The Elasticband Ann Arbor, Michigan 1967-1970    The Elasticband took us through those formative years from pre-driver's license to early college. Jim, Mike and Buz were in school together at Saline High, near Ann Arbor. Rick was a little younger, and lived in Whitmore Lake. Before we got together, only Jim had actually played paying gigs, with some guys from Manchester. We all played wind instruments in school band. Some of us had taken piano lessons. Mike had a Brand X electric six-string and Checkmate-type amp before he bought his bass. We started out playing all mid-sixties stuff like Louie Louie, Wipeout and Gloria. We mostly played around Washtenaw, Livingston and Lenawee Counties in Michigan. In the time we played together, our gigs included high school dances, teen clubs, street dances, frat parties, company parties, wedding receptions, bars, battles-of-the-bands and all kinds of other private parties. Our sets mostly included top 40 hits you could dance to. The only original tunes we did were our intro and break songs. Sometimes we'd try to pull off some self-indulgent original stuff with the long solos, but nobody seemed to like it. We were usually playing dance and party-type crowds. We did play extended versions of Light My Fire and In a Gadda Da Vida, though.  Personnel: James Burmeister - Lead Guitar and Vocals Mike Burke - Bass Guitar and Vocals Robert "Buz" Mittendorf - Keyboards, Harp and Vocals Rick Randall - Drums Kevin Armbruster - occasional alternate Bass Guitar Larry Largin - Bass Guitar for the final gigs in 1970 Influences: Local bands were a big influence. This was a great time to be around Ann Arbor. So, we played a lot Rationals-Seger-SRC-MC5-Amboy Dukes stuff because audiences expected to hear that as well as the national and British stuff. You'd see the big local acts performing all the time at local venues: The Fifth Dimension, college concerts, Autorama, free concerts at Fuller Flats, they were everywhere. I mean, if you hung around the music stores, for example Bob Seger would be at Ann Arbor Music Mart, Dion Jackson at Apollo Music Center, John Sinclair at Al Nalli's---we bought our Atlas PA stands from the MC5…Steve Correll and Terry Trabant (Rationals) were in my Musical Acoustics class at EMU; our drummer Rick took drum lessons from Pep Perrine (Bob Seger System). Ken Michalik was a senior when I was a freshman in EMU marching band. Pat McCaffrey played lounge piano at my sister's wedding reception. Setlist Sample: Early on: Kicks, Just Like Me, Gonna Miss Me, The Letter, Open Up Your Door, House of the Rising Sun, Satisfaction. Later: Sunshine of Your Love, Hold On I'm Comin', Fire, Nobody But Me, Jumpin Jack Flash, Local Tunes: Heavy Music, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, Respect, I Need You, I'm So Glad, Kick Out the Jams, Journey to the Center of the Mind Equipment: Jim: Pre CBS Sunburst Strat, Blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb over a Single Showman bottom, Arbiter Fuzzface Mike: Kalamazoo Bass, frequent custom paint jobs; Bogen CHB100 Amp; the "Burke Bass Box", Mike's artfully crafted bottom with (2) Jensen 15's Buz: Wurlitzer 120 Electric Piano, Estey Travelorgan thru Magnatone MP3 amp Rick: Ever growing kit of blue sparkle Ludwig with Zildjian's PA: 300 Watt EMC amp, speaker columns each with (6) 8" speakers mounted on Atlas PA stands, Shure Unisphere A mics. Atlas mic stands with minibooms and goosenecks. If you blow into an Atlas gooseneck by itself, you can play the overtone series. Rehearsal Space: Usually Jim's parents' living room or Buz's parents' basement. All of our parents were very accommodating and encouraging. Band Vehicles: Mike's huge Pontiac Catalina station wagon "The Blue Elephant" would go an honest 115 mph with its 389 motor; Rick's '65 VW microbus with Elasticband bumper stickers probably couldn't hit 55 mph with it's 1200 cc motor. Rick was younger than the rest of us. He didn't have his driver's license yet for much of the time we played together. Rick's great dad bought the microbus just for hauling Rick's huge drum kit around. Twice a week, on rehearsal nights, Rick's dad would drive Rick down from Whitmore Lake, drop him off at practice, then head over for dinner at the Brown Keg Tavern at the corner of Pleasant Lake Road and Saline-Ann Arbor Road. Fashion Statement: All the typical of the era: Initially ruffled shirts that our moms made, then wild print silk shirts, sometimes scarves (we thought the Rationals were well-dressed), bleach-burned jeans, etc. Less formal as time went on. Best Gig: They were all good if we got paid, and better if we got some attention from girls. We played some private parties for a guy that had been an NFL football player, and at this time was fronting illicit oil investments. Those were easy gigs with good eats. Also, all gigs in Whitmore Lake were great, whether it was a school dance, street dance, private party, what ever. The people were always enthusiastic. Gig from Hell!: Many, including: In the summer and fall of '68 we had a regular Thurs-Fri-Sat night gig at Dave's Country Inn in Berkey, Ohio. We'd play until 2:00 am, then drive about an hour back home. We were all still in high school (way underage), so we'd fall asleep in class on Friday. Dave's was a country roadhouse west of Toledo. The crowd was pretty rowdy. The band