The stage at the House of Blues in Cleveland looked like a keyboard store.  There were a couple of large keyboards side-by-side, both with Apple MacBooks open and sitting on the top left edge.  There was a smaller Roland RD-2000 on the left side of the stage toward the front.  There were the Korg keyboards that look like guitars.  There was no drum set.  I know I am in for straight piano balladry, or high tech electronics with everything in between mixed in.  I am at a Howard Jones concert.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Men Without Hats, the opening act, other than a guaranteed playing of Safety Dance.  I was pleasantly surprised by the Canadian MTV icons as lead singer Ivan Doroschuk jumped around and seemed to really enjoy performing.  The crowd really took to the band and I learned why Howard Jones has had this band open for him on his last couple of tours.  They looked rejuvenated and sounded good, but had a blast interacting with the crowd in playing a solid one-hour set.

Once the lights came up with the stagehands scrambling to pack Men Without Hats, the keyboard store became more visible.  After about a half hour, the lights went down and the capacity crowd cheered as Howard Jones entered the stage from the right.  Before a note was played, Jones stood front and center to talk to his audience.  Jones seems to thrive at these smaller, more intimate venues and interacts well with this size of a crowd, somewhere around 1,200.

“Way back in 1985, I played a gig at a packed Wembley Stadium called Live Aid.  Most of you probably still have it on a VHS tape.  When I got to the chorus of the song I am about to play, the audience sang the chorus and took over.  Maybe we can recreate that here tonight”, said Jones before heading to the stool.

Hojo then fired off the opening to Hide & Seek and flawlessly delivered this gem to a crowd of 1,200 with as much enthusiasm as the Live Aid version.  His voice was crisp and his magical fingers did not hit the wrong key – not once all night that I heard.  The crowd did not carry the chorus too well and Jones just played, sang, and smiled.  How many times do you think Howard has played songs from Human’s Lib since it was released in March, 1984?  He played plenty from the album throughout the robust set.

Equality may be my favorite song from that album.  This was played in the early going and sounded remarkable.  Jones commuted from his large center stage keyboard to move around the front with his Korg strapped around his shoulder.  He bent notes with that Korg that gave it the exact wawa sound that is on the original recording.  The gentleman at the other large keyboard, Robbie Bronnimann, was on the same page as Jones all night and the two really generated perfect orchestration, especially noticeable on the new Transform material.

   

One of the highlights of the evening came when Jones, accompanied by acoustic guitarist Robin Boult, played No One Is To Blame.  Jones joked before the song that this would not be the “Phil Collins Version” of the 80’s classic, but rather closer to the original.  The capacity crowd loudly sang the “and you want her, and she wants you” refrain much to the delight of the pair who played a couple of extra bars of just the music and let the audience sing the whole chorus again at the end.

All-in-all, I prefer this type of concert over the big stadium shows.  Don’t think Howard Jones can’t play bigger venues because the tickets won’t sell, because he has, and can again if he chooses to.  I just think he really enjoys the smaller, more intimate venues like this one.  The Transform tour will continue through the United States through July with a lot of West Coast dates remaining.  Jones will then hit the rest of the world.

Treat yourself to see one of the absolute best keyboard players, and the king of electronic reproduction live and in concert, you will not go home disappointed.

This whole thing started in November, 2016.  I phoned a good friend who knows I am a huge Tears for Fears fan.  I convinced him to attend the Cleveland show where my all-time favorite band, Tears for Fears, would be performing live at the Rocksino in Cleveland.  Front row seats, a good steak, a couple of hours of degenerate gambling, and then the concert.  I had never seen Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith perform together in person, so this was a big thing for me.  Having a decent musical background, I enjoy these drummers I see live when they are good.  Tears for Fears has been zipping through the drummers since Manny Elias and Songs From The Big Chair.

Having seen a few recent performances on Spotify, I got a glimpse of Jamie Wollam playing the drums in the current lineup.  The thing I was most impressed by, was that he was solidly consistent, did his homework and played things the way they were written, but I had the feeling that this drummer had talent like no other to beat the skins in this group before.  I further surfed to see some other Jamie Wollam projects and live footage.  I learned that Wollam has toured with David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Tommy Shaw, and Tom Morello just to name a few.

After that concert, Wollam spotted me drumming on the stage during the Shout encore and hand-delivered me a stick.

