins who were just finding out how much fun we have, with only 2 shows left to go.  There were few dry eyes when the last chord of Love Me Two Times rang out to end the evening.

462 11/26/16  Thanksgiving Saturday at Cowley's
This is our traditional Thanksgiving show.  This started out on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at the Library Pub in Novi almost two decades ago, people waiting in a line out the door to get in.  It moved to the Library Pub in Novi and eventually to Cowley's on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  We've found it to be a bit more controlled environment than those Wednesday Night blowouts.  Fewer kids barfing on their shoes, more older kids rocking out and enjoying a homecoming of sorts that Thanksgiving always provides.  Our last Thanksgiving show was on Saturday November 25th at Cowley's in Farmington.  AND IT WENT NOTHING LIKE WE EXPECTED.   When we arrived, it seems that the Farmington High School Class of 2006 had booked Cowley's for their 10 year reunion from 6P to 9P.  The place was jam packed with 28 year olds, so we set up around them.  Our fans filled the back of the room waiting for space to open up.  We solved that when we turned the amps on at 9:30 and kicked into our first set.  Some of the 28 year olds stuck around but by the time the second set began, we had replaced all the 28 year olds with Free Beer fans.  John LaVoie from Maximum Impact joined us on stage for Suffragette City and Hashpipe in the second set.  We gave this tradition a proper sendoff.

461  10/28/16  Hall O Ween Party at Northville Eagles
Old Friends, Great Costumes and Northville Hospitality Make Our Last Hall O Ween Party A Big Hit!
It was a rare convergence of a place that loves us and old friends returning to visit Free Beer one last time before we retired.  Since this was the Northville Eagles Halloween party, it was plenty festive before we even walked in the door.  The locals had some great costumes (see the Tall Uncle Sam and Jelly Fish in the PHOTOS) plus Free Beer fans brought some serious costumes, especially Keith reviving the Free Beer Can after 15 years to make it part of the winning costume entry "Free Beer Pong" with the help of Mary Kay and Audrey as Red Solo Cups.  As for the guest artist list, Jeff was kind enough to let Dewey Larkin join us on stage for a set.  Buddah (Josh White III) who we haven't seen in at least three years came up and sang a song.  Bobby White joined us on Drums letting Tom Daldin come out front and hassle us!  Local "Mazda" sang a Beatles song with us and Kurt's friend "Micheal" tore up Remedy by the Black Crows for the final set.  If the band ever decides to get together and play another Hall - o - Ween party, we will make sure to have it at Northville Eagles.  We'll miss this place.  See photos on our Facebook page or right here on the website.

460  10/15/16  Chili Cookoff at Jim's
This here is one of those gigs that we might still play after retiring.  Every year about 100 people gather to sample about 25 different chilis with a host of Edelman's coming up from Cleveland to join us.  There's a huge Bonfire and a ton of drinking with Free Beer getting up in our Barn Practice space and doing a few songs for the gathering, then letting EVERYONE come up and jam until they can't jam no more.  And that's what happened this year.  Best part was getting to play with Free Beer fill in drummer Stefan Rarigh.

459  10/1/16  Judd and Katherine's 100th Birthday Party
Our favorite band neighbors in Salem were both celebrating their 50th birthdays, and these guys know how to throw a party.  Big tent with a midevil feast including a roasted pig and a beef brisket with wooden tables and chairs straight out of Game Of Thrones.  Their friend brewed special kegs of beer for the occasion. Free Beer was lucky because it had not rained all day, though it had for the previous 3.  That is until it POURED from 9:30 to 10PM.  Once we figured out what was shorting out the right side of the PA system, we played set #2.  Shocking good time!

458  9/16/16  Harvest Moon Festival at Cowley's
It was an atypical Harvest Moon Festival at Cowley's.  There were plenty of people spilling in from the Beer Tent early in the evening.  Seems there was more interest in seeing Free Beer at Cowley's than there was hanging out at the Beer Tent, so there was no en masse migration at 11PM.  Still, it was a great crowd as we celebrated The Sixth Beer Emily's birthday and Dan, who's lovely wife said "Say It's Dan's Birthday as many times as you can.  She had no idea.
We did put a bit of a damper on the evening by announcing that Free Beer was retiring as a band ... there was an audible gasp with some knashing and wailing!  Lex Kuhne showed up and Bobby White from the Love Junkies showed up and sat in on Drums (now that he knows our entire set!).  Deedee Judy took some video of SOB and Leave Your Hat On to document the occasion.  And you can enjoy all of the Sock Monkey photos here.

457  9/10/16  Edelfest / Mai Tiki Resort / Oscoda MI  
This was going to be a "very special Edelfest" anyway, since the band is calling it quits at the end of the year.  It's the last time many of the Edelman's are going to see us.  We've been travelling down to Cleveland for the past 10 years to play for them, this time we both made a road trip up to Teresa Landino's Mai Tiki Resort in Oscoda MI.  Each band member and each set of Edelman's had their own cabin or room on the beach.  There was a campfire singalong on Friday night, we swam, tanned, play beach games all day Saturday and Free Beer played in a tent on the beach just feet from Lake Huron after a nice catered meal.
But that's not what made it special!
Free Beer guitarist Jim Edelman had a commissioned a 10 foot tall Easter Island Head made out of a Volkswagen by a Michigan Artist he found doing Under The Radar Michigan and presented it to Teresa and the Mai Tiki ... then they went INSIDE of the statue and Jim proposed to Teresa ... she said yes.
It was a great way to end the run with the Edelman's and watch as Jim starts a new portion of his life as the Free Beer portion is ending!


456  9/3/16  Arts Beats and Eats  This year was a bit more tolerable than other years ... We're not saying playing at Arts Beats and Eats is a chore.  It's an awesome way to give your fans a taste of your tunes while they wander and check out hundreds of other top Detroit Area bands.  We love playing there.  It's just that our record with the weather has been less than stellar.  Last four years went like this.  The Most Humid Day of the Year.  98 degree heat with direct sunlight.  A wicked downpour that crippled the city.  High 80's in the middle of the day with the sun directly in our faces.  This year was PERFECT.  High 70's.  Big Friendly crowd.  Lots of family and friends we haven't seen in the evening (between 10P and 2A when we usually play!)
Only thing missing this year was Tom Daldin from Under the Radar Michigan on Drums. A family vacation precluded him from the kit.  No problem.  This time Bobby White from the Love Junkies who is always in the audience at Cowley's already knew our set and was able to step in on a moment's notice!  We kicked it off with So American by the Mutants and by trusting the audience with our camera and our Sock Monkey for some selfies with Free Beer in the background (we got the camera back before the monkey!)  We finished off our run at Arts Beats and Eats with the Violent Femmes medley, the Rocky Horror medley and The Doors Love Me Two Times with an Iggy "I Wanna Be Your Dog" encore.  Great finish to a great day.

455  8/27/16  Detroit Burger Brawl in Eastern Market  Tom Daldin couldn't make it to this gig, so Steve Tocco sat in on Drums which is always a blast. We didn't have time to practice this week with Steve, so we were surprised when we found out he had learned a different "So American" than the Motor City Mutants.  No problem.  Steve listens to the song and 3 minutes later, we are kicking off the set with it.  Great event!  15 or 20 of the best burger places all cook slider versions of their best burger.  You pay one price and walk around eating little burgers until you can't.  Not many people were paying attention to Free Beer with all that great food but we still had dancers and a good group of fans that watched and enjoyed.

454  8/5/16  Cowley's First Friday  Once a year, we have the Farmington School of Rock Adult Band warm us up and this was the evening.  They took the stage at 9PM, did a very nice 7 song set and brought a lot of their friends with them.  Greg St. James and Steve Kostan both showed up so we had a little Radio reunion.  We went on about 10PM and their friends and our fans got up, danced and had a generally good time.  We took a short break, and when we got back on stage, there were only 12 people in the bar!  What?!?  We've heard about the type of night where "you could introduce yourself to every member of the audience", so we gave it a shot.  First we met Melody and Deb, played a song.  Then we met Don and Kathy, played a song.  Then we met Delores and Marcel, played a song.  Then three young blondes named (not kidding) Kirsten, Kristin and Chris bounded up the back steps ... What do you want to hear?  BON JOVI!  We play Bon Jovi, they dance with everyone and leave out the back door after one song.  Then we met Johnson and Keith, played a song.  It ended up being really funny and a good time.  I have pictures of all of them right here!
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453  7/16/16  Carl and Debbie Vincintini's Party  It's our annual appearance out in Hartland in the huge back yard of Carl and Debbie Vincintini.  Our relationship as "House Band" for this party started about 6 years back in Redford when we played as an acoustic trio.  Each year we amped up the volume bringing in amps, drummers and bass players  ... now it's out in the sticks and we bring lights and tents and play on a huge deck.  Always a good time, but it does follow the rule where we become the best band in the world when everyone has had plenty to drink and we have 30 minutes left to play.

452  7/15/16  Founder's Festival  Farmington Founder Fest ended up being a blast.  No First Friday in July because of the 4th of July Holiday so we had to wait two more weeks from our hiatus as a full band due to illness induced abscences.  It was worth the wait.  The bar started out full, and when the beer tent down the street closed up, it got fuller.   We ended up doing three sets with a new female band member or two helping us out with those difficult tambourine duties. It sure makes us a better looking band!  By the time we shut it down (at Cowley's request) the dance floor was still packed.  Left em wanting more.

451  6/25/16  Liz's Graduation Party  Eagle MI is about 17 miles northwest of Lansing.  Liz's mom and Dad wanted Free Beer to play at her graduation. They live in a house surrounded by fields about a mile every direction.  So, no issue with bugging the neighbors ... however, during set 3 when the sun went down and Free Beer was the only light source for miles in every direction, you attract some bugs.  Lots of bugs!  We called the last set, turned out the lights and ran for our lives like a Hitchcock movie!  Want to see the three pictures that survived the attack?  They're HERE!

450  6/7/16  Garmin Golf Outing   IWhat was SUPPOSED to happen was Free Beer would play set one as golfers returned from their round at the Garmin Golf Outing.  Set two would commensce as they enjoyed drinks on the patio.  Then dinner followed by set 3 which would feature Marcel Lim (Garmin man and Free Beer Fan) playing Fiddle and doing some Irish Dancing (trust me, it makes sense when you see it).  What DID happen was the golf outing was running about 90 minutes behind so golfers HEARD our first set out on the course as they finished their last 4 or 5 holes as the volunteers watch us on the patio.  The second set never happened as dinner was served immediately after everyone came in (Prime Rib, yum).  Then the post dinner auction took so long that it starting getting dark and we had to tear down without playing set three (no lights, school night).  Oh well.  It raised a ton of money for charity and we got a great meal out of the deal!  Want to see pictures of Free Beer hanging with the help?  They're HERE!

449  6/3/16  Cowley's   It was about 6AM when word started to get out that Tom was just too sick to play.  While shooting an episode of Under The Radar Michigan on Mackinaw Island, Tom either got a case of Food Poisoning or the worst flu ever.  But Free Beer has a secret weapon, Steve Tocco!  He's one of those rare musicians who can listen to the entire Free Beer set once and then sit behind the drum kit and play it!  We are lucky to have Steve Tocco sitting in because we had a big night planned.  It was AJ's birthday and he brought a bunch of his friends to celebrate.  Plus, three of the ladies from the Social Club (Marcy, Terra and Marilla) were celebrating birthdays too!  It was a great night on what could have been a disaster!  Want to see the Sock Monkey pictures?  They're HERE!
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448  5/13/16  Northville Eagles Hall Friday the 13th was our lucky day in Northville Jeff caught some sort of epic cold / flu / sore throat thing and lucky for us Dewey was in town from one of his lengthy road trips to fill in.  This was also the night that Jim went out and bought a new audio board with the Guitar Center Gift Card we gave him for his birthday last week and decided a live gig would be the best place to test it.  Worked out for us!  Bobby White from the Love Junkies was in the room and told us we sounded (not content, but actual sound quality) better than ever so it worked!  Lucky Jim. Lynn was a great host again and the bartenders and cooks were great.  Everyone stuck around and even got us to do an encore! There were still people streaming in as we were tearing down.  We are putting together a list of dates for Hall Party 3.0 later this summer or early fall.
See all of the photos here!

447  5/6/16  Cowley's   This was our first actual First Friday of the year (with our show taking place on the first Friday of the month.  It was a humdinger too.  Jim Edelman celebrated his birthday by bringing part of his Cleveland family up to the show (yes, we played Cleveland Rocks!).  It was also Jeff Brookmyer's birthday.  Not just any birthday, #40!  He's trying to downplay it but now that we have figured out that Jeff and Jim share a birthday weekend we will be prepared to embarrass him on #41!  Prince died in late April so we did our tribute with a purple light on stage and our attempted rendition of Rasberry Beret.
See all of the photos here!

446  3/26/16  Center Stage    Free Beer travelled north to Lansing to help out Roger Burghdoff's sister Simone Brewster who recently was diagnosed with ALS.  On November 5, 2015  Simone Brewster (Burghdoff), was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. 
Simone is 54 years old from Dewitt, Michigan. She is a mother with four children and six grandchildren and has happily been married for 21 years.  
When Free Beer showed up a few hours before the show, the place was pretty full already.  People were pretty excited and wanted to help raise money.  By the time we went on there was no parking in the lot and it was standing room only.  The kitchen had a one hour wait for food!!  We hit the stage and for the most part people watched the first set.  By set two, the crowd was getting warmed up and Simone requested "Mony Mony".  We never have played the song, but it seemed simple enough so we went for it.  By the time we finished, Kurt (who had been sick all week) had no voice left and the dance floor was filled with partygoers asking for an encore.  Wow.  Glad we could help out.  If you want to help, donate to Simone's cause at https://www.gofundme.com/simonebrewster​.
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445 3/17/16  Cowley's    For the fifth year running, Free Beer closed the show at Cowley's on their most important day of the year, St. Patrick's Day, March 17th.   Best part of getting there there early was hanging out with our friend Karen Savelly from WCSX-FM.  We caught the end of the sent from the Shawn Riley Band who started around 10AM.  They ended it with the Star Spangled Banner ... see the video!  Find all of the photos here!!We again pulled off our Marathon Irish/Rock/Irish/Rock etc. show with the top of each hour featuring Ron Jewell standing up front telling Irish Jokes, singing Irish Song and playing Irish Guitar while Marcel Lim played Irishi Fiddle to everyone's favorite Irish Songs.  We kicked it off at 4:30P and we played all the way until 11PM.  Our favorite Cowley's Ex Waitress Deana was there!  Marcel was all over the place.  He wore a kilt.  He played Keyboards during Add It Up.  He did a tap solo during Little Less Conversation.  We gave a way a trip to Ireland with the Mercy High School Dads club.  No one from the band won.   
​Check out the photos here!!

444 2/19/16  Northville Eagles    It was a gig that was a long time coming but it was worth it!  Lynn and the rest of the crew made Free Beer feel right at home at the Northville Eagles Hall.  People were worried that it was a private club.  Not a problem, everyone could come.  And they did. The place was fully decorated for us when we got there.  They gave us a Love Monkey!  They had some great food waiting for us.  They covered our bar tab. They danced to every single song, even during the first set.  They had two 50/50 raffles which Free Beer Fans won!  It was Free Beer Superfan Laura Colavecchia's birthday and we celebrated that!  Strangest part was in the middle of Hard To Handle, the power for all of downtown Northville went out.  Then it came back on 1 minute later.  So we started up where we left off.  Good times.  I am sure we will be back

443 2/12/16  Cowley's   Winter Cold finally arrived in the Motor City.  We didn't really care that much because it's always warm inside of Cowley's and a pretty good lot of you also decided the way to keep warm was with some loud Rock and Roll.  Thanks to Deedee Judy and the entire SPSC crew for arranging to come out.  They fill the dance floor from start to finish.  We love them!  We debuted a number of new songs including David Bowie's Heroes, Hey Bulldog from the Beatles, SOB from Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats, Shattered from the Stones plus a couple of songs that have been played but not learned previously (Smokin' in the Boys Room and Suffragette City).  Things were going great and next thing you know, it's LAST CALL.  Time flies when you are having fun or your watch is set an hour behind!
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442 1/16/16  Salon One   We have done the Salon One Holiday party during January for for a number of years now and Craig knows how to throw a party.  Instead of doing it in December when all of the stylists are busy for the holidays, they do it in January and have a Vegas Night, DJ and Caterer.  They used to have it at The New Dodge down in Hamtramck but now they just move the stations away in their spacious salon and turn it into a nightclub for the evening.  First set, we are usually ignored.  Second set (after the drinks have had time to work their magic) we are the greatest band in the world!!

​441 1/8/16  Cowley's  So back in December Free Beer Bass Player Jeffery Broomyer and Rachel had our band's baby, Oksana Christine Brookmyer!  We are all so proud and it was a real treat to bring Oksana up to meet all her Uncles and Aunts for our first gig of the New Year at Cowley's.  She got her first (of many) pictures with the Sock Monkey and everyone got a chance to hold her.  First Friday (which was actually Second Friday) celebrated the many many birthdays falling on January 8th and 9th.  So we played the music of Elvis Presley and David Bowie, both January 8th Babies. We played nothing for Richard Nixon (Jan 8).  Plus we celebrated birthdays from Denise and Ann-Marg-Roc (Jan 8th) and Teresa (Jan 9th).  One strange thing did happen.  There was a group from Germany sitting in the front row who insisted that we play Black Betty from Ram Jam.  Didn't actually know it, so we lipsynced it.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it just a little too much.

​440  12/21/15  Birmingham Community House   Free Beer was hired to be the entertainment for the 2015 WTVS-TV Holiday Party.  Since Jim and Tom have a show on the station, (Under The Radar Michigan) they had lots of friendly folks in the house.  Deb was kind enough to forward some photos to us.  (Last Gig in 2015).

439  12/12/15  BeerMas @ The New Way Bar   The 14th edition of BeerMas was a tad bittersweet as The Candy Band is calling it quits after this gig.  But that did not stop everyone from partying with vigor!  Our annual Christmas celebration started with Domino Effect. Then the Candy Band hit the stage and did their regular set.  No gimicks or games.  One last time, some kids music to soothe the adults.  Next up was Paula's new band "Paula, Rob and Hippie Bob" who were full of surprises including a surf version of the Lions fight song "Gridiron Heroes" (Scott's Favorite Song!)  Free Beer set up our gear and only had to wait for Jim Edelman to arrive from his family dinner, unfortunately scheduled for the same evening.  The set kicked off with a Motor City feel including The Mutants and Iggy Pop.  Then the party light turned on and the dance floor filled .  There was a bit of a mishap at the start of The Grinch for our Holiday set, but we laughed it off, did the song correctly after our second start and finished off the evening playing whatever the crowd wanted including Brittany and Rocky Horror.  Hopefully the Candy Band reunion tour starts on Beermas #15 next year.Free Beer was hired to be the entertainment for the 2015 WTVS-TV Holiday Party.  Since Jim and Tom have a show on the station, (Under The Radar Michigan) they had lots of friendly folks in the house.  Deb was kind enough to forward some photos to us.  (Last Gig in 2015).

438  12/4/15  First Friday @ Cowley's You could tell that the crowd was a little off at the start.  The Lions have played long into the night on Thursday, only to lose on a Hail Mary at Midnight.  There was only one person who could save us.  SUE! She came in ready to party and went SOLO on the dance floor for a song and a half.  Eventually, her enthusiasm was infectious and she gathered a crowd, like a snowball.  Much like a comet, she burned bright for a very short time.  But the crowd was ignited!  They got to see Julia perform Suffragette City for the first time in public and we had a trip of gals join us for Jessie’s Girl.  We were also treated to Emily’s new daughter while Shawn played the part of “Sixth Beer” in a back up role.

437  11/27/15  Black Friday @ Cowley's Lousy Weather night but we were surprised to see a great number of Free Beer Fans from a great variety of places.  Greg St. James and Jen Hobson were up from DC and lots of folks came with them.  We mixed up the set list a bit and kicked it off with Love Me Two TImes (everyone in the band called Cora during the song ... and she was there too).  Greg St. James got up on stage and sang Suffragette City with us.  The sixth Beer Emily Papp was replace by Shawn, first time ever that a dude served as the sixth beer.  Laney Marie got a recording of "So American" by the Mutants, even got a shout out from Art Lyzak on Facebook.  Great kickoff to the holiday season.

436  11/14/15  ErnieFest! The Montrose Street Project has been one of Free Beer's friend bands since they asked to jump into our lineup at Beermas a few years back. One of their members, Ernie Balcueva has a rare heart disease that has taken the live of his 4 brothers and required he get a heart transplant.  He needs our help and we are glad to lend a hand.
Saturday November 14th was our chance.  Erniefest! at Norm's Field of Dreams. They had a silent auction, raffles and great music all day! There was a different band almost every hour. It was acoustic during the day and amplified during the evening.  The PM session kicked off with the world premier of Paula Messner (Roommates, Motor Dolls, Verticle Pillows, Candy Band) and her new band "Paula, Rob and Hippie Bob".  Next up was Free Beer (we brought our PA System too!) and we got a great reception from all of Ernie's Family and Friends.  We even brought a few of our own friends.  Last, as a special treat to Ernest Balcueva, his most recent band, the Montrose Street Project reformed with every MSP member ever, from the moment they first played a basement on Montrose Avenue.  MSP included Veronica Gabriel, Steven Dubicki, Paul Tranchida, Amy Shaw King, and Jon Liu! And MSP also stole Scott Brown and Dewey from Free Beer and singer/guitarist Charlie Sunne, who did sets at ErnieFest Part 1 from 3-7 PM.
All tolled, we helped raise almost $4,000 for Ernie's heart transplant medical bills.  if you missed it and still want to donate, you can find adresses and the like on the "Have A Heart For Ernie" Facebook Page or Event Page.
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435  10/10/15  Chili Cookoff  We played 10 songs at the Chili Cookoff.  Paula Messner from the Candy Band won.  The entire Candy Band was there so they played a song too

434  10/2/15  Cowley's First Friday  Our First Friday installment was made great by Deedee Judy and her gang that usually show up at the Stay and Play Social Club gigs.  Everyone got there between 9P and 9:30P (we were worried) including Keith, Mary Kay, Tom, Coco, Bob, Ilene and a bunch of our other friends joined by some new folks we have not seen before.  Dance floor was full for the entire night and we even got Mary Kay and Audrey up to sing "I Will Survive".  We are taking November's First Friday off so it will be almost 8 weeks before we return to Cowely's.

