Wally Brown's last night

Some old timers may remember playing at Downtown Wally Brown's just west of Lawrence Dumont. Then Wally moved to Mt. Vernon and Hydraulic. Wally never had darts there, but that was the location that sponsored my first team and another team that eventually became the Rats.

Wally wanted darts in his current (now former) location at 31st and Oliver. Negotiations to put a team there broke down at the last minute when the manager didn't think they had the staffing to handle 10 extra people every other Thursday night.

I inadvertently attended the "Grand Closing" of Wally Brown's tonight. A very good friend of mine invited me to see the band he's playing with now. It just happened that the band's first gig and the last night ever for Wally Brown's was the same night.

If you have a chance to see AOR (Agents of Retro), go see them. The band is good. The vocalist is especially strong on British bands from the '70's and '80's. Tommy Carlyle is the keyboard player, a great friend of mine and the best rock keyboard player ever in Wichita.

When I played with Tommy I told people it was like listening to a blues band with the keyboard player from Deep Purple taking free-form licks. Tommy was the touring keyboard player for the Gregg Allman band when Gregg Allman released his last recordings.

Great band. You need to see them.