The party started in 1933 at O’Neill’s of Maspeth and I’m happy to say it was still going when we left this past Friday night!  What else would you expect? 

     It is always a joy to get back to the one and only O’Neill’s for a Friday R&R Road Show and this past Friday was no exception.  Lot’s of teachers in need of decompression, fun and some liquid refreshment after taking care of your damn kids all week long!  Lots of visits from members of various locals, members of NYPD and FDNY!  Yeah, that’s a recipe for a good party!

     Thanks to Danny and John and their staff who took great care of us and all of the Q1043 listeners!  Danny, when he’s not at O’Neill’s,  is at “The Big House” FDNY in Far Rockaway and we shouted them out at work.  

     A huge thank you to our party crew from SAM ADAMS and MANHATTAN BEER!  The gang was out in force and was a force to be reckoned with!  The Q listeners had a lot of different ways to go on Friday with October Fest, Cherry Wheat and the Boston Lager all up for happy hour action!  Thanks to Brian from Sam and Abel “The Godfather” and his crew that included: Xavier, Alejandro, Arturo, McGill, and Martin! 

     It was great to see our friend Perry who has been to every Road Show we’ve ever done at O’Neill’s!  Nice job Perry!

     We had a blast hanging out with our fun deprived teachers!  Retired legendary Principal GENE from I.S. 73 made an appearance which was very cool!  The King did not bring his court though and we missed Michelle and Lisa Ianello!  But there was quite the crowd from PS 75, 228, 88 and 229 and we’re leaving the names out as we often do to protect the not so innocent! 

     Speaking of leaving names out, we’ll do just that as we give a huge thank you to the crew from the Queens North Task Force!  They picked their usual spot on the far side of the bar at O’Neill’s and that’s where they stayed until the cigar part of the road show started for them! 

     Sheryl stopped in on her way home from her job at Dr. Delacore’s office.  Shelly, Sherry, Chrissie from Francis Of Paola School and our very special friend Paul who loves his Queen spent the afternoon with us too!!

     Local 361 IRONWORKWERS were in the house and having a very nice time thank you very much!  It was great to see Angela and Scott who we last saw at Stout before Eric Clapton!  They got some Sam Adams Q1043 party rhino happy hour t-shirts and were hanging in their corner of the bar right for the duration!

    We LOVE when the whole family makes it out and O’Neill’s is that kind of place so Kerry brought his 2 sons Tony and Keith to hang out in the middle of all that was going on!  We had met Tony before and he’s all of 12 or so and boy does he know how to GET THE LED OUT!  He has some kind of ZEP t-shirt collection and he’s not afraid to tell you about his favorite band!  Nice job guys! 

     Speaking of the band we’d like to see get out on a reunion tour, our buddy JOE from Astoria was there with his Hawaiian lay on and he got Zeped too!  A nod to Rob and Donna from Whitestone who got to happy hour to graze with the party rhinos for a while!

     We had some of the crew from Access Global spend some time with us including Marcy and Joe and a thank you to them for coming to see us!  Our buddy Nelson was there in his Mets jersey, hat and jacket and he looked like he’d recovered from the debacle of the season……………well almost!

     If you’re at O’Neill’s hanging out, at some point you always wind up outside because it’s cool to just hang out and see what’s going on in the neighborhood!  O’Neill’s also has tables all around ringing the outside bar and clam bar and it is fun to see what’s going on!  I met Jerry with a J out there with Glenn, Anthony and Steve and the crew out there doing just that!

Frank was representing The MTA and was there with his wife Joanna and wanted us to shout out M.S. 50 Brooklyn!  Pat from Glendale was there too after she won Rod Stewart tickets in August at Jones Beach and gave us the full concert review!   We’re always happy to get the happy post concert re-cap especially when you’ve got the best kind of concert tickets……the FREE ones from Q1043!

     We’re set to go to BROOKLYN this week at P.J. HANLEY’S and they are located at 449 COURT STREET!  You can reach them at 718-834-8223 with any questions.  My only question is what time are you leaving work to come and see the party rhinos!?  EARLY WE HOPE!  We’ll see you this Friday at The Road Show!

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    Well, it seems you CAN go home again!  It had been too damn long since we got back to my home town of HICKSVILLE and man was it worth the wait!  What a great time, despite some pretty nasty weather,  to kickoff the weekend!  My hometown did us proud and came loaded for bear and Big E had an excellent grilling recipe for that!