433  9/19/15  Multi Lakes Conservation / Walled Lake Western 1985 Class Reunion  This would be the 30th Anniversary of their Graduation.  We played for their 20th Reunion back in 2005!  Some alumni include Free Beer fans Janel Edelman and Jennifer White.  Doing the math we determined that all of the ladies of the 1985 class are very hot for 48 year olds ... (actually, many were just very hot!).  We didn't take any pictures of them but did take pictures of the stage which was flanked by heads of a Bear and a Moose, with a full display of firearms behind our drummer.  Seems that this was the clubhouse for some sort of hunting club.

432  9/18/15  Cowley's / Harvest Moon  Well it kinda happened just like we thought it would.  At 9PM there were two big reserved tables ... one for the "Guiness Cup Golf League", the other for a wedding rehearsal dinner ... and the rest of the place was our friend as we all waited for the Harvest Moon Festival down the street to dismiss the Beer Tent.  Brand New Sock Monkey was instantly soiled when the Bride accidentally dipped his foot in her ketchup, then on her gown, then for this picture.  There were some early Beer Tent patrons on site who hit the dance floor for set one.  We started set two and that's when karma doubled down.  Not only the did the Beer Tent close, a thunderstorm began and everyone ran into Cowley's.  There was one "ugly" incident when a fan tried to steal the Sock Monkey, but Patty Brown fought her off and returned the Sock Monkey to it's rightful owner!
See all the pictures here

431  9/12/15  Cowley's / Second Saturday  This is the weekend stuck between Labor Day and The Harvest Moon Festival.  Free Beer got a jump on the partying!  Michigan defeated Oregon St. earlier in the day, so Kurt was happy.  All of us Sparty's in the band had to sweat it out as Oregon took on Michigan State starting at 8PM.  Jeff is so much of a Sparty that he went to the game instead of filling in for the prodigal Dewey.  Mike Wielgat jumped in for the last minute bass playing duties and learned our new songs during the week.  We went on as the first half ended and set one took us through the middle of the 4th quarter, so we all sat and watched until the Sparty's won!  Some fun things about the night?  Word was out early that it was Dan's Birthday, so we spent most of the set celebrating that.  Marcel brought his Mom to see Free Beer all the way from Singapore!  Sean (Shawn?) got up and sat in on Drums for Tom during the second set.  Thanks to Deb Nicolau for the photos.

430  9/5/15  Arts Beats and Eats   Free Beer got booked on the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort ROCK STAGE.  That's on Fifth Street between Woody's on the north and O'Tooles to the south in front of the train tracks.  We were right smack dab in the middle of the festival, smack dab in the middle of the afternoon.  Yes a train went by while we were playing.  No, it was not during Johnny Cash!  Also, the Rock Stage featured some other great acts like The Howlin' Diablos (Saturday) and the Reefermen (Monday).  On Saturday afternoon, if you got there a bit early you enjoyed being warmed up by The Beatles (Dig a Pony) and followed by the J. Geils Band (Raputa)!  There were lots of great moments on stage at Arts Beats and Eats for Free Beer.  One of our favorites was when Scott pointed the mic at the crowd to kick off “Add It Up” with a count off, the entire crowd responded in unison with “1-2-3-4”.  
But we have no visual record of our performance.  It all happens so fast, getting on and off the stage, that we forgot to hand someone a camera.  So if you happen to have a photo of the band, post it on our Facebook page and we will reward you with a Free Beer from Free Beer the next time we see you.  Special Thanks to Laura Colavecchia for the “Straight Outta Royal Oak” picture.  Wine for you.  Sorry you missed Brittany and Rocky Horror!

429  8/22/15  Carl and Debbie Vincentini's Party  We started playing this party years ago as an acoustic trio (Lager) and since then it's gotten bigger, they moved from Redford out to Howell and we now put on the full Rock Show with lights and PA.

428  8/8/15  Westacres -- Aquacade  It's a big neighborhood in West Bloomfield with a lake and a clubhouse.  The north side vs the south side in many events over 2 days including field events and softball on Saturday and lake and water events on Sunday. Saturday night they have a great big party in the clubhouse and it was our honor to be the entertainment for the 5th time in the last 10 years.  

427  8/7/15  Cowley's -- First Friday  Farmington School Of Rock opens for Free Beer on First Friday.  Last May, we invited the Farmington School of Rock to come up on stage and do a quick 25 minute set before we went on stage.  They brought a lot of friends and a lot of energy so when they asked us for another go at it, we said yes and the Cowley's were game too.  The adults from the Farmington School Of Rock were supposed to hit the stage about 9PM, but their drummer was running late.  Stefan almost had to sit in!  But the guy showed and what he lacked in timeliness he made up for in rhythm.  They ripped through a set of 10 songs, we're really good (better than last year) got off stage and we got started about 9:45PM.It was a great mid summer crowd, knowing that people can have fun outside and up north.  The School Of Rock gang stuck around and filled the dance floor.  Great night overall.  Stefan Rariagh sat in for Tom Daldin on drums, Jeff played bass. 

426 8/1/15  Wedding -- Liberty MI  We played a wedding in a barn for a very nice couple who will remain publicly anonymous.  It was a very hot summer afternoon and this barn had been decked out to host weddings. First floor featured the bar.  Second floor featured the reception area.  Way up in the loft is where the band plays!  We did two sets and played music in between.  Not a whole lot of people on the dance floor during set one but from what we understand they were outside where it was cooler dancing in a field!  Second set ripped it up.  Stefan Rariagh sat in for Tom Daldin on drums, Jeff played bass.

426 6/12/15  Rochester Mills Beer Co  Free Beer back in Rochester for our Northern fans!  It’s been a while since we have appeared at the Rochester Mills Beer Company and it was good to be back in Tom’s neighborhood.  During our set up we noticed a number of birthday parties and a rehearsal dinner for the Anger wedding party.  We sympathized.  Late start time of 10PM did not stop the crowd.  Plenty of folks travelled a good long way to see us.  The Anger party even stuck around for a few extra hours, including Johnny Anger, to whom we dedicated Folsom Prison Blues.  We noticed that it was our 21st Anniversary of our first gig and Mike Cody’s birthday too!  We’ll be back.

425  6/5/15  Cowley's -- First Friday  While summer has not "officially" started, we treated it like a Summer Friday as a band.  We introduced a bunch of new songs to the setlist, like "Into The Mystic", "The Letter" and gave a second go round to "Running Down A Dream", "The Boots are Made For Walkin'" and "Ring Of Fire".  We also debuted our first Ladies T-Shirts, only to find out that they either were a size too small or Free Beer Ladies are really sexy!!  We met Brian and Laura, and Brian got to jump up on stage to sing Black Key's "Lonely Boy" with us.  Lots of new fans who seemed to like us even though Scott was a little off his memory game.    Maybe he'll be great the next time they see us play.  Lots of love on the dance floor from the Drama Mama's from RO though!!

424  5/1/15  Cowley's -- First Friday  May Day May Day!  First Friday also happened to fall the same week as Jeff Brookmyer's first 39th Birthday and Jim Edelman's perpetual Birthday.  Jeff has done such a great job of concealing any personal information about himself that we had never realized in all of these years that his birthday is the day after Jim's Birthday. So we've been whoopin' it up for Jimmy every year, and Jeff (like a bass player) has been standing in the background getting low.  So we decided to make a big deal about Jeff's birthday this year. That included a cake, dancing girls, candles and the like.  The cake was one of those special cakes that has your picture in it.  It was a picture of Jeff and Jim.  After singing Happy Birthday, Jeff skewered his likeness in cake with his index finger!
Musically, we had used the 6 weeks since St. Patrick's Day to learn some new tunes.  This First Friday featured Firsts of "These Boots Are Made For Walking", "Running Down a Dream", "Livin' For The City", "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "Ring Of Fire".

423 3/17/15  Cowley's -- St. Patrick's Day  3PM rolled around and we packed up our gear from the tent at McGuckin's and headed north to Cowley's in Farmington.  Ahh, this is more like it.  We got there and Shawn Riley had finished their set and were loading out.  Nice and warm, lots of people still there but a little room to add some more.  Most of our friends were already there and it took no time to set up since we did that already on Monday night.  As soon as we kicked into the Irish set the dance floor was filled.  Marcel had brought his fiddle. Jim was doing a set with his old band Superball so Marcel filled in.  Even when Flynn came back, Marcel stayed so our ranks had grown to 8! The place really started to get full around 7PM.  Then all bets were off.  Full dance floor, crowded back, plenty of gals in green, beer and whiskey flowed.  Suddenly we looked around and realized we were in the middle of our 5th set of music!  We looked over to the bar and saw the Cowley's staff still ready to serve but clearly worn by the battle.  They gave us the "cut" sign.  Yep, time to play our last song.  It was 11:30PM on a Tuesday night.  The bar was still full, people were still on the dance floor.  It was Tuesday night.   We finally had to tell people to go home. Only on St. Patrick's Day.

422 3/17/15  McGuckin's -- St. Patrick's Day   We played first at McGuckin's in Taylor/Allen Park and Superball followed us.  So Free Beer arrived early, but since we were using Superball's PA system, there wasn't a whole lot to do except wait around for the crowd to show up.  McGuckin's as a small bar but they erect a tent 3 times the size of the bar to handle the expected crowds.  So we pulled up a chair and waited. We had a camera so we took some pictures of us waiting.  Eventually, a couple of those party busses of people in green showed up and provided us with an audience so we hopped on stage and got to it.  Line up is our typical St. Patty's Day crew ... Free Beer with Jeff on bass, adding Jim Fiddle Flynn and Ron Jewell on vocals.  We were doing the "4 Irish Songs / 8 Rock Songs" set switching out Kurt for Ron and Jim when we were playing the Irish songs.  Maybe it was because it was Tuesday, but the crowd never reach capacity.  There was a "short person" who was willing to get his picture taken with you and a guy that lost his balance and fell on his butt when he tried to tip his beer back to finish it off.  We didn't get pictures of ANY of that.

421 3/6/15  Cowley's -- First Friday   First Friday and Kurtmas x50 too!  What a great Friday.  The usual suspects and a large number of Scott's Friends who had never seen Free Beer were there.  We had something to celebrate too, and we were going to make it a surprise.  Kurt is finally getting old.  He's been denying it for a while.  He's turning 50 this year!! We all know when Kurt's birthday is, March 18th.  The day after St. Patrick's Day.  We thought it would get lost in all the craziness on March 17th, so we staged an impromptu birthday party without telling anyone until the last second.  Then we passed out actual size likenesses of Kurt's head ... one angry, one happy, one silly and one normal ... 50 of them total (50 years old) to the members of the audience who mobbed the stage at the beginning of the set to sing Kurt "Happy Birthday" with Kurt's Face replacing theirs.  Just another great First Friday at Cowley's.

420  2/6/15  Cowley's -- First Friday  This was a tough night for Kurt, only returning a few days earlier from his mom's funeral.  That being said this was one of the best First Friday's ever!!  Kurt kicked it off by dedicating the Beatles "You're Mother Should Know" to his mom.  We celebrated birthday's from Jim Jim, Rich The Bitch and Janel "Seestor" Edelman.  Later arrived Sheree Glynn from a night of dancing to celebrate her birthday.  Jeff had to bolt right from his class at Wayne State University to play bass.  He also brought most of the members of his class along with him including Han who doubletimed a version of Wonderwall both in speed and skill.  He sang and played guitar!  Bobby White from the Love Junkies joined us on stage to sing Some Kinda Wonderful.  Great night.  See you in March!

419 1/17/15   Salon One -- Holiday Party This was our third year as the entertainment for the Salon One Holiday Party which happens in January since the stylists are so busy in December.  The last two years it's been at the New Dodge in Hamtramck, but this year the had the party right inside the salon, which is HUGE.  They had quite a set up with an open bar, lots of food, a Vegas night, Giant Jenga, Beer Pong and Battle Shot (which is just like Battleship, but instead of pegs, there are shot glasses!).  There are lots of sexy stylist who love to drink and dance at this party every year.  As is typical, we played our first set while everyone got liquored up. During our break they handed out prizes and Craig DJ'd.  Our second set was a wild raucous affair.  We were requested to lear Shake It Off by Taylor Swift (which not only did we dutifully play, we rocked the shit out of it).  

418 1/2/15   First Friday -- Cowley's  You would figure that everyone is tired out after a good 15 days of straight up celebrating wouldn't you?  Not the Free Beer Fans.  Every year they never cease to amaze me.  Everyone comes out just a couple of days after New Years and lights it up.  Sure there are a few of us who swear off drinking for the month of January (Scott, we are looking directly at you) but even they have enough residual alcohol flowing in their veins to party like rock stars.  It is a known fact that Free Beer tends to make more mistakes on stage when Scott is not drunk.  Strange.  It's not just Scott either!  Stranger.  You think it would be the other way around.  Special thanks go out to all the folks celebrating birthdays incluuuding Teresa and Denise.  Also thanks to Bobby White from the Love Junkies who just got back from the New Years Eve gig out in Port Huron who joined us on stage for a few songs.  Want to see the photos?  Click Here!

417 12/13/14   Beermas -- New Way Bar  Good weather and Bus Drivers make for a Jam Packed New Way Bar.  BeerMas at the New Way Bar.  Wow.  It's been so long since we have even had ACCEPTABLE weather, it was a great pleasure to have a nice pleasant day where fans weren't taking their lives in their hands just to attend.  It was interesting when we arrived to find AFSCME Local 166 (The Ferndale School Bus Drivers) holding their Holiday Party right in the middle of the dance floor!  
That was fine, we worked around them and Domino Effect hit the stage as planned at 9PM.  The Bus Drivers remained!  After an encore that brought everyone to the dance floor, Domino Effect cleared the stage and The Candy Band hit the stage.  The Bus Drivers remained.  

The Candy Band set included some Iggy Pop, some Ramones, some Motor Dolls (for Kurt) and Kurt even got up on stage and sang Danzig's Mother.  They also did some Nursery Punk, just not "The Wheels On The Bus" for the Bus Drivers!

Next up was Free Beer.  After a couple of warm ups, we launched into two CANDY BAND songs (Monster and Monkey) then invited Paula from the Candy Band on stage to play guitar on Smoke On The Water.  Some more songs (including the iconic "Hit Me Baby One More Time") and then we launched into the Christmas set including our psuedo original "Most Wonderful Time To Drink Beer", "The Grinch" and "Run Run Rudolph".  Thanks to everyone who came out.  Oh, by they way ... Bus Drivers were still there at the end of the set.

There was also some video from Mark Hessencamp (Add It Up) and more video TJ Percindero (Love Me Two Times)

416 12/05/14   First Friday -- John Cowley and Sons Pub It was the last First Friday of the year and the place was packed when we walked in!  Not even anywhere to sit for dinner before the show.  Tom Daldin had also scheduled a book signing for the Under The Radar Michigan: "The First 50" which brought us a new (more literary) audience.  There were plenty of Christmas parties and all of these various crowds blended with our regular First Friday crew.  The  dance floor was packed for the first song so we had to pick the beer winner at random.  We also brought out a couple of the Christmas songs (Grinch and Wonderful) to kick off the season.  Funniest moment of the night, Scott throws his Fake Beer to a fan on the floor, who mistakes it for a real beer and steps away, allowing said Fake Beer to shatter on the floor.  Where was the camera for that?

415 11/28/14   Black Friday -- John Cowley and Sons Pub When Black Friday comes ... Snow, Ice and Sleet will fall and drivers will test their skills, then their airbags against freeway medians.  So you know that only the heartiest of souls made it out to see Free Beer ... and there were a lot of hearty souls.  Some of the more fun points of the evening;  The Cowley's declared a "Power Hour" from 11P to 12M where Bud Light, Labatt's and (wait for it) Buttery Nipple Shots were on sale for $2.  Not only did it give Scott the opportunity to say "Nipple" over and over, it ignited the crowd.  No one said that Buttery Nipples didn't have alcohol in them!  Another high point;  Sidi Henderson from Mainstreet Soul came out so we dragged him up on stage to sing a couple of songs.  One More:  Jim and Kurt "motor boating" Audrey during Add It Up.   Something for everyone! 

414 11/22/14   Plymouth ROC  This was the end of our longest hiatus in quite a while.  Free Beer took seven weekends off to relax, work, practice, travel ... whatever you do when you are taking time off.  Plymouth ROC was a great place to ease back into it as they have a stage, PA system, sound guy, lights an excellent waitstaff featuring two Emilys ... one who waited on us and a second celebrating her birthday ... and a built in crowd from Kurt's home town.  We saw plenty of folks we have not seen in a white (Mario, Keith, Mary Kay, Andy Meloche, Cora, Tom and Coco) and invited Bill up on stage to play Bass for a song.  Plenty of photos but a bunch of Sock Monkey photos were lost in digital space.  Sorry folks!  If you want to see which photos remain, you can find them here!!

413 10/18/14   Chili Cookoff -- Jim's Barn in Salem MI  About 30 Chefs vied for the 2014 Chili Bowl trophy in Jim's Barn and when all the votes were counted (Kurt came in Third!!) Free Beer took to our practice site and knocked out a set.  We were then joined by some of the Edelman Clan, Eddie from the Sights, Jim Cohen, Howard Hertz and a cast of others for an all star Jam Session.  Marc Pasman for some reason did not play guitar!

412 10/3/14   First Friday -- John Cowley's Pub in Farmington  Another great edition of the longest running monthly Bar night in Farmington history.  First Friday in October was a grand affair.  It was the Red Wings opening night so the first hockey win of hte season played on the big screen.  Friends form all around attended knowing that Free Beer would not return until Thanksgiving weekend.  Even Bob Hucheson came all the way from Nashville.  Full Dance floor. Full Beer glass.  Fun times for all.

411  9/12/14    Harvest Moon Afterparty -- John Cowley's Pub in Farmington  Another great time at Cowley's.  The Curry Chicken had returned to the menu (yes, with French Fries!).  The Tigers were playing the Royals for first place (we won 10-1).  It was Emily's Birthday (we celebrated).  Katie Kirkpatrick came up and sang (she did two songs this time).  The Harvest Moon festival was down the street and after Phoenix Theory played, everyone from the Beer Tent came up and joined us (including Phoenix Theory) as we plowed through the 2 hour second set to a pretty jammed up dance floor, with the Free Beer Fans running back and forth, touching people on the dance floor and taking unwanted photos of everyone and everything.  And the Sock Monkey vs Moose thing was kinda nuts too!.  We have pictures!

410  9/12/14    Stay and Play Social Club -- Star Lanes / Emagine Theater  We finally have this place figured out.  Start Early, End Early!  The Stay and Play social club made the night fun with their huge following, which blended perfectly the the huge Free Beer contingent. Throw in a big reserved table for Geoff's birthday party (not that Jeff, a Geoff we didn't know), the impromptu dance floor created by the folks from the YMCA and the random bowlers and diners wandering through and you have the making for a pretty wild night in Royal Oak.  Stephanie and Erin were their usual great hosts ... Erin drew for some prizes and off we went at 8PM.  3 hours later we were done and there were still people in the bar.  I think we'll do it like this from now on at the Emagine.  We have pictures!

409  8/29/14    Arts Beats and Eats -- Downtown Royal Oak  Huge Crowd Gathered for Free Beer's finest hour.  It's always great to play Arts Beats and Eats.  The Royal Oak fan base is strong, you play on a big stage with a big sound system, we start playing at 8:15 so you don't have to stay out too late and it's an all ages show, the kids can come see.  It seemed like the perfect storm ... without the big storm from last year.  The best part for us was the size of the crowd.  It started big, and kept getting larger.  By the time we got to the Time Warp, we had a full dance pit in front surrounded by full seats with standing room filled as far as you could see into the night.  It was awesome!  So much support and such a great time in Royal Oak.  We have over 100 pictures shot be Bev Clark, Jean Mason, TJ Percindero and many others.  Also check out this video of the Time Warp shot  by Andy Servio at the end of the show to get a feel for how much fun it was.

408  8/22/14    Detroit Yacht Club -- Belle Isle   We took this gig because everyone had told us what a great party the Yacht Club is for their Friday Night concert series.  Unfortunately, much of the club was on their annual cruise to Put-In-Bay Ohio and were leaving port as we were arriving to set up on the patio.  This was also a gig where we had to import a bass player from another state.  Eric Edelman came up from (wait for it) Ohio to fill in on bass.  While the crowd wasn't as large as promised, they were resiliant.  They began dancing nearly immediatly and drank enough to finish our final refrain at the end of set two.  Our camera broke so we only have one set of photos of the event.  This MOSTEROUS COD from their Fish and Chips.  We had to put a hand in the photo to give you perspective!

407  8/16/14   Woodward Dream Cruise / WRIF Dodge Rock City  We celebrated our 20th anniversary back in June, on Saturday, August 16th we helped the Dream Cruise celebrate its twentieth anniversary at the WRIF Dodge Rock City event at the corner of 13 and Woodward.  Screamin' Scott from WRIF brought us on stage, we got some love from the WRIF Rock Girl including posing with the Sock Monkey, who got to ride in some hot cars, get his picture taken with Auto Show Models and a State Trooper.  The Spaghetti Man showed up and got a few people dancing and we played two sets from a stage adorned with a couple of Hemi Fortified Dodges including the crazy 2015 Hemi Hellcat.   Thanks to the folks from WRIF and Dodge for inviting us to the show

406  8/2/14    Ford Yacht Club -- Grosse Ile Our second stint at the FYC this year.  It was a beautiful night down on Grosse Ile with Steve Tocco on Drums again, while it was storming big time back at home just a few miles north.  Had a great dinner, excellent drinks and great hosting from John Kirkpatrick.  And whenever you get a chance to play with Steve Tocco, you make sure you rock it as hard as you can.  We did.

405  8/1/14     Cowley's This was a pretty good night!  It's not often that Tom Daldin can't make a gig, but this weekend was one of those.  No worries. We have a most excellent back up with virtuoso drummer Steve Tocco.  He's a bit louder than Tom, and does more solos that Tom.  It's pretty cool to watch him work.  We kicked it off with Katie Kirkpatrick who was having a reunion of her "Melrose Place" club ... so we let her sing early and often.  Cowley's was pretty impressed!!  So were her friends.  Then, Steve and Jeff did an awesome version of Little Less Conversation.  Three of us in front turned around and gave them a Standing O!   It was also Bob White's Birthday.  So we let him sing too!!  It was one of those nights that makes you appreciate your fans.  The place was empty when we arrive, it was packed when we finished our first set.  Love it.

