The Band is on Hiatus ... See you after the Holidays!

The Davis Dix Celebration of Friends and Family this Weekend.

Halloween at Mia Martini Lounge.

Halloween at Mia Martini Lounge was quite the ghoulish event! Here are the pictures I have so far. Feel free to send me your pic's and video clips and I'll post them up.

Thanks to all that came out and played with the band. Thanks also to the outstanding folks at Mia Martini Lounge. Not only did they provide the perfect venue, they took great care of our guests and then let Ken cook egg's for the band at 2AM! A first for us... 

Here's what I have to share so far....

Halloween Accordion Players Rock!

Be there November 1st at

Mia Martini Lounge - Downtown Des Plaines 

They only come out once a year!

Final Poster with the Final Info!

Here is the final info on the Halloween Party! There will be an appetizer table filled with goodie's from Olivetti's! That plus the giant heated tents for more space over the beer garden and extra bartenders require us to ask a small cover charge for this gig. Hope you have a great costume lined up ...

The Halloween Party at Mia Martini Lounge will be here soon!

Thanks for the picture Bena!

The Boat Party!!

Pete just dropped off new pictures fom the Waupaca Boat Party...

Thanks Pete! This was party was one for the record books... the floatilla of pontoon boats following the Waupaca Cheif while we were cranking out tunes was something to behold.

Halloween gig... Food or no food???

I'm changing info on the poster ... the food table and cover charge thing is still being ironed out so I would rather have something out here to just promote this event without worrying about the exact details until we have them. If anyone needs a .jpeg or .pdf of the poster art let me know. Mia Martini's will be putting this on their web site too. The bar looks great and the heated tents attached to the place out on that great beer garden should make this an ideal set up. Fog machines... black lights... costumes... beer... and oh...did someone say there is a prize for the sexiest costume? Guess I'll have to get that Borat thong out and hold off on the manscaping for the next few weeks.   

The new Halloween set list is shaping up with a lot of new tunes for us including: Warewolves of London, Evil Ways, Psycho Killer, Highway to Hell, Monster Mash. Should be a blast!  How Ken survive without any brooding Irish ballads remains to be seen.

OK so here we go again...

And the naming goes on... 

The band that changes its name for every gig now seems to change its name several times BEFORE each gig. 

Halloween is shaping up to be a fun night with a special set list, costumes, special lighting, heated tents for the beer garden with the band music playing. There will even a nice food buffet to keep you on a steady party pace... 

So here is the NEW - new band name for the Halloween gig 2008! 

Come out and join "Ken Dix & Strangers With Candy" for a rock'in good time!

Saturday Night - November 1st, at The Martini Bar in Downtown Des Plaines.

A Waupaca Weekend ... Wow!

What a blast! Thank you Pete and Jane for opening you hearts and home to us all this weekend. You handled the invasion of band members and kids with amazing grace and humor. We are all very grateful to you for such a memorable weekend. Of course we also would like to thank the DeYoung's for hosting such a great event on Saturday! 

The band and families had a great time in lovely Waupaca WI. over Labor Day. Here is a video! See the slideshow of the weekend in the bar on the side.

Feel free to add your comments.

Halloween Gig! Time to name the band...

The poll on the right has the first few suggestions for the band name for Halloween ... vote or feel free to add your suggestion.

So far it looks like Saturday November 1st for a Halloween rock'in good time. Details to come. 

Song requests with a Halloween theme are being considered now. Give us your idea's.

Sunday: 27 Red Rocks at the Blues Bar!

Yesterday afternoon 27 Red took the stage at the Blues Bar in downtown MP. Trusting their instincts they decided to learn a new song the morning before the show. They wanted something appropriate for the venue so they went with Sweet Home Chicago. Their musical ability was matched by their courage to switch up on the fly like that and they nailed it. Things often happen with live performances that make musicians have to punt of the fly. It was great experience for these guys to learn something hours before performing it. The only problem I found with the performance was that it was limited to only two songs for this event. I could only upload one of the songs. I'll try and get the other one up soon.

Great job guys...keep it up. 

Here you go... sorry about the head in the way of my shot... someone's dad wanted to be front and center... and that's a good thing. 

Waupaca Gig

On Labor Day weekend we will be playing at a private party in scenic Waupaca Wisconsin and the next evening on a private chartered boat as well. All I have for now is the name of the Band and the general information. Pete will be getting the particulars up here soon.

Thank You Mike Leonard.

Here is a look back at how this whole "band" thing started...

Actually, we can blame it on a few words that Mike Leonard uttered to Ken about "just going for it" or something like that. Yea, Mike Leonard is that big shot NBC correspondent for the Today Show that does those funny spots about life.

He wrote a book that really moved the Dix family so they invited him to speak at the local book club... and get this... HE DOES it!!!

So there he is at their book club entertaining the villagers with his wit and wisdom when Ken corners the poor guy with burning questions that even the Dali Lama would have to look up before answering. Familiar with that look that stalkers get when they brush with someone of notoriety, Mr. Leonard quickly whips up some pearl of life wisdom just trying to lose this guy fast...

"Ken..." he said ,"If you have always wanted to sing on stage, just book the date and make it happen"

Ken left that night thinking about those words of wisdom from the man who figured out a way to get paid to play Wiffle Ball in his front yard. So Ken booked the bar and then called a few musicians to play in his little band. He called it Just JoeKen because Joe was the first friend that would agree to humiliate himself in public with Ken.

Turns out Mike Leonard couldn't have called it any better. The Dali Lama of life wisdom for the average guy was right on the money. People came, Ken had a blast, his friends and family admired his courage and we were good enough to get a call back. Now we get to go play music at other places for no money. Hey wait... I just realized we missed something in Mikes advice ... he got PAID to play Wiffle Ball!!! Can someone call him and tell him we have 20 more people to buy his book... we need to get Ken to corner him for more of that common man advice he whips out.

So Thank You Mike Leonard... you're our wise hero dude.

It began by Just JoeKen around.

Welcome to The Bongo Finger Blog!

This blog is one way we can keep you up to date on all that is happening with our little neighborhood band. The one that changes its name for every gig.

Yes it make is challenging to keep people informed about our modest little neighborhood party band. We never really have a consistent name for people to google... forget about tee shirts! The band name changes the moment we are done with a gig. It just started out that way and now we think its fun ... plus when we suck people can't remember who we are...

So when a new gig comes up the demanding naming process begins. This can be tough... we often don't settle on a name until we are well into the 3rd or 4th beer... we usually know we are on to a band name when someone is snort laughing or we just give up and wait for Todd to say something... 9 times out of 10 the next phrase out of his mouth becomes the name. He's genius.

So our 3 fans have to stay in close touch to know what is going on with us.... wait... is Katie a fan??? ... Make that our two fans have to work hard to know where we will be and what the new name is.

Here are the names we have preformed (word use very loosely) under:

Just JoeKen

Station 12

Petty Cash

Liquid Courage

Tommy Guensfelder and the Fire Breathing Hamsters

South of 80

and the next gig.... $5 Dollar Gas!

Details for the two fans can be found here soon.