A BLOW-BY-BLOW ACCOUNT OF THE 2006 INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE, from Lenny of Mighty Lester, the band representing the PBPS.

Hey guys!!

First off, let me tell you we appreciate the chance to have represented you at this years IBC. Thank you for the financial assistance as well! It made it much easier to get my guys out there!

Here's a run down...

Our venue was the New Daisy Theatre. There were 11 venues this year (10 +1 that had two floors with bands performing at the same time) We had PREMIER time slots. 9:50 p.m. Thursday and 10:30 p.m. Friday. We were especially proud to have had the 10:30 slot on Friday as every other band that had a late slot on Thursday got pushed early on Friday.

Our venue had one other band that really gave us some competition. Michael John and the Bottom Line. They were tight and good. For my tastes they were WAY too loud and WAY too southern-friend rock/blues. My tastes aside they were the real competition to Mighty Lester.

We also took out a full page inside cover ad in the IBC program - I will come back to that later).

THURSDAY
We were on at 9:50 p.m. The place had a good amount of people in it. Overall with the extra clubs and it being a Thursday night I thought it was thinner than the last time we went to Memphis (2002). We played our asses off and we killed them. Todd headed out into the audience and handed out flowers to the ladies during our slow number. We were hands down the most dynamic band there. We had the look, the feel, and most of all the show. We left the stage and that's when it started...

The buzz.

I have never in my life gotten so much positive feedback from other bands, patrons and IBC volunteers. So many people flipped out over us. It was a great feeling.

FRIDAY
The buzz. Obviously by now you know we didn't make finals. But let me lead up to that point. You couldn't go ANYWHERE without hearing about us. I am not exaggerating or blowing it up. We were the band the band to see. We were getting stopped on the street and other bands were saying "we heard about you guys - or we heard about your performance last night." It was wild.

We get to our venue and we have the next to the last slot. The venue is definitely hopping more tonight. As our time slot grows near the place starts getting PACKED. You can hear our name being tossed around the whole venue. Other bands are running down after the set to see us.

We destroyed them. We had the entire place on thier feet and the dance floor filled. We were the ONLY band to do this WITHOUT our own people. One other band had at least 20 to 30 people with them to "stack" the crowd. We had 4 or 5 and they purposely stayed off the floor so we could gauge the audience. I can't put into words how much we owned the crowd. Deafening cheers after each tune, dancing, sing- along, girls literally falling over themselves and pushing each other out of the way to get at Todd when he was walking around passing out flowers.. When we finished we got a standing ovation. The ONLY band in our venue to get one.

It took us 30 min to get from the stage to the back of the venue afterwards. People wouldn't let us go. It was amazing.

But we didn't make finals. We know judges like different things and we can't wait to see our scoring sheets to know why. Not crying unfair or anything but we brought it and we could not have played any better or put on a better show. In fact on Saturday people just assumed were in finals. Walking up to us and asking us what time we go on, asking for pictures with us, offering gigs, radio airplay. We have 5 radio stations, 6 gigs and a 2-3 month european tour being offered to us and this was all before today even hit. Oh yeah and then there was the breakfast I had with Bruce Iglauer from Alligator. - good stuff.

So please know we had a great time and you were well represented. All rules, check-ins, and conduct were followed to perfection.

So while we wish we coul have made finals - we couldn't be happier. We look forward to getting your way and playing for you all at the Carolina Lite. Let me know how we can help.

Lenny - Mighty Lester