Fast forward to June.  The same friend who attended that show with me happens to be a huge Hall & Oates fan.  I opened my morning e-mail at work to learn that Tears for Fears and Hall & Oates would be touring together.  My first call resulted in a hang-up, telling me that it would never happen because the styles are so different.  Two days later I received an apology call and we were on the “best ticket” hunt immediately.  We landed first row for the show at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.  This time about ten friends tagged along.  Tears for Fears absolutely kicked ass and somehow, Jamie Wollam again hand delivered a stick at the end of the set.

Too coincidental?  I sent a Facebook message and friend request two days later.  My message basically stated that I was the guy you gave a stick to at both shows, a drum aficionado, and a lifetime Tears for Fears fan.  Low and behold, He accepted my request and responded to the message.  Very humble, very down to Earth, and very in-tune with the fans.  It was at this point, I started nagging Jamie to do an interview.  He accepted and after a couple of weeks of near misses, my cousin Kim and I ventured to Pittsburgh to again see Tears for Fears at the Console Energy Center.  Not only did I get a stick, but Jamie was kind enough to come out before the Tears bus pulled out, to meet me in person.  It was not only a thrill to meet this guy, but one of the smoothest conversations I have ever had with a musician.  He wasn’t drugged up or drunk, he wasn’t an arrogant and conceited prick, he was my Facebook friend, Jamie.  Very normal.  A few hits and misses later, I finally got the chance to do the interview.  What follows is the result.

Paneech:  Having did a little homework, I learned you were influenced by Peter Criss of Kiss.  I found that sort of ironic because Kiss basically ripped Tears for Fears a new one on the Kiss My Ass Tribute disc for whatever reason (It’s in the liner notes),

Wollam:  It’s interesting you can have as much arrogance as Kiss has and still manage to get away with it.  I grew up listening to Kiss music, and they are respectable in other ways.  I’m sure you have heard musicians through the years say they wanted to get involved in music when The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan show.  For me, the first concert I ever went to was when I was 10 years old in 1980, after begging my mom endlessly, I landed at a Kiss show to see the Dynasty tour.  To see that production at ten years old was like a shark hook in a trout’s mouth.  That’s what I wanted to do, and I was mesmerized by Peter Criss.  As that journey progressed, I started paying more attention to technically harder things.  When I listen back though to my old Kiss records, I am taken back to a place that is very sentimental to me.  I will always say that Kiss is the reason that I am playing music today, and I’m proud of it.

Paneech:  You have toured with so many types of bands with many different styles, try to explain how hard it is to adapt between the various styles to fit into what you are performing.

Wollam:  I say this with all humility – there are always going to be players that are better than me.  But from the moment I got serious about playing the drums, around age 15, I began to latch on and study every interview, video, and attend clinics and gravitated to the drummers I respected the most for the direction on the different gigs.  Aside from guys like Peter Criss and John Bonham, I was heavily influenced by guys like Jeff Porcaro of Toto and Steve Gadd who played with Eric Clapton and Steely Dan, to diversify my style.  I was the chameleon of drumming and wanted to have all of those styles in my repertoire.  I really studied these guys and others to see how to charge up my own style.

Paneech:  With that being said, did you have to study the drumming styles of Manny Elias, Nick D’Virgilio, and Jimmy Copley before you landed the job as the current drummer for Tears?