404  7/19/14  Cowley's Founders Day II
Good news was that we didn't have to tear down our gear until Saturday.  We came back and Cora had taken over a third of the bar with her birthday party.  Out of nowhere Greg St James showed up from WDC.  Then Steve Kostan came after his shift at WOMC.  BLAMMO!  The beer tent closes (this time in between sets 1 and 2). We cranked out the second set, got Kostan and St. James up on stage for Rockin' in the Free World and had a surprise visit from Maggie McCabe who sang Piece of My Heart from Joplin to finish the weekend with a flourish.   (and we aren't even mentioning the young lady that tried to hump Scott's leg!)

403  7/18/14     Cowley's Founders Day I
We always think we are ready for the Founders Day deluge, but then it happens again and we are amazed.  Friday night there were a lot of our friends there ready to make us feel at home.  It didn't look like there were many people outside so we delayed the start of our set until 10PM.  Big mistake.  The beer tent closed next store and BLAMMO! there was everyone ready to party and we still hadn't finished the first set.  So we just kept on playing until we finished set two.  That's just over 2 hours.  

402   6/28/14      Bock Graduation  
We don't often do Birthday Parties, Weddings or Graduations, so you know this had to be a pretty good friend of ours.  In Grosse Pointe, cops showed up and allowed us to do our encore!

401   6/7/14      Cowley's  
At the last minute, the Cowley's found out that they did not have a band for Saturday immediately following our big 20th anniversary party on Friday June 6th.  So we offered to leave our equipment all set up and just roll in an play a second gig for them.  Most of our fans had already partied it up pretty hard on Friday night, so we only had three die hard regulars with us ... Marcel Lim, Deb Nicholou and Audrey Meissner.  There were plenty of people there, just not our regulars.  Then a strange thing happened.  Down at that park near the bar there was a cancer walk and a band of bagpipers were playing down there an came in for a drink at the Irish Bar.  We coaxed them up on stage to play a couple of tunes and we passed the hat and raised another $100 to fight cancer.  Only one photo from the night, but two videos on Facebook, which are linked here.

400   6/6/14         Cowley's -- Free Beer's 20th Anniversary and 400th Show!
Thanks to everyone for coming out to celebrate both our 20th Anniversary and our 400th show. Kicked off the evening with a video from our first few shows (Shot by Keith Tyler and edited by Patty Brown), then was introduced by Scott Vertical Sitarek reprizing his intro from 20 years ago. We replayed songs from our first set ever and when we finished the set playing every picture posted on our website from 1999-2009. Then had a great time passing out Free Beer Glasses and Can Coozies, eating the custom cake (Thanks Deb Nicholaou) and having friends join us on stage (Budda White, Marcel Lim, Katie Kirkpatrick, Bob White and Maggie McCabe) in addition to getting Jeff Brookmyer to admit he's actually in our band to join us on Bass for the second set. Thanks to the Cowley's family for hosting us for our 20th Anniversary and for all of these years and thanks to everyone who showed up last night or at any of the previous 399 shows. Wouldn't have done it without you.

399   5/16/14     Star Lanes Royal Oak
Gig #399 went swimmingly ... our should I say Bowlingly, thanks to Eric Edelman who sat in for Mike Wielgat who was sitting in for Jeff Brookmyer who sat in for Dewey Larkin on Bass. Eric rocked the lanes as we had a much less stressful time than last (lines / parking / etc). Plenty of Edelman's in the house and Scott's friends from the YMCA showed up too. Best moment of the evening was when Laura C and her friends from the bowling banquet came to catch the last few songs. 

398   5/2/14     Cowley's -- First Friday
This was a particularly strange evening that worked out GREAT for everyone involved.  We had been talking with the Farmington School Of Rock about having their adult band open for us one First Friday.  We got the Cowley's to agree to May 2nd and good thing.  Scott found out that his son's graduation from Michigan State ended at 9:30P in East Lansing!!  With the extra time provided by the great show put on by the School Of Rock, we were able to do two full sets with only 5 non Scott songs.  Plus, all of the School Of Rock's friends stuck around and the place was jam packed all night long.  We had Mike Wielgat on bass since both Dewey and Jeff weren't able to make it.

397   4/17/14     Ford Motor Company World Headquarters -- Mustang 50th Anniversary Party (as "Backseat Drivers")
Free Beer occasionally will play a "Corporate Gig" if we like the company and the idea of the event.  Ford Motor Company asked us to be the "House Band" for their outdoor celebration of the 50th annivesary of the Ford Mustang so we said yes. It was a very cool event with 150 Mustangs parked in the front parking lot of the Ford World Headquarters and the entire company coming out to check them out, have a hot dog, win some prizes and even get up on stage and help us sing.  Gues what song?  Read on for the answer!  Only issue with gigs like this is our name.  You can't put the words "Free Beer" on a corporate invitation.  So we went under the pseudonym "Backseat Drivers".  We met the necessary requirements.  We're fun.  We know a lot of your favorite songs and we can play (answer to the trivia question) "Mustang Sally" over and over again.  We invited anyone up to be a "Sally" and sing the "Ride Sally Ride" chorus.  They even had the words printed up on a keepsake laminated sheet if you wanted to sing lead (which one of the engineers did).  Playing against the backdrop of the World Headquarters in front of all those Mustangs made for an unforgettable scene.  But if we ever do, we can check out these pictures!

396   4/12/14     Ford Yacht Club -- Kickoff Party
John from Cowley's is the Vice Commodore of the Ford Yacht Club on Grosse Ile.  He invited Free Beer to play for their "Kickoff Saturday" party.  Great venue, they had just built a new stage for us (and other bands that follow us)  They also fed us and the meatlovers of Free Beer claimed it was the best Prime Rib ever.  

395   3/7/14     Cowley's -- First Friday
We had a pretty good run there for the first of the year.  So many gigs, so few days!  First Friday in March is like the "8th Inning" when you know the closer (St. Patricks Day) is going to come in and strike out the side.  We had a great early crowd and lots of first set dancers.  Second set featured and impromptu guest singing stint by Janel Edelman and Buddah came and sang BOTH of the Rocky Horror songs without a script. Impressive.

394   3/1/14     TJ's 50th Birthday -- Masonic Hall Berkley
It's was one of those parties where everyone will claim to have been there.  We have photographic evidence.  First Tj Tony Prisciandaro and Manny got up on stage, then Manny Solo.  Then Free Beer got up.  Paula Messner from the Candy Band sat in for Smoke on the Water.  Then Katie Klipfel Kirkpatrick came up an did two songs. Then Tj Tony Prisciandaro did Seven Nation Army.  We thought we had done quite well.  Then the Reefermen took to the stage and made everyone forget what came before them.  Great night at thanks to Tj Prisciandaro for inviting us.  It was an honor!  Now tag the shit out of these so everyone sees them!!

393   2/8/14     Motown Winter Blast
The Fans surprise Free Beer with a wildly positive reaction!
Yes, you shocked even the battle hardened Free Beer with your raucous reponse to every song.  We will tell you that we have not had a reception like this in a while and it really made us feel GREAT after a long weekend of loading and unloading our instruments in cold, ice and snow. Thanks to everyone who braved the elements and came outside to come inside the tropical Budweiser tent at Winter Blast.  The large crowd and Budweiser "anti freeze" kicked in and  people danced, screamed, passed liquor to us and cheered wildly after every song.  Again from Scott, Tom, Jim, Kurt and Dewey, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. 

392   2/7/14     Cowley's -- First Friday
Sharee and Janel Edelman celebrate birthdays with Free Beer.  It was First Friday at Cowley's.  It was Frigid.  It was Sheree's Birthday that week.  It was Janel's Birthday.  Janel is Guitarist Jim's Sister.  All of Janel's friends were there to dance.  Only one thing missing.  Janel.  She was at a wedding.  No biggie.  Everyone still had a great time and then Janel showed up an the place went crazy.  Full dance floor until the end of the night and plenty of people watched us pack up and stayed until the very bitter end.  Which was still bitterly cold outside.  It always amazes us when the fans brave the elements and show up in force on such a cold night.  THANK YOU.  

391   1/25/14     Plymouth ROC -- Plymouth
Kurt's entire gang of friends converged on the Plymouth ROC to see what Free Beer has been up to over the past year.  It was another great show with sound being provided by the house.  There was a huge gang from Doyle's packed in the back and the dancefloor remained full most of hte night once things got underway.  

390   1/18/14     Star Lanes in the Emagine Theater -- Royal Oak
Traffic Jam, No Parking and Long Lines didn't keep Free Beer from totally rocking Royal Oak.  We didn't see this one coming.  We knew that Beer Fest taking place across the street from the Star Lanes in Downtown Royal Oak was going to draw a crowd.  We knew that Saturday was going to be a busy night at the Emagine Theater.  We knew that The Star Lanes would have a pretty good dinner crowd on Saturday Night.  But we didn't know that it would cause a ripple effect which turn a number of fans around at the parking lot, made more stand in a long line (up to 45 minutes) just to get in the door.  We rescued a number of folks from the velvet ropes and they gathered near the band. It all paid off when we played all night to a full house.  Thanks to Jean Mason for the cool Instagrams of the band.

389   1/11/14     New Dodge Lounge -- One Salon Holiday Party
Our second annual appearance at the Salon One Holiday Party.  They celebrate during January since business is so hectic near the holidays.  The fill up the party busses in Novi and drop everyone at the front door of the New Dodge Lounge in Hamtramck.  We do a couple sets, everyone dances, they hand out presents inbetween sets and as the keg gets lighter, the fun turns up.  Especially fun for Mike Wielgat, our back up bass players back up as Jeff was trapped in Phoenix, Mike sat in only blocks from his boyhood house in Hamtramck!  

388   1/3/14     Cowley's -- First Friday
The length of the Holiday caused some fan attrition, but we still had a full bar for the First Friday of the year at Cowley's Pub in Farmington.  We went to the bench for our third string bass player Mike Wielgat and he was stellar as he picked his way through the entire set.  There was also a special appearance by Drummer #1 Kevin (KY) Yonker who is still amazed that the band has started it's twentieth year together.  So are we.

387   12/31/13     Freighters Port Huron -- New Years Eve
We had no idea what to expect.  Freighters is a brand new place in the Hilton Doubletree in Port Huron, literally UNDER the Blue Water Bridge, right on the banks of the St. Clair River.  Freighters go right by the front window of the place just a couple hundred feet away.  A bunch of us got rooms at the inn and came in early had a very nice dinner (boy was it crowded) and a Bagpipe player serenaded us.  We will also say this, Port Huron residents are big fans of Under The Radar Michigan, because Tom got recognized no less that 15 times during dinner!  We started playing quietly at 9PM and progressively got louder until the finish.  Bobby G was admiring Jim's guitars so we invited him up to play and he ROCKED.  The countdown happened, we played another hour.  Overall a great time and we are sure surprised how friendly everyone was in Port Huron.  As promised, we bought breakfast for anyone who was able to come down by 9:30AM and have Breakfast with Free Beer on New Years morning.  See the survivors in the pictures.

386   12/28/13     Comerica Park(ing Lot) -- Hockeytown Winter Festival
Mark that one down.  We have now played Comerica Park...ing lot.  We have also played Pine Knob, The Pontiac Silverdome and Tiger Stadium.  Look it up here!  Free Beer was asked to do an hour at the Red Wings Experience stage for the big festival to celebrate the Winter Classic game ... and although it is in Ann Arbor on New Years Day, they put together a big festival in front of Comerica Park and brought some of the hockey games down there.   Free Beer played from 3P to 4P on Saturday December 28th and we were a last minute addition to the lineup. The place was packed and the Red Wings Fan Crew did a great job of getting the crowd all pumped up prior to the show.  We rocked our hour and then gave the stage over for some interviews from Wings Alumni.  Great Time!

385   12/14/13     New Way Bar -- BeerMas
We are not so sure what we did to piss off Mother Nature during 2013, but we hope the vendetta ends in 2014.  This time, she dropped 6 inches of Snow on Ferndale during the day prior to the show, seriously messing with the commute to BeerMas for most.  But our fans are hearty souls.  Domino Effect kicked it off with even Mike singing a song.  The Candy Band became the IGGY GIRLS featuring a set of Iggy Pop songs. Free Beer did 5 holiday songs including 3 brand new renditions.   The new owners gave us a vote of confidence with an invite back for later this year.  While more people could have come through the door, it was still the merriest time of the year.

384   12/6/13     Cowley's -- First Friday
So we did until they were done. Another blast of an evening.  A little tamer than Thanksgiving Saturday but just as eventful.  First, Scott and Marcel debuted an awful acoustic version of Touch Me by the Doors for Joy's Birthday.  Then in set two Mark Druckmiller got up and did Mustang Sally and American Band.  The evening ended with an a cappella version of Alice Cooper's Be My Lover featuring Keith Tyler on Vocals.  It was a great way to end the year at Cowley's and we thank them for letting us play each month there.

383   11/30/13     Cowley's -- Thanksgiving Saturday
A great night of reunions here at Cowley's!  We worked off all of the the extra turkey and stuffing with two rawkus sets of rawk!  Jeff played bass. Bob White got up on stage during the second set, for two songs (American Girl and Some Kinda Wonderful).  Just as we were about to quit, about 10 girls came in and DEMANDED we play more.  So we did until they were done. 

382   11/22/13     Main Street Billiards -- SPSC Happy Hour
We always love playing for this group and many of the SPSC have become Free Beer Fans at other gigs.  This time, Erin from the club decided to get up on stage with us for a new song.  We've been singing the Rocky Horror songs for years and Erin has been joining us.  But she really wanted to sing Toucha Toucha Touch Me ... so she came to a practice, we nailed it and got her right up on stage.  There were shots to do (So Co Social Shots) and drawings ... and two sets were all done by 10:30P.  

381   11/1/13     Cowley's--First Friday
Boy did this feel good!  After 3 gigs of getting ready then not playing, it was good to finish!!  November's first Friday at John Cowleys and Son's was one of those gigs where you look our from the stage and see 3 completely different dance floors around the room. The main floor was jammed. Then there was a few people dancing in the middle of the room between tables, then there was a mini-dance floor in the back of the room near the top of the stairs. 
And epic night of good friends and tongues in ears.

000   9/27/13     Cowley's  (since we didn't play, AGAIN, no number)
We've seen Fire, We've Seen Rain.  And we've seen Insurance Adjusters.  The first two are NOTHING compared to Insurance Adjusters.  It was touch and go all week before the gig.  Would Cowley's open for the Harvest Moon Festival?  Or would they remain closed for the third weekend in a row.  The answer didn't come until late Thursday 9/26 that No, they would not be able to pull it together for the weekend.  Shame.  Free Beer's THIRD cancelled show in a row! 


000   9/6/13     Cowley's  (since we didn't play, AGAIN, no number)
We've seen Fire, We've Seen Rain.  After the ass kicking we took outdoors at Arts Beats and Eats, we thought going back indoors to the friendly confines of John Cowley and Sons Pub would be safe.   We thought wrong.  At about 5:15 a small fire in the kitchen forced the closure of the bar for the night and the Farmington and Farmington Hill Fire departments to respond with ladder trucks to get to the vent fire in the roof.  Free Beer's second cancelled show in a row! We are so glad to report that everyone was safe, no one was hurt and the damage was minimal.  Our hearts go out to the entire Cowley family and employees.

000   8/30/13     Arts Beats and Eats  (since we didn't play, no number)
This was the moment we had been waiting for all summer.  The final time slot on Friday night at our favorite Arts Beats and Eats stage.  The Candy Band rocked out and finished up their set at 9:15.  Storms had been appearing on Radar all night long but really didn't look like they would threaten our performance.  Scott's son Calvin even got to read the commercial credits in between  bands!  How Cool!  But just as the Candy Band was finishing their set, the storms took a right turn at Lapeer and headed south FAST.  By 9:30, it was thunder and lightning.  By 9:35 the first rain started falling and Roger the stage manager told everyone to take cover (inside Gusoline Alley!!).  2 1/2 inches of rain fell in the next hour, followed by a couple hours more! By 10PM, the show was cancelled.  It was a shame because there were SO MANY people we knew there and all they did was get wet.  Thanks everyone for coming out and hopefully we get the same stage and slot for next year.  

380   8/16/13     Star Lanes at Emagine Theater
The Stay and Play Social Club and The Star Lanes in the Emagine Theater provided us a great opportunity to check something off of our bucket list.  We've played at the bar at a bowling alley.  We've play at a bowling alley. We have NEVER played on the actual lanes!  Check.  That's been done.  It wasn't the "optimal user exeperience as the bowlers had a much better view of the band than the bar patrons, but we will say there was plenty of room to dance.  As usual all of our friends from Royal Oak came out and it was a great crowd once they got over the fact they would have to dance on the apron of a bowling alley.  The Stephanie from SPSC was a great hose and Erin got up and sang her Rocky Horror songs.  We'll see them again in November at Main Street Billiards in Rochester.  Woo Hoo.

379   8/3/13     Allen Park Street Fair
A beautiful night to play 90 minutes of music for a lot of people.  We followed Paz's All-Stars on to the stage and played a lot of best songs.  We had plenty of special guests from the very talented community from Allen Park including Jim Flynn who played and sang Lonely Ol' Night and fiddled to Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.  Rick Shine from Mitch Ryder's band got up on stage and did two songs with us as well, Mustang Sally and Back in the USSR.   This year we got to play our whole set (no tornado warnings!) and Ray's Garage (an all Allen Park band) followed us instead of preceding us this year.  The photos were all pulled from video taken on site.  Want to see the videos?  Click here!

378   8/2/13     Cowley's -- First Friday
Our second time at Cowley's in two weeks ... and we STILL had a great time with a good crowd!  We kicked off the First Friday in August by celebrating Bob White's Birthday and inviting him on stage for a few songs.  Dewey was back for the weekend and joined us to rock out the Bass.  Our usual good time and met some folks who love the Sock Monkey!  

376   7/13/13     Spectators -- Cleveland
It was time for our annual trip to Cleveland to celebrate all things Edelman.  Since Jim got the trailer for his Birthday the rest of us got to travel in comfort in Scott's car instead of being packed in a van full of equipment.  And we were light one member since neither Dewey or Jeff were available to play bass for the gig.  Luckily, we have two great sit in bass players in Cleveland; Eric and Rich Edelman.  Also, they debuted their new band "Uncle Fester" at the end of the first set, featuring an entire band of Edelmans!! 
We will say this, the Cleveland Edelmans sure love their Free Beer, as Free Beer had the single largest T-Shirt Sales Day in our history.  
See all the pictures (including the candid road trip and a visit to Giant Eagle to "look at Tequila" here.

375   6/22/13     Detroit River Days -- Chevrolet Stage
There were some scheduling changes that allowed Free Beer to only play from 2:30P to 4:00PM instead of kicking it off at 8:30A as the entertainment for the 5K Run.  We arrived and checked out a hard rockin' set from the very young ladies of ELECTRIC GRAFFITTI who we're awesome.  Then there was a Wing Eating contest followed by Free Beer.  And the weather started getting rough, and as a precaution the stage roof started getting lower until it was almost touching Scott's head.  By the time Citizen Zero hit the stage, they were ready to batton down the hatches!! Thanks to John Witz, Brian Major, Roger Burghdoff and all of the fine people down there for a good time.  

374   6/21/13     Detroit Athletic Club -- Summer Jams
Free Beer occasionally gets hired for Private Parties and this was one of them.  Jim Flynn brought his PA to combine with ours and we obliged him by having him jump on stage for a couple of songs.  It was in a Huge Tent directly across from Comerica Park while a Tiger Game was going on.  We got to try out our new lights and "Party Ball" plus the Tigers have Fireworks on Friday's (which were so loud and close and long that even us in the Rock Band were covering our ears saying NO MORE!  Food was great ... a big pig roast ... and it was for a good cause.  Only thing missing was dancers, but we were assured that they loved us and will have us back again in the future.

373   6/07/13     Cowley's -- First Friday
While we were setting up we noticed that the bar was filling up quite quickly.  Seems the "Our Lady Queen of Sorrows" and the Cipriano Walk were both taking up a majority of the tables.  They stuck around till ten so we waited for them to clear before we started. It was Tom's Birthday, but we weren't allowed to mention it.  We were allowed to mention that it was Lisa's Birthday.  We debuted a bunch of new songs ... Venus/Pinball Wizard, Call Me, Tumblin Dice and did School's Out to celebrate the End of School.


372   5/03/13     Cowley's -- Jim's Birthday
Jim Edelman has been the heart and soul of Free Beer since the start.  So when his "Big 50" showed up, we knew a simple celebration wouldn't do it.  Deb and Sue got all of Jim's friends and neighbors to show up.  Jim's mother and sister from Michigan plus his aunt and cousin from Cleveland were there.  There was a big Guitar shaped cake. At the end of set one we sang Happy Birthday ... then the band members ushered Jim out to the parking lot where we gave him is present.  A BRAND NEW TRAILER!!!  Jim's been loading (and ruining) his truck four times per gig, so this will make life a lot easier for him.  His cousin John got up on stage and jammed out White Room with is and it was an overly raucous evening.  Great time!!

372   3/17/13     Cowley's -- St Patrick's Day
This is always a special day at Cowley's but this has special meaning to all of us in the Cowley's Free Beer family since the patriarch, John Cowley, the man whom the bar was named after, passed away just a few weeks ago.   From 9AM to 3PM, Sean Riley played.  Free Beer queued up in the hall way and took over just past 4PM  We had Ron Jewel and (instead of Jim Flynn) Marcel played the fiddle and by all accounts was OUTSTANDING!!  We alternated between Free Beer and Green Beer all afternoon and into the night and was just about to call it quits when Kurt and Ron provided this stirring tribute to the Cowley Family with a toast and one of John Cowley's favorite Irish songs.  A fitting end to a fun St. Patrick's Day.

371   3/1/13     Cowley's -- First Friday
It seemed like we were running late all night long.  The place was packed, Tom's sister in law brought a crew for her birthday, Cora and everyone was there ... and poor Tom had wrenched his back loading in his drums on Thursday night.  So we had back up drummer Stefan Rairigh in the wings in case Tom wasn't able.  Tom ended up being fine, but Stefan still took the stage and did 8 songs during set two.  And to be honest, there was enough talent in the crowd to field a second band!  Katie Kirkpatrick from Miss Scarlet In the Hall, Jeff Brookmyer - Bass Player extraordinaire and Veronica Gabriel all stayed in the stands, but we convinced Bob White and Tom Kohkiletti to get up on stage for few.  Great jams on a great night.  Lots of fun!! 

