About a year ago, in July 2009, the band took its Chicago Transit show to Baldwinsville, New York for the Islandfest on Paper Mill Island – STORY HERE (half way down the page).  After the show we were talking to a couple of new friends, Susan and Coleen, and they mentioned about a wedding they had planned a year later and would we be interested in playing at their reception.  Well ... to close out the month of August, the band traveled to the far east end of Lake Ontario, to the1000 Islands Winery near Alexandria Bay in northern New York State to play for that reception.  Ironically, one of the questions Susan and Coleen asked us at Paper Mill Island was did we have a website where they could go and read about the band?  At the time, we had our website at powerhouserockband.com which was largely inactive now and used mostly for promotion purposes.  Because of our difficulty sending the ladies to more recent on-line information about the band, three days after we got home from that trip, we began work building this website.  Thanx, ladies.  Sometimes, all it takes is the right question at the right time.

You’re bringing how many saxophones ??

We drove down the day before, stayed the night near the winery and took in some of the local sights the next day before a late afternoon set-up and soundcheck.

The 1000 Islands area of eastern Ontario is one of the most beautiful areas in this part of Canada and the U.S. and, as luck would have it, the nearest town, Alexandria Bay, N.Y. was having it's "Rockin' the Bay Festival" this weekend.  It made for an enjoyable trip to town on a hot late summer afternoon.

Steve, Tony, Mike and to the far right, Carlo as ''tourists'.  Above, center:  a local Beatles clone band -- young kids, but not bad at all.

The grounds at the Thousand Islands Winery were quite impressive -- well-kept barn buildings dotting the property everywhere, vineyards surrounding the main property and the 1000 Islands Bridge across the back yard a few miles away.

To the right, Carlo is doing what Carlo does before every show -- direct traffic and oversee the stage set-up.

  Since it was just the boys in the band making this trip, pictures are limited to pre-show as there was no one to take pictures once the show started.  But rest assured, the 100 or so reception folks who attended and the band all enjoyed a beautiful late summer night in upstate New York State.  And we wish Susan and Coleen the band's best in their new life together.

The next stop for the band was a few days later at the Budweiser Midway Stage at the CNE in Toronto.  The boys had not been to 'the Ex' in a couple of years and this year, they were going back with their regular Motown/Soul show.  Other than a brief shower a few hours before the show, the weather held and it was a hot, sticky late summer night in Toronto.

There's always lots to do and see at 'the Ex' -- above, some excellent sand sculptures and to the right and below, the always crowded Midway area.  The earlier rain was brief enough that the crowd was still quite large for the evening show.

The CNE Midway always looks rather spectacular at night and it made an excellent backdrop for playing a few Motown tunes.

The band closed out the Summer '10 season at home, playing at Hamilton's 13th Annual Mustard Festival.  According to the Festival website at http://www.mustardfestival.ca/ , Hamilton is home to the largest miller of dry mustard in the world.  The Festival, created in 1998, coincided with the opening of the first phase of a downtown renewal project, Ferguson Station, in the heart of downtown Hamilton.  Even though, once again, a downpour came in just as the band was about to go on stage -- clearing many of 'festivalites' from Ferguson St. -- the rain did let up long enough for the band to do a nearly-full-length show.  It felt good to be closing out the summer season playing music at home in downtown Hamilton.

The band closed out the 2010 calendar year with a few local club dates, a Frank Rondell Ray Charles show at Xeno's Bistro in Ajax and a remarkably cold evening at the Markham Fair at the beginning of October.  With a combination of a very busy summer season, economic problems yielding few holiday corporate dates, the band decided to close out the year with some much-needed time off.