Wollam:  A lot of the early recordings were drum machines.  Even though you see a video and you see a drummer playing on the video, the early Tears for Fears appearances on television were lip-sync productions.  As the band has progressed with eight records in 30 years, things have progressed.  Manny was the drummer for the first couple of records, but when Seeds of Love was being recorded, they used different drummers in the studio.  I learned that Phil Collins played the drums on Woman in Chains.  Chris Hughes, who was also a producer on that record, played the drums on Sowing The Seeds of Love.  You had Manu Katche playing drums and percussion on Badman’s Song.  So there was this lineup of heavy hitters.  From this album, the drumming was more organic, less programmed and it has been that way since.  Even Nick (D’Virgilio) who you mentioned, who is a great drummer that I have the utmost respect for, had a very different style.  The only record he was a part of the band for was Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, but the drummer who actually did the studio recording was a drummer named Fred Eltringham, who currently plays with Sheryl Crow.  Nick ended up the drummer touring for that record and had to step in and do what I am now doing – playing a lot of the older material and copying all of these drummers parts.  My template for learning was actually a live recording.  It was like a protools recording that had everything but the drum parts at half volume and the drum parts at full volume.  I could hear what Nick was playing and probably learned about 80% of it that way, and interestingly, the rest is what Nick had to copy off of the original recordings.  The drum parts for Tears for Fears music is very specific, there are only a couple of moments where the drum chair gets to go Avant Garde and improvise.  You have to play the middle fill of Head Over Heels the way it was recorded.  You have to play the fills for Everybody Wants to Rule The World like the recording because they are so classic and specific.  Those songs are as famous as they are as a combination of all of the parts.  I wouldn’t come in and change those drum parts because it wouldn’t give the due respect to the original parts that were created.  And frankly, Roland and Curt are very particular about keeping it the way it was recorded and keeping it authentic.  There is a Ringo Starr like feel to Seeds of Love, whereas you are mimicking a drum machine on Pale Shelter.  It’s like I have to stay as close as I can to the machine when we play a song like that.  Seeds of Love – you can loosen up the tie and get “slimy”.

Paneech:  When Curt and Roland split for a brief time after the Seeds of Love album, it was interesting to see that Curt’s project, Mayfield, has yielded most of the current lineup.

Wollam:  Until I joined Tears for Fears, I had never heard of Mayfield.  I didn’t know the backstory on the split.  When I joined, I knew I was joining Curt and Roland and the rest of the band.  Tears for Fears will always be, specifically, Curt and Roland.  I am a hired gun.  I know Roland was touring under the Tears for Fears name after Curt had left and was using fantastic musicians like Gail Ann Dorsey and Jeff Trott to tour.  I think they (Curt & Roland) both came to realize that the sum is greater than the parts in terms of Tears for Fears.  They are both incredibly talented songwriters, musicians, and performers and they realized at some point that the two of them together is what the fan base wanted.  It like Guns and Roses can be Axl Rose and a bunch of talented musicians, or it can be Izzy Stradlin and Slash and a singer – and either facet can sell out a show, but it just isn’t the same.  All of the chemistry is not represented.  Roland and Curt realized that, made their peace and Roland was introduced to Charlton (Pettus) and Doug (Petty) who had worked with Curt in Mayfield, and whats not to love about those guys as musicians, they are incredible.  They had to basically do what I did and go back to learn the older material as it was recorded.  Roland brought in Nick (D’Virgilio) and Curt wanted to keep working with Charlton and Doug.  So that became the lineup that I was later added to.

Paneech:  I saw the Spotify recordings and a couple of other clips where your whole kit is enclosed by plexiglass.  Can you explain the significance of that?

Wollam:  Very simply, the plexiglass was put around my kit when we did live recordings because all of the percussion sound that would normally bleed out.  It looked strange and I felt like I was in a dunk tank.  There are microphones everywhere from my snare to the cymbals and to control the sound from feeding back or bleeding the quality, the plexiglass is there to contain it and make a smoother finished product.

Paneech:  You put a post up the night before the Pittsburgh concert that you went to a Pirates game.  Are you a baseball, or sports fan, or was that just something to do to kill the time.

Wollam:  I grew up playing baseball.  I love that sport, but I also like hockey.  I was born in California, but have dual-citizenship in Canada, so I am a natural hockey fan and I root for the LA Kings, but baseball is my sport.  I played baseball into my high school years but I had to compromise my love of sports to concentrate on bettering myself as a musician.  There just wasn’t enough time to do both.  I am a longtime Los Angeles Dodgers fan and Steve Garvey was my favorite player growing up.  I also play as much golf as I can.  My clubs are with me on the tour and I try to go when the opportunity presents itself.

Paneech:  New Tears for Fears material is due out real soon.  I heard Roland refer to the new album as “The Tipping Point”.  What can you tell me, if anything, about the new record?

Wollam:  All I can tell you is that it is a great piece of work and we are all very excited about it.  I think Roland and Curt should and will detail things more as the time gets closer to release, but I would rather not say much other than it is quite a production!

Paneech:  What is your favorite TFF song that you guys are not currently playing live?

Wollam:  Mother’s Talk.  We have practiced it and I am really hoping they roll it out live – it is a great song and I think we will rock it when we can squeeze it into a set list.

