This is the continuation of a series of posts – select Category LIFE AS A BAND MEMBER to read in sequence.

In the Fall of 1980 Second Chance version 1.0 (Me, Dennis, Howard, Steve, Mick) was fairly busy for a fledgling band.  We had played Ellison High School, me, Steve and Mick’s alma mater.  We had played Killeen High School, Dennis and Howard’s alma mater, and we had played Fiddler’s Green, a recreation type center for the G.I.s, on Fort Hood.  Best of all, Howard had turned 18 in September and we could finally play bars. 

We got a bar gig that fall opening for a San Antonio based band called Heyoka at the Crazy Horse Saloon.  Heyoka was a progressive rock band from San Antonio. They were most famous for their covers of Judas Priest‘s Victim of Changes and various Jethro Tull songs. The Crazy Horse Saloon was a fairly well known bar in the Killeen area. It had hosted some great bands in their hey day.  Bands like The Ramones, The Runaways, Budgie and even Judas Priest, all played the Crazy Horse Saloon back between 1977 and 1978. 

We arrived at the bar for our gig and got the setup logistics.  Heyoka was all set up, apparently they had roadies to perform this physical task.  We set ourselves up in front of their equipment.  Thank goodness the stage was deep enough to allow us to set up our amps and drums and still be able to stand on the stage.  After we set up, we met the band members of Heyoka. 

I still don’t remember how we got this gig.  I was nervous.  We had never played a bar before so we didn’t know what to expect but Heyoka made us completely comfortable.  They took a look at our set list and proceeded to remove all the duplicate songs from their set list.  How cool is that?  They even shared their “substances” with us out back of the club before our set.

We got up on stage and played our standard set at the time.  Some Judas Priest, some Rick Derringer and more classic rock tunes (not classic back then).  I recall our girlfriends being in the audience but I don’t recall any other friends being in the bar.  There probably were some, but mostly it was the local clientele of Grunts (Ft. Hood G.I.s).  We felt good after our set, and Heyoka were praising us for our sound.  They were such nice guys.  We quickly removed our gear from the stage and it was time for Heyoka to come on.

Heyoka at that time had a 45rpm vinyl record (I still own one) out with two original songs from their set.  Side A was called Disco Sucks and, as the name implies, it was a rant about the current Disco fad (dying out by the time of this gig).  The night of the gig they ran a promotion – bring a Disco album to the club and get in free or half price – I can’t recall which.  Between our set and theirs, they stacked the albums in the parking lot and set fire to them.  It was a great publicity stunt and they had quite a number of albums to burn.  You have to give credit to the Crazy Horse Saloon for allowing them to do that.

Side B was a song called The Quest.  It was during this song that Heyoka would have a dry ice fog float from tubes their roadies had installed in the ceiling along the edge of the stage.  This flow of fog made a curtain that covered halfway down the stage so that you couldn’t see the band except of their legs.  From behind the drum set they had a laser set up, very new technology at this time, pointed out toward the audience.  During The Quest the laser would project swirling patterns and geometric shapes onto the fog curtain.  An awesome effect for a bar band that moved them up a few notches on the bar band rating.

The gig was a monumental success for us. We got some recognition from the bar and felt on top of the world. We were eager to play more bars.  However, the Crazy Horse Saloon gig would be the last gig for Second Chance 1.0.  Changes were coming.