Musicians take act to pub after storm

Staff writer

SANDPOINT — The concert is not over until Donavon Frankenreiter says it is.

When Festival at Sandpoint sound engineer George Relles shut down Friday’s concert about 40 minutes into Frankenreiter’s performance because of lightning, the singer picked up his acoustic guitar and headed for the blanketed area where he began to play.

“It was like they were playing campfire songs,” said Festival executive director Dyno Wahl. Kids were doing tricks on the field and another party started in the grandstands, she said. “It became a great community party.”

Zep Lyster — a Sandpoint resident who is one of the best rock ‘n’ roll riggers around, working for Bruce Springsteen and the Dave Matthews Band, and acts as an informal advisor for the Festival — jumped in, offering advice to Dave Nygren and Rugg Ruskey on how to adjust the tent to keep it from blowing away.

The musicians played another 20 minutes before a wicked storm hit. “When the rain hit, it was really like a monsoon.”

People were respectful — not crowding the two men as they played, Wahl said. “I don’t know if that can happen at every venue — no one crushed him.”

By that time, the Festival crew knew the show was over — at least at Memorial Field.

Rellis was monitoring the weather system via radar and made the call to cancel the concert because the storm cell stretched all the way south to Coeur d’Alene.

The decision was met with some “boos” until Relles explained that the concert was called for the safety of the performers. Lightning can strike a sound console with a not so great outcome, Wahl said.

“Donovan was bummed because he wanted to keep playing,” Wahl said.

At this point, Festival staff could not even announce that the concert was over . Law enforcement Mark Ogg let staff uses a bullhorn to send out the alert — but by that point, most people had figured out the night was over.

Festival board member David Marx was not so ready to call it a night and suggested the party be moved to Eichardt’s.

Wahl walked to Frankenreiter’s trailer where he and Dennen were hanging out and Dennen said he was game  — that he had heard great reports about the place.

But they needed to round up a few instruments because their gear was tucked safely on the Festival stage.

“Bob Staggs and Chris Terracciano brought drums, while Wahl grabbed son Peik’s guitar amp and Jack Miller and Ben Murray produced another guitar amp and a bass “that had gotten run over by somebody and gotten repaired,” Wahl said.

John Edwards brought microphones, while Steve and Julie Meyer of Pend d’Oreille Winery brought the wine.

Wahl tried to contact Dylan Bennefield to make an announcement on the radio about the performance, but he was out of town and the KPND’s deejays were doing their thing, so they were not accessible.

It was probably a good thing, however. “The word of mouth in this town was fast,” Wahl said.

“It was packed to capacity — they had to stop letting people in,” she said.

The band, which included nine people in in all (two drummers, two guitar players, a bass player and a trumpet player) played until 1:30 a.m., performing a lot of different music, including a lot of album covers — like Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean,”  Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” Rollingstone’s “Beast of Burden,” and a Tom Petty breakdown.

“Everybody was just loving it,” Wahl said. “The spirit of the music just kind of moved (locations).”

Neither bands had to keep playing — once they took the stage, they  technically fulfilled their contracts, said a board member.

“They are truly doing it for the love of playing,” Wahl said.

After the impromptu concert, Marx drove Dennen and Frankenreiter to their hotel so the two could get up early to catch a flight for a concert somewhere else.

Memorial Field looked like a hurricane struck it the next morning, Wahl said. After every show volunteers pick up bottles, plastic silverware, plates and bowls and spiff up the place for the next night’s how.

But clean up crew chief Ellen Weissmann made the call to wait until 10 a.m. the next morning, Wahl said.

“It looked like a hurricane had hit it — chairs, bottles and paper — there were Daily Bees everywhere,” she said.

By 4 p.m., however the volunteers had the mess cleaned up.

Even the sound equipment made it through the storm without a scratch.

Without a stage crew that also included Paul Gunter, Sebastian McAdoo and Jeff Poole, things may have been different, she said.

Editor’s note: Please go to the Daily Bee’s Web site at www.bonnercountydailybee.com to add your comments about this concert.