Paneech:  OK, what is your favorite song that you are playing live right now?

Wollam:  It’s a tie.  Can I have a tie?  (Laughs). I really enjoy playing Sowing The Seeds of Love and Head Over Heels.  Again, those songs are so specific but fun to play.  They are both very melodic and the crowd really enjoys them both.

Paneech:  Who are your best friends in the music world that you communicate with?

Wollam:  That’s another tie (laughs).  I am very close with Todd Sucherman who has been with Styx for about 20 years.  I was admittedly kind of nervous because Todd came to our show in Texas recently and I wanted to play well as I knew a colleague with technical expertise was going to be there watching.  I’m also very close with Steve Ferrone who plays with Tom Petty.  Both great guys, both very talented drummers.

One Word Answers with Jamie Wollam

Favorite Meal:  Lunch

Biggest Phobia:  Flying

Favorite Flavor of Ice Cream:  Strawberry

Biggest Influence:  John Bonham

Favorite Cartoon Character:  Snoopy

Favorite TV Show:  Friends

I would be _______ if I weren’t a drummer:  Homeless (Laughs), Just Kidding  – A baseball player !

In closing, I would like to thank Jamie Wollam for enhancing my appreciation of Tears for Fears.  Dude is a class act and can play!

 

In the past few weeks, I have noticed those who announce football games on television have a few words that they now have to use every game.  Some of it is annoying, some of it is trendy, and most of it is unnecessary.  Ten years ago, Will, Mike, and Sam were the beginning of a good joke about three friends who went into a bar or something.  Even the names of linebackers have changed.

1.  Probably the one dumb thing a television announcer says at all levels is, “The defense has been on the field a really long time, they are obviously wearing down.”   Last time I checked, the tired defense was playing against an offense who has been on the field just as long.  Do offensive players have superhuman powers that protect them from fatigue?  I do not see coaches at any of these levels rotating linemen on either side of the ball, so they must be tired too?

2.  “Adversity”.  Any game you seem to be watching, whether it be an injured player, a bad run of plays, an injury, or anything that is going on in the team that is losing the game’s world – adversity is the buzzword that gets thrown around the most.  There is a time and a place for this word to be used.  If a quarterback has a parent unfortunately pass away and they are inspired to play the following week, they are trying to overcome the adversity in their life to contribute to the team effort.  However, adversity is used in much less serious circumstances and almost used as a crutch for any broadcaster to describe why a team is losing a game sometimes.

3.  “The Edge”.  I think Jon Gruden talked about the edge 40 or so times on Monday Night’s Washington vs Dallas game.  For years, it was understood that when a team ran a sweep, (not a jet sweep) that they were trying to get to the outside.  The outside was easy to understand as the area between the last up player on the line and the sideline.  Now that area is referred to as the edge, and it drives me nuts that it is said almost every play of every game by whomever is commentating.

These are just a few examples of how buzz terminology is transforming what we hear when we watch these games.  Remember the experiment when the games were broadcast without announcers?  I am all for  a second helping of that.

Youngstown State University has not fared well against Austin Sumner and Zach Zenner.  Those two student athletes have spearheaded the South Dakota State football program past the Penguins for awhile.  Seems like Zenner has been there for about ten years.  Saturday, the Penguins successfully got that monkey off of their backs with a 30-27 triumph over the Jackrabbits in a matchup of nationally ranked teams representing the Missouri Valley Football Conference, aka the SEC of the FCS.

“I talked with Zach Zenner after the game and told him I admire his approach.  We often read about what is wrong and the bad things that happen, but this is an example of what a college student athlete should be and I would encourage the media to write about him”, said YSU Head Coach Eric Wolford.

Sumner did not play.  However, his backup, Zach Lujan gave the Penguins fits as he threw for 329 yards.  I guess if your name is Zach, you are sent to South Dakota State – automatically.  Lujan was under heavy pressure seemingly every down that the Jackrabbits attempted a pass.

Hunter Wells (below) played well for the Penguins (6-2, 3-1) and seems to have a lock on the starting quarterback job for YSU.  Wells played in a wide open offense in high school at Navarre that has poised him to be a throwing quarterback at the next level.  Wells threw for 256 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but more importantly, did a good job controlling the tempo of the offense, especially in the second half.