     A big THANK YOU to Gary and his entire staff!  We were welcomed like family!  It’s a cozy fit at CROSSROADS but they made it work so we could play!  It was great to see some faces I hadn’t seen in some time including Joni Longo who I grew up with around the block with a bazillion years ago.  Thanks to the hard working gang at Crossroads including Karen, Cathy, Bob, Tracy and Trish! 

     Awesome to see the Novotny sisters on Friday!  And The “Thugge cult” with Greg almost put me over the edge!  I would look up from the broadcast table and I’d see another face smiling at me and I’d just start to freak out all over again!

     By the way:  A huge THANK YOU to our party crew from our Friday R&R Road Show sponsors:   SAM ADAMS!  We continue to just put our party rhino horns into the troth of 08 October Fest and do our best Homer Simpson “MORE!” 

     Thank you to a very cool band, CHICKEN MARTINI, playing classic rock covers and some original stuff too.  They kept the party going all night long! 

     We had a road show first: “DIAL-A-SHOT on Friday!  Jimmy, Richie and Randy were in house at Crossroads with us and we timed it out so that their old friend Tracy, who recently moved to Pennsylvania, could all do a shot to kick the weekend off as if they were together!  Those are good friends! 

     It was a big time local reunion going on at Crossroads as well!!  Local 608 in the house with Kevin McCarthy, Local 580 Ironworkers with Kevin and his crew, Local 1 was with us, Local 25 with Kevin, Chris, Chris, Lenny and Jason! 

     Vito and his family were doing the hang and we were sharing some memories of tickets they won to see Aerosmith at Jones Beach that got rescheduled to mid October!  We froze our keitsters off that night but it was so worth it!  BTW….Vito won tickets to see Dickie Betts at Capitol One Bank Theater at Westbury in a few weeks but was out picking up one of his kids to drive them somewhere when we called his name!  The only rule we ever have on a Friday is “You got to be there to win!”  Well, we put it to a vote and everyone knew Vito would be back and vouched for him and sure as hell, in comes Vito to claim his tickets!  Congratulations to all of our ticket winners!

     Terry, Keith and Danny were holding court on their end of the bar just having a great old time!  Thanks to Joe and Helena for making the ride from Queens to see us and Helena we’re glad you’re feeling better!  The Mayor of The Bronx stopped in and that was probably so he could hit on my 90 year old Mom who is a Hicksville resident for 60 years now!  There was no way she was going to miss out on a road show on her home turf!  She didn’t disappoint either!  She sat at the broadcast table with Big E and me and had her wine and tasty snacky cakes and then grabbed one of the Q1043 account executives, Arnie Levy and started dancing!  Eddie, The Jim Kerr R&R Morning Show intern was on duty with us Friday and completed the afternoon’s fun by tossing French fries at my Mom and having her pick them out of the air with her mouth!  I didn’t know what to do I was laughing so hard!  Party tricks with Mom!

     I couldn’t believe that Debbie O’Connor stopped in to see us.  As you’ve heard us mention on the road show and on the air at the Q, her husband and big time classic rock and Q1043 fan, Chuck, has been very ill since August.  Please keep both of them in your thoughts and prayers!  Debbie continues to keep a radio playing by Chuck in the hospital and we keep the good thoughts going for him!

     Another long time friend Lynn Saccone stopped by for a couple of cold ones and that was fun too!  Anthony got some WHO from Quad during the proceedings!  You had to love that orange WHO hat he was wearing!  We’re ready for The Who at The Zod on October 29^th BIG TIIME! 

     Thank you to Tina and John for making my day and taking the time to come and visit and offering to take me and Mom and my wife back home for dinner!  Now THAT’S what being in your home town should feel like, right? 

     Craig had a whole slew of friends meet him at Crossroads and we were honored to have Bobby, a 25 year veteran NYPD officer from Brownsville, the seven three, come and hang out with us.  You should have seen the photos he brought from BILLY JOEL’S Last Play at Shea!  WOW!  Tommy “Deli” was there with them and Pete and Timmy too!  We gave a shout out to Tony at Salamarnek Sausage and Italian Deli in College Point a shout too!  A HUGE WHO fan who was partying along with us since he couldn’t make it to Hicksville!