played at floor-level, there wasn't a stage. We always had drunks coming up and trying to sing with us. One night, most of the band was outside the bar taking a break when a brawl broke out inside. Lots of yelling and glass breaking. We pushed our way inside ---pretty stupid because all the sensible people were trying to get out. We were thinking our equipment was getting trashed. We got in, and Kevin Armbruster, our stand-in bass player was standing in front of our stuff "guarding" it, hiding a box cutter under his elbow. Now, Kevin was only 14 or 15 at the time (way, way underage!). I can't imagine how he thought he was going to fight off the brawlers; fortunately, nothing bad happened. .We played a number of Eastern Michigan University frat parties. This one was at Susterka Lake Lodge near Belleville. It was in January, so the frat guys tried to build a big fire in the central fireplace. The place filled up with wood smoke because no one opened the flue damper. They tried to clear out the smoke by opening all the windows. We were freezing and choking for the rest of the gig. Our microphones smelled like smoke for months after that. Pinckney, Michigan. For some reason, we had kind of bad luck there. Pinckney story #1: We were playing some big private party for a horse club at the Pinckney fire hall. Toward the end of the gig some drunk guys came up and said that they were going to "kick our ass" when we left. So after we were done playing, we took an extra-long time packing up, keeping an eye out the window. The drunk guys got tired of waiting for us and left, so it had a happy ending. Pinckney story #2: Spring '69 we were playing a dance at Pinckney High School. Rick had a friend from Whitmore Lake named Roger Heinbaugh who used to come to some gigs and help out with the equipment and such. We were about mid-way through the first set when Roger comes up on stage and his face was pretty bloody. The music kind of trickled to a stop and we asked Roger what happened: he was in the bathroom when some guy came in and said "what's your name?" Roger said "Roger Heinbaugh"…this guy says "Roger Suck Balls!" and hit him in the face. OK, nice place, that Pinckney. Last Gig: The last weekend as The Elasticband: School dance at St. Francis in Ann Arbor. Not particularly noteworthy, except it was the last with Mike on bass. It early September '69 and we were all about to start college. Same weekend, we played this blowout Labor Day weekend celebration. Teamster's Local 299 (Jimmy Hoffa's local) had this property with a lake that had been some utopian communal farm back in the depression. The Teamsters turned it into a campground and recreational facility for the members. We played in the afternoons on the back of a flatbed trailer. One night, they had a battle-of-the-bands. We came in second against some pretty good garage bands from metro Detroit. Good eats: lots of food concessions including some really good soul food. The Other Last Gig: Wedding reception at the Whitmore Lake Fire Hall in February, '70. Larry Largin was playing bass for us now, and we'd changed our name to "Young Hickory". The reception was a really subdued crowd. We didn't have enough slow-dance numbers, so we made some up on the fly. Sounds like a disaster, right? We have a tape of that gig. It really wasn't too bad! After this, we thought we were all too busy with school and had to let it go, but we all wound up in other bands later. Comments: There were other bands from our area that aren't (yet) included in the MFB. These bands and their members were great; good performers and good people. The Blue Max, from Whitmore Lake, were much edgier than us, and could get away with playing stuff that was much less commercial like Beck's Bolero, Crossroads and Omaha. Honey and the Graham Crackers from Saline were really popular, playing garage and Motown hits like Money. Waldorf Hysteria, with Tim Prosser on guitar was amazing, if not commercial. Hopefully, these bands will find their way onto this site. (Also, what ever happened to Rocky Berra and the Castle? Two of my music frat brothers gigged the bars steadily in the western 'burbs of Detroit in this quartet. Rocky was… ummm…"Elvis-inspired"; Tom Altobello played the Hammond A100. They were a really good cover band.)        Where are they now? Winter, 2006 Jim, Mike and Buz all attended their high school class reunion in '99 and discussed possibly having an Elasticband reunion. Still hasn't happened. According to Jim, Rick moved to Florida around '03. All four of us went on to play in other bands after the Elasticband. Jim has played continuously with other bands since then, and has a studio in his house. He traded the classic Strat back in the '70's for a Gibson hollowbody. Not sure what he's playing on now. Mike is currently playing in two bands. The K'zoo Bass is long since gone, replaced by collection including Rickenbacker and an Alembic Essence (ooh!). He'll be traveling to Latin America with his church-affiliated band. Buz just picked up a new Yamaha keyboard and Leslie simulator and is looking for some other old wheezes up in Traverse City to jam with. The Wurly is in suspended animation in Buz's basement, waiting for a cure to be discovered.    Information contributed by Robert Mittendorf mittpro@charter.net

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