With the win over the Jackrabbits, the Penguins garnered two MVFC awards.  Joey Cejudo was named the Special Teams Player of The Week.  Cejudo nearly had a perfect game in the win over South Dakota State. He averaged 49.4 yards on five punts, made a 32-yard field goal, was 3-of-4 on PAT kicks and had two touchbacks on six kickoffs. He had his best game as YSU’s punter just five days after he suffered a sprained right knee that almost forced him to miss the game. His last boot, a career-long 59-yard kick pinned SDSU at its own two-yard line and all but ended any comeback hopes for the Jackrabbits. He had punts of 44 (twice), 48, 52 and 59 in the game.

Derek Rivers was named the Defensive Player of The Week.   Rivers earned the first Defensive Player-of-the-Week honor of his career.   Rivers had a career-high eight total tackles, a career-best six solo stops and had three sacks as the Penguins defeated South Dakota State 30-27 in Brookings. Rivers had a sack in the first quarter on a third-and-5, in the second quarter on a first-and-10 and the third quarter on a third-and-9. The YSU defense had six sacks in the game, and seemed to be in the backfield causing havoc the entire game.

YSU welcomes South Dakota to Stambaugh Stadium for a 2 pm conference tilt.

Coach Wolford talked about the win.  “We don’t ever practice on grass, but we went to a muddy high school field to prepare for the game on grass.  I was frustrated early, we were getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback and he was escaping. Once we tightened down our lanes, we were able to take the scrambling out of the game.”

 

Youngstown State University (4-1, 1-0) started their conference schedule on the right foot with a 14-7 win at #23 Missouri State.  The Penguins played brilliant defense in the win and the offense did just enough to secure the win.  Newly promoted Defensive Coordinator, Jamie Bryant, seemed to successfully put together a good game plan in showing blitz packages and coverages not shown in the previous four contests.

Junior Safety Tre’ Moore picked off two Kierra Harris passes including the proverbial nail in the coffin at the 2:21 mark of the fourth quarter to seal the win.  Harris saw pressure all day long from a vigorous YSU rush courtesy of Terrell Williams (above) and company.  Dubem Nwadiogbu, Desmond Williams, and Jaylin Kelly all recorded sacks for the Penguins defense.

Sloppy plays and problems on special teams allowed the Bears to hang around.  YSU missed a field goal and had a punt blocked in the fourth quarter which led to Missouri State’s only points.  Once YSU’s offense got the ball back, they successfully killed the clock to secure the win.

Offensively, Dante Nania found Andrew Williams for an eight yard touchdown completion just over a minute after the game started.  The touchdown was set up by a 56-yard pitch and catch from Nania to Williams to the Missouri State nine yard line.

YSU would take a 14-0 lead into the locker room at the half courtesy of Jody Webb (above) busting an 81-yard touchdown run on a counter play behind Penguin center Stephen Page.  Webb would finish the game with 126 yards on 10 carries.  Martin Ruiz added 82 yards on 24 carries for the dynamic backfield duo.

Nania would finish the contest completing ten passes in 16 attempts for 160 yards while adding 20 yards on the ground.  Williams contributed 83 yards on five catches.

It should be noted that this win was YSU’s third to open conference play.  Following the first two conference opener road victories, the Penguins advanced to postseason play both times.  Good omen?

The Penguins will open their home conference schedule Saturday against Western Illinois with kickoff set for 7 pm at Stambaugh Stadium.  Show some support and head to the Ice Castle to root for the Guins!

The Big-10 Football Conference, once a prestigious and worthwhile grouping of respectable teams, is now the laughing stock of the BCS.  Named a “Top Five Power Conference” because of past accolades, the Big-10 has a horrible chance at getting into the first-ever National Championship Playoff.  One of the moves that the conference made was the discouragement after the 2014 season to play no more games against FCS opponents.  Commissioner of the Big-10, Jim Delaney, decided that the non-conference schedule needed a serious upgrade so that teams can stay in the hunt when being considered for Bowl Games without losing credibility for playing the smaller schools.

My first attack is on Purdue, Indiana, and Northwestern.  These three teams have failed to even be competitive consistently through the last 30 years.  Purdue would not go .500 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.  Indiana has been lousy since Anthony Thompson was their tailback in 1990.  Northwestern had a recent wave of success, but I can’t block out the memories of them being 60-point underdogs from my childhood.  They are back to being Northwestern, the double-digit underdog again.

