Everyone has a rock star fantasy, right? I mean, who hasn’t pictured themselves standing on stage before a crowd of adoring fans, awing them with a stunning display of musical talent and insightful lyrics?
Unfortunately, there are a few things standing in the way of my dreams of stardom. Namely that I can’t sing, don’t play a musical instrument and I’ve never been a fan of leather pants. Besides, one musician in the family is enough and I could never compete with my big brother Dennis (who still has a fan club from his Levi Hatfield days.)
I finally had an opportunity to satisfy those long-suppressed yearnings Friday night. Well, sort of. Thanks to Nate Gross, I had the chance to play roadie (you know, the guys in all black that set up?) for the local band Panhandle during a gig at the Stadium Sports Bar in Oxford.
Despite the required heavy lifting, I knew it would be as close as I’d ever get to doing the rock star thing and I jumped at the chance.
First, let me tell you about Panhandle. Nate is the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist. He is joined by his brother Ben on bass guitar, Jeff Landry on drums and Craig Rogers on guitar.
When I first met Nate, he described the group’s sound to me as ‘roots rock.’ I didn’t really understand what that meant until I heard them play. Their music, all original, is heavily influenced by folk, blues, country and good old rock ‘n’ roll.
But of course, I wasn’t going to be performing with the band. I was there to spend some quality time with John Jankowski. What is John’s official role with Panhandle? He laughed when I asked him, and replied that he was “Slash.” As the night progressed, I began to understand why. He performs the duties of road manager/sound technician/beverage coordinator/first aid administrator ... and the list goes on. Basically if the band needs it, John is there.
He’s also an expert at balancing all of those responsibilities with the real reason why he’s there, which is that he’s Panhandle’s number one fan.
Because the Stadium is just two doors down from Nate’s guitar studio, where the group practices, I got off pretty easy. There was no complicated process of packing up equipment in road cases and loading it in a trailer and then reversing the process at the other end. Basically we moved everything bit by bit, walking the equipment down the street. (As Nate was able to accurately judge my physical capabilities with a glance, I carried the light stuff.)