370   2/9/13     Motown Winter Blast -- Fathead Stage -- Campus Martius Downtown Detroit
The Motown Winter Blast started back in 2006 as a Superbowl celebration in Downtown Detroit and was so much fun that the just kept doing it!!  So, we finally played at it last year and did pretty well.  We were back for our second year at Motown WinterBlast, this time as the "Headliner", or as we say "last band playing".  We followed Citizen Zero who rocked loud and hard.  Good to hear.  Nice cold day outside ... but they had the heaters turned up to 100 in the tent.  So Free Beer was shedding layers as the set went on.  The sound was perfect, the crowd was great, Fish and Paula were there, we sold our first 2 T-Shirts ... overall a great evening that ended at 11:15P!!

369   2/5/13     GrooveBox Studios -- UTR Michigan Segment
For those of you too far away to get to a gig or just haven't made a trip to the shows in a while, do we have a treat coming for you.  As part of Jim and Tom's "Other Job", Under The Radar Michigan they were filming a segment at GrooveBox Studios ... a super cool place in the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit where bands can do a five song set, which is recorded, both audio and video, and packaged up so you can show your skills to bar owners, venues, friends, radio ... whomever.  They'll post it on their website, even include it in the "radio station".  For the segment UTR was shooting, they needed a band ... and funny, WE'RE in a band!!  So we recorded 5 songs with some of our friends in the studio.  Stay tuned, we'll be posting them soon.   In the meantime, here's some photos!

368   2/1/13     Cowley's -- First Friday
February is here and so is Free Beer.  Jam Packed night at Cowley's for First Friday.  Found a package on the stage when we arrived and decided not to open it until the second set.  We thought it was a Sock Monkey puppet, but found out it was a Sock Monkey Head Cover!!  Thanks Janel (who showed up later and explained).  There were a lot of birthdays in the crowd including Ellen and Jim Cohen, who hopped up on stage and played Thunder Road and Lonely Old Night.  Added some phan photos from Jean Mason and Deedee Judy to our Gallery too.  Great night for all.

367   1/26/13    Plymouth ROC -- Kurt's Triumphant Return
It had been a few years since we played The Plymouth ROC and we started to lose touch with some of the great people who were fans back at the beginning of the Free Beer journey.  So Kurt kept badgering the owners of The Plymouth ROC to get us in there and sure enough, he came through.  Andy had also been bugging Kurt to play Clocks by Coldplay, so we relearned that (after 9 years) and brought out a new tune, Lonely Boy by the Black Keys.  Cora also found an non sanctioned Free Beer shirt and wore it.  We're not suing anyone.  Great night.  Lots of watching during Set One.  Lots of dancing during Set Two.

366   1/12/13    New Dodge Lounge -- One Salon Holiday Party
Craig Posegay, formerly of 89X, hired us as the entertainment for the One Salon holiday party, which of course took place in January because they were WAY too busy back in December to Party.  We had the entire place to ourselves featuring a full stage and John the Sound Guy.  It was nice playing in front of a bunch of really good looking ladies plus one of Scott's roommates Dennis Potts was among the employees, they hadn't seen each other in almost 30 years.  Dennis hasn't changed.  Scott has more belly and less hair!!  Nice to play in Hamtramck again. 

365   1/11/13    Main Street Billiards -- First Friday 2013
This was the second in our series of Stay and Play Social Club's Happy Hours at Main Street Billiards.  Again, Erin from SPSC came up and sang along during the Rocky Horror Songs, we had a great crowd of friends, especailly Tom who lives in Downtown Rochester.  And we were all home by Midnight.  We love this early stuff and hope to make it a regular thing!!

364   1/4/13    Cowley's -- First Friday 2013
It was a tough night, but Free Beer muscled through it.  Kurt sang his ass off through a cold on New Years Eve and totally paid for it with the Flu during the first three days of 2013.  Fine.  Kurt felt good enough to make it to the Gig on the First Friday at Cowley's but maybe not good enough to sing through an entire set.  So Jim called in the troops to back him up.  Kurt sang the first set, then Jim Cohen did five songs to kick off set two.  Mark Koziera did 5 songs and then drummer #3 Mitch Koziera ended the set with the last three songs.  And thanks to the additional voices, we made it through the night.  Thanks guys!!

363   12/31/12    Royal Oak Music Theater -- New Years Eve 2012 / New Years Day 2013
It was another great celebration with the Stay and Play Social Club on New Years Eve at the Royal Oak Music Theater.  This time Free Beer started at 9:45PM and kept rocking right through Midnight, including the countdown and beyond.  Yes.  One 2 1/2 hour set including DJ Simon Matty scratching along on The Violent Femmes.  Another great crowd and a lot of great friends ... oh, and we had our own dressing room again!!  

362   12/21/12    Bayview Yacht Club -- End Of The World Party
We were hired for a private party on the night of the mythical End Of The World as predicted by the Mayan calendar.  Part one of the night, everyone stood and watched the hired rock band.  The did provide us (and the partiers) our own Keg of Beer!  Heck, we even learned "End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine" from REM.  Part two of the event was much more positive after we realized the world wasn't going to end.

361   12/15/12    The New Way Bar -- Beermas 2012   We KNEW this BeerMas was going to be extra special.  There was so much pre show intruique!  Some might not be aware but during the winter, the Candy Band and Free Beer's practice facilities are right next door to each other near downtown Royal Oak.  Both bands had plotted to do something really special for BeerMas this year, but ... it was a SURPRISE!  Band members were seen leaning against the basement window of the others house to take a listen.  
Free Beer knew the Candy Band was not going to do their normal set.  Rumours were that they were going to do FREE BEER's set, dressed as Free Beer.
Saturday December 15th finally came and Domino Effect hit the stage early.  They obviously knew it was a big night because they brought their best stuff and played their best show yet.
The Candy Band came in the New Way dressed completly in LEATHER and wearing Ramones T-Shirts.  They hopped on stage, Daniella wearing dark aviator glasses, and with a "ONE TWO THREE FOUR" kicked into a 15 song set of THE RAMONES.  (Kurt's Favorite Band).  What a great Beermas present!
Then it was our turn.  Although we felt our special songs paled in comparison to the entire Ramones set by "The Ramonas" (Candy Band leather clad alter ego band).  We started the show with our closer (Love Me Two Times) then busted out Two Candy Band songs since they didn't play any.  Aided by Laura Colevecchia on vocals we played "Monster" and "I'm A Monkey" with the Candy Band dancing right in front of us.  Other new songs included "The End Of The World As We Know It" and "Heavy Santa" a Christmas version of Seger's Heavy Music.

360   12/7/12    Cowley's   We walked into the Cowley's on Friday December 7th and knew it was going to be a different night altogether!!  A bunch of companies were having their holiday dinner / party there and we were requested to go on as soon as we could to keep everyone happy.  They were right.  People started dancing right away and stayed with us the whole night.  Two long sets later, we made a bunch of new friends who will (hopefully) stick with us for a few First Friday's in 2013.  Click here for pictures!  Also, TWO new Sock Monkeys will be featured for December; Reindeer Pajama Monkey and Santa Monkey

359   11/23/12    Cowley's   After all the dicking around with the date changes, this ended up being a great show. Our new sock Monkey (dubbed Jeremiah by the fans due to his Pilgrim getup) made the rounds early, although we had to settle for IPhone pictures. Scott apologizes. Regardless, the largest cheers from this Turkey Crazy crowd came with "Seestor" Janel Edelman and Jen Wychek entered the room near the end of set two.   

358   11/9/12      Main Street Billiards Happy Hour at Main Street Billiards. Great night at Main Street Billiards with the Stay and Play Social Club. We started early, the crowd moved from the Restaurant side to the Dance Floor Side, we got two sets in and still made it home in time to watch the clock strike 12! Thanks to Stephanie and Steve for making this happen and we look forward to many more happy hours to come. Also, we did get a brand new Thanksgiving sock monkey. He remains nameless. We are still on the lookout for Woody.      

358   11/2/12      Cowley's   Another great First Friday at Cowley's. Some curve balls which don't appear in the pictures, but popped up on Facebook everywhere when Jim and Kurt joined Scott out on the dance floor for an impromptu jam with the people during The Violent Femmes set. Great job everyone.  

357   10/27/12    Chili Cookoff    It was the annual Chili Cookoff in the Edelman Barn. We played a short set and announced the winner, our own Scott Brown!!       

356   10/5/12      Cowley's   Cowley's First Friday. We were back in our comfort zone on First Friday at Cowley's and got surprised by a lot of friends from our past. Greg St. James from early 89X was in for a WIDR reunion. Steve Kostan from WRIF/WCSX joined him on stage with us. Marie (Barrett) Heinzman were part of their gang. Tom Kokaleti from the Love Junkies and his lovely wife Diane were there. Erin Grohl from the SPSC got up on stage and sang. Bob White came up and sang. Cora and AJ, some of the original First Fridayers made a guest appearance. Stefan Rarigh (fill in Drummer) was there AND we had a fill in Drummer Steve Tocco on Kit for Tom who was on vacation. Every band Steve plays with becomes better!! We had a great night even though we were just here the week before!!       

355   9/28/12      Cowley's   The Last Friday of the month featured the Harvest Moon Festival down the street. Great crowd, the SPSC gals all showed up. In a sad note, this one B-Girl took Woody the Sock Monkey. He will be missed.        

354   9/18/12      Ford World Headquarters         You know about those "Big Corporate Gigs" that bands like the Rolling Stones turn down? This was one of them, and we took it. First, 4 of 5 members of the band drive a Ford. Second, it was a big stage with a big PA system. And nothing like setting up for a gig at 8AM! It started bad with a pretty heavy rainstorm, but the rain let up and Free Beer (disguised as "The Back Seat Drivers") helped launch the 2013 Ford Fusion with a Guinness Book Of World Record game of "Red Light / Green Light" to highlight the new Stop Go technology of the Ford Fusion (I don't make this stuff up!!) 

353   9/7/12        Cowley's   What a great night September 7th was at Cowley's. There was a great dinner crowd and a bunch were Lions fans as they started singing the Lion Fight Song acapella. It was also Anita's Birthday and that was great fun. Full dance floor all night, fans wanted more when we finished late. What more can you ask?  

352   8/17/12      Fishbone's         Fishbone's never ceases to confound the members of Free Beer. One time we play there, everyone stays outside. Next time we play there, the place is packed. This time we played there, it was packed, the Tigers played a home game (and won) and the Fishbone's shuttle drops off some predrunken folk who take over the dance floor. Good Times.     

352   8/11/12      Cleveland Cleveland Rocked. We are pretty sure no one in Ohio named Edelman missed the Free Beer show last Saturday at Spectators. For those of you up here who missed it here’s what happened. Spectators had very few people dining for Saturday night. Next thing you know, it’s all full of Edelmans and Eric Edelman’s band Zero Anxiety did a great set. Then Free Beer rocked, including a special tribute to Dave with Edelman’s joining Free Beer on stage to play Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”. Dancing ensued followed by fun for all. Start making plans to join us next year around this time.     

351   8/4/12        Allen Park Street Fair       The weather did NOT cooperate with us. It was rainy just prior to our entrance to the stage, holding the crowd down a bit, and then the mother of all storms appeared on the radar behind us, prompting the police to shut the fair down at 10PM. Good thing we started early!! Great crowd, good set, just shorter than it was supposed to be.  

350   8/3/12        Cowley's   It was a great First Friday for Free Beer at Cowley's. Lots of people, lots of fun, we even got Bob White and Buddah up on stage during the second set to sing with us!   

349   7/20/12      Cowley's   The annual Farmington Founders Day Festival gig at Cowley's did not disappoint! Great crowd. OUTSTANDING and the big crowd joined into our brand of revelry upon arrival. It was funny because our usual Beer Tent Bump at 11PM wasn't needed. The place was packed all night long.  

348   7/14/12      Carl and Debbie Vincintini        Our annual appearance at this huge backyard party was again a huge success. I'm always surprised the cops don't come!!

347   7/7/12        The Whitney     It used to be the fanciest old restaurant in town and Free Beer was going to rock Ryan and Sara's wedding out on the patio. But due to the 100 degree heat and unstable air mass, it got moved indoors, which would have been cool if the AC was working, which it was not. So they fixed it as best they could, brought in some fans and we rocked. Best moment of the night was when we kicked into the first song and the restaurant manager (and all the diners downstairs) found out how loud we really are!!     

347   7/6/12        South Bar         We are in the thick of summer ... and when I say thick, I mean the air ... 100 degree heat all day. Just what we needed was the nice, air condiditioned South Bar plus some old friends like Kathy, Lex, Marcel, Doug, Pam and the gang to knock back a couple and Rock!

346   6/30/12      Taylor Heritage Festival    We got selected as the headliner on Saturday Night with the Sarah Sherrod Band and U2 cover band Zooropa. While some of the bands in the daylight were lightly attended, the fireworks brought in the crowds during our set. Twas a lot of fun and can't wait to do it again in 2013.   

345   6/29/12      Cowley's   In our effort to make life easier on the Cowley's we moved our first Friday performace to the Last Friday so they could have the the weekend AFTER the 4th of July off. It was still big fun with our usual suspects in attendance, not missing a beat. Buddah sang, Scott shot some video and smash a beer on camera and Dewey was back in town.    

344   6/08/12      Fishbone's         Well it wasn't our best gig ever. The crowd was there but no late surge like we expected. The weather was just too good. Made some new friends and rocked the shit out of it. Next time...    

343   6/02/12      Red Ox Auburn Hills         Our first time in the summer here, so we figured that we could finally enjoy the deck with the doors opened up. Not to be. Cold and Rainy as we started up. The best behaved crowd ever. No one danced in the first set, but they finally joined in for set two.     

342   6/01/12      Cowley's   It was supposed to be the first Friday of the Summer, but it was cold and rainy. Good for us, because everyone came out to party. Full house a Cowley's. It was everyone's birthday including superfan Lisa (third year in a row).   

341   5/19/12      White Lake Inn         Great night at the White Lake, although the dancers were sparatic. It was sucha beautiful day that the deck was full!! We didn't blame anyone for hanging out by the lake instead of the dance floor. Later, all was forgiven. Since we forgot to bring the batteries for the camera, the few pictures we took are here.     

340   5/18/12      Star Lanes Emagine Theater     Verlander Stars at the Star Lanes in Royal Oak! We planned on starting, but Justin Verlander was pitching a no hitter so we all took pause to watch as it was broken up in the 9th inning with two outs to go. After that, it was the usual rawkus night at the bar in the bowling alley in the theater in Royal Oak.        

339   5/5/12        Royal Oak Farmers Market       Free Beer headlined the main stage at the big Cinco De Mayo celebration in downtown Royal Oak at the Farmers Market. We were really excited to get this gig, but neither Dewey or Jeff could make it, so we signed up Mike Weilgat, bassman from Domino Effect, who sat in for Beermas last year signed up for the chance to play so close to home. Then Tom rechecked his calendar and saw a graduation on the date. So we checked our stable of sit in Drummers and all of the regulars were booked too. Thank goodness Scott lives next to Russ Ristau, drummer for the Basements. After a furious few weeks of practice Russ and Mike had the set list down and we hit the stage ... LAST ... after everyone was good and lubed up from when the doors opened at 4PM!!

338   5/4/12        Cowley's   Yep, May The Fourth be with you. Free Beer in full "Fourth" at Cowley's for the first Friday of the month. The evening started out slow since the weather is starting to get nice, but by the end of the first set, the place was packed and the dance floor was full.  

337   4/28/12      South Bar         After all the controversy surrounding this gig, the crowd was a little tentative at best. To refresh, during our gig on 4/12/12 a the South Bar, the sign out front said Free Beer which some of the more literal residents of Birmingham felt was a liquor control violation. That sparked some pretty heated dialogue in the local Patch website and an article featuring our own Jim Edelman as the spokes person. After all of that, we hit the stage and eventually everyone got in the mood to a rawkus second set. Phew. No arrests.   

336   4/13/12      Star Lanes        Our second stint at the Star Lanes moved us downstairs. A little more cozy and certainly a lot rowdier!! A large contingent from The Royal Oak Y and the ROHS Drama Club (who took donations!) mixed it up with our Free Beer Fans until it reach a near Frenzy! At a bowling alley, attached to a theater. Next?    

335   4/12/12      South Bar         An 80's party for the Adcraft PM ... we did most of our 80's songs for the crowd. There was a costume contest. The best part of this gig was the "controversy" that arose when The South Bar put our band name on the sandwich board out front and was noticed by some anti South Bar contingent and reported to the City Council. The story ended up in the Patch, page down and check out the funny comments after the end of the article!! I guess some people don't get out much.    

334   4/6/12        Cowley's   It was our "Eastover" celebration, the First Friday of April AND Good Friday AND the beginning of Passover. Oy-Vey!! Scott was off for the night and Jim Cohen sat on Guitar and Vocals. We introduced a new character into the band ... the Easter Monkey. Part Bunny, Part Monkey. All RAWK! Dewey on Bass.   

333   3/17/12      Cowley's   ST PATRICK'S DAY. Wow. What a night. This was our first Saturday St. Patrick's Day where people weren't distracted by things like WORK and got right into their drinking early. We showed up later and were nothing but entertaining. Steve Kostan showed up but didn't play. Jim Johnson was there, but didn't get his picture taken. Marcel Lim made his debut on Violin during our Celtic set. Bobby White sang a song or two. All was right with the world. It was green. Jeff on Bass.     

332   3/16/12      Star Lanes, Royal Oak       A very fancy place to play right in Downtown Royal Oak. Thanks to all of our RO Friends for showing up!! It was St. Practice Day so we all wore our Green and partied in the expansive room upstairs. Erin came up and sang with Kurt during the Rocky Horror songs. Jeff on Bass.      

331   3/10/12      Red Ox Tavern AUBURN HILLS     To celebrate their anniversary, the Red Ox installed Black Lights, turned off the TVs, passed out white T-Shrits and Florescent pens. Graffiti Party, Black Light Style. Everyone drew all over anything white. Couldn't see the band, which was a little strange, but eventually the beer, the lights and the fun got everyone going. Jeff on Bass.        

330   3/9/12        Red Ox Tavern UTICA     It was our first time here, Jeff on Bass (but Bev, Dewey's wife was there to support). Tom got a brand new drum set just that day!! Nice place to play, but a little sparce on the dancing crowd. We did find one fan...Kathleen. She loved the Monkey, loved to dance and wanted to be real close to us. With a tambourine. Fun overall.      

329   3/2/12        Cowley's   It was MaryAnne's Birthday. All of our regular friends were there PLUS we added a couple more new friends. It was the week that Davy Jones from the Monkees passed so we played Believer. We had Bob White join us on stage again, American Band this time. Great work by Bobby. Jim whipped out the Fisheye Lens and took some weird photos. First of 5 gigs in 15 days. Scott had a cold (again). Jeff on Bass.       

328   2/25/12      South Bar         Our second gig at the South Bar. We were worried because we didn't have the early crowd from the Social Club this time. But to our surprise, the place filled up. Plenty of Friends and Relatives stopped by plus we had a good crew of people who were just there to party and so were we!! Stangest thing is the path to the DISCO in the back of the bar leads right by the dance floor. As the disco people walk back, they hear one of our songs, hop on the dance floor for a song or two, then go on their merry way ... over and over. It's like spawning salmon. We will be back.      

327   2/11/12      Fishbone's         So after WinterBlast, we had some Thai in Ferndale, went back to Scott's house and gathered up our cars, then hightailed it out to Fishbone's. There was a good crowd there already and Jim's sister Janel Edelman (second from left) was celebrating her birthday with her crew. There were plenty of distractions from the super good looking patrons who are about 4 feet in front of you at the bar, plus Scott saw his old buddy Franco for the first time in over 20 years from Primos where he delivered pizza in college. STAR SIGHTING!! Dave Coulier came up and played harp with us and hung out until the end of the night. Full day for Free Beer, huh? Jeff played bass.      

326   2/11/12      Motown WinterBlast         Free Beer was invited to perform at the Motown WinterBlast in Downtown Detroit due to our well heated performance at the Arts Beats and Eats festival. It's a big outdoor festival with slides, skating, ice sculptures and the lot to celebrate Winter in Detroit. It started back when we had the Super Bowl. We played at one of the huge block long heated tents on the Michigan Lottery Stage from 4:30P to 5:30P, right after local groove rap artists OTIS (Out There In Space) and a Burlesque Act (Flame with a Twist). We were well received by the audience and the booking agent. (WE DID AN ENCORE?!?) Looks like we will be doing more of these festival things in the future. What a (winter) Blast it was. Jeff played bass.   

325   2/4/12        Cowley's   It was Sheree's Birthday, so we moved our normal First Friday concert to the First Saturday to accomodate. Sheree is a lovely young lady, and I must say that her friends are just as lovely (and possibly a little less modest). We only did two sets and set two set a new world record for length at over 2 1/2 hours (not kidding). Two special guests, Rick Shine -- lead guitarist from Mitch Ryders band and Bob White on vocals both joined us on stage for a hootenanny!! Jeff played bass        

324   1/13/12      South Bar         At the invitation of the Stay and Play Social Club, Free Beer anchored their January 13th Happy Hour. From 6P to 9P the SPSC gang hung out and drank, we started playing at 8:30PM. It was great, met a whole buncha new friends like Erin who sang during Tim Warp. It was a great place to play and the treated us like kings. Can't wait to return.   

323   1/6/12        Cowley's   What a great First Friday for 2012. It was A LOT of peoples' birthdays ... including Denise who celebrated her birthday with us last year too! Tom Coyote from the Love Junkies got up on stage and did three songs with us.    

322   12/31/11    COUNTDOWN 2011 @ Royal Oak Music Theater    Wow! The Stay and Play Social Club invited us to be the pre Midnight act along with Ben Sharkey, DJ Simon Matty and DJ Chuck Hollywood at the legendary Royal Oak Music Theater. It was great fun as we went through some of our best songs for an 80 minute set. There was a dressing room, back stage passes, a pro audio sound system and a big crowd. A little daunting but definitely a LOT of fun. It was over before we knew it!!   

321   12/10/11    BeerMas 2011
New Way Bar      It's the most wonderful time to drink beer. BeerMas is the time to reunite with old friends, like Tina and Gus from The New Way Bar who had their Christmas Party this same night. Like Montrose Street Project who keep getting better and better each year (and always attend Free Beer Shows in force). Like the Candy Band who play again this year and had the highlight moment of the evening when they played "Mother" by Danzig! And for all the Free Beer Fans who make us and the Sock Monkey happy all year round. Merry BeerMas to all, and to all a Free Beer!! 

320   12/02/11    Cowley's   We left the equipment up from Thanksgiving Saturday. When we got there later than usual, Cowley's was not as full as usual. But by the time we played, Full. Then after the second set an entire crew of people in Formal Wear showed up. Plus we got a visit from Mike Weilgat from Domino Effect who is sitting in with us for Beermas since neither Dewey or Jeff can make it. No playing the bass though. He's a righty, Dewey is a lefty.        