On the second weekend of the 2014 season, the Big-10 was horrid.  Michigan State played well for three quarters against Oregon before being slapped around in the fourth quarter.  On the same weekend, Ohio State was outplayed by Virginia Tech.  Those same Hokies lost to East Carolina the following week.  The Buckeyes rebounded playing angrily against Kent State.  Interestingly, Kent is a representative of the mighty MAC Conference, ranked 16th in the power conference polls, right behind #15 Missouri Valley (the FCS teams).

Mr. Delaney…  I can understand you wanting to schedule tougher non-conference opponents.  Do you understand that you have to win a few of those games against “tougher” opponents for any of this to translate positively?  It is great seeing a .500 team like Minnesota get to a Bowl Game.  It means more money for the conference, I get that.  But Minnesota played a couple of non-conference cupcakes to get to that vaunted level of mediocrity (aka  “bowl eligible status”).  So go ahead and throw a couple of SEC teams against Minnesota in a couple of years.  I hate to break it to you, because I am not part of the committee, but winning four games and losing nine or ten will not get you qualified for much except revisiting playing FCS teams again.

Entering 2014, Shane Montgomery faces a big challenge – make Youngstown State’s lethal offense click.  The biggest problem with that plan is that Kurt Hess has graduated and can’t play as a Penguin anymore.

The leading replacements for the newly vacated starting quarterback position are a junior,  Dante Nania, and a sophomore, Tanner Gary.  Both were backups last year and both played when Hess missed a game-and-a-half with injuries.  The games they appeared in were both losses.  Nick Wargo and Ricky Davis were also on the Spring roster – lots of competition, lots of choices.

Montgomery is an offensive guru.  He can call plays and read defenses from the press box with the best of them.  He will be a head coach again within the next few years. Unfortunately, he has his work cut out this season – his fifth with the Penguins.  In his first four seasons, Montgomery had Hess – a luxury for any offensive coordinator.

Hess, for the most part, protected the ball and controlled the offense – two of the biggest tasks a quarterback is asked to do.  He hit some rough patches, especially in his junior season, but all-in-all, was the heart and soul of the YSU offense.

Nania and Gary may develop, with experience, into the type of signal caller geared to run Montgomery’s offense.  Whomever Montgomery and Head Coach Eric Wolford decide on – they will have the luxury of growing into the role after the Illinois opener. The next three YSU games are against Duquesne, Butler, and Saint Francis before heading into league play.

Some of the things the future quarterback will have going for himself will be the return of Jelani Berassa, Nate Adams, Christian Bryan, Michael Wheary, and a full-blown running game with established backs in Martin Ruiz and Jody Webb.

Unfortunately, college athletics end for everyone in the same limited time span of four seasons of eligibility (minus redshirts and medical problems).  YSU will have to go through a little growing spell at QB.  An improved defense and established base offense should help the new quarterback, whoever wins the job,  mature faster.

Gene Simmons used to be cool, then the money found him. Paul Stanley used to be cool, then success ruined him. Kiss was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame this week, and the two governing forces of a 40-year run were the dictators that prevented good memories for the fans to relish in a moral victory over the critics.

Ace Frehley and Peter Criss are no angels. Their problems with substances have been well documented over the past 30 years. They, however, were half of the reason that KISS was inducted into the Class of 2014. For Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons to prevent the fans from enjoying the original lineup performing was hypocritical in the sense they have been using the crutch, and still are, that everything they do is “for our fans”.

I’m sure if you took a poll of KISS fans, the overwhelming majority would have voted for the original lineup to perform three songs.  Fresh off of a trip to Las Vegas, I would have bet my life savings that if it were lucrative enough of a demand, Simmons would have jumped at the chance.

Heading out on a tour with Def Leppard (who will open?), KISS is using Tommy Thayer on guitar and Eric Singer playing the drums.  Singer and Thayer are talented musicians, don’t misunderstand the respect factor for them.  However, they are borrowing the identity of a couple of Hall of Famers to succeed.  Kiss could use anybody as long as they are wearing the makeup, nobody cares much.  Nobody except the die hard KISS Army.  The once powerful legion is sure to diminish because the stubborn star child and greedy demon looked bad leading up to this induction.

