Rascal Flats? Girls, I Like Flat Rascals

The Real Rascals!
The guys that hired them for a show at Orchestra Hall in the late 1960's -Peter Max and the Swami.

My daughter Clare and the Entourage of St. Cajetan's ( Now Mother McAuley, Marist, & St. Ignatius Prep Debs) are going to see Rascal Flats at the Music venue in Tinley Park, Illinois that changes its name every other week ( Tweeter, World Music, Eddie Carroll's Roofing Palace of Stax o' Wax e.g.) this evening. They have saved up a considerable amount of cabbage from baby-sitting local breeder clans, digging and potting plants at Olivia's Garden on Western, hostessing at The Great Beverly Pancake Haus, or waitressing at Ridge Country Club.

Rascal Flats is some kind of cleaned-up hillbilly band -"Life is a Highway."

I am a Rascal Fan! The Original Rascals Eddie Brigatti, Felix Cavaleri, Dino Danelli and the Irish guy on guit-box Gene Cornish and etc. These guys were very much like our Italian buddies from north of the tracks - the 69th Street Loafers.

These Rascals are New Jersey Soul guys -urban rangers. I was blessed to witness these guys and get paid for it at Chicago Symphony Center -it was Orchestra Hall back then.

Peter Max the psychedelic artiste and the bearded Yogi -Swami Satchidananda who was on Mike Douglas Show and Dick Cavett every other day, wanted to put on the concert of Flowers and Love! They did. Orchestra Hall smelled like Sheehy's Funeral Home after the promoters trucked in more flowers than a gangster's funeral. Peter Max had the place looking like a glue sniffer's nightmare.

The one thing that was cool- the promoters hired a bunch of Jersey tough guys to play.


The Young Rascals! They were good guys as I recall - drank beers - and we were as weird-ed out by the goofy set-up and theme as everyone else. Hell, a job is a job. I cleaned ashtrays and the Rascals rocked! Ticket sales were . . .modest - the show went over like a turd in a punchbowl. The Hall was emptier than MSNBC.

However, the Rascals were pros! They put on a great show.