319   11/26/11    Cowley's   It was our first year without a Wednesday Before Thanksgiving gig and our Friends at Cowley's came through with the Saturday After Thanksgiving date. Thank goodness. All of our friends showed up, even Bass Player #1 Paul Sevigny who stopped by on his travels from hometown Chicago to worktown DC. Jim Cohen got up on stage and did four songs with us. Scott got ahold of the "Monopod" and did some video during the Violent Femmes medley. Everyone behaved themselves!!

318   11/19/11    Rochester Mills Beer Company  5 1/2 years since we last played here and we still pack the house. So many friends of Daldin it was too hard to count. Rawkus first set led to a long second set. Great crowd. We'll be back.

317   11/04/11    Cowley's   The last few times at Cowley's have been missing something ... mostly the regular crew of folks that have made Cowley's First Friday's great. So we put a callout to the crew and THEY ALL SHOWED UP and we had a great time. It was really specials to see everyone and glad we could all get together. Jeff Brookmyer on Bass.        

316   10/29/11    Fishbones St. Clair Shores         We're not sure exactly what happened here. It's the tale of two gigs in one. We were summoned as a last minute replacement so we didn't get much promotion of the gig. The first set was a little sleepy as only our most ardent fans were there. But as soon as we started the second set, the crazy bus dropped off a load of adult trick or treaters, headed by "Russell Brand" and "Katy Perry" who heckled us (in character) broke a full drink on the floor and started sliding on it. So did everyone else. Jimmy from Two Hour Limit got up and sang with us, then It got nutty and we finished the evening with a bang. Great fun!! Jeff Brookmyer on Bass.     

315   10/22/11    Red Ox Tavern Auburn Hills     So we have been waiting a long time to play out by where Kurt works ... and this is it. This was also the night of the MSU/Wisconsin game (at the time Wisconsin ranked #4, MSU #16). Red Ox ... Sports bar first, rock bar 2nd. They wanted the MSU game to completion. Jeff, Scott and Tom OK with this. Jim, indifferent. Kurt, Wolverine, sudden Badger fan. It comes to the last play. Hail Mary. No catch? Overtime. Catch. Sparty wins and Free Beer plays. Catch!! TD (after review) Free Beer plays!! (11:30P Start time!!). We had a blast with a crazy dancing guy, Colleen's birthday party, the gang from the Montrose Street Project and Buddah/Anita. We think the like us. See you next time! Only took 20 pix, none of the band. See our facebook page for more details!! Jeff Brookmyer on Bass.      

314   10/7/11      Cowley's   Great night with a lot of friends up there. We celebated Scott's 21st wedding anniversary the only way we know how. We rocked. Patty left before we rocked. Happy Anniversary!! The Sock Monkey bought a round, and his brother from Las Vegas made the trip in with Jen. Then a host of guest musicians joined us during the second set. Bob sang "Some Kinda Wonderful". Stefan Rariagh sat in on Drums for three songs. Buddah sang some Guess Who. We did the Rocky Horror duet for Colleen. Great night for all at Cowley's!!     

313   9/9/11        Cowley's   Thanks to all for coming out to see us in the last of our string of shows, 2 states, 3 cities, 4 shows over 5 weekends. It could have been the wear and tear on our loyal fans that made us jam all the goodness into two longs sets. Hard to tell. Jeff Brookmyer on bass and we all made our best effort to pull the night from the doldroms. Mission accomplished.        

312   9/2/11        Arts Beats and Eats   The much anticipated hour long set at Arts Beats and Eats finally happened, but not without a few pounds lost as the thermometer hit 95 degrees as we hit the stage at 5PM. We played the Soaring Eagle stage on Center at Third in front of Gusoline Alley. The Candy Band warmed (heated, scorched?) us up and then the sun slowly set behind the parking deck. Hour long set included all of our hits ... first time ever kicking off with Folsom. Great time!!   

311   8/27/11      White Pine National  The first ever Free Beer Golf Outing in Spruce MI. When we arrived Friday Night, the entire Golf Course, including the front sign, cart cards, doors, bars ... all were decorated with The Free Beer Logo, Band Photo, Mottos ... you name it. Saturday after Golf, we set up in the Cart Barn which had been converted into a beer hall and rocked the crap out of it!!

310   8/13/11      Spectators Cleveland         FREE BEER IN CLEVELAND It wasn't the rawkus out of control Scalpers Cleveland crowd, but Spectators had it's own sort of vibe. The bartenders were really cute. The place was jam packed with Edelmans. Eric Edelman's band opened for us and were great. We still had a party in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn with some Tequila and White Castle. Overall, mission accomplished!    

309   8/5/11        Cowley's   Let's just call it "All Star Friday". Harpster and Legal Expert Howard Hertz joined us on stage, along with Paula and Anita from the Candy Band and Stefan Raraigh from Two Hour limit. In the audience were Veronica and Jon from the Montrose Street Project and Tom Coyote from the Love Junkies. Lots of fun and lots of pictures!!! 

308   7/23/11      Carl and Debbie Vincintini's Back Yard    Sure, lots of other venues seem more glamorous, but none more fun than playing the wedding reception of Carl and Debbie Vincintini's back yard. Stefan Rarigh and Jeff Brookmyer sat in and we rocked it!       

307   7/15/11      Cowley's   Two men not able to make the show so Jeff Brookmyer filled in for Dewey on Bass and Jim Cohen filled in for Scott on Guitar, even though Scott plays Keyboards. It worked out fine as the Farmington Founders Festival crowd roared in to the rescue. No photos on the site, but a bunch on the Facebook Page.    

306   6/17/11      New Way Bar   Fun Night at the New Way!!!  Eddie Baranek from The Sights teaches at the Rochester School of Rock and his adult students (aka Group Therapy) got a night on stage opening the show for Free Beer and the Robin Moore Band.  Both were great, Robin Moore with great chops and Group Therapy with lots of promise.  Thank goodness everyone stuck around for our set.  We even ended up getting Eddie and Group Therapy lead singer "The Franchise" up on stage!!      

305   6/11/11      Tin Fish    We had as much fun as possible on a Seductive Saturday at Tin Fish.  It was not a normal set up for us, 3 of us on a stage 8 feet above the bar, Tom and Dewey up another 5 feet above us.  But we could see everyone ... down on the dance floor, up on the catwalk.  

304   6/4/11        Cowley's   Part two of Weekend at Cowley's.  Not as wild and crazy as Friday, but we had a great time and made a lot of new friends.  Former WRIF intern Bob White came up on stage and sang with us.  Casey Jones who is partially responsible for the naming of the band (he says) had his back.    

303   6/3/11        Cowley's   Free Beer weekend at Cowley's kicks off on Friday, which also happened to be Tom's Birthday.  But since Tom is shy about his birthday, we didn't make a big deal about it ... for no apparent reason, each of us gave Tom a matching bottle of Cabo Reposado.  Big crowd after the art fair let out.  Good times.       

302   5/20/11      Plymouth ROC Kurt's Plymouth Peeps showed up for our first Emmy winning show of the year ... yes Tom and Jim won an Emmy for their TV Program Under The Radar Michigan as Best Magazine Program in Michigan.  We also Rock on completely at the crowd went wild, as they were.   

301   5/6/11        Cowley's   Thanks you everyone who attended our First Friday gig on Friday May 6th at Cowley's Pub in Farmington. It was guitar player Jim Edelman's Birthday. The band bought him a bunch of Dog Toys (which strangely looked like Sex Toys!!) The Wings won, it was a very full bar for the first set, then the long second set was rawkus as all remaining members of the audience joined us on the dance floor, including ex Free Beer members Jeff Brookmyer and Stefan Raraigh! And it takes alot to get those two dancing.        

300   4/16/11      New Way Bar   Another fun night for Free Beer as we raised a buncha buncha money for the National MS Society in Katie Klipfel Kirkpatrick's annual MS Walk Sit Drink Talk at the New Way Bar in Ferndale on Saturday April 16th.  We had lots of help.  Montrose Street Project kicked off the evening and brought a ton of fans with them. Free Beer did a short set and then Katie got up on stage and roared through 45 minutes of her best stuff.  Free Beer finished the evening and when the counting finished, we realized that it was our 300th gig!  Great cause for that landmark event!!     

299   3/18/11      Cowley's   After St. Patrick's day, we just left everything plugged in, when home and came back for Kurtmas, Friday March 18th, our lead singer Kurt's birthday.  Turns out there are like 4 or 5 others in the audience celebrating their birthdays.  No one dances until threatened by Kurt.  We get visited on stage by Veronica and John from Montrose Street Project who are opening up for us in April at the New Way, Frankie Lamarra who rocked out a great version of Mustang Sally and Budda (Josh White the 3rd) who sang No Sugar with us.        

298   3/17/11    Cowley's   St. Patrick's Day 2011.  Big day started with us at 6PM hitting the stage.  A full crowd got fuller.  They danced to just about everything.  We played seven sets in all from 6PM to 12 Midnight.  Even did a video from on stage!!  

297   3/4/11        Cowley's   Great kick off to March at Cowley's in Farmington on Friday March 4th.  We flipped around the setlist a bit to spur some earlier dancing activity.  It was Mary Ann's Birthday too, though she didn't want us to make a big deal out of it.  We also got a visit from 3 of the 4 members of Montrose Street Project who are opening up for us in April at the New Way.    

296   2/11/11      Cowley's   Another strange night, a polar opposite of the previous strange night.  We were in a place that we knew, with a lot of friends, set up our stuff.  Just that everyone decided not to dance a whole lot.  Since Tommy got injured, we had Stefan Raraigh in the wings and he sat in for a few songs in set two.  Brian Foley, from the Under The Radar Michigan Team sat in on drums for a song as well.  

295   1/22/11      Fishbone's         Strange night.  Our first East Side Gig in a decade.  Got there, the parking lot and the bar were already full.  Three Free Beer alumni were also in the house ... Bassman Jeff Brookmyer, Drummer Stefan Raraigh and Les Raeble (bass).  Lot's of Birthdays, not many pictures because it was just WAY TOO HECTIC. Can't wait to do it again!!     

294   1/7/11        Cowley's   First gig of 2011.  It was Denise's and Laura's birthday so there's bumpy cake and a few inappropriate photos with our sock monkey!  Enjoy!!     

293   12/16/10    Grosse Pointe Yacht Club Meg and Rob's wedding.  We have some strict rules about playing weddings.  One is that you have to have seen the band first.  Meg and Rob did.  Second is not to mess too much with the set list (no "We Are Family" crap).  Meg and Rob wanted to rock.  We had a string quartet and a Frank Sinatra cover band warm us up.  Then we did two sets featuring 4 songs with the groom on drums, he even did a solo.  That's a rock and roll wedding!        

292   12/10/10    New Way Bar   BEERMAS!! It is the most wonderful time of the year.  First up with Jim Hebler's new project "Soul Hustler" with FB pal Gary Malerba on Guitar.  Then it was the Candy Band in their annual bar show, Free Beer sweated through a rawk-us set of all our killer without any filler and then the Lawson Street gang of Jim Fox and Mike Weilgot with their band Domino Effect finished up the night.          

291   12/09/10    Cowley's   FISHMAS!!  We celebrated superfan Jim "Fish" Bedford's 50th Birthday with a full on bash with his wife Paula and all of their friends.  Frankie LaMara showed up on stage for three songs including an impromptu "Play The Funky Music".    

290   11/23/10    Library Pub      It's a tradition that now spans a decade.  Free Beer plays the Library Pub in Novi. The place was always full but there wasn't a line at any time so good timing on your arrivals.  We had Buddha and Frankie LaMara who came up and play a few songs with us at the during set 2.  

289   11/5/10      Cowley's   It seemed like FOREVER since we played after a month of playing almost every weekend night.  It was special as we received a special visit from Frankie LaMara who came up and play a few songs with us at the beginning of set 2. 

288   10/1/10      Cowley's   Third of three straight weekend nights that we played Cowley's.  We even practiced there on Wednesday night!!  Patty and Renee (birthday girl) came, drank like fish and stayed all night.  We had a great night and lots of fun!! 

287   9/25/10      Cowley's   Harvest Moon Festival, night two.  But this was special because it was Deanna's Birthday.  So the entire night of songs was dedicated to her.  Buddah came up and sang Tempted.

286   9/24/10      Cowley's   Harvest Moon Festival.  Night one.  We rocked in the first set but the crowd came in for sets two and three.  A blast. 

285   9/17/10      The Plymouth ROC   We were going for a Guinness Record, but all we did was record a bar tab full of Guinnesses!  We did have a full house, but you could still move.  Another great night at the ROC was highlighted by a guy taking his shirt off and dancing to the band.  One of Jim's Friends!!  That means chances are better than 50% the next person who takes their shirt off will be a girl!! 

284   9/3/10        John Cowley and Sons Pub       We thought that everyone would either have left for the weekend or would be at Arts Beats and Eats.  We were wrong.  Good full crowd at the beginning, strong contingent of Die Hards at the end.  Les filled in for Dewey on Bass.  It was Les's birthday too!!  Thanks everyone for coming out.

283   8/21/10      Scaplers CLEVELAND Free Beer's annual Pilgramage to the LandOTheEdelmans in Cleveland was a great success. Eric Edelman's band Timeless played their first bar gig ever and sound 10 times better than Free Beer did at our first gig.  Imagine them on gig #283!!  Anita and Buddah came all the way down from Detroit to join us ... then made it for shots of Tequila and White Castles at the Red Roof Inn.  On the way home, Kurt Tom and Scott wrote some songs about Rock and the Road. 

282   8/15/10      Milford Memories Festival The band lost a combined 50 pounds in the heat on Sunday Morning (noon is morning, right?) at the Milford Memories Beer Tent.  With two really skinny guys like Dewey and Tom in the band, that is saying something!!  But regardless of the numerous Cannon shots, civil war re-enactments, blinding heat, sudden downpours and pitted out shirts, we had a great showing from our existing fans and got a few new fans from Milford along the way.  Thanks to everyone for showing up.     

281   8/6/10        Cowley's   This had all the makings of a sucky night.  It was nice and warm, sunny August Friday. Tom and Dewey were on vacation. Everyone leaves for the weekend.  But we are lucky we have so many Free Beer Friends.  Jen Wykoff showed up from Las Vegas to be with her monkey.  Trudi Daniels insisted on being there after shoulder surgery that day.  Everyone brought lots of friends.  Even Ralph from the Luddites pitched in and played some tambourine with us.  Plus Stephan filled in great on the kit and Les rocked the bass like only he can.  It could have been sucky, but we were lucky!!  

280   7/16/10      Cowley's   Even better than playing the Farmington Founders Festival is playing Cowley's DURING the festival.  When the beer tent lets out, everyone comes down to Cowley's to finish the night, and Free Beer ROCKS them.  This was truly a case of "Adults Behaving Badly".  You should be ashamed of yourselves.  We thank you and are proud of your lack of inhibition!!     

279   7/15/10      Farmington Founders Festival   Wow. Never saw this one coming!! Free Beer got booked for the Thursday night at the wonderful Farmington Founders Festival. We were SUPPOSED to play from 7PM to 11PM at the Walter E. Sundquist Pavilion right there in Downtown Farmington.       At 6PM we watched Universal Expressions, the reggae band finish up their set. We danced. There had been reports a big storm coming, so we tentatively set up our stuff. The radar looked bad, the clouds threatened.    Then POW. A 70 MPH wind gust rips through the festival, knocking over the speaker stack onto Scott and his keyboards, crushing his hand and slicing it up pretty good. There was a bunch of damage to the tent city with the vendors and the auto display. We thought we were done for the night, but then the weather passed, Tom cleaned up the blood and people started showing up, so we we hit the stage about 90 minutes late.  We met former Miss America 2008 Kirsten Haglund who graciously pulled the winner of the 50 50 raffle. Scott made it through the night with a big bandage on his finger.      

278   6/25/10      Cowley's   No kidding ... sixteen years as a band to the day.  From getting busted by the cops in Royal Oak at Kevin's Garage to this!!  To celebrate, we bought everyone in the bar a drink!! Les Played Bass.  Jen Sang Blister.      

277   6/18/10      Plymouth ROC Wow ... the sky's opened up for the second time on Free Beer.  First it was Cowley's at the beginning of the month, the it was out in Plymouth at The ROC on Friday.  While the storms might have kept a few of the weaker folk at home, the strong were all there for a wonderful night of ROCK!!!  April was our waitress again and kept all full of libation.  And ... SOMEONE STOLE THE NEW SOCK MONKEY!  We're going to have to find a homelier mascot!       

276   6/4/10        Cowley's   It was just kind of a weird night all around.  A big thunderstorm rolled through as we were setting up so everyone was soaked when they came in.  The crowd ripped it up during the first set, but then were less enthusiastic during the second.  Buddah came up and sang during set 3 and lots of friends were there so a good time overall.      

275   5/22/10      Memphis Smoke        The 7th annual MS Walk Sit Drink Talk was a rousing success.  Oh my goodness!  The MS Benefit at Memphis Smoke was phenomenal ... thanks everyone for showing up and generating so many donations for the National MS Society at Katie Kirkpatrick's 7th annual Walk Sit Drink Talk.  We hope our showing will allow us to appear at Memphis Smoke again soon.  Thanks for being part of it.  We had some guest musicians on stage ... Jim Cohen from Something American and Tim from Zumba on Drums doing a pair of Tom Petty Songs.       

274   5/7/10        Cowley's   It was Jim's Birthday, so all songs were dedicated to Jim.  Also has some special guests to kick off set #2.  Steve Kostan from WCSX-FM (who worked with Scott, Jim and Tom at WRIF-FM) kicked off the set with Rockin' in the Free World and Jim Cohen of Something American and the Metro Times did a little Breakdown from Tom Petty.  Great night!!      

273   5/1/10        New Way Bar   A benefit celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Fifth Estate newspaper and the first night of Smoke Free Bars in Michigan. Peter Werbe from WRIF - WCSX-FM put the whole thing together. We headlined the show with the very talented Juline Jordon and the Dusty Picks along with the D. Kroll Band.   

272   4/2/10        Library Pub      Our usual slot on First Friday at Cowley's somehow got taken so we moved the party over to The Library Pub in Novi, since we had unexpected out of town guests Juli (Lisa B's sister) and Jen Wycoff in town for Easter with the family and a date with Free Beer.  Funny thing? They're both living in Las Vegas!! They'll be fast friends out there and expect a Free Beer Road Trip soon to the LV!!     

271   3/19/10      Red Dog Saloon         Great time at the Red Dog Saloon in Milford, our first time here. After a third song House-PA melt down, the free beer boys rallied only due to the fact that this band NEVER trusts a house system when there isn't a sound tech on hand to police the settings.      Right out of the gate vocals sounded like an amplified bullhorn.    At the third song, the sys...tem gave up the ghost with a heart wrenching squeal.  6 minutes later the free beer system was online and we launched back into the sonic melée that is free beer.     Thanks to all the friends new and existing who came to see us play. 

270   3/17/10      Cowley's   Best St. Patrick's Day EVER.  We did the night shift.  Quick load in between 5P and 6P then FREE BEER.  First set was good.  Ron and Fiddle Flynn did 5 Irish songs with us.  Then POW ... second set, packed Dance Floor.  Kurt was hurting with a cold, so Ron did a solo set of Irish tunes.  Then set three.  Rockin.  Set four.  Packed floor.  Now it's one AM, on a Wednesday.  Thanks everyone!!      

269   3/5/10        Cowley's   Big night out for the ladies, where us guys were clearly outnumbered.  No problem.  We like our odds.  Maryann celebrated a birthday with us and Tom Kotilehti did two songs on Guitar.   Sandy provided some tambourine.       

268   2/20/10      Plymouth ROC Last time we played at this address, it was April 2005.  This time we had to reprove ourselves (and our fans) to the management ... and boy did you guys come through!!  Many of our best Plymouth friends were in the house.  The stage was great.  The sound was great.  We debuted no less than three new songs.  Birthday celebrations abounded ... Amy, Mary, Cara, Doug.  We were glad to be part of it and can't wait to be part of it again soon!!  What a blast.      

267   2/5/10        Cowley's   There weren't as many people waiting for us as in January.  We had a great time celebrating "Janelmas", Janel's Birthday and the crowd filled Cowley's.  We had some great guest singers and players join us on stage.  Tom Kotilehti did two songs on Guitar, Bingo (Russ Rothermel) did a tune, Diane got up and sang I Will Survive and someone we didn't even know jumped up and did Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Check out the images here.        

266   1/8/10        Cowley's   First gig of the Decade.  It was a big birthday night, including Elvis Presley's 75th which we celebrated with a set of newly learned songs from the King.  It was also David Bowie's ... we did none.  Also celebrating birthdays with us were Free Beer Fan Laura Raymond, Barb and Priya (who we didn't know before Friday) and longtime fan Tom Kotilehti who got up during the third set to sit in on Guitar for two songs (American Band and Dancin' Days).  As if that wasn't enough of a party, Josh (Buddah) White III got up on stage and did The Guess Who with us.     

265   12/18/09    Cowley's   The last gig of the decade and this was a command performance to celebrate the return of Jen Wycoff from Las Vegas.  She brought her crew and they did some pretty distracting things all night long.  But we all had a great time and managed to give the girls and the Cowley Brothers a little gift as a token of our appreciation for a great partnership.  No on with the 10's!       

264   12/12/09    Beermas at the New Way Bar    What a great night.  It kicked off with "The Domino Effect" featuring Mike and Jim, the neighbors on Lawson Street.  Then The Candy Band with Paula, Danielle, Anita and neighbor Tammy totally Rocked.  Then we did our second set first, and the Candy Band was out in force on the dance floor.  Then it was reunion time with Dudley Malone, vintage 1979 Birmingham Seaholm High, 30 years since their last gig got up and did three songs.  It was great with more cameras pointed at the stage then I have EVER seen!! Then we finished it all up with another dance set, everyone on floor.  Wow.     

263   12/05/09    Olive Branch Masonic Lodge     Free GREEN Beer did our hybrid Irish / Rock show for the installation of officers banquet at the urging of the new Worshipful Master Paul Johnson.  Our pleasure!

262   12/04/09    John Cowley and Sons Pub       It was an odd night overall, but rewarding just the same.  Just before we were about to go on, we found out that Jess Godwin, a singer songwriter was going to open for us. She had about 75 family members in tow, so who are we to deny her.  She was great.  Then much of our regular crowd was attending their respective holiday parties so they either couldn't come up or came late in formal wear!! Most important was that our Sock Monkey finally returned from it's unexpected trip to France.  Seems Monkey saw the Eiffel tower, but didn't come out of the suitcase to have his picture taken on it.  Thanks Renee for returning him.  Here's your picture with Free Beer as our form of payment!!      