When the hardware was handed out on Thursday night, the four original members stood tall and proud, united, albeit by force.  Frehley has been quoted as saying he could “give a shit less” but felt the fans were the ones being punished by the two power mongers.  Criss just looked happy to be involved in any way.

The bottom line KISS fans, is now, how long will you watch Simmons and Stanley and their rotating cast of hired help prosper off of ten years that built 40?  Maybe they can let David Letterman put the cat makeup on or let Cher be Ace Frehley for the new tour. If it has an inkling of financial potential, Simmons is in.  If Simmons is in, Stanley is in.  Paul is too smart to know that Gene is a financial machine to impede his crazy manipulations.

Good luck to the LA KISS, their latest financial endeavor.  They surely will hold nothing on the Mahoning Valley Thunder except that KISS logo on the helmets (that Frehley designed) will now draws suckers.  I admit, I was a sucker for years, but after this debacle, I am moving on.

Youngstown State University has not had the best of luck when facing Detroit in Horizon League Basketball games.  The Penguins dropped their last four contests to the Titans.  Things were different Saturday night.  YSU didn’t look like a tribe of dwarves looking up at a gang of giants.

The other thing Detroit did not have was Ray McCallum.  The 2012-13 Horizon League Player of The Year skipped town on his old man for a beach house in Sacramento and a job playing for the Kings of the NBA.

To make things better, the Penguins were sporting some brand new uniforms (see photos).  They work.  YSU 77, Detroit 63.

“We are 1-0, so they work”, said Cole.

The Penguins opened up the game with a 9-4 spurt, but trailed 19-17 with 7:36 left in the opening half.  With 6:47 left, DJ Cole was fouled driving to the hoop and converted a pair of free throws to tie the game at 19.  After a Penguin turnover and a Titan bucket, the Kamren Belin hit the second of two free throws.

Solid defense by YSU then set up a shot clock violation against Detroit.  With just under four minutes in the half, Kendrick Perry exploded to the hoop and scored to hand the Penguins back a 22-21 lead.  The Penguins, behind seven points from Perry, held a 28-26 lead at the intermission.

In the second half, YSU started to pull away.  Cole was a definite catalyst both shooting and passing, as well as, hustling.  With 11:54 left in the game, the Penguins were ahead 47-39 behind Cole’s eleven second half points.

“They were getting tired, so we kept running”, said Cole.  “We really didn’t make any adjustments at the half, but our shots were just falling.”

The Penguins would maintain  51-47 lad with nine minutes left in the game.  Perry scooted the baseline on a nice reverse layup to stake the Penguins to the four point margin.  Coming out of a timeout, Ryan Weber nailed a three to put the ‘Guins up seven, 54-47.

Weber would hit another three for the sixth consecutive Penguin point.  Bobby Hain, reacting to the pep band’s chants of “Bobby, Bobby”, responded scoring the next five points to build the lead to 14 points at 66-52, but with 4:45 left in the game Juwan Howard, Jr. collected his 19th point to keep Detroit around.

“Typical Hoizon League, 40-minute bloodbath”, said Coach Jerry Slocum.  “We shared the basketball.  I thought that Kam {Belin} and Ryan {Weber} did a really good job tonight.”

With four minutes left in the game, Cole stole a pass on the Detroit end and threw an outlet to Perry streaking up the left side.  Perry was fouled hard and the refs were back at the video monitor.  The result was a flagrant one foul (two shots and the ball- courtesy Kyle Kroynovich).

The Penguins (12-8, 3-2) were lead by Cole who notched 22 points, a career high.  Rising folk hero,Hain added 18 and Kendrick Perry added 12.

Detroit got 20 from Howard.

Youngstown State University has confirmed that Head Football Coach, Eric Wolford, will remain in charge of the football program.  Wolford has compiled a 24-21 record since taking over for Jon Heacock four seasons ago.

Wolford, a tireless recruiter, has surrounded himself with good people to revitalize the Penguins football program.  He has often been quoted as saying that nothing except winning a championship is acceptable.  The Penguins inched closer to that goal in 2013, narrowly missing a playoff bid.

Trevor Parks, the Sports Information Director at YSU commented on the recent developments.

“Details by both sides will be worked out soon”, said Parks of the extension.  “Coach Wolford will be YSU’s football coach moving into the foreseeable future.”

Congratulations Coach Wolford!