     Boy, are we on a roll!   We will head to the legendary and one and only………….

                                                O’NEILL’S OF MASPETH

THIS FRIDAY OCTOBER 3^RD!!   They are located at the top of the hill on 53^RD Drive in Maspeth as they have been since 1930 something!  The party started then and hasn’t stopped and let’s keep her going is what Big E and me say!  We’ll continue our roll out of the Sam Adams October Fest and get you entered to win on concert tickets!  Hope to see you this Friday as we drag the work week kicking and screaming to the curb with the rest of the garbage and get set for some much needed decompression with The Friday R & R Road Show! 

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    It’s always great for the party rhinos to get back to a cool place where we’ve left our “party scent” behind and we did just that this past Friday at LOCAL WEST!  LW is right there at the corner of 8^th Avenue and 33^rd street so it’s always a convenient pit stop on the way home before you do the LIRR thing or sitting and waiting before you see, oh I don’t know, let’ say Eric Clapton or Tom Petty before a big Madison Square Garden gig.  Turns out we were there just for the hell of it and that was just fine!

     Now when we’ve done the Local West gig in the past we’ve either been inside or on the rooftop bar but this time, we hit the back patio and what a find that was for us!  The cool part about Manhattan is that you’ll find an oasis in the strangest of places if you look at it right and we did on Friday! 1 Penn Plaza has a cozy little savanna with tall grasses and flowers and the rhinos were ready to roam!  That was a nice view to have for the broadcast as held court out back on what was probably our last outdoor road show for quite some time!  I think there is a picture of Eddie from The Q Crew hiding out in the grass in the road show gallery of rouges! 

     Also in the gallery of road show shots you’ll see the wonderful Danielle and Jenny who took such good care of us and The Q Listeners out on the patio all afternoon long!  Danielle made that Q Sam Adams Party Rhino t-shirt look so awesome I barely contained my bad self!! 

     The there was the event of the afternoon as Q listeners Consuella, Kitty and George all were fired earlier in the day from their job at a major NYC fashion company for sending around an off color email!  We just couldn’t believe it and solicited on the air for someone to come down and hire these very cool babes for new gigs!  We hope that they’ve landed on their feet, as we suspect they have, because their butts landed right in seats for Jackson Browne this past weekend at the Untied Palace Theatre!  Yep!  As fate would have it, they were one of our ticket winners and that included front row action for them as well!   SWEEEEET!!

     We had a Mayor of The Bronx, Jerry Boscoe sighting on Friday!  We want to wish Jerry’s wife all the best as she continues to recover from surgery!  GET WELL AND COME AND SEE US SOON! 

     Uncle R was in fine form snapping off pictures and brought cousin Ray with him as well!  Carol Messina was in from Queens and I don’t know who was sweating more when they put the out door heat lamps on at 6:00:  Carol or me!  We had a SPIDER sighting as well as he ditched out of Verizon a bit early to have a cold Sam Adams!  That’s the way to do it!

     It’s always cool when old friends show up and I got to see an old college buddy, Peter Kileen who I don’t get to see often enough!  That was great!  Jason stopped by to get some early action with Big E and myself before tipping out to go off into the wilds of Manhattan on a Friday night!  Joe and Cara came right from work around the block and walked right into some tickets later on in the afternoon!  We had both Jackson Browne and Black Crowes for the October gigs coming up at The Hammer!  Rick, Judy, Jerry, Sue and Stacy came in from Summit to give us that good news that the wine is about to he harvested which means that the wine from this time last year is ready to R O C K IN THE U.S.A.!!  We’re ready! 

And we ARE ready:  Here’s the lineup for the next few weeks for The Friday R&R Road Show!

 9/26  Crossroads Bar & Grill 646 S. Broadway, Hicksville !  My hometown!

10/3   O’Neill’s  64-21 53^rd Drive in Maspeth!  The legendary one is back!

10/10  The Arena Bar  218 Mulberry St. Newark.  Devils home opener vs. The Isles!

10/17  Big Nose Kate’s 2484 Arthur Kill Road Staten Island!  Big E and I swing on the ropes above the bar!  Shirtless again?  You’ll have to come and see for yourself!

     Thanks as always to our party crew from SAM ADAMS!  We are proud to have them riding with us each and every Friday!  The Sam Adams 08 edition of Octoberfest is out there and ready for you!  Are you ready?