261   11/25/09    Library Pub Novi      Again, amazing!!  Our 9th time at the Library on the night before Thanksgiving and it did not disappoint.  Line out the door, lots of FBF (Free Beer Friends) including some from way far away!! Unfortunately Scott took at nap physically and mentally prior to the gig and did not bring the "band camera" so we are going to have to rely on uploads from Facebook to have photographic proof of this gig!!        

260   11/21/09    Callahan's         We finally packed this place.  Lots of fun including having Tom's son's band called Ceraphim came up and did two songs at the beginning of set two.     

259   11/6/09      Cowley's   Wow.  The place was packed before we even hit the stage ... and it was 70% women!!  Scott and Marie Heitzman's birthday.  Plenty of fun!!        

258   10/30/09    Olive Branch Masonic Lodge, Dearborn    HALL oween PARTY 2009! The usual band of suspects were there, along with Free Beer regulars Janel and Amanda.  Willie the Pimp won the costume contest.  He won last year too as Jack from the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Jim was a Hot Dog, Kurt was Johnny Cash.       

257   10/17/09    Chili Cookoff    The Chili was great.  The band played very well.  There was an open jam featuring a band of ALL EDELMANS!!  Anne Marie won the Chili Cookoff again.  

256   10/02/09    Cowley's   First Friday of October ... same night as the big "Harvest Moon Dance" in the outdoor pavilion down the street with 50 Amp Fuse.  The second set was wild as the tent emptied out and everyone came down to Cowley's for fun with Free Beer. Second time that Brian Biggs has filled in for Dewey and he's even started singing now.          

255   9/18/09      Colleen and Rob's Irish Pub / Basement     It was our third or fourth annual charity bash for St. Hugo.  Instead of just being Free Beer, we went with the Irish Theme and brought along Ron Jewell and Jim Fiddle Flynn to create "Free Green Beer".  But the coolest part of the night was looking over to stage right and seeing Eric Edelman on Bass next to Jim Edelman on Guitar.  Eric drove all the way up from Cleveland to sit in for our set.     

254   9/4/09        Cowley's   We didn't expect much from the night.  The Friday of Labor Day weekend, everyone would be out of town, right?  WRONG!  The place was packed again for our StayCation.  Brian Biggs sat in on base.  Scott (idiot? savant? You decide) called the Tigers Game.  From up 4 to 1 in the bottom of the ninth, he predicted a 4-3 victory finish with 2 men on base.  It happened.  Really.  

253   8/22/09      Ore Lake Wedding   We'll keep the names private, but we played on a deck, overlooking a beautiful lake.  Nuff said!!

252   8/21/09      Callahan's         We love playing there, they love us playing there.  Just there are never enough people there to enjoy it.  Lynn Woodison, Jim Cohen and Scott "Vertical" all made it out, so it was certainly a star studded audience!       

251   8/8/09        Westacres Aquacade The Field Day was rained out, so we had a great crowd that wasn't all worn out. Everyone stayed until 1 in the morning and were doing the Time Warp for our last song.  Unfortunately, first Aquacade without Jen Wycoff...   

250   8/7/09        Cowley's   It's was Sue's Birthday, so we dedicate the entire performance to her.  Lot's of fun ... everyone stayed until 2 in the morning and were doing the Time Warp for our last song.  First time we play Save A Horse, and we had a Marine, our sit in Bass Player Brian on Drums (don't ask) and a guest singer who NAILED Melissa Etheridge's "I'm The Only One".  Great night!   

249   7/17/09      Cowley's   It was the Farmington Founders Festival outside, and Free Beer inside at Cowley's.  Our normal crowd to kick off, Steve Kostan from WCSX-FM brought us on stage.  But during Set Two, specifically during Blister in the Sun, the Beer Tent outside opened and Cowley's was instantly FULL ... waitresses couldn't even wait tables.  No pictures due to a download malfunction.       

248   7/11/09      Keith's Birthday Party       Scott, Kurt and Jim perform Acoustic as "Lager" for Free Beer superfan Keith Tyler's 50th Birthday Party.         

247   6/27/09      Scalpers Cleveland    CLEVELAND ROCKED   Edelfest manifested itself at Scaplers again this year for Free Beer's annual pilgrimage to Cleveland, Jim Edelman's  Hometown.  Someone in the Edelman clan saw an ad in the paper for T-shirts at K-Marts ... only $10.00 that say "My Two Favorite Words are Free Beer".   We'd seen them popping up at gigs last weekend but now there was a whole clan wearing them!  Jim's Grandma, who had never Jim play in the  band showed up ... Jim's cousin filled in on bass and another cousin filled the space between set one and set two.  It was a great weekend for Free Beer over all and we can't wait to head out next year!!      

246   6/26/09      Rochester Elks Lodge        Our benefit for Cathy Daldin, wife of #6 ... our drummer.  The benefit got her campaign off the ground and we look forward to playing her inaugural ball!!

245   6/20/09      White Lake Inn         Finally, nice weather.  This is the last Michigan gig that Jennifer Wycoff will get to see us before she moves to Las Vegas, but she vows to book us out there!  It was also Stacey's bachelorette party ... and thank goodness.  They were fun, pretty and gave us something to do!!  Great time.     

244   6/19/09      White Lake Inn         For the fifth time in a row, the skies opened and poured out on the White Lake Inn.  Karen Savelly from WCSX-FM stopped up and saw us (but ran out before we got a picture of her).  Scott had a good crew behind him and our second set rocked!  

243   6/14/09      Memphis Smoke        Much more redeeming was our evening at Memphis Smoke on Sunday June 14th for the Sixth Annual MS Walk Sit Drink Talk with Miss Scarlet In The Hall with a Revolver and Free Beer on the same stage.  We helped raise thousands of dollars to fight MS.  Thanks to Katie for putting it all together.       

         6/11/09      Ford World Headquarters         We were selected from well over 100 bands to be the official musical act of the brand new 2010 Taurus SHO Launch Event at Ford World Headquarters.  Big Stage.  Professional Sound System.  Bill Ford Jr and Alan Mullaly speaking on stage.  Beautiful weather all week.  Thursday.  Sound check at 8:30AM.  Rain started at 9AM and four inches fell before 11:30AM.  They moved the event inside, except for the band.  Did I mention it was also a beautiful day on Friday?  We're not even giving this an official gig number.        

242   6/6/09        5th Avenue Novi        We had no expectations for this evening.  Game 5 of the Stanley cup, tied 2-2 with Pittsburgh.  A beautiful warm sunny day.  Our first time at 5th Avenue Novi.  A recipe for disaster.  However everything that could go right did.  The Red Wings took a 5-0 lead into the third, allowing our fans to abandon their spots in front of the TV and come out in force.  We were celebrating Tom (#6 Drummer) 6th year with the band, on the sixth day of the sixth month of the year, at 5th Avenue in Novi, named after the number 6 (No VI).  The band bought him a fifth of Cabo, because they don't make a sixth.       

241   6/5/09        Cowley's   It was all about Lisa.  First, Lisa Boettcher was selected "Randomly" as one of our first 100 Facebook Friends to receive a $50.00 bar tab.  Then she had her birthday party at Cowley's on the first Friday of the month.  Every song was renamed with a Lisa in it as part of the celebration.  Next she got this tattoo which might be tough explaining to her kids (although they were at the party too!)  You can't take your parents anywhere!!   

240   5/9/09        Northville Sports Den        We thought we were playing Dino's in Northville, but by the time we got there Saturday May 9th the name was changed to Northville Sports Den.  It was a great time, with a great crew of waitresses including Kelly and Michelle ... plus a special guest appearance of members of Tom's first band ... Marc Pasman on Guitar and Detroit Mike on Keyboards.  It's always difficult to get back on stage when real musicians show you how it's done.      

239   5/5/09        Callahan's         It's all about bringing your crowd out to the bar, and we did!!  Callahan's was sure lucky to have Free Beer playing their Cinco De Mayo party.  With the swine flu scare and Chrysler filing for Chapter 11 up the street, we made sure no one drank the water.  Dos Equis, Mojitos and Margaritas for everyone!      

238   5/1/09        Italian American Banquet Hall of Livonia  Ron & Erica's Wedding.  Two of our great Free Beer fans tie the knot.  As typical with a Free Beer show, this was the wedding that the bar was three deep all night long.  Chicks danced.  Drinks were broken on the dance floor.  Par for the course.        BONUS:  The wedding photographer (a professional) took pictures of Kurt and the other members of the band (but mostly Kurt) and we just got them delivered on CD Rom.  They are posted here!!  

237   4/25/09      White Lake Inn         24 hours later.  A storm rolls through the Motor City knocking out power to much of northern Oakland County.  No Power at the White Lake Inn, until 9:30PM.  We hit the stage at 10:00PM.  We play two songs.  The power cuts out as we hit the break near the end of Badfinger No Matter What.  This is not the first time this has happened. In WHITE LAKE. The power stays off. We load out in the dark.  We'll finish that song later.        

236   4/24/09      White Lake Inn         What a great night. It was the first eighty degree day of the year.  The deck was open.  The Inn was crowded.  We rocked.      

235   4/3/09        Cowley's   First Friday at Cowley's ... we had a super special guest ... Dennis Coffey, historic Detroit Guitar Player who played with the famous Funk Brothers as a studio musician at Motown.  Now he can add Free Beer to the list of band's he's played with!!    

234   3/17/09      Cheli's Dearborn       ST PATRICK'S DAY ... Part two of the marathon.  Coincidentally, 50 Amp Fuse's home bar.  We packed up in record time, bolted out of Cowley's and were set up and ready to play Cheli's before the middle of the first period of the Wings / Flyer's game.  Same format ... Corktown Brew, Then Free Beer, Repeat.  It wasn't as high energy as Cowley's until this crew of all day drinkers showed up.          

233   3/17/09      Cowley's   ST PATRICK'S DAY ... Part one of the marathon.  Every hour, for six hours, Corktown Brew with Fiddle Flynn and Ron Jewell fronting the band playing Irish Songs, Free Beer finishes each hour with RAWK.  Originally we were booked to play the whole day, but Wendy talked someone into giving 50 Amp Fuse the evening slot ... so we just rocked the morning, which featured a little bit of everything, including a leprechaun!        

232   3/6/09        Cowley's   Well either the economy is turning around or everyone was looking for an escape from the tough times.  Regardless, people showed up in droves.  Stuart came up and sang "Somebody Told Me" with us.  He's almost a regular.

231   2/21/09      Karl's Cabin      First a box including a Sock Monkey's Ear, then during set two Woody is returned.  Still plenty of mystery.  Kurt dressed up in Cowboy boots and black as the diners cleared the way so Free Beer could play a two setter.

230   2/6/09        Cowley's   Well, the Sock Monkey's capturers opened their own MySpace Page and made a list of demands including Tom dressing up like a pirate and the band singing The Lion Sleeps tonight.  We did all of that, but no Sock Monkey.  Since Les Raebel filled in for Dewey, we think Dewey did it!!       

229   1/24/09      White Lake Inn         Night Two of a Two Nighter.  Anne Carlini From WRIF was there with the Riff Rock Girl.  Kathy Flesher (sans Dan) was there with her Pontiac Lake Crowd.  The Plymouth Crew showed up.  The Sock Monkey was not returned.  Hope he doesn't get Stockholm Syndrome!

228   1/23/09      White Lake Inn         Our first time there and what a warm welcome.  We handed out copies of Arctic Stud Poker Run to everyone who wanted one.  Mark Brown came in from California for the gig.  Also, Kris and Anna Marie, Al and Ellie and all their friends made the trip.  On the downside, the Sock Monkey was kidnapped.  Demands included a name change (to Spanky II).  Great Crowd, great place to play. 

227   1/17/09      Olive Branch Masonic Lodge, Dearborn    It's Debby's Birthday Party.  An exact opposite of the night before.  No fans, just Debby's Friends.  No stage, we played on the floor.  No Bone Chilling cold, just 10 inches of new snow!  No pictures.  Great time. 

226   1/16/09      Callahan's         Our first time here and what joy having a professional sound guy (Pete) with a pro stage, sound and lighting system.  We just walk in, set up and ROCK.  And we thought they were recording the festivities, but alas, they were not.  Next time ... and because there were tons of Free Beer fans in attendance there will be a next time.  And stout fans you were because the thermometer read (wait for it) -14 degrees!!!  And you came a long way, Paul and Carol from Lapeer!  Kris and Anna Marie from Brighton (got a hotel room nearby!) and for Keith and MaryKay, even PLYMOUTH is a bit of drive!  Thanks for the support!  Jill kept us full of anti freeze!  Oh, and it is the debut of Tom's new drum kit, with Gold Sparkles!!!  

225   1/2/09        Happy New Beer at Cowley's     It was a day of Firsts on the Second day of 2009.  Our First Friday at Cowley's in 2009.  Our first gig with Tom after his accident and subsequent Surgery.  Our first gig with the new sock monkey (who might be named "Woody").  Our First Set was exactly the same as it has been for the past 10 gigs.  Our First Picture of Mary Kay with her eyes open!!       

224   12/12/08    Beermas At the New Way  Our annual Free Beer Christmas Party.  Wow, what a special Holiday event it became.  All of our best Free Beer friends were there.  The Candy Band played the second set, with all of their Candy friends in tow.  The third set started off with guest appearances.  3/4's of Scott's High School band (Epogee) were in attendance.  Steve Watson and Chris Murrell came up on stage and did the first two songs to the cheers of all of their high school buddies in the house.  Then Katie Kirkpatrick (also a Seaholm grad) sang a song, followed by Maggie McCabe who did Santa baby.  The New Way had a big food spread out to celebrate.  What a great way to end 2008!        

223   12/6/08      Hamlin Pub Chesterfield   At the last minute, our booking agent asked us if we would switch from Hamlin Clarkston to Hamlin Chesterfield.  No problem.  Lots of snow, birthday, bachelorette parties and our new best friend and sixth beer for the evening "Mich" made us feel welcome.  

222   12/5/08      Cowley's Pub    The last of our First Fridays of the Month gigs for 2008.  Lots of Steve Tocco's Friends were there and they really liked the "BEER" Toast.  Which of course caused us to drink more, which made us play better.  Guest vocalist "Bingo" kicked off set two with a couple of Beatles tunes.  

221   11/26/08    Thanksgiving Eve Library Pub West Bloomfield    Our annual Thanksgiving Eve show almost didn't happen.  We didn't get the booking until the week before it happened. But the HPWB pulled out all the stops, giving us a big tall stage to play from and lots of room for the party to happen.  Steve Tocco still on the kit until Tom recovers.  Steve Kostan from WCSX kicked off the second set sitting in on Guitar. Everyone we ever knew was there including Cindi Cook from NYC.  This girl won the "cutest girl in the bar" award in a secret ballot of all band members        

220   11/22/08    Hamlin Pub Rochester       It had been a while since we tried to fit the entire band on the tiny stage at HP Rochester.  And it cost us during the 2nd set when an entirely full Diet Coke fell from one of the racks on top of a speaker and drained itself into the mixing board.  Quick thinking by Jim and a blow dryer had us back up and running in 15 minutes!    

219   11/15/08    Hamlin Pub Lake Orion    We always say the the Hamlin Lake Orion has the best drunks in Detroit, and it didn't disappoint!  You have to meet a guy we'll call "One Word" who came up during the introduction to Hit Me Baby One More Time and said a bunch of words ... no idea what they were ... but do know he said "One Word" and in the process of stepping up to the mic to say his one word, he tripped, he fell grabbing anything he could before he hit the ground he took out Kurt's guitar strap, Dewey's lip and a cymbal stand.  Not in that order.  The good bouncers at the Hamlin escorted him from the building soon after.  It was also reunion night for Free Beer with a visit from the ailing Drummer #6 (shoulder) and Bass Player #1 Paul Sevigny who came up and jammed out on his cool fretless stand up electric bass thingy.  Steve Tocco was sitting in on Drums.        

218   11/7/08      John Cowley and Sons Pub       It's must have been the time change or the Obama victory, because the place was packed a good hour before we got there and stay that way until 1AM when almost everybody left!  Lots of special guests including Steve Kostan from WCSX who was driving a truck around to different "hot spots" for the station.  This girl had a broken leg and knew some of the lyrics to Stray Cat Strut.  Stuart also gave a command performance.  His buddy Dennis was supposed to get on stage but it never worked out.        

217   11/01/08    The HALL(oween) PARTY Olive Branch Lodge  Another fun Halloween with the Masons.  Dewey dress up as a leather metal head, Kurt played most of set one and two with a stocking over his head and Steve Tocco sat in on Drums again.

216   10/25/08    Westacres Halloween Party        Lots and lots of fun.  A little underattended, but they are great hosts and we love playing in their supercool hall by the lake.  Steve Tocco plays for the injured Tom.    

215   10/18/08    Chili Cookoff    Best one ever, even though no member of the band even placed in the actual judging.  Tom hurt his shoulder, so he'll be on the IR until the end of 2008, so we started our string of substitute drummers with Stefan.  And, something made the Chili Fans DANCE this year.  Maybe it was the fact that they killed the keg before 10PM.  Who won?  Mega Fan Anna Marie's Mexican Tortilla Chili.  She also won the Flaming Bunghole award.  Free Beer fans like it HOT!        

214   10/4/08      Hamlin Pub Lake Orion    What a weird night.  Les was on bass again, there was this guy (didn't get his name) who stood on the dance floor the entire night and though the place was full, they weren't dancing like they did the night before.  Good thing Kathy and Claire had their birthday party there, and Rita showed up with her family to make us feel at home.      

213   10/3/08      John Cowley and Sons Pub       Another first Friday at Cowley's and another huge crowd, this time due in part to the remnants of the Harvest Moon Festival down the street.  Les "Les is More" Raebel sat in for Dewey.  Some strange dance techniques, including the "Push Up".  As always the best waitressing crew in Detroit manage to serve us and our friends a $337 bar tab.  Thank god they cut it in half before we pay!!  

212   9/14/08      Hamlin Pub Clarkston       It had all of the markings of a bad night.  7 inches of rain in two days.  Roads were terrible.  Everyone was late.  Some equipment problems.  But when we did get there, the bar was packed and stayed packed all night long.  Farrah was one of the best waitresses ever.  We'll never say anything bad about Clarkston again.  They rock!        

211   9/13/08      Colleen and Rob's Basement      It's not like that.  Their basement is bigger and cooler than most houses I've been in.  This was a charity gig for St. Hugo's with a few hundred donators in attendance for a good cause and we rocked the house     

210   9/5/08        John Cowley and Sons Pub       Kick off of the fall tour, featuring visitors from Denmark and Northern Michigan in the bar.  Also Endora made an appearance.     

209   8/31/08      Perry Hotel, Petoskey         What a cool thing.  We played a wedding on the patio of the Perry Hotel, overlooking the Little Traverse Bay as the sun sank into the horizon.  Wish we brought our camera!  It started soft with the hotel manager telling us during sound check we were too loud and he had control of the power.  Dick.  Best man came up and sang the wedding dance with us and as the evening wore on, we got back up to normal volume.  We rock!        

208   8/2/08        Westacres Aquacade Our second year at this neighborhood's big celebration.  This year the theme was Greek ... Olympics and Toga Party.  We played our own version of Shout ...

207   8/1/08        John Cowley and Sons Pub       Phillip (we didn't know him) went to our website and learned one of our songs, and got up on stage to sing for his buddies bachelor party.  Then Steve Kostan got up on stage and jammed a couple of songs with us.  Maggie McCabe stopped by.  She played the Westacres Aquacade Friday, we were scheduled for Saturday.  She came up and did 2 songs.  That same night, The BackBeats were playing a free concert down at the Farmington Gazebo.  Then they came to Cowley's and sat in for three Beatles songs.  So you see, a lot of strange things can happen at Cowley's, so we're going back for a third straight gig to see what kind of magic happens this time.  Third time is the charm.

206   7/18/08      John Cowley and Sons Pub       Set one ... continuation of the previous week.  Quiet, contented band enjoyment.  Set two, the beer tent outside at the Farmington Founders Festival ands and the debris spills into Cowley's.  Set two ... wow!!  Set three, Bingo sits in for Back in the USSR.  The Farmington Class of 2008 was still being hearded out of the place as we loaded out.     

205   7/12/08      The Hamlin Pub CLARKSTON         Every Hamlin Pub is different.  Lake Orion is a good drinking crowd that will dance to our first set.  Rochester is always jammed with young'ens who are ready to party. Clarkston (our first time there) is quieter and more upscale.  They like to sit and enjoy the music and have a good conversation.  Despite the lack of interaction (although the girl in red was the first person to get the Harvey Danger quiz right) everyone liked us and they finally came along for the ride.  Still had a good crowd there at 2AM. 

204   6/29/08      The Livonia Spree     Thousands of people, Fireworks.  Three live bands.  A Midway.  Circus Acts.  Of course we drew the "Beer Tent" as our venue.  It was an all ages show as kids were allowed inside the Beer Tent, we were good with that.  And we filmed our feature length documentary "Beer Tap", which tells the story of a band that's been together for 15 years and plays a suburban civic festival.  So the Spree was actually just a big movie set.   

203   6/22/08      Hamlin Pub Lake Orion    MS Benefit        We met Kimber and Rita (who has MS) at the Hamlin Pub by accident, but the happenstance turned into something great this night when we raised thousands of dollars for MS by playing their "Party With A Purpose".  Party started at 4, we played at 6, it was all over by 8.  Katie from Miss Scarlet sang a couple songs since she inspired Kimber and Rita to put this thing together.    

202   6/20/08      John Cowley and Son's Pub      The fourth gig in 7 days.  We were beat ... it was a beautiful day.  No one thought any of their friends were coming.  Were we mistaken.  A whole crew from Neilsen where Dewey works showed up, plus a bunch of Kurt and Renee's friends, and a whole group of new fans.  Plus, all of our favorite waitresses were working.  Score!!  Double bonus?  Steve Tocco on Drums.        

201   6/19/08      Team Detroit Summer Jam         A corporate party as Scott's work we do every year.  We play for an hour then all of the musicians hop up and jam.  Good Times        

200   6/14/08      Scalper's in CLEVELAND        There is (going to be) an entire page devoted to the story of Cleveland.  This little page won't do it justice.  But it's not done yet. 

199   6/13/08      Hamlin Pub       Part one of the Free Beer World Tour.  Lots of Cougars in the house for set one, where everyone danced to the classic rock set.  Kimber and Rita were there passing out flyers for the upcoming MS benefit on 6/22.  Had a guest "singer" for Mustang Sally.  We finished by loading everything into the van and headed off for Cleveland.        

198   6/8/08        MS WalkSitDrinkTalk      with Katie Klipfel at "Miss Scarlet In The Hall With A Revolver"         Just before we went on, a Tornado(ish) ripped through Oakland County.  No worries.  Our fifth annual benefit for the National MS Society was a musical success.  Lots of money was raised and everyone made it home alive!        

197   6/7/08        Salem Flag Day Festival    (performing as "Cougar Bait")   No one was more suspect than us when we pulled up and saw no Midway, no cotton candy, no games ... just our tent set up along the back wall of the Salem Elementary School.  We started playing at 7:30P to about 30 people.  By the time it was dark and we finished playing, there were well over 1000 people there, ready for the fireworks.  At least on one left!!      

196   5/30/08      DB Coopers      We had a great time during our debut at DB Coopers, and from the sound of things we will be back.  Our waitress was Heather, and she was great!! The fun was dampened by a rainstorm and the final game of the Pistons season as they fell to the Celtics in Game 6.  We played during halftime and after the 3rd quarter polled the audience to see if we should turn the sound down and rock during the 4th quarter.  The crowd voted yes, but it ended up not working out as the Pistons went from an 8 point lead to an 8 point loss.  Next time, no sports competition!!     

195   5/16/08      Hamlin Pub Lake Orion    Kind of a slow night due to the great weather, lots of people, not many dancers.  97.1 The Ticket with Terry Foster was there with their Wii Grand Slam contest.  Scott won a hat and a watch winning the Derby, but gave up the watch to the second place winner.       

194   5/2/08        Cowley's Pub    Steve Tocco played drums with us up a Cowley's.  And Cora was styling with her new I Heart Free Beer shirt ... we're not making money on them, but enjoy it just the same.  Surprises?  Mary Kay can sing, and did I Will Survive.  Our favorite server had to do the Gator solo 'cause Talleen hurt her arm.  Marty Beem (Bass Player #2) came up to see us, and might fill in for Dewey now and then since Jeff From 2 Hour Limit moved to California.  The debut of Jeepster.  Went well!

193   4/5/08        Hamlin Pub Lake Orion    No one told us, but when we arrived to set up, 89X was there already ... it was 89X night at the Hamlin Pub.  Included in the night was a visit from the Pistons Automotion, Bud Light with their Free Throw competition and giveaways of Pistons stuff ... Scott came in 9th!  Most of the other winners were Girls.  We celebrated Ashley's birthday with Sweet Caroline.  Great night!        

192   4/4/08        Cowley's Pub    Jam packed when we hit the stage .. two words .. COUGAR FEST!!  Both Kurt and Scott were nursing a cold, with Scott trying to drink his way through it!!  Thank goodness the "Unknown Fan" took it upon herself to make sure everyone danced.  And another new fan taught us the very simple dance step to Cheeseburger.  I guess we've been doing it all wrong!     

191   3/17/08      Cowley's Pub  St. Patrick's Day  13 Hour Music Marathon  What a blast.  13 hours of fun starting at Noon and ending just after midnight.  Each hour started with Corktown Brewing Co featuring Ron Jewell on Vocals, Jim Flynn on Fiddle, Mandolin and Keyboards and Scott Spellman on Drums, with Scott on keys and Dewey on Bass.  Then after 4 or 5 songs, Free Beer takes the stage.  Two sets around dinnertime with Miss Scarlet In The Hall starring Katie Klipfel, then we ended the night with 3 Free Beer Sets.  Thoroughly enjoyed the Irish Dancers, the Bagpipe players, the raffle for Catholic Central, our favorite waitresses and dancers Abby, Annie and Ashley who kept us entertained during the final three hours (social workers ... right!!)  

190   3/8/08        Hamlin Pub / Lake Orion  Finally, the threat of snow didn't materialize as it had on the previous two gigs at the HPLO this year.  We broke out some new songs (which were a little loose, shrug shrug) but we might have a few new winners.  Big night out for the Rochester United Hockey Team.  Thanks to Albert, who manned the camera all night long.  Good pictures of Kimber (who likes having her picture taken) and Dawn (who agreed to have her picture taken if we bought her a Captain and Coke, but then said not to post the picture, but then changed her mind after reassurance from Kimber.  I'm still confused. 

189   2/1/08        Hamlin Pub / Lake Orion  There was (supposed to be) this big snowstorm that was going to paralyze the entire city.  Never happened.  Lots of people showed up again and for the first time in a while we had the entire lineup.  We had some special guest singers including Michelle from Nevaeh who did Leave Your Hat On and Blondie and KC who did I'm The Only One. We also finally got to meet our Agent from Lorio Ross.   

188   1/19/08      Dearborn K of C  Dearborn Employees Union Party     One of those private parties where everyone seems to enjoy your music, but doesn't dance until the third set when they are good and drunk.  Katie sat in on vocals, Steve Tocco on Drums.

187   1/4/08        Hamlin Pub / Lake Orion  Kurt predicted that this night would suck with everyone being on a New Year Hangover.  Jim said that he would bet his shirt that it would be great.  Carmen anteed up.  Jim won.  Jeff Brookmyer provided the bass sounds with Dewey out of town.

186   12/15/07    New Way Bar   Finally ... BeerMas is here.  It is also the New Way's Christmas party with decorations, food and a free raffle for Naughty or Nice gifts.  Steve Tocco on Drums, our newest sub Les Raebel on Bass, plus guest appearances by Paula from the Candy Band to do her own version of "Favorite Things", Maggie McCabe did "Santa Baby" and a surprise appearance by Drummer #3 Mitch Koziera who played American Band and Jessie's Girl.       

185   12/14/07    Hamlin Pub / Lake Orion  Night one of the BeerMas celebration.  Tonight's lineup featured Steve Tocco on Drums.  For some reason, the chicks dug us, or we were really drunk, or they were, or all three.      

184   12/13/07    Team Detroit Holiday Party       Big Holiday Party at the combined advertising agencies that service Ford in Dearborn.  Three Bands, then a jam with Team Detroit Employees.  Kicked off with 7 Million Jigawatts, then Miss Scarlett followed by Free Beer with Steve Tocco sitting in on Drums, then the jam.  Trivia ... all bands featured Team Detroit Employees.    

183   11/30/07    John Cowley's Pub    Steve Tocco, sitting in for #6 again, was the star of the show with a special Drum Solo during Little Less Conversation.  Also had Tom Umanovic join us on stage for Peace Love and Understanding.  Broke out the Holiday songs including a loose version of Blue Christmas to a Bo Diddley Beat.   

182   11/25/07    Allen Park High School 20 Year Class Reunion Ford Yacht Club       Everyone seemed to like us.  Steve Tocco even filled in on the drums!  They didn't dance that much (it's a reunion, so you just want to chat anyway, right?) but they didn't leave until it was over and they never told us we were too loud.  We're slipping.      

181   11/21/07    Library Pub      Year number seven of our traditional pre Thanksgiving show.  We were a little worried when the bar wasn't at capacity when we arrived, but things changed quickly with a line out the door at 9:30 and 11:15.  These people were here for the long haul. Betsy took the camera and to a lot of great pictures.  Also, it was our first gig with Tom (#6) on drums since 9/7 at the Hamlin Pub     

180   11/14/07    Norm's Field Of Dreams    Miss Scarlet hits the stage for charity, The Royal Oak High School Athletic Boosters.  From 5PM to 9PM part of every drink and food order was a donation, we do two sets with Katie on Vocals and Stefan on Drums.  Then, wail on the teardown for the open jam starting at 9PM.

179   11/10/07    Hamlin Pub, Lake Orion   Kurt and Tom were out, so we posed as Free Beer featuring Katie from Miss Scarlet in a Hall with a Revolver with Katie on Vocals and Steve Tocco on Drums.  Things went great.  It was kinda crazy early as the Lake Orion Middle School Dragons has a rousing victory party featuring their game video on all of the screens prior to our gig.  Met some new friends.  Have to learn a couple of new songs that they DEMANDED!!

178   11/3/07      Bloomfield Open Hunt Club       A private party where the hosts loved us at the Basement Party at Colleen and Rob's and hired us for this big birthday party.  Steve Tocco sat in on drums.     

177   10/27/07    Olive Branch Lodge  The Mason's Halloween Party.  We brought back Big Bad Bob Espinoza on Drums for this one and he picked up right where he left off.  Love the costumes...        

176   10/26/07    Hall O Ween Party at the Knights Of Columbus          Two Hour Limit opens up and just enough people there to finish the beer, eat the sub and chow the Pizza.  Dieter tried out his new "Pizza Inversions" to everyone's delight. Stephan Rairigh on drums again.       

175   10/21/07    SNPJ Hall         Miss Scarlett in the Hall With a Revolver, and Stephan Rairigh for the first time on drums with this band.  Made some money to fight MS.  Heard Dewey utter "Someone threw away a perfectly good white woman".  Something for everyone.       

174   9/14/07      Rob and Colleen Nagle's "Basement" OK, it is below the ground and under their house, but this so called "Basement" had  enough room for 200, a big screen TV, a fully operational bar, a karaoke stage and enough room to set up Free Beer in the corner.  That's not really a basement.

173   9/7/07        Hamlin Pub, Lake Orion   Our first public gig in months.  Glad to have so many guests and so many guest performers.  Kurt broke a string in the first set, Katie Kirkpatrick jumped on stage and did "I'm The Only One" from Melissa Etheridge.  Set three we had Jay (the guy with the "Vaginas Are Cool" shirt) on drums for Hash Pipe and Jeffery on guitar for Stealin'.  Big turn out from the Rochester United Hockey parents.

172   8/18/07      Bayview Yacht Club Very Posh!  We were the entertainment for their two day Women's invitational regatta.  All the ladies had just gotten off their boats and were being debreifed when we came in.  First set was sparsely populated but once they all took a shower (hot!!) and got back to drinking, things got alot better.  

171   8/4/07        Westacres Aquacade It seems this neighborhood has been around since the 1930's and does a two day picnic / competition with a big party in their lakeside clubhouse on Saturday night.  We were the entertainment.  After one set of getting their ears adjusted to our volume, we made a bunch of new friends and might use their hall for some other parties like Halloween and New Year.  Fun.    

170   7/21/07      Concord Dental Summer Party 3rd year we played this gig.  Polar opposite from the night before, but with just enough similarities to make it  worthwhile.  Set 1, everyone sat outside and watched us rock. Set 2, everyone went inside to the bar and watched us rock from behind.  Set 3, Drunky The Clown shows up and made the women crazy.  Dancing on the stage, bring us shots.  Cops show up and ruin it all at 12:15. 

169   7/20/07      John Cowley And Sons Pub      This was the big Farmington Founders Festival night at Cowleys.  Talleen said it would be crazy and it didn't disappoint.  Sure we parked our cars a half mile away.  It all paid off at 11PM when the Beer Tent outside the bar closed and everyone had to find a new place to party.  And there we were, in the "Perfect Storm" of Rock & Roll.  Good tunes, Good Beer, limited clothing and plenty of alcohol in the ladies.  Spells good time for this band.   

168   7/7/07        Andrea Hayduk's Wedding        Yes, we played a wedding, but it was a friend who is friends with our friends and those are the best friends a friend can be friends with, right?  It was in their back yard, on a deck, with a lake on a deck on a hill.  The bartender did his trick.  They got married at 7:07PM. We went on by 9PM.  We left to the glare of police cars and an EMS unit.  Nuff said?    

167   06/09/07    John Cowley And Sons Pub      Steve Tocco sits in again for Free Beer.  It seems #6 has a "lower body injury" that is a result of using his kick pedal a little too hard.  Options are surgery (in a delicate area) or rest for a month.  #2 was chosen.  Beautiful day outside, surprised anyone came inside to see Free Beer, but our fans never stop surprising us.  Two great sets, lots of dancers and lots of new fans.     

166   05/04/07    Hermann's Olde Town Grill       Tonight, it was Free Beer featuring Steve Tocco, since Drummer #6, no one knows is a secret agent for the CIA (oops, did I just say that?) was called out of town  on a secret mission.  Steve ROCKED!  It was also Quatro De Mayo, with the Flying Sombrero landing in the crowd and whomever caught it was supposed to get Free Beer for the table.  Unfortunately, due to the craziness of the evening, we forget to pay up ... we'll get yous next time.     We also celebrated Jim's Birthday with a Torte, Over The Hill glasses and Tiara.  

165   4/28/07      Knights Of Columbus Hall, Berkley   Our 4th annual appearance as The Katie Band, this time named "Miss Scarlett In The Hall With A Revolver", raising thousands of dollars for the National MS Society, with Katie Klipfel Kirkpatrick on vocals.      

164   4/21/07      New Way Bar   Our second gig in three months with the Candy Band.  Not as crowded this time, but it was the first really nice day of the year.  Guests in the second set included Paula from the Candy Band, Maggie McCabe and Adam Acey on Purcussion       

163   04/20/07    John Cowley and Sons      Our ode to Marijuana, we didn't actually change the set list all that much, just played Hash Pipe a couple of times.  Had great service from "Talleen" but some sucker tried to steal a pitcher of beer from the bar, and she almost had to eat their tab.  Free Beer covered. Be on the lookout for this dude.      

162   03/17/07    The Bench         Our first time here, and if it is this crowded all the time, we will love it.  Great waitstaff waded through the crowd all night to make sure we were never thirsty.  

161   03/16/07    John Cowley & Sons         The night before St. Patrick's Day so we played some U2 in our set to celebrate.  The entire Brown Family from Tennessee was in town for a wedding and showed up.  While loading out, the St. Patrick's Day Band was loading in ... we went to The Bench and loaded in while their band was loading out!     

160   03/03/07    Hermann's Olde Town Grille      Fun night.  The place was packed well before we hit the stage, many Free Beer Fans hung out in the back ... Scott played his new keyboard for the first time ... we named the Sock Monkey.  His name?  Spanky!     

159   02/24/07    Wyandotte Boat (Rowing) Club         Paul and Susan's Wedding.  I should explain.  They didn't TELL anyone that they were getting married OR that this was their reception ... they got married that afternoon and disguised the event as a benefit for the Humane Society and the Boat Club ... then announced it to the crowd.  Cool!        

158   02/03/07    New Way Bar   WOW!  It was packed by 9PM and got packeder all night long.  Kicked off with The Candy Band and Free Beer, with Jeff Brookmyer subbing on Bass, did the last two sets.  Lots of the hot moms who came to see The Candy Band stuck around to see Free Beer and kept the dance floor packed all night.  

157   01/12/07    John Cowley & Son's        Kicked off the New Year with our return engagement to Cowley's.  Lots of people there early and a great first set, including the debut of One by U2.       

156   12/09/06    Deck The Hall Party It started slow, but kept building up to a roar, kind of like a Free Beer song.  We had Drunk Santa, a Holiday Sweater Contest and a Gift Exchange.  First set was "The Katie Band" followed by 2 sets from Free Beer with guest appearances by Mark Pasman on guitar for three songs, Maggie McCabe for a version of Santa Baby to kick off set two and Tom Umanovic's vocal stylings on "What's So Funny about Peace Love and Understanding".   

155   12/02/06    Hamlin Pub North Lake Orion       Our first time ever here and a really good crowd.  Drummer #6.5, Stefan Rarigh filled in for #6 who was out of town on business.They liked our music, were really nice to us and gave us things.  They weren't really sure about dancing though, and it took them a while to create a dance floor.  T.J. (Drummer #4 from the G-Daddies) showed up and stayed for two whole sets.    

154   11/22/06    Library Pub Thanksgiving Eve Party    Everything you would expect from our 5th annual appearance.  The huge crowd at 8:30PM.  Line out the door until 11:30PM.  Lots of eating, drinking and cleavage! And lots of friends hanging out right until the very end.  Chalk up another one to the man who makes the schedules and gives everyone the weekend off!   

153   10/28/06    Hall - O - Ween Party Olive Branch Masonic Lodge Dearborn Instead of putting this one on ourselves, we let the Masons do this one for us, and a great job they did.  Free Beer does a set, Karaoke, costume contest, 50/50 raffle.  More Free Beer, drawing for $4750.00 (mysteriously won by John Smith ... now there's a made up names) then Karaoke.  Time changed this night so we ended up staying until 3AM accidentally.      

152   10/13/06    John Cowley and Sons Pub       Our first time there and a rousing success.  Thanks to Free Beer Fans excellent attendance, and habit for drinking more than any two average people by weight, it looks like we have found a new place to play on a regular basis.   Too bad our stunt with the "World's Largest Lottery Scratch Off" was a dud, with 100 tickets producing only $13.00 in prizes. Nice having guest musicians Jeff Brookmyer (2 Hour Limit), Johnny Allen (Love Junkies), Katie Klipfel (Miss Scarlet in the Hall with a Revolver) and Paul Sevigny (first Free Beer bass player) all hopping on stage during the set. Great Night.   

151   09/22/06    Hermann's Olde Town Grille      Special Friday Performance and Free Beer does one of their best sets ever.  Place is pack.  Tigers win.  People drink alot.  Debut 4 new songs.  They'll be asking us back, if only for our $149 bar tab!!!  

150   08/18/06    New Way Bar   Twas the night before Dream Cruise and Free Beer played last (headliner, I think they call it).  Sun 209 and The Teenage Alcoholics opened up.  We had a few guest singers from the crowd, both better than expected since it seemed the Pabst Blue Ribbon was flowing quite nicely this night!    

149   07/29/06    Seaholm 1981 25th Class Reunion      At the sumptuous Birmingham Community House, we were the background music to 25 years of memories (good time, good times) ... that is for the first set and a half.  Then the alcohol kicked in and the portion of the senior class that hung out in the woods smoking hit the dance floor hard.   

148   07/08/06    Cordiant Dental Private Summer Party     A private party where they asked us back for year two.  Set up in the back yard of a big house in Milford, this year with 4/5 of Free Beer (Scott, Jim, Kurt and Dewey) and Stefan Rarigh on drums.  First set ... good.  Pretty sober.  Between sets someone found out that Scott has an addiction to Dickle!  Second set the alcohol set in and all was right with the world.  Less skill, more fun!        

147   06/17/06    Hermann's Olde Town Grill       Almost 4 years to the day since our last appearance here.  Nice an convenient for a majority of our fan base and their staff was great!  We celebrate Breast Awareness Month (isn't every month one?) and gigged with our buddy Jeff Brookmyer on Bass.    

146   6/10/06      Dan's 40th Birthday (Private)    First in a long line of gigs that we received from recommendations when we played the Rochester Mills Brewing Company. Took place in the back yard of Dan's house.  Kurt was out of the country, so Katie and Scott filled in on vocals.  We met and wrote a song about "The Luge Queen".  Last time our gig was followed by a Fireworks Display was at Tiger Stadium back on 6/23/95 ... an 11 year span.       

145   04/29/06    The Katie Band Benefit Fifth Avenue Billiards        Jim, Dewey and Scott from Free Beer, along with Jim Flynn on Fiddle and Mandolin and Steve Tocco on Drums back up vocalist Katie Klipfel Kirkpatrick in a benefit for MS.  Two sets of funk, soul and torch songs from Katie for a big and generous crowd.  Looking forward to doing it again next year!      

144   03/18/06    St. Patricia's Day 
Kurt's Birthday 
New Way Bar Scott and Patty baked a Stratocaster Cake for Kurt to celebrate his Birthday.  Added the Killers to our set, and the people seemed to like that a lot.  Motor Dolls were in the house, Paula sat in for a version of Sweet Leaf and the shy and demure Maggie sang some Pat Benetar (first time we've ever played the song!!)       

143   02/04/06    Super Bowl XL.2
 Rochester Mills Beer Company        Carbon Copy of the night before, but instead of loading in during a rainstorm, we load out during a snowstorm.  Added Britney Spears, Can't Explain, Drive My Car, You Really Got Me, Don't You Wanna Be My Girl, Foo's Times Like These to our Repertoire during the two shows       

142   02/03/06    Super Bowl XL.1 
Rochester Mills Beer Company        Our first time here.  Nice stage, lots of friends show up.  We get to drink all the beer we want for free, everything else is at retail.  A recipe for disaster!!  Took petitions to make the day after the Super Bowl a national Holiday.  Fought through the Beer Fog and did three pretty killer sets.  

141   12/17/05    BeerMas at the New Way  The other holiday tradition with a couple new twists.  Candy Band opened up for us and were great.  A pretty electric crowd that was ready to party ... including the first performance of our new Christmas Hit, "It's The Most Wonderful Time To Drink Beer".   

140   11/23/05    Thanksgiving Eve/Library Pub Novi     The tradition continued ... year 5 on the biggest party night of the year, the Night Before Thanksgiving.  It didn't disappoint either.  Line out the door at 8:30.  Sneaking people in as "Roadies" by 9:15.  Lots of people on the dance floor by 10:00.  Karl Arthur Schwartz sits in on Vocals during Aerosmith Mama Kin.

139   10/29/05    The Hamlin Pub Shelby     Our first time here and also our first time to the extreme north and west suburbs.  Boy, didn't know we had so many fans out here.  The bar had some strange rules about the set times, and no on wore costumes (except Keith, Dewey and Kurt) even though we had a $50 prize for best costume (Keith won).  Did shots of vodka with a polish guy and a girl that wore Moon Boots danced with us all night long.  See the pictures!!

138   10/15/05    The Hall O Ween Party     Our annual gig ... and again a stellar showing by 2 Hour Limit followed by the annual Halloween Set from Free Beer.  Keith wore a Free Beer can as his costume, must be seen to be appreciated.  Moment of the night was when guest vocalist Kris Thomas fell into the drums taking out the end of Dancin' Days.  Thus ending her days as guest vocalist.  Sorry Kris... 

137   10/3/05      The Chili Cookoff      First set with The Katie Band (Dewey on Bass).  Closing set with Free Beer (Brookmyer On Bass).  Fun for all and Scott's Chili somehow won the whole thing.  No regarding for taste at the Chili Cookoff    

136   9/17/05      Oktoberfest       Well year two at the Big Buck Brewery was not as well organized as year one.  Stage was half the size.  There was no Die Rhinelander band, but there was also no advertising and no crowd except what we brought ... which was still a pretty sizable crowd so all is good and right with America.  Keep fighting terrorism!  

135   8/21/05      Walled Lake Western Class Reunion Who knew that 37-year-old chicks could be so hot!  We learned 5 songs from 1985 just for this gig.  They sucked, but the people loved us and made us play until the bitter end.        

134   8/5/05        Wedding   We played a wedding by a lake in Fenton.  It was fun and they paid us money.  Are we sellouts?   

133   7/23/05      Cordiant Dental Private Summer Party     Set up in the back yard of a big house in Milford, with 3/5 of Free Beer (Scott, Jim and Kurt) and 2/5 of Two Hour Limit (Jeff Brookmyer and Stefan Rarigh ... we called ourselves "The Second Greatest Cover Band On Earth".  First set ... good.  Between sets we ate and discovered "the plumber".  There was simply no way she had underwear on!  Second set the alcohol set in and all was right with the world.  No break, right into the third set.  When we ran out of songs, they paid a few more hunny just to have us attempt the songs they wanted to hear.  Lotsa fun!!  Did I mention the plumber?  Yes, I did.     

132   5/21/05      The Library Pub       Ah ... the unofficial first day of summer.  And with that a lot of our fans were out enjoying the weather instead of being inside with us at the Library.  AND our favorite waitress (Sandy) wasn't there to make sure we were correctly lubricated.  Oh well, still played three great sets and had the most member of Free Beer in one place at one time.  The five current members, plus Marty Beem (Bass Player #2) Jeff Brookmyer (Bass Player #4) and Stefan Rarigh (Drummer #5 1/2).  All sat in!       

131   4/28/05      The Hamlin Pub        With the Pistons in the first round of the playoffs and the big screen TVs playing the game, the place was packed when we got there to set up and stayed that way all night long.  It also made for a late start.  For some reason, the convention of "tall young swimsuit models celebrating their 21st birthday" (TYSMCTTB) also decided to attend (why was the camera not working on this one night?) which made for some interesting situations. One birthday girl lost her balance, fell over the monitor, knocking Kurt's mic into his teeth (one fat lip) and was splayed legs up on the stage (one lost dignity and one nice pair of lace panties).  Another confiscated Scott's tambourine and simply wouldn't give it back.  That's OK because when she was smacking people on the butt with it, it took some pretty heavy damage (one new tambourine from the band fund) We'll be back again!      

130   4/16/05      The Library Pub       Started slow on one of the first really nice days of the year, but it picked up fast as the Free Beer Fans came out in force. Overall, another great gig with lots of fun and games.  Jim sings in front of people for the second straight show with a rousing rendition of Long Live Rock.

129   4/2/05        Boulders   Michigan State makes it to the Final Four and Boulders has the big screen pulled down for the big game.  We were supposed to play a quick four song set at Halftime, but that got scuttled when the Spartys lead by 5 at the half.  Then it went downhill, MSU lost to North Carolina by 15 and we went on at 11:30.  Great crowd, 2 long sets, lots of dancing and the debut of Jim Edelman on vocals during Long Live Rock.  Also, an appearance by the "Guns and Roses" guy.  He'll stand in front of the band and yell "Guns and Roses" like Mason yells "Detroit Basketball" at Pistons games ... you know that taunting Nah Nah Na-Nah Nah voice that you just want to punch the guy?         

128   3/12/05      New Way Bar   We were requested to play at the bar by David Ashburn from the Metro Times who was having a birthday.  It was a good time, three sets all by ourselves debuting 5 new songs.  Also featured a guest, Adam Acey on Congas and percussion during sets two and three.  Adam should have some calluses built up on his hands now, noting from the blood pouring from his left hand during set three.  Most amazing was that the New Way had installed a new stage and sound system just prior to our arrival.  

127   2/7/05        Boulders   The night before the Super Bowl.  Of course, we made no mention of it at all.  
We are calling this gig the kick off of the "Free Beer Becomes Strangely Popular" Tour. All of a sudden, the Booking agents started calling us!  Again, Jeff Brookmyer sits in on the big bad bass.  First set was a little sketchy, but in true Free Beer form, as the beer settled in and the intoxication level rose, the better we seemed to sound (funny how that works, huh?).  By the end of the night, we were back on the Boulders Schedule for April 2.  

126   12/18/04    New Way Bar   Free Beermas, number 10!!  Hindsight opened up for us during the New Way's Christmas Party.  Another packed up house ... but again a missing band member to make it all that much more fun.  #6 got called out on another last minute secret mission.  This time, with no practice and just a set list in hand, Steve Tocco sat in on drums and totally kicked ass.  It goes to show you what a great drummer he is, or how easy our set list is to learn.

125   11/24/04    Library Pub
 "The Night Before Thanksgiving"   It was our eighth annual Night Before Thanksgiving gig.  Since Dewey was on vacation, "Brookmyer" sat in on Bass.  We played as good we ever have, the crowd was large (still a line outside at 11:30!) and Jeff's mom came and saw the band.  The first blizzard of the year didn't help load in or load out too much, but everyone seems to have made it home alive!!   

124   10/22/04    Hamlin Pub       Our first gig ever here!  Lotsa lotsa people, and a whole new group of fans who can't believe that we don't play every weekend!! Teeny Weeny stage for a band full of big guys. #6 booked this gig for us, but then was called away on double secret business in the Mohave Desert!  So, Stefan from 2 Hour Limit filled in for us on drums and was his amazing self again!  We'll be back here!

123   9/18/04      Library Pub
"OktUNDERfest"  Everything the Big Buck wasn't, the Library was.  Warm, stable power supply, no stage to fall off of.  About 15 people made it to both nights.  It could have been one of our best sets ever.  Crowd was totally into it and we didn't miss to many notes.  Maybe because no one could drink any more due to high beer content from the previous night.      

122   9/17/04      Big Buck Brewery
"Oktoberfest"        This was a long night for Jim and Scott, because they came and set up the PA system at 4PM on Friday.  Our warm up band was non other than the legendary Rhinelander Band.  And a warm up was needed because of the unseasonable North Wind, coming in the open north end of the tent.  It didn't seem to bother the Rhinelanders, they started at 6 and didn't finish until EXACTLY 10PM.  And the tripping of the circuit breaker every 10 minutes didn't bother them either.  Free Beer hit the stage at 10:30P, but no one was cold then.  The great beer had taken effect.  Some power issues knocked out the keyboards repeatedly during the first set and no one noticed when Jim fell off the stage.  But Free Beer kept rockin' (hard) until they literally told us to get off the stage.  We loved it, we can't wait to do it again!!       

121   8/20/04      New Way Bar   Dream Cruise Thursday
This was our first official gig with new Bass Player Dwayne (Dewey) Larkin in the line up.  The Muscle cars were on the street, the crowd was in the house and we learned enough songs with Dewey that we made it through two entire sets.  Again, Paula from the Candy Band chimed in with an improvised version of Paranoid from Black Sabbath. Again, We all vowed to do it again soon.      

120   5/21/04      New Way Bar   This gig was a lot of fun.  It was a gathering of all the bands we have met through our kids in the Royal Oak Schools.  You meet other parents and they ask you about what you do and you say "I'm in a Band" ... and they say "I'm in a Band"!  Only in Detroit is everyone's hobby having a Rock Band.  So we got all three of them together for on night at the New Way.  First was the Candy Band.  They ripped through a set of their new songs and nasty nursery rhymes.  Next was some Sonic Sensory Soaking from The Basements, doing all and all original set of featuring songs from their latest CD.  Free Beer finished the night with fill in Drummer Stefan Rarigh from 2 Hour Limit (Jeff's OTHER Band).  He did great, earning the label Drummer 6.1.  Coincidentally, Drummer #4 T.J. was in the crowd, ran the sound board and sang Old Apartment with us.  Paula from the Candy Band chimed in with an improvised version of Paranoid from Black Sabbath.  We all vowed to do it again soon.    

119   4/24/04      Library Pub      A rare night Saturday Night in April with no Detroit Sports on TV ... everything happened that afternoon.  Red Wings beat Calgary in Game Two of the second round, Pistons beat Milwaukee in Game 3 of the first round and the Tigers beat Cleveland on a walk off home run.  As for the music, plenty of fun, although the Library Pub seemed a bit darker.  Special guest appearances on stage by Tom "Udaman" Umanovic ... It was his birthday and he sang "Dream All Day".  Also had bass player Dwayne Larkin sit in for 5 songs.  He had read the Neil Rubin article about us looking for a bass player and brought his left handed axe to the gig.       

118   3/20/04      Library Pub      This was supposed to be the "First Gig of Spring 2004", but spring happened at 1:47AM that morning and we didn't go on until 10PM.  Unfortunately, it seems that Spring ended before the gig did, temperature at 2AM was 32 degrees.  With the NCAA tournament and a Red Wings game, this was easily the most crowded stage Free Beer has played on it a while.  Talk about front row, we incorporated dinner tables into the stage.        

117   2/14/04      Library Pub      Because nothing says "I Love You" like Free Beer at the Library Pub.  Amazingly enough, there were twice as many people here on Valentines Day as there were on Friday the Thirteenth.  Which goes to show you that Free Beer is the single man's band.  Come and get'em gals!!    

116   2/13/04      Library Pub      We learned six new songs and debut them all.  (Folsom Prison Blues, Little Less Conversation, Clocks, Riders On The Storm, Bright Future in Sales and Kid Charlemagne).  Not the luckiest night to do it, by why not, we could try again tomorrow night.      

115   12/12/03    Karl's Country Cabin        BeerMas, 2003.  A big benefit for Toys For Tots, with two bands, Free Beer and Two Hour Limit.  Free Beer goes on first, while some patrons are still enjoying a nice dinner.  They still like us!  The place is jam packed as Two Hour Limit hits the stage!  Boy are the kids going to be happy with all then new toys they got for the holid ... what?!?  No one collected money at the door?  No one got in for half price by bringing a toy?  Oh well.  Looks like our present to the kids was music this year.       

114   11/26/03    Library Pub      The seventh annual "Night Before Thanksgiving" gig was a rip roaring success.  The Library was packed again and since there were both Red Wings and Pistons games on, we didn't go on until 11P.  There was still a line out the door until well past midnight.  It was our first try with a real live SOUND GUY, Jim Flynn, who made us sound great.  After we finished three sets, Dan "The Mortgage Man" stepped up from the audience and played a little blues as walkout music.  Look for his picture at the end of the gallery for the night.    

113   10/18/03    Hall-o-Ween      Our annual Hall party to celebrate Hall o Ween.  First, Jeff's new band "Two Hour Limit" plays ... they're great and they bring a bunch of friends ... then another hundred people showed up before we went on ... new records for Kegs of Beer (5) and Pizza (20) and boxes of wine (2). Great time, packed, lots of fun!! 

112   10/03/03    The Library Pub       What a lot of fun this was!!  Lots of old friends and lots of new fans.  We warmed up for the Hall O Ween Party by loading the second set up with Halloween tunes, including closing the set with our Rocky Horror Picture Show medley.

111   8/15/03      New Way Bar   Was supposed to be the big night before the Dream Cruise, but when power went out to 50 million from Detroit to the Eastern Seaboard, things changed. Original plan was for Free Beer, The Motor Dolls and Rash Exuberance to play to the pre Dream Cruise crowd.   Instead of half a million pedestrians enjoying some cruising, the crowd was sparse since the emergency had enacted a curfew.  Only the brave came out.  Unfortunately, only Free Beer came out.  Motor Dolls and Rash Exuberance didn't make it. 

110   7/18/03      Library Pub      Drummer #6, Cool Mo Tommy D gave us a scare when work called him out of town just before the gig.  He makes it back just in time to jam with special guest from our past, Bass Player #1, Paul Sevigny who sits in for two songs in the second set, Pump It Up and Girlfriend.  Debut of Mama Kin!       

109   5/30/03      New Way Bar   Back in the Saddle again after a 4 month performance break, debuting drummer #6 Cool Mo Tommy D at the New Way Bar.  Great big crowd including members of the Motor Dolls, Basements, Mydols and Mud Puppy among others.     

108   2/10/03      Hellenic Center We warmed up a band from Ohio called Oval Opus at Wendy and Mario's 10th Anniversary party.  Lots of fun.  Tried not to look.  Bob Espinoza was back on drums, but with NO HAIR!  It kind of freaked us out a little.  

107   1/11/03      New Way Bar   Due to a booking problem, this gig replaced our Holiday gig.  The drumming situation did not stabilize after all and Bob Espinoza called it quits after the great success at the Library.  Thank goodness TJ Collica offered to fill in.  Free Beer went on first, and Jeff's band Four Years Gone closed the show.  It was their last gig too ...       

106   11/27/02    Library Pub      Our annual "Night Before Thanksgiving" gig and our first gig with drummer #5 Big Bad Bob Espinoza.  Great crowd, line out the door, Bob Rocked!     

105   10/12/02    Salem Chili Cook Off         This was TJ's Final Gig.  Pretty loose jam in the barn to a crowd of 100.  Plenty of special guests.       

104   9/14/02      Boulders   Our last gig there was March 27, 1999 ... it took them 1,267 days to invite us back.  They also forgot to mention that although they provide the PA system, the band is responsible for mics, monitors and cord, necessitating a roadtrip back to the practice barn and an 11:15 start.  TJ's last club gig.

103   7/12/02      Library Pub      Return to the scene of the Trailer Park incident       

102   6/15/02      Lower Town Pub in Plymouth   First time there!  Things go well.  Bar runs out of Rolling Rock and Labatt's before the end of the first set.  Hmmm, we'll need to fix that.  4 Years Gone (Jeff's originals band) call him via cell phone on stage from the back of the club. There is only one known photo from this gig.  Here it is.  

101   5/17/02      Library Pub      They pushed the tables out of the way to created a dance floor.  Also, Free Beer gets invited to a "Trailer Party" after the gig!

100   4/20/02      New Way Bar   The 100th gig with Cold Shot at the New Way.  A little sound trouble to start, but thing finished strong with set two ending at 2:30AM       

99     3/5/02        Library Pub      We are back from Hiatus after TJ and Dawn have their baby girl Caleigh for Tigers Opening Day at the Library

98     11/21/01    Library Pub      The Annual Wednesday before Thanksgiving party at the The Library Pub        

97     11/16/01    New Way Bar   The Annual Saturday before Thanksgiving party at the New Way Bar       

96     10/20/01    Knights Of Columbus Berkley   Hall O Ween Party     

95     9/15/01      Salem Chili Cookoff  Crowbar Hotel shows and jams with the band into the night!   

94     8/23/01      New Way Bar   Marty Beem on Bass  

93     7/27/01      New Way Bar   Free Beer Bingo

92     7/26/01      Marriott Eagle Crest Camp Domino's

91     6/23/01      Library Pub              

90     6/22/01      Library Pub      This was the night of the first XFL Game.  WRIF was there too!       

89     5/26/01      Kevin Yonker's Wedding   In Norfolk, VA. Our First out of state gig. 7 Free Beer members attend with Kevin and Paul Sevigny sitting in for a set!     

88     5/12/01      Newsroom         Night two of Bikers and Beer.  They dance with our women!  We play!     

87     5/11/01      Newsroom         Night one of Bikers and Beer.  They watch we play.        

86     3/23/01      New Way Bar   St. Labatt's Day 

85     2/3/01        Library Pub      Ground Hog Day Party       

84     12/20/00    J. Walter Thompson  Christmas Party 

83     12/16/00    New Way Bar   BeerMas   

82     11/22/00    New Way Bar   Thanksgiving Party Wednesday   

81     10/20/00    Knights Of Columbus Berkley   Hall O Ween Party, Jeff Brookmyer's first gig with Free Beer. Sourmash and Camel Tofu open  

80     9/16/00      Berkley Front   Mexican Independence Day, Tom Conway's last gig       

79     9/9/00        Pontiac Silverdome   Lions Opening Day, Mini Dome  

78     8/17/00      New Way Bar   Woodward Dream Cruise (Thursday)   

77     8/5/00        Brighton   Hockey Party on the Lake   

76     7/27/00      Marriott Eagle Crest Camp Domino's

75     5/20/00      New Way Bar   65th Anniversary with Controlled Panic. Tom Conway's first gig on Bass. 

74     4/1/00        New Way Bar   April Fool's Day Party. Marty Beem's final gig on Bass  

73     2/18/00      New Way Bar   Marty Beem's first gig on Bass as a full time member of Free Beer. TJ Collica debut's on Drums       

72     10/16/99    Chili Cookoff Royal Oak   Paul's final gig on Bass and TJ Collica's first gig on Drums      

71     8/14/99      Brighton   Hockey Party on the Lake   

70     8/7/99        Lakepointe Yacht Club             

69     8/6/99        Lakepointe Yacht Club             

68     7/15/99      Marriott Eagle Crest Camp Domino's

67     6/5/99        Lakepointe Yacht Club             

66     6/4/99        Lakepointe Yacht Club     First digital photos of the band ever taken.      

65     5/9/99        Memphis Smoke        89X Homeboy Show Live   

64     4/10/99      Berkley Front   Private gig

63     3/27/99      Boulder's  Mitch Kozera's first gig       

62     12/14/98    New Way Bar   Beermas (Nutcracker Album Release Party)  

61     10/17/98    New Way Bar           

60     10/15/98    Chili Cookoff Royal Oak           

59     8/8/98        House Party in Salem Twp         No Scott On Keyboards, Kevin on Drums. We puff the speakers!        

58     8/7/98        Scalisi's     with Backburner

57     7/24/98      Mr. B's Plymouth       No Scott On Keyboards      

56     7/17/98      Mr. B's Plymouth       No Jim on Guitar        

55     7/15/98      Marriott Eagle Crest Camp Domino's

54     6/13/98      Mr. B's Plymouth               

53     5/9/98        Moby Dick's      We were the last band ever to play this legendary blues club. Kinda Sad    

52     4/4/98        New Way New Years Eve Party (in April). Kurt and Jim play Bass  

51     3/7/98        Mr. B's Plymouth       Kevin Yonker Returns to surprise Kurt. 

50     2/14/98      Moby Dick's              

49     1/31/98      Griff's Grill        with Velvet Jones        

48     1/25/98      Performance Motorsports Bar   Superbowl Party with Johnny in the Morning. The "Less Band, More Johnny" incident. Last time Free Beer does an AM Drive gig with WPLT. Free Beer is still here. WPLT is not. Nuff Said. 

47     12/28/97    Planet WPLT    Live Broadcast, Marty on bass     

46     12/20/97    New Way Beermas with The Luddites 

45     11/15/97    New Way Thanksgiving Party Wednesday with Cool Papa Bell      

44     10/25/97    Scalisi's     Moses, Kurt's Brother Karl's band warms up. Steals the show! 

43     10/25/97    Memphis Smoke        6A-10A. Johnny in the Morning Gong Show live Broadcast. We play The Knack for Geoffery Fieger! 

42     10/16/97    Spectadium       That big "Thursday Night Football" party … 

41     9/2/97        Cleats        Marty Beem on Bass  

40     8/7/97        Rumours   The Adcraft Rooftop Party  

39     8/2/97        Roostertail         Thunderfest Benefit    

38     7/11/97      Johnny in the Morning at The WPLT Golf Outing     Jon Monpetit's First Gig      

37     6/6/97        Johnny in the Morning at the Woodbridge Tavern     Grand Prix party with Alan Liggett (Guitar/Vocal), Dave Toorongin and Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Drums) 

36     5/31/97      New Way Bar   Kevin Yonker's Last Show  

35     4/17/97      Scalisi's     with Undergrind

34     3/22/97      Scalisi's     with Vietnam Prom and Shugars  

33     3/17/97      O'Malleys WPLT Live Broadcast, for St. Patrick's Day w/Marty Beem on Bass

32     2/7/97        New Way with Cool Papa Bell (Paul's other band) and Hardly Dangerous (Marty Beem's other band.  Attack of the Bass Players Other Bands!      

31     12/11/96    New Way Beermas   

30     11/27/96    Royal Oak VFW        Open for Duke Tomatoe and the Power Trio. It's $20 at the door, all you can drink! There is some trouble with the promoter, who runs off with all the money. We play for free, but everyone is hammered, so who cares!    

29     10/5/96      Scalisi's     Some band with Berries in their name opens for us…      

28     9/21/96      New Way Bar   with Cool Papa Bell   

27     8/2/96        Scalisi's     Allen Park Street Fair. We open for See Dick Run 

26     6/22/96      New Way w/Cool Papa Bell and The Familiars     

25     6/1/96        Augie's      The last night of our first 2 nighter. Again, R Gang puts up with us. The last time we play Augies.     

24     5/31/96      Augie's      Our first 2 nighter, again with R Gang   

23     5/11/96      Scalisi's     Marty Beem on Bass. We put a TV on Stage to watch the Red Wings Playoff game, we play for the big celebration after. Wings lose, three people show up.  

22     5/10/96      New Way Bar   Marty Beem on Bass  

21     4/26/96      Augie's      with R Gang      

20     4/18/96      New Way Bar   First date on the "North of 8 Mile Tour"        

19     3/21/96      New Way Bar   Thursday with Undergrind  

18     11/22/95    Scalisi's     Night Before Thanksgiving with Fast Orange

17     10/13/95    Harry's Bar       w/Cool Papa Bell       

16     9/30/95      Overtime Sports Bar No cover, but beer prices go up when the band starts. We make a mint because of the drinking habit of our fans!   

15     9/15/95      Scalisi's     with Faces on Mars and The Dead Professors

14     8/5/95        Kurt's Garage Plymouth    Another outdoor gig, another visit from the cops!    

13     8/4/95        Scalisi's     Allen Park Street Fair with The Parka Kings  

12     6/23/95      Tiger Stadium   We play for WPLT's Fireworks night in the plaza. We've been a band for one year and we've played Pine Knob and Tiger Stadium!    

11     6/17/95      Scalisi's     Eye Teeth warm us up

10     4/27/95      Sanctuary         In Hamtramck. We warm up the Slow Motion Coronas this time.      

9       3/4/95        Scalisi's     Our first gig in a real BAR! Slow Motion Coronas warm us up

8       2/5/95        Mt. Brighton Ski Lodge     Benefit. We play so loud that glasses fall off the bar. "No one's ever done that before".       

7       2/1/95        Pine Knob Ski Lodge         Ruby Tuesday's Late X-Mas party with Texas Driver. Paul puffs his amp and we use theirs.       

6       10/29/94    White Lake Old City Hall  Pontiac Lake Halloween Party. We blow the power, but crowd does Badfinger a capella.    

5       9/30/94      KAPPI PSI - Wayne State         Our first and last Frat Party. Home of the famous "Lenscap" incident     

4       8/21/94      Ken's Yard -- Metamora    With Greg Stryker. Busted by Michigan State Cops!       

3       8/6/94        Oxford MI         Free Beer Rocks Oxford at Jimmy Bell's house.     

2       7/9/94        Davidson MI     Marty's Back Yard Party     

1       6/25/94      Kevin's Garage Our first gig